Should I follow the “Emerald City” yellow brick road?

Apparently this new television show has been years in the filming, years in the writing, and years in the anticipation.  NBC plans to air a ten-episode limited series that features a re-imagining of the classic The Wizard of Oz in a futuristic, fantasy setting, with the show called Emerald City.

Here’s a sneak clip of the show, which debuts this Friday evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKeRnyFIHWs

What in the name of …

Okay, for a couple of moments there, I thought that maybe NBC had created their own Game of Thrones series.  And believe me, they have plenty of source material to pull from, if they just go all the way past the 1939 MGM motion picture, all the way back to the original L. Frank Baum novels.

Which, if they do that, will make this series totally epic.

So far we’ve already gotten a glimpse of who Dorothy is, and if the Scarecrow is actually some sort of metaphor for Christ (that scene with the Scarecrow up on what looks like a modified crucifix caught me right in the attention nodes), and that the Wizard himself oversees a kingdom where science has overpowered the magic of the Witches of the East, West and North…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL5gdHw_4gU

This has a chance to b e totally epic, a true game-changer in the genre TV category.

Honestly, the biggest thing working for this show has to be a man named Tarsem Singh.

You may not know Tarsem Singh, but you’ve seen his work.  In he mid-1990’s, he crafted several popular music videos, including R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” and “Sweet Lullaby,” this awesome video by the world music collective Deep Forest.

Plus, if Tarsem Singh can make a Pepsi commercial that looks as stunning and vibrant as this … a freakin’ Pepsi commercial, mind you…

So yeah, finding out that Tarsem Sinch is in this project really gets me excited about what Emerald City can provide.

In fact … I wanna watch another video clip before Friday’s premiere.  Don’t you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lehGE863XgU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sHNtSxp3uE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAl2qFWwiJo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP9u7rckCrA