TVSquad

(E03) So, I thought that last night's Tin Man was a vast improvement from the first night. Sunday night felt like a Sci-Fi Channel rip-off of the original story -- slightly modernized with scarier special effects (scarier in comparison to the overall-wearing lollipop-holding munchkins).

By contrast, Monday night proved that Tin Man had its own story to tell. This was a story that would use the Wizard of Oz as a jumping off point and rethink the classic.

(E02) After reading the comments about last night's part one of Tin Man, I'm a bit skeptical about how many people will (or won't for that matter) tune in tonight. Sure, plenty of people found it entertaining but those who hated it seemed to really loathe it.

For myself, I thought it was pretty good but I like the original story enough to find almost any variation of it amusing. I also know not to expect much from a Sci-Fi channel miniseries. So, I fully anticipated that the special effects would be inconsistent and the dialogue would be insipid.

Nevertheless, the actors were good, great even. Alan Cumming is a genius and Neal McDonough is good enough as the embittered ex-Tin Man. I didn't think that Zooey Deschanel was that bad either--so many people complained about her. She does have an abrupt delivery though (which doesn't work well with some of her mediocre lines).

(E01) Like many people, I am a big fan of The Wizard of Oz. For a little warm fuzzy nostalgia, I'll put on the original movie with Judy Garland. I've read Gregory Maguire's The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (and loved that version too). I even own the soundtrack to Wicked (although I've yet to see the show). And who can forget The Wiz?

I guess it was only a matter of time until the Sci-Fi channel added their version to the ever-evolving list of stories about Dorothy and her journey through Oz. Tin Man aired last night on the Sci-Fi channel from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT and will continue tonight and tomorrow night (same channel, same time).

We began last night with D.G., the Midwestern waitress who speeds to work on her motorcycle, has weird dreams, and believes there's something more to life than waiting tables and windy prairies. D.G., unlike the gentler Dorothy, is a little too tough at times. I don't mind her talking back to everyone but I do mind her going after longcoats with a stick when she sees the men beating up Tin Man's family.

(S03E05) I think Scanlon got it right this week. "What brand was that camera? I wanna make sure I don't get one of those." While having the whole apartment glowing with a pulsing green light in the middle of the night would absolutely freak me out, I did think it was a pretty cool device for the story this week. And really, if you you have to be haunted by a camcorder, you could do worse than having it be the one that Kathleen Robertson (Clare from 90210) was being naughty on.

I was a little disappointed with the sniper part of the storyline, simply because it has been done too often lately. NCIS did it in "One Shot, One Kill", CSI: Miami did it in "Kill Zone", and The Closer did it in "Show Yourself." I'm sure there are more, but those are the three fairly recent examples that come to mind. Other than that it was an ok case for the team. It fell short of great because I thought they telegraphed the end really early on. It was obvious that 'Kathy' was playing Travis. The only real mystery was whether or not Sean was the mastermind. And for that to really work we would have needed much more focus on him.