The second installment tonight was just as good as yesterday’s. I can’t wait for the shocking conclusion tomorrow.

One upsetting thing I neglected to mention before:

The “Dorothy” character is named “D.G.”

Slightly irritating: I presume that D.G. is supposed to bring to mind “Dorothy Gale” from the Wizard of Oz.

More irritating: Many of the other characters call D.G. “Deeg” which, of course, was Candace Cameron’s character’s nickname on “Full House” and I have no desire to hear it thrown about in the fantasy world of Oz.

(SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU WISH TO KEEP THE PLOT A SECRET)

Supremely irritating: D.G.’s sister’s name is Azkadellia. We are supposed to believe that one mother named one child Azkadellia and the other D.G.?!??!

So I watched installment #1 of “Tin Man” on the SciFi channel last night. It’s a three part miniseries, totaling 6 full hours of Wizard of Oz-But-Darker-And-For-Adults entertainment.

I LOVE IT!

Seriously - This miniseries was, like, MADE for me. It’s like Wizard of Oz meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer…with Alan Cumming!  Could anything be better?

Here are my thoughts, after just 1/3 of the show:

-The cast is good.

• Alan Cumming is, of course, awesome as Scarecrow (none of the characters are actually the Wizard of Oz characters, but it’s clear what characters they are supposed to parallel, so I’ll just call them by their WofOz character names. Got that?)
• Zooey Deschanel is also a good Dorothy. She certainly looks the part, and her post-modern ironic delivery and blase attitudes are basically how she always acts, so I can’t complain that she’s performing the way I expected her to.
• The guy who plays the Tin Man, from Band of Brothers, is also very good.
• Even Kathleen Robertson (Claire from 90210!!) is good as the Wicked Witch (except that, through no fault of her own, I keep picturing her kissing David Silver, which sort of brings down the caliber of the entire production). It’s nice to see her getting work, though. She was always one of the most talented people on 90210 (gave Hilary Swank a run for her money, I tell you!)
• Richard Dreyfus as the Wizard has been…odd so far. But I see potential.

-The plot is pretty complex and (for all you Oz-o-philes out there) brings in a lot of WofOz references (both book and movie). And it’s set in modern day, which gives it a fresh edge. Remember “Return to Oz?”  If you semi-liked that movie as a child, you should definitely be watching Tin Man. Along the same lines, if you read and liked the book “Wicked,” you will love this.

-LOVE the pants Zooey Deschanel is sporting. (see above) I know that clothing cannot make an entire entertainment experience, but as we learned in “The Holiday” it can definitely up the ante. Now how do I get a pair of those pants!?!

-The effects alternate between pretty cool (makeup and costumes, two suns in the Oz sky) to lame and fake looking (flying monkeys and sweeping cityscapes of the Emerald City, Kathleen Robertson’s gold lame bustier).

- I keep waiting for Zooey to start singing. This is probably NOT going to happen, but I know she can sing so I’m praying for just ONE song. Hmmm…

-The lamest thing about the show so far is that the writers have decided to call Oz “the O.Z.” which stands for “the Outer Zone.” It all ties into this very cool idea that Oz is basically an outer zone of reality from our world (aka Dorothy’s home in Kansas). But every time one of the characters refers to “the O.Z.” all I can think of is Mischa Barton.

So start watching! It’s replaying on the SciFi channel all week most evenings, so you can definitely catch up. I would advise against watching it out of order - you will definitely need Episode #1 to understand what is going on.

I haven’t heard too much buzz about this, but CNN reports on an adaptation of the Wizard of Oz, called “Tin Man” [CNN: "A darker view of the Wizard of Oz"].  Dorothy, played by Zooey Deschanel, describes it as “postmodern, more like Indiana Jones than a fairy tale”.  Hmm, it looks crazy and creepy - although I guess a “shadowy, retro-futuristic Oz” is no creepier than a technicolored surreal world with munchkins running around singing.  Ok, they won me over.  Or at least have kept me intrigued, especially given the cast:  Alan Cumming plays the Scarecrow, Neil McDonough (he was great in Band of Brothers) plays the Tin Man, and  Kathleen Robertson (can’t say I know her, but perhaps others know as “Clare” from 90210?) plays the evil witch.  It’s a three-part mini-series that starts this Sunday at 10pm on the sci-fi network.  Please report in if you watch it!

Here’s a link to the official Tin Man website.