We're off to see the Tin Man!

Synopsis:

   Tin Man is a scyfy channel mini-series that consist of three episodes that average an hour and a half each.  It was originally aired in 2007 and boasts a cast that you will have seen before in a number of scyfy and fantasy movies such as: Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, and Neal McDonough.  As one might guess by the name, it is a retelling of the story The Wizard of Oz with a steampunk feel to it.  In this tale the "Dorothy" character is known as D.G. and has actually come from Oz as a child.  She finds out rather quickly that she is a princess and that the evil witch is her older sister, bent on her destruction, just in case she gets in the way of her maniacal plans.  The lion is named Raw and is a cowardly psychic, the tin man is a disgraced sheriff known as Cain, and the scarecrow is a man who has had his mind stolen and goes by Glitch.  The series takes us through their adventure to defeat Azkadelia, the wicked witch, and their journey to self discovery.

Review:

    This re-imagining has all the classic elements of a fantasy or sci-fi movie with magic and futuristic yet rustic technology.  Each of the characters, including our original villain, goes through a path of self discovery and changes to become a new person who has found what they had originally been lacking.  While the concept is new and fresh and the acting is very good, the script is what can be expected from a scyfy channel movie.
    Despite that, however, the idea is much more modern and allows for the exploration of several different ideas that might not have been in the original movie.  Where the original wizard is just a hapless man trying to show a power he does not in fact have, the mystic-man, as he called in Tin Man, is drug-addicted and actually quite powerful  This brings in a very real problem in our society, the rendering of someone who could make a difference in the world, completely useless because of drugs.
    The wicked witch is also an interesting case.  Where we are used to a cut and dry depiction of right and wrong, good and evil, in this version our villain is possessed and told constantly by her attacker that she cannot be loved and thus she has only her assailant for comfort.  Here we must deal with the idea that a darkness can get within our heart and tell us that we have only it to get us through our lives.
    Overall, this series asks questions of its watchers and stretches us to become better as the characters do.  In my opinion it is very much worth the watch, though it must be viewed with some grace, allowing for the fact that it is a made for television movie.