Alice is what Tinman wanted to be...

In 2007 Zoey Deschanel, supported by a slew of fairly well known actors, traipsed into the wilds of Oz for the three part mini-series Tinman. Though it boasted talents like Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough and Callum Keith Rennie (oh how I miss you Battlestar) in addition to Deschanel herself and was hailed as an achievement (it won an Emmy as well as a Critic's Choice Award), I thought it felt a little contrived and stale for my tastes. The attempt to modernize the story itself by making Dorothy into "DG," the motorcycle riding, don't-take-no-for-an-answer young heroin at the centre of the story became a cliché before the show had even begun. And as the series went on I found that every new tidbit we learned about Dorothy only made her more of a caricature and less of a character.

While much of the same feeling and general staging of 2009's Alice (also a production of the Syfy network), I found that it seemed to translate better to the screen. This may, in part, be to the effective casting of the series with mostly unrecognizable actors (excepting Kathy Bates and Colm Meaney who both take brilliant turns as the Queen and King of Hearts). While with Tinman it felt as though I was watching a bunch of famous people read lines and interact with each other in a pre-arranged manner, Alice's characters seemed genuinely surprised and scared when they needed to be and sad or happy when it was necessary as well.

But the real reason that I liked Alice (and I think this is the honest to God truth of my movie watching habits) is that there was hope. Even though everything went wrong and came back around again and the series ends with hope, something I found to be sorely lacking from Tinman's resolution. Yes, you may argue the point and you would likely be correct in saying that the final outcome of Tinman is hopeful but it is only hopeful in plot line and not in the actual feeling of the story and underlying message behind it.

Either way, give Alice a try...it' a little commercial but it's an enjoyable four hours.