Review of Emerald City

Adria Arjona stars as Dorothy, here reimagined as a young Kansas nurse*, before that tornado transports her to Oz. And what an Oz it is – a violent land filled with different figures of power vying for even more power and control, from the witches (Florence Kasumba, Ana Ularu and Joely Richardson play East, West and South/Glinda, respectively) to the Wizard (Vincent D'Onofrio). Okay, the good first. Emerald City, NBC's new event series based on The Wizard of Oz (the movie and the original series of books), is beautiful. Just visually stunning. Director and executive producer Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall, Immortals) does things with color and big sweeping landscapes that pop off the screen. It all looks fabulously expensive...."Emerald City" is a much better art exhibit than it is a television show. Because characters and actors playing them are giving bland performance as the viewer can't root for any of them.