Tin Man

This sumptuous modern take on a classic—which originally aired as a three-part miniseries on Sci-Fi—has us rethinking our ban on remakes. Deschanel stars as DG, a wide-eyed Kansas girl whose trip to Oz isn’t courtesy of an ill-fated attempt to run away, but rather a leap into the swirling cone of a tornado to escape the evil, leather-clad militaristic forces who’ve invaded her family’s home. Of course, the tornado carries DG to Oz, only here it’s “the O.Z.,” as in “Outer Zone,” and she isn’t greeted by the mayor of Munchkinland; she’s surrounded by diminutive warriors angrily pointing spears at her and speaking in clumsy rhymes. (We never said it was perfect.) Tin Man’s steampunk aesthetic—kind of a mash-up of Victorian forms and technologically advanced functions—is on the up-and-up in the speculative fiction world. Though it doesn’t stay true to the Baum story, boy does it know that minutiae fan base.