Nov 30, 2007  |  By: BRIAN MOYLAN  | COMMENTS     

WHILE GAY MEN have always had a special connection with “The Wizard of Oz,” thanks to the 1939 Judy Garland movie, it really is a story that belongs to the entire country. Based on the first in a series of novels written by L. Frank Baum at the turn of the 20th century, “Oz” is one of the truly American fairy tales that has survived for more than a decade.

The original movie has some serious legs, too, airing annually first on network then on cable television, and there are few people out there who haven’t seen Dorothy and her little-dog-too demolish a green-faced witch with a bucket of water.

You would think the ubiquity of the story would keep people from messing with it, but just look to Diana Ross in “The Wiz” and Miss Piggy in “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” for evidence to the contrary. The latest to take on the “Oz” mythos is “Tin Man,” a three-part miniseries airing on Sci-Fi, Dec. 2, 3 and 4 at 9 p.m.

Each remake has its own gimmick and this one is a modernization of the familiar tale. Dorothy Gale is replaced by DG (Zooey Deschanel) and the tornado is now a “traveling storm” that takes her into the O.Z., which stands for the “outer zone.” The whole time, I was waiting for the new wicked witch, Azkadelia (Kathleen Robertson) to snarl, “Welcome to the O.Z., bitch,” but it never happened.

The tin man of the title (Neal McDonough) is a former cop in Center City (formerly Emerald City), the scarecrow (gay actor Alan Cumming) had his brain removed for knowing too much, and the lion (Raoul Trujillo) is some weird psychic thing that is more psychologically damaged than cowardly.

THANKFULLY, THE STORY, written by Craig W. Van Sickle and Steven Long Mitchell, doesn’t mimic the entire original movie, changing things around just to be cute. Here DG is an exile from the O.Z. who has to depose the sorceress and her S.S. like guards clad in long black robes. Azkadelia is on the hunt for a magic emerald that will allow her to maintain her power for good, and DG has to keep her from getting it.

With its bleak outlook and paranoid sensibility, “Tin Man” really is created for our time. There’s an autocratic leader fighting a meaningless war to gain control over precious minerals, robbing citizens of civil rights and using torture to push an agenda. Sound familiar?

What it didn’t need is to change Dorothy from a naive girl who wandered into some rough circumstances and got by on luck and pluck to an entitled princess trying to regain her birthright and fulfill her destiny. That Deschanel plays the character with her trademark ironic detachment doesn’t help.

What made the original character brilliant is that it could be any of us who happens to be in the way of a twister. Now, as in so much new Hollywood mythology, the central character is someone who is somehow preordained for greatness. The common folk no longer have anything to dream about, because all the good heroes have already been chosen. 

That said, the miniseries is most entertaining when it takes liberties with the familiar “Oz” tropes. To see the wizard (Richard Dreyfuss) as a drugged-out cabaret act is a little excruciating, but creating new characters and plot points is, at times, rather exciting.

However, with the languid pacing of a miniseries and some characters who never quite connect with the audience — we’re looking at you Azkadelia — you’d be equally served with a fresh helping of “Oz” by buying a copy of Gregory Maguire’s book “Wicked” as you would tuning into “Tin Man.”