NBC tried to reboot The Wizard of Oz for the cable era, and Emerald City is the result. Matthew Arnold created the series, and it ran one season of ten episodes, premiering on January 6, 2017, and ending on March 3, 2017. The show was canceled on May 5, 2017, after that single season.
The premise is simple. Dorothy Gale, a 20-year-old from Lucas, Kansas, gets swept away by a tornado into the Land of Oz. She lands there looking for the Wizard, not knowing she is about to fulfill a prophecy that changes everyone’s lives forever. That setup sounds promising. The execution does not quite deliver.
Trailer, via macverso.
The Tornado and the Land Beyond
The show leans heavily on spectacle. Tarsem Singh directs, and the visuals are lush and bright. Emerald City is meant to look like a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. It mostly succeeds at that. The production design is strong, the costumes are bold, and the color palette is saturated.
But the spectacle often overwhelms the story. Episodes spend too much time on elaborate battles and too little time on character development. The audience is shown plenty of action, but the reasons behind it feel thin. The prophecy that drives the plot is rarely explained, and the stakes keep shifting without much warning.
Dorothy Gale and the Prophecy
Adria Arjona plays Dorothy Gale, and she carries the show through its flaws. She brings a sense of determination and confusion to the role, and her performance grounds the series when the writing loses focus. Her journey from a small-town girl to a headstrong warrior is the heart of the show. It just takes too long to get there.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays Roan/Lucas, and Ana Ularu plays West. Gerran Howell plays Jack, and Jordan Loughran plays Ozma/Tip. Vincent D’Onofrio rounds out the cast as Frank Morgan/The Wizard. The ensemble is capable, but the script does not always give them enough to work with. D’Onofrio, in particular, has a rich history in genre television, and his performance is wasted in a role that is less interesting than the actor.
Roan, West and the Kingdoms
Roan and West are supposed to represent the political forces pulling at Oz. Roan is a soldier, West is a queen. Their relationship with Dorothy is meant to be central. Instead, their arcs are fragmented across the season, and their motivations are often unclear. The show tries to build tension between them, but the writing keeps undercutting its own setup.
The other kingdoms and their warriors are background noise. They exist to fill the battlefield, not to deepen the story. The battle for supremacy is a constant threat, but the show never explains what is truly at stake beyond vague talk of power and territory. The audience is told these kingdoms matter, but the show never makes the case.
Frank Morgan and the Wizard
Vincent D’Onofrio’s Frank Morgan/The Wizard is a strange choice. He is a familiar face in genre television, and his presence draws attention. But the role itself is a problem. The Wizard is supposed to be a powerful figure, a leader of Oz. In Emerald City, he feels more like a sideshow than a central villain. His scenes are often the weakest of the season.
The show also includes a detail from the original Oz books: wicked witches do not stay dead for long. That is a promising idea. The show barely uses it. The death of a witch is a plot device, not a theme. The show introduces a threat, kills it off, and moves on without much ceremony.
The Ten-Episode Order
The season is short. Ten episodes is a tight budget, and the show never quite finds its rhythm. Some episodes are strong, others are filler. The pacing is uneven, and the finale rushes to tie everything together without giving the audience time to breathe. The series ends on a cliffhanger, but the show was canceled, so that ending stands as the final statement.
The show received a 10-episode order from NBC in April 2015. That order was a vote of confidence, but the show never earned a second season. The cancellation came on May 5, 2017, three days after the final episode aired. The network pulled the plug before the season could fully resolve its own threads.
What Works
The show is not a total loss. There are moments that work:
- The visual style is consistent and striking.
- Adria Arjona gives a committed performance as Dorothy.
- The ensemble cast is competent, even when the writing lets them down.
- The premise is promising, even if the execution falls short.
These are not enough to carry the whole project. The show is ambitious, but ambition is not the same as quality.
The Bottom Line
Emerald City is a failure of focus. It has the pieces of a great fantasy series: a compelling lead, a rich mythology, and a director with a strong visual sense. But the writing never commits to a single idea. It jumps between prophecies, battles, and political intrigue without ever landing anywhere meaningful.
The show is best described as a glossy, overlong pilot. It spends ten episodes introducing a world and a story that could have been told in half that time. The audience is left with a colorful but hollow version of Oz, one that respects the source material only in name.
The show is worth watching once, for the visuals and the performances. It is not worth revisiting.
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