Eight episodes in and Emerald City continues its inconsistent and complicated run. The show is certainly fun to look at as it tries to compete with other big budget dramas (Game of Thrones being the main one) but the story itself seems to be getting worse. At one point, there were several compelling characters with interesting stories and obvious motivations but those are becoming harder and harder to find. Episode eight is a great example of how far the show’s story has fallen.
Last week left us with an interesting twist that saw Lucas choose his old love Glinda over his new love Dorothy. The show wanted this to be a big surprise and major twist to the story but instead, it just created a lot more confusion. Not only does the Lucas and Glinda relationship feel very forced and unnatural, but the show doesn’t do anything to try and convince us otherwise. For one thing, I doubt love was what brought these two together, so what does either of them gain? How was Lucas’ choice supposed to invoke a certain emotion if we don’t care about or understand any of these characters?
This week also showed how forced The Wizards anger and disdain towards magic really is. There is obviously a war on the horizon, but why? Is The Wizards power truly being that threatened or does he really just have some massive inferiority complex? I’ve also found it hard to believe that he can stop Glinda and West’s magic, to begin with. Not only is his army not that big, but what are guns going to do against some crazy spell? This plotline is just another example of how forced this show has become.
And of course, there was the big news that Tip is some missing princess of Oz named Ozma. This week West gave her the chance to drink the powers of East and become the next powerful witch of Oz. Out of everything going on, this story is probably the best. Tip and West should make for an interesting duo down the stretch and I can only hope they become the central focus of the show.
The best part of this week’s episode, though, was Sylvie rejecting Dorothy. She has been such a terrible main character that I now find myself hoping for anything and everything bad to happen to her and the last two weeks have been great for that. First Lucas chose Glinda over her and now Sylvie doesn’t want to go with her either. What does she expect, though? It wasn’t too long ago that she was going to abandon both of them without saying goodbye. Unfortunately, it seems like the show is setting Dorothy up for the ultimate comeback and redemption so that will be sad to see!
As the first season of Emerald City approaches its final episodes, the story is only getting worse. There have been glaring plot holes, undesirable characters, and zero explanation for certain motivations. As I said earlier, the show has become incredibly forced.
Score: 6/10
