Emerald City - Episodes 3- 6

 

Episode Three - Mistress New Mistress

The story of the Wizard has always been a tale of deception  and this episode sees Emerald City continue that tradition revealing he is not all he seems. He confesses to one of his counsels that he had no powers at all before he came here and that his name was Frank Morgan (a nod to the original author) while later he doesn’t deny that he can no longer awaken the stone giants supposed to be guarding the city in the event of the return of the Beast. Vincent D'Onofrio's performance is subtle and you can detect the sense of a man struggling under the surface to keep control over everything because he likes the power so much.

The Then and Now comparisons runs through the episode- his counsel is trying to forget her mother’s history in Oz while Tip is trying to cling on to her past as a boy even though escaping her imprisonment has made her who she should really be. All of which is confusing too for Jack who makes the wrong move and ends up being pushed off a balcony seemingly to his death but this is not so much the end of the character but his start.

Dorothy discovers something of the past too as she arrives at the East Witches’ castle in an attempt to get back home the way she came, ie via a tornado. There is a handy one whizzing about over the castle which East’s servant believes Dorothy, as an acolyte, has come to tame. The castle is another beautiful location, this series really does seem to find the best places. When Dorothy tries to enter the tornado  she ends up in the middle of a frozen river surrounded by very human detritus amongst which is a uniform with her mother’s name sewn into it suggesting she, too, made the same journey. 

It's an episode that sets quite a few directions and seems to be starting to gather up what have been random narratives to give them a purpose. Visually Tarsem Singh scores again with some stylish locations and uses of tone. The dialogue is still an issue though with often stilted conversations cut off just as they seem to be getting interesting. Whether the material had to be heavily edited down, it does feel as if we are being taken unevenly through the story. This tends to undermine the characters because we find out so little about what they are thinking. It’s also serious material; most series have a comedic character to lighten the load but this one doesn’t have that advantage.

 

Episode Four - Science and Magic

This series does like to really put its characters through the mill. Poor Jack who last episode was seen falling from a great height wakes up in a laboratory where a scientist (Gina McKee in tiny spectacles) has rebuilt him out of metal. He is this series' version of the Tin Man. Given very little time to show how his character reacts to this terrifying scenario,  actor Gerran Howell manages to put all the shock and fear of what’s happened into a chilling scream that echoes after the picture has cut off. I’d have thought the writers would have given him more time yet somewhat unfeasibly he’s walking up flights of steps by the end of the episode. He’s sold to a Princess and he’s not the only one being traded.

Tip who has run away after thinking she killed Jack ends up being courted by both the West Witch and Glinda concluding that her choices lie somewhere between being “a nun or a whore”. Jordan Loughran makes a strong showing in this episode as she fights for her independence. The undercurrent of rivalry between the two witches is also fun to watch as Joely Richardson and Anna Ularu vie to see who can be the most outwardly polite and inwardly seething with two performances that are show stealing but also rich.

By the time you reach the end of the episode you realise that these storylines are more interesting than the main ones. It might have been a win to have focussed just on Tip and Jack’s situations across the episode. As it is this is a very crowded forty -five minutes in which scenes no sooner start than are abruptly cut off.

The wizard’s frailties are exposed again when he fails to find the source of a magical appearance at a village. Anna instead takes the full force of this strange fireplace set starscape when it explodes outwards. Despite having to sport one of the silliest hats a tv drama has ever seen Isabel Lucas fares well in this role of the advisor who seems to know rather more than she lets on. Just how does she have all this wisdom- last episode she predicted snow in the summer and it happened.

Last though not supposed to be least, Dorothy and Lucas continue their snowy travails as they come to protect a terrified little girl who as we later discover is more terrified of her own powers. Like other developments in this episode there seems an almost random instinct to pile on concepts without necessarily creating a cohesive narrative. At times it feels as if we are watching clips from different episodes. Gorgeous though it looks- Tarsem Singh frames every shot with cinematic boldness, the locations are different, the effects impressive – I’m finding it hard to hook an overall story onto anything at this stage. More magic than science I think.

 

Episode 5 - Everybody Lies

You know how people say that you have to stick with a series for a while until it comes together, well this is the episode in  which Emerald City does just that. After four episodes that did seem to meander somewhat, albeit stylishly, this episode shows more of the potential for the series. It feels as if we are finally getting somewhere. So, we find out what Lucas did as a soldier which demonstrate that his outbursts of violence are nothing new. And we also have Dorothy being tortured by West revealing more about East’s death. Jack meanwhile is bonding with Lady Ev who remains enigmatically masked. At the end there’s a very lyrical scene wherein the newly escaped Dorothy finds her way up the steps to the Wizard’s palace wherein the strains of Pink Floyd’s Breathe are emanating. At first this seems like it could be the soundtrack though to date the series had used specially composed music. However, it turns out to be coming from an iPad owned by the Wizard who seems to know Dorothy. Her walk to this meeting is beneath lanterns released in the sky for a festival and the whole thing demonstrates how good this series can be when it pulls everything together.

It’s a great episode for Ana Uluru whose West is so wound up, petty and yet very dangerous that she makes quite an impression. And despite having to remain under a metal mask, Stefani Martini as Lady Ev is playful once away from the formalities and the to and fro with Gerran Howell's Jack works well. If Dorothy is still underwritten, at least Adria Arjona gives it her all.  Despite the episode title this is when the series seems more truthful and direct and all the better for it.

 

Episode 6 - Beautiful Wickedness

The best episode yet takes us into the heart of the story showing flashbacks of Frank’s arrival in Oz and the duplicitous way he engineered it. The opening sequence set in a Nineties  research centre seems odd yet shows a still furtive though younger version of the character. During the course of the subsequent episode, we're encouraged to speculate as to the identity of Dorothy’s father’s - it appears not to be Frank as I’m sure a lot of people who watched this thought it was- but one of the other researchers whose death Frank’s was to blame for. We also see his initial dislike of magic while trying to impress a primitive tribe with a lightbulb whereupon one of them creates a moving figure made from pieces of rock.

We also find out the wider story of Lucas’ history courtesy of West’s magical ceremony which seems to involve having a lot of milk poured onto the heads of the participants. The most unexpected reveal is that Dorothy was actually born in Oz, her mother already being pregnant before they are whisked away. Whether this will hold more significance later on remains to be seen.

The episode feels like a joining together of all the disparate plots. Tip and Jack are briefly reunited though it’s not a happy reunion and even  King Ev’s death serves a wider plot purpose. Its impressive the way these plot strands have been pulled together and the earlier episodes could do with the momentum on display here. It really is an episode that shows off Vincent D’Onforio’s skills as the vain, selfish Wizard does whatever he needs to do to try and hold onto power. The death of King Ev and the uncovering of a magical conspiracy seemingly created by Glinda is leading to war. The actor always makes interesting choices in a well written role that avoids expectations.