TV Week: Tin Man, Dexter and Dirt
By Dan OwenTIN MAN (SCI-FI CHANNEL, SUN 8PM) L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz is a classic children's story that became an iconic 1939 movie starring Judy Garland. It's been adapted and re-imagined countless times (most distressingly as The Wiz with Michael Jackson), so here it comes again: as a sci-fi flavoured three-part TV series.
It could have been an invigorating modern twist on a beloved classic, but it ends up being an arduous, unappealing muddle of bland characters and ill-conceived tweaks...
Zooey Deschanel plays DG, a pensive Kansas waitress whisked to the magical realm of the OZ (Outer Zone) after jumping into a tornado with her farmer parents, to escape Nazi-esque trenchcoated villains who arrive through a storm to kill her. Inexplicably separated from her folks, DG meets Glitch (Alan Cumming), a half-brained man with a zipper on his head (ahem, the scarecrow); Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a psychic man-beast (ahem, the cowardly lion); and Cain (Neal McDonough), an imprisoned policeman (ahem, the tin man). From there, DG has to find her missing parents and end the tyrannical reign of bosomy sorceress Azkadellia (Katherine Robertson)...
Broadly, it sounds rather good; but it's insipid and fails to put you under any spell. The problems are everywhere: saucer-eyed Deschanel looks the part, but DG is a tomboy who takes no joy in being transported to an enchanted land; a spaced-out Richard Dreyfuss appears as the Mystic Man (ahem, the Wizard Of Oz) floating on a peacock-feathered chair with a powdered face, the FX ranges from bad-to-average, the villainess is humourless and out-acted by her cleavage, while the plot crawls along with no sense of fun or vitality.
This is a sci-fi "revamp" that makes the Tin Man a dour cop instead of a high-tech cyborg, and whose best idea (flying bat-monkeys that sprout from tattoos on Azkadellia's boobs) is stolen from box-office dud Elektra. If you want to visit Oz, follow the Yellow Brick Road into town and get the musical on DVD.
DEXTER (ITV1, WED 10.35PM) The blackly-comic adventures of everyone's favourite vigilante serial-killer drew to a close this week, as blood-spatter analyst Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) faced an agonizing choice: embrace his dark side to be with his biological brother "The Ice Truck Killer", or commit fratricide to rescue his adopted sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and continue living a lie? You have to respect ITV for broadcasting this show, which isn't a natural fit for them. It's a morally-ambiguous drama with an American Psycho-meets-CSI vibe that's not to all tastes – but the textured performance of Hall ensures Dexter makes a compelling anti-hero. And I'm pleased to confirm the second season manages to improve the formula.
DIRT (FIVER, MON 9PM) Bitchy tabloid editor Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox) is back -- digging the dirt on the City of Angels' rich and famous. The quest for better ratings has necessitated a toning down of Lucy's personality, schizophrenic paparazzo Don Konkey's (Ian Hart) surreal visions have been cutback, and season 1's edginess has been smoothed. In its place: storylines and characters ripped from reality – Britney Spears, Anna-Nicole Smith, David Hasselhoff, Paris Hilton, et al. It's still frothy fun, but it's a bad sign when a show about a gossip magazine admits it can't compete with reality. You might as well pick up Heat.
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Dan Owen is a self confessed TV "obsessive" and passionate film buff. Check out his blog at danowen.blogspot.com
Broadly, it sounds rather good; but it's insipid and fails to put you under any spell. The problems are everywhere: saucer-eyed Deschanel looks the part, but DG is a tomboy who takes no joy in being transported to an enchanted land; a spaced-out Richard Dreyfuss appears as the Mystic Man (ahem, the Wizard Of Oz) floating on a peacock-feathered chair with a powdered face, the FX ranges from bad-to-average, the villainess is humourless and out-acted by her cleavage, while the plot crawls along with no sense of fun or vitality.
This is a sci-fi "revamp" that makes the Tin Man a dour cop instead of a high-tech cyborg, and whose best idea (flying bat-monkeys that sprout from tattoos on Azkadellia's boobs) is stolen from box-office dud Elektra. If you want to visit Oz, follow the Yellow Brick Road into town and get the musical on DVD.
DEXTER (ITV1, WED 10.35PM) The blackly-comic adventures of everyone's favourite vigilante serial-killer drew to a close this week, as blood-spatter analyst Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) faced an agonizing choice: embrace his dark side to be with his biological brother "The Ice Truck Killer", or commit fratricide to rescue his adopted sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and continue living a lie? You have to respect ITV for broadcasting this show, which isn't a natural fit for them. It's a morally-ambiguous drama with an American Psycho-meets-CSI vibe that's not to all tastes – but the textured performance of Hall ensures Dexter makes a compelling anti-hero. And I'm pleased to confirm the second season manages to improve the formula.
DIRT (FIVER, MON 9PM) Bitchy tabloid editor Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox) is back -- digging the dirt on the City of Angels' rich and famous. The quest for better ratings has necessitated a toning down of Lucy's personality, schizophrenic paparazzo Don Konkey's (Ian Hart) surreal visions have been cutback, and season 1's edginess has been smoothed. In its place: storylines and characters ripped from reality – Britney Spears, Anna-Nicole Smith, David Hasselhoff, Paris Hilton, et al. It's still frothy fun, but it's a bad sign when a show about a gossip magazine admits it can't compete with reality. You might as well pick up Heat.
_____
Dan Owen is a self confessed TV "obsessive" and passionate film buff. Check out his blog at danowen.blogspot.com
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