I don't usually write reviews 'cause I usually think I'm not a good judge for everyone and you may agree in this case too. I don't know Game of Thrones and I don't know earlier adaptations of the Wizard of Oz story so I'm not relating this show to those. I really didn't know what to expect but my hopes were high.
I couldn't make it through episode one. The scenes (sets) are beautiful and captivating but I don't watch the show for that and don't care. The Dorothy character is interesting but I'm interested in the story telling... what are the writers presenting to me? Early in the show we find an elderly woman having risen from her bed being confronted by her caretaker and she is now struggling with the caretaker who has taken hold of her by the wrists. It is a physical confrontation as the woman pleads to use red fingernail polish. Why there is a physical confrontation over red fingernail polish - they never address (mystery). Why it escalated into a physical struggle or why the caretaker would not have already permitted the color red and instead allowed the situation to escalate to this unrealistic level is not explained at all and all seems seriously unrealistic and pointless. It looks like a child-writer's view of controlling the elderly in a slight state of dementia.
Dorothy comforts the woman but takes a bottle of prescription medication from her and hides it in her pocket. What the medication is and why Dorothy took it is never addressed (mystery). Why Dorothy needed to protect the old woman from the medication - or instead to deprive the woman of her needed prescription is never addressed (mystery). The whole scene seems pointless and unrealistic. It of course begs many other questions. Does Dorothy make a habit of stealing drugs from patients? Does Dorothy have a special need of some sort we don't know about? Was someone trying to harm the woman and Dorothy has foiled that plot? All curious and unexplained.
This trend continues as instance after instance with a lot of details all go unexplained. Later, the police have arrived at a crime scene. The many issues of the crime scene, how the police knew to come, what happened to the police officer, how or why things were what they were at the scene... and most importantly, why I should care about any of it - are all ignored.
Special effects are impressive, I guess, except I don't care about any of that when the visuals are merely some sort of technological presentation. Why are these various elements of the story being presented if they are irrelevant? Soon Dorothy is in a new land. There too, the effects and sets are impressive but the story itself makes little sense in terms of why people do what they do. Their goals, their intent, their mindset all seem to be unrelated to what they say, how they act, what they want, etc.
The story-telling is weak and uninteresting. The reason seems to be because there are too many convoluted details that do little to contribute to or support the foundation of the story. Dorothy is tortured over a simple misunderstanding while falling into that trap seems more a matter of bad writing than Dorothy being in any realistic danger inherent in the situation. That is, some common-sense things that she might have said to escape or extricate herself from the situation she simply doesn't say. Why? Because the writer had already planned for her capture. She was captured by the writer - not the bad guys. It's all just unrealistic.
There is little time spent developing the characterization. So, as Dorothy is tortured (for example), there's no reason to care. I mean, one can care in the abstract about the evil of young women being tortured, but there's no reason to care about this particular case or this particular person. We don't know her. We don't really know who she is or what she's about. Her angst or fear in the previously mentioned crime scene is another example. We don't know her or anything about it so my reaction is so what. Was I supposed to care about the police officer that disappears? Perhaps not but how is Dorothy any different?
Nothing seems relevant or worthy of our attention. Nothing seems important - unless everything is important and then of course we're back to the mystery of the red fingernail polish.
The unfolding avalanche of details without any means to distinguish relevance from pointless combined with the complete lack of character development and foundation combine to make the story much more trouble than it is worth. - I say skip it unless you're ready to focus just on scenery.
I gave it 3 stars due to the scenery, costumes and effects. Such things cannot combine to warrant anything more when the story-telling is so convoluted. /// Of course, all such questions may have been eventually answered with great clarity and import if I could have been more patient and lasted longer. Perhaps the fault is mine.
I couldn't make it through episode one. The scenes (sets) are beautiful and captivating but I don't watch the show for that and don't care. The Dorothy character is interesting but I'm interested in the story telling... what are the writers presenting to me? Early in the show we find an elderly woman having risen from her bed being confronted by her caretaker and she is now struggling with the caretaker who has taken hold of her by the wrists. It is a physical confrontation as the woman pleads to use red fingernail polish. Why there is a physical confrontation over red fingernail polish - they never address (mystery). Why it escalated into a physical struggle or why the caretaker would not have already permitted the color red and instead allowed the situation to escalate to this unrealistic level is not explained at all and all seems seriously unrealistic and pointless. It looks like a child-writer's view of controlling the elderly in a slight state of dementia.
Dorothy comforts the woman but takes a bottle of prescription medication from her and hides it in her pocket. What the medication is and why Dorothy took it is never addressed (mystery). Why Dorothy needed to protect the old woman from the medication - or instead to deprive the woman of her needed prescription is never addressed (mystery). The whole scene seems pointless and unrealistic. It of course begs many other questions. Does Dorothy make a habit of stealing drugs from patients? Does Dorothy have a special need of some sort we don't know about? Was someone trying to harm the woman and Dorothy has foiled that plot? All curious and unexplained.
This trend continues as instance after instance with a lot of details all go unexplained. Later, the police have arrived at a crime scene. The many issues of the crime scene, how the police knew to come, what happened to the police officer, how or why things were what they were at the scene... and most importantly, why I should care about any of it - are all ignored.
Special effects are impressive, I guess, except I don't care about any of that when the visuals are merely some sort of technological presentation. Why are these various elements of the story being presented if they are irrelevant? Soon Dorothy is in a new land. There too, the effects and sets are impressive but the story itself makes little sense in terms of why people do what they do. Their goals, their intent, their mindset all seem to be unrelated to what they say, how they act, what they want, etc.
The story-telling is weak and uninteresting. The reason seems to be because there are too many convoluted details that do little to contribute to or support the foundation of the story. Dorothy is tortured over a simple misunderstanding while falling into that trap seems more a matter of bad writing than Dorothy being in any realistic danger inherent in the situation. That is, some common-sense things that she might have said to escape or extricate herself from the situation she simply doesn't say. Why? Because the writer had already planned for her capture. She was captured by the writer - not the bad guys. It's all just unrealistic.
There is little time spent developing the characterization. So, as Dorothy is tortured (for example), there's no reason to care. I mean, one can care in the abstract about the evil of young women being tortured, but there's no reason to care about this particular case or this particular person. We don't know her. We don't really know who she is or what she's about. Her angst or fear in the previously mentioned crime scene is another example. We don't know her or anything about it so my reaction is so what. Was I supposed to care about the police officer that disappears? Perhaps not but how is Dorothy any different?
Nothing seems relevant or worthy of our attention. Nothing seems important - unless everything is important and then of course we're back to the mystery of the red fingernail polish.
The unfolding avalanche of details without any means to distinguish relevance from pointless combined with the complete lack of character development and foundation combine to make the story much more trouble than it is worth. - I say skip it unless you're ready to focus just on scenery.
I gave it 3 stars due to the scenery, costumes and effects. Such things cannot combine to warrant anything more when the story-telling is so convoluted. /// Of course, all such questions may have been eventually answered with great clarity and import if I could have been more patient and lasted longer. Perhaps the fault is mine.