follow the old road

[aria]

I have this horrible tendency to actually want to talk about the ridiculous sci-fi rubbish I watch sometimes. Sorry.

I enjoyed Tin Man! I enjoyed it in a ropey-effects-and-uneven-acting way, but I unironically like Doctor Who so this is totally normal. It also gets points for making me want to rewatch The Wizard of Oz despite the fact that I don't even like that film.

aria: I watched the ridiculous tin man thing!
aria: I KIND OF LOVED IT despite the fact that it was horrible
anekdot: THIS IS TOTALLY FAIR, MAN
anekdot: is it super dystopia-y???
anekdot: because if so I DO NOT JUDGE AT ALL
aria: YES although in the hilarious way
aria: where a hot chick who looks suspiciously like kristen bell without actually being kristen bell wears ... lots of weirdass corsets
aria: and tells ckr to go and terrorize the peasants
anekdot: ... HAHAHAA

My major complaint was Toto, because really? your sole principal character of color is a traitor and literally a dog? No, really, good move, guys. And I am not entirely sure what to do with the whatevers that Raw and his ilk were supposed to be.

On the other hand, I massively approve of Cain, because I am all for a sort of steampunk Western aesthetic, and I am quite happy to watch Alan Cumming run around with a zipper on his head. And the Omg Evil Woman With Cleavage (Who Is Sekritly An Ugly Old Witch) + the total failboat of the Queen doing anything constructive ever was more or less offset by the fact that DG is possibly the least screamy heroine ever and I quite liked her despite some of the ... more interesting choices for the line deliveries.

Unsurprisingly I think it needed more Zero, mostly because CKR is good enough that I can watch him cheerfully committing atrocities and then be genuinely distressed when they shut him in a Suit as he rightfully deserves, because he is really good at playing upsetting and likable at the same time, dammit. If CKR is going to make a good-faith attempt to give his stupid two-dimensional villain some depth, possibly you should use him more. Apparently someone suggested he be DG's father and afflicted in a similar way to Azkadellia, which would've been fucking awesome and also probably helped out the last act a whole lot.

I thought it needed more beginning and more ending, even if the middle bits were okay. Like, "Oh, my parents are robots, my life is a lie, and my real parents wanted to protect me by tampering with my memories, possibly permanently? Cool beans, let's go save the OZ." And then the end needed more Glitch getting his brain back (IT IS TOTALLY POSSIBLE TO RE-BRAIN PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD RIGHT) and good!Azkadellia and the royal family having to, I dunno, deal with all the evil henchmen and the complete horrible mess they've collectively caused.

Comments

[delight]

I love Tin Man, and I am a total Baum freak – but because of the fact I grew up on the Oz books, I, too, hate the Wizard of Oz movie.

Because it's too happy and cheery for Oz, and also Dorothy is nine, okay, get rid of the breasts.

Tin Man > Wizard of Oz musical.

[aria]

I may have been kind of embarrassingly delighted when the Grey Gale was, y'know, a CHILD. XD

[moon_river]

I loved Tin Man, nothing says it better than canon hypothermia treatment and "sweetheart" :)

I like Zero despite how bad he was, and Azkadelia was kind of awesome except for the whole 'flying monkeys explode from my boobs' thing.

[aria]

...I completely forgot how the flying monkeys exploded from her boobs. I think it was so ridiculous I just blocked it from my mind. XD

[moon_river]

Really? How? I would like to know this secret.

Let's put it this way, there were a lot (A LOT) of problems with the mini-series, but at least when it came to actors they had Glitch and Cain and Zero and CKR is made of so much awesomeness that his awesomeness as a bad guy outshines the boob-monkeys and the incredible impression of a wall that DG was doing.

Sweetheart and CKR ftw \o/

[feverbeats]

DG WAS SO FUCKING STONED, ARIA. SHE IS POSSIBLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS EVER. God, what a truly rubbish mini-series. I love it sfm.

[aria]

I LOVE HOW IRRATIONALLY CHILL SHE IS ABOUT EVERYTHING. And the more I think about it the sadder I am that Zero was not her father. (Maybe because then CKR would have been UNAMBIGUOUSLY STRAIGHT? and if that happened the universe would IMPLODE.)

[labellementeuse]

I unironically adored DG enough that I enjoyed Tin Man, even though your points about Toto (yeah, the dog thing? ugh.) are totally valid and I was barely able to restrain myself from falling to the floor shrieking when the Death Boobs attacked.

The bits with Raw almost felt to me like they were part of, like, a previous movie that I hadn't seen - which is kind of intriguing in a way I guess but maybe not also good storytelling.

On the other hand I really loved all of the sistery backstory! I don't know why! I have a thing for children and creepy rhymes, I think Buffy gave it to me.

anyway. I agree with your commentary and approve of your message.

[aria]

I cannot believe I didn't mention the Death Boobs. I just, I think the sheer levels of wtf bypassed my conscious mind entirely.

I think you are right about Raw! Actually, one of the things I quite like about Tin Man is that despite its various and rather obvious flaws, everyone has heaps of unspoken backstory. The backstory that we get to see with DG and Az is awesome, actually, I quite loved it, but even though we kind of hear about Glitch-as-Ambrose and Cain-pre-Suit, they really do seem like they existed before outside of that information, too; and then there's whatever's going on with Raw, and the fact that Zero seems to have some kind of internal life, and &c &c. Like, all the characters, even when the acting was a little questionable, existed even in those places the action wasn't happening. Does that make sense?