Renegade Review: Emerald City

Welcome Renegade Nation it’s me Naughty Nicole and it’s time for another Renegade Review. And this time we’re checking out NBC’s new epic entry Emerald City. For those of us that are true fans of the original Wizard of Oz both book and movie, well we’re most definitely not in Kansas anymore. Why is that? Well, this Dorothy carries a gun. Toto is a fierce police dog. The Scarecrow isn’t a good-natured brainless goof anymore but rather a brooding amnesiac knight, found tarred and feathered and crucified in a field; and he may or may not be trustworthy. None of the witches are really good or wicked, and everyone everywhere are all slaves to a perverse, patriarchal society. The Wizard isn’t the misunderstood, maligned old man behind the curtain, but instead is a misogynistic man-child who has conquered Oz and imprinted his worldview on a once-magical land. The yellow brick road, our classic symbol of the hero’s journey, and the dangerous poppy field our sly metaphor for distracting, numbing amusements; have fused into one and the same thing: And what does that mean? Well, in Emerald City, the path to transcendence is a rough highway powdered with crushed opium cutting through a desolate landscape, a metaphor for… well, a culture hooked on dark-ride anti-hero escapism, right? Woo-hoo! I for one, can’t wait to, sign up, can you?