i found the second hour of the first part pretty interesting for television, and i love Alan Cumming. i only caught it in patches, though, and i was high. (But while i was high, it was riveting.)

I thought it was pretty bad, but in a fun, junk TV kind of way. (Though I only watched part 1 -- it could have gotten better ((or worse, I suppose)).)

The special effects weren't all that great, and at times, it seemed like I was watching an episode of Stargate (which I loathe).

Zooey Deschanel's dry delivery doesn't really mesh well with the over-the-top ACTING that some of the other cast members are doing, but she has some funny moments, and she looks cute. (Admittedly, I have a crush.)

Overall, it's probably not the worst way to kill a few hours of your life on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

(But while i was high, it was riveting.)

Well there you go. Can you ask for a higher recommendation? :)

Absolutely not.

Occhiblu and I enjoyed it. You get to skip the commercials which is a major plus.

I agree that Zooey wasn't acting the way the other cast members were AHCK-ting. In fact, there were at least a dozen times when I thought, "Wow, that Zooey is a bad actress," which is one of the hallmarks of a bad actress to me.

But it wasn't terrible and there were some fun parts. Alan Cumming in particular was fun.

Indeed. I watched and enjoyed it, but it was somewhat bland. No unexpected moments. No amazing delivery. This seems to be the hallmark of a Scifi Channel production. They have wonderful set design and costume departments, but their script writing is always lacks that special something that makes people gush over a show. It's frustrating because they have such good ideas and such lackluster execution.

Case in point: The Lost Room mini-series. I so WISH they'd made that into a regular series instead.

i agree in a sense. You can always see good ideas and real potential but then something seems to crap out. Like with The Lost Room, it seems like they went "Quick, we have a deadline! Tack on a sappy ending!"
Keeping my expectations low helps my opinion, always.
Anything significantly different or creative will catch my attention enough to be worth watching if it happens to be on.
i still have Dexters and Weeds i haven't watched for no good reason.

In fact, there were at least a dozen times when I thought, "Wow, that Zooey is a bad actress," which is one of the hallmarks of a bad actress to me.

See, I actually thought Zooey Deschanel was really the only one who was doing any decent acting at all, though part of that was definitely that Alan Cumming came off as a ham because no one else was acting at his level -- if they had some other comedic actors for him to play off, that same performance probably would have been wonderful.

But it really felt like the concept was to grab four characters from completely unrelated genres and put them together, only I don't think that was really the concept, which meant it just felt like the director had no clue how to get actors to interact with each other, which is why I think Deschanel came off so strangely. No one was really giving her any emotional depth to play with, so she ended up looking bizarrely flat.

That said, I did enjoy it, because I love retellings of fairy tales, and I love pretty sets and costumes, and I'm a sucker for fantasy mini-series, even if they're not all that substantive. I thought it was a totally worthwhile indulgence.

Let me sum up like 45% of Tin Man:

Zooey Deschanel: (eyes wide, mouth open in astonishment at a CGI effect that clearly isn't present on the greenscreen stage where she's standing)

(CGI effect)

(Lather, rinse. Repeat.)

I didn't like that part. The parts where Alan Cumming or Richard Dreyfus acted between the lines of the rather bland script they'd been given were definitely the best.

They could very easily have increased the chatter about this 1000% by letting the Wicked Witch win. She was definitely much prettier and much cooler than Zooey's character, who just seemed like a not-very-together person. Judy Garland's Dorothy was lost and afraid, but she always had those down-home Dust Bowl values, making the show a morality play. Tin Man, on the other hand, stripped out all those values in the name of edginess, but retained the structure of a morality play without actually having any morality, which was very confusing.

I dug it - low bar held, notwithstanding. Zooey Deschanel can't act her way out of a wet sack, but I'll gladly take a drywall Dorothy for an awesome Zipperhead Scarecrow any day.

Plus, the Tin Man's character was awesome - especially the way they found him being tortured by hologram while imprisoned in a diving bell suit.

All in all, worth watching - just don't get too uppity about it. It IS the Sci Fi Channel after all.

Just kick on the couch and eat some fat and it's all good.

bad acting but gorgeous.

i couldn't stand zooey deschanel's continual facial expression though. although she foine.

I actually took Zooey's expressions (for the most part) to be pretty accurate for someone who has no recollection as to where she is or who she was. Yeah, there were too many moments where the vacuous expressions got to me, but I thought as a whole it was enjoyable enough. I love wherever it was filmed, such gorgeous scenery.

i didn't mind her so much as the tin man.