About the show
Tin Man is a three part mini-series which first aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2007 in the United States. Starting on 2nd December, the show aired on three nights, each showing one part of the series. The show came to the UK in 2008, the same year as it was released on region 1 DVD. The complete time of the show is 270 minutes.

Plot
DG lives in Kansas on a farm and working as a waitress, a job that she hates more than anything. In her dreams, she has visions of a lavender-eyed woman who warns her that a storm is coming, not that she takes any notice of her. However, a storm does come and quickly when the sorceress Azkadellia, ruler of another world called the O.Z. sends her men over in a travel storm to kill DG. With only one way to escape, DG's parents push her through the storm, sending her to the O.Z. - a land which should be completely foreign to her but is actually strangely familiar. Here, DG learns that she must be the one to stop Azkadellia from forever putting the O.Z. into darkness and being ruled by evil.

Cast
Alan Cumming as Glitch
Zooey Deschanel as DG
Richard Dreyfuss as The Mystic Man
Anna Galvin as "Lavender Eyes", the Queen of the O.Z.
Blu Mankuma as Tutor
Neal McDonough as Wyatt Cain
Keith Rennie as Zero
Kathleen Robertson as Azkadellia
Raoul Trujillo as Raw
Ted Whittall as Ahamo

What I thought
This was something that was recommended to me by my boyfriend's best friend. We have very similar taste in films and TV shows so I was definitely willing to give this a go. However, the star of Tin Man is Zooey Deschanel, an actress who I cannot stand. Recently though I have been growing to like actors I once thought I hated so I thought the case may be the same here.

Unfortunately, my opinions on Deschanel have not changed one little bit. Playing DG, protagonist of Tin Man, Deschanel should be bringing likeability to her character but I still couldn't stand her. While I did manage to feel a bit sorry for DG, being transported into a crazy world though a tornado, I just found the character extremely annoying. I do think that this was mainly down to Deschanel though and the small things that bugged me throughout. There never seemed to be very much conviction in her performance and she wasn't as believable as any of the other cast members.

Tin Man is a modern take on The Wizard of Oz although it definitely does not try to be anything close to a remake. Instead of having the regular tin man, lion and scarecrow there are characters with similar names but very different personalities and aims. In place of the tin man we have Wyatt Cain, a 'tin man' police officer who is played by Neal McDonough. I love him as an actor and thought that he was great in this role. The 'tin man' is a hard ass man who has been through a lot so is guarded against anyone he doesn't already know. I really enjoyed the fact that he was forced to be with other people that he wasn't comfortable with as this really brought out his personality.

Next is the lion, aka Raw in this version of the story. Raw does resemble a lion slightly but is of a different species altogether and he is a 'seer', someone who can see into a person's past through touching them. This version of the well-known and loved lion was so interesting and different that I couldn't help but like him. He is put into some pretty horrible situations that he just didn't want to be in so here, I really felt sorry for him. Raoul Trujillo who plays Raw is extremely talented as an actor and brings a lot of special qualities to this role.

Lastly in DG's gang is Glitch played by Alan Cumming. Glitch takes on the role which represents the scarecrow without a brain. However, in this version, Glitch doesn't have a brain as Azkadellia removed it. Glitch has a big metal zip running down his head where the parting of his hair should be. He's a very eccentric character because he has no brain and often gets things confused. Glitch was definitely one of my favourite characters due to his insane personality but also sweet demeanour.

As a group, these four characters and actors do work pretty well together. Each character is so different that it has something special to offer for the audience as well as interesting backgrounds. Each character evolves over the course of the three episodes as we get to learn more about them and as they encounter different problems and events.

The world of the O.Z. is extremely different to that of Oz. While creators have kept some things quite similar with characters like the good witch and the bad witch, others are completely different. DG's parents are questionable and some of the creature in the O.Z. are absolutely terrifying but fascinating at the same time. Each part of this mini-series has something exciting happening at all times while still exploring DG's past. DG never knew that she was from the O.Z. although she had dreamed about it previously. Even though I didn't like Zooey Deschanel, I did like the way in which her character grew along her journey.

The plot is quite straight forward and very easy to follow. DG needs to save the O.Z. from Azkadellia's crazy antics and to prevent her from making the whole place dark and evil. The fight between good and evil is probably the only thing that stays the same as in the original version of the story. Everything else is new and exciting and modern. I really loved the ideas that the creators had and it some were very brave considering they were taking on such a classic story to begin with. The whole show is quite magical once you really get into it although this did take me the whole of the first part. After this, I still wasn't sure whether I actually liked it or not but I carried on watching and thankfully it turned out well.

If you're looking for something not very well known and a bit different to watch then Tin Man may be for you.