(E02) After reading the comments about last night's part one of Tin Man, I'm a bit skeptical about how many people will (or won't for that matter) tune in tonight. Sure, plenty of people found it entertaining but those who hated it seemed to really loathe it.

For myself, I thought it was pretty good but I like the original story enough to find almost any variation of it amusing. I also know not to expect much from a Sci-Fi channel miniseries. So, I fully anticipated that the special effects would be inconsistent and the dialogue would be insipid.

Nevertheless, the actors were good, great even. Alan Cumming is a genius and Neal McDonough is good enough as the embittered ex-Tin Man. I didn't think that Zooey Deschanel was that bad either--so many people complained about her. She does have an abrupt delivery though (which doesn't work well with some of her mediocre lines).

Speaking of the Tin Man, fear not audiences! As expected he is alive and well thanks in part to a toy horse in his breast pocket which saved him from the bullet and Glitch who saved him from the freezing cold water. After Cain rests up, the two go to bust Raw and D.G. out of Akzadellia's prison. (Sidenote: Where did Glitch get his sick karate moves from and why didn't Cain help at all in that fight?)

D.G., after having her memories extracted, deflecting a pathetic attempt at manipulation on the part of her older sister, and engaging in a cryptic conversation with the Mystic Man, finally gets out of the dungeon. I thought that she would find some ingenious way to do it but, even better, "Toto"/ Tutor comes to the rescue. The dog leads all our main characters to safety and then tells them that they have an emerald to find (oh, after morphing into a large man).

Of course the main characters are distrustful of this shapeshifter but he endears himself to D.G. by showing her a doll and telling her that Lavender Eyes spoke to him in his dreams. And of course audiences are skeptical of Tutor because we just saw him strike a deal with Azkadellia in exchange for his freedom. (Completely Random Sidenote: Don't those little holographic chips he leaves behind look like something from a cracker jack box? Or a crappy toy from one of those little machines that squirt out little plastic nothings in exchange for a few quarters? I definitely won one of those playing skeeball at some time or other.)

For the majority of the episode, we follow D.G. on her search for the emerald and in her journey to reconnect with her past life. I liked seeing her use her magic on those scary wolf-like creatures. However, much more interesting than D.G. I thought was Azkadellia's hidden past. She's not all-bad. Or at least, she wasn't always all-bad. In fact, D.G. helped make her the bad little sorceress she turned out to be. Also, really intriguing was Azkadellia's ugly witch face in the mirror. Whoa, keep the beautiful Kathleen Robertson in her regular make-up please.

The group continues onward to find the emerald but stops off at a house with blue smoke (a sign of the Resistance) to wait until nightfall. There they talk about the machine Azkadellia is making to put the O.Z. into complete darkness. Raw reads Glitch's mind and we find out more about his past (he invented the machine Azkadellia will use). Also, I liked the explanation for why Lavender Eyes has no power. I wondered about this yesterday. She sacrificed her magical abilities to bring D.G. back to life. No pressure D.G. No pressure.

I was a bit disconcerted to find out that Cain's wife is dead. I was hoping that there would be some joyful reunion at the end of that run through the fields but I guess not. I am unconvinced about the Tin Man's role (other than being D.G.'s bodyguard). Will anything good happen for him? Will he get any closure? I mean he is in the title.

And here's a valuable lesson I learned from tonight's presentation of Tin Man: Don't go into scary tombs looking for crying girls dressed like Alice in Wonderland. And when said girl turns into a nasty hag, don't let go of your sister's hand (if you have a magical sister with you at the time). Valuable lesson internalized forever, I liked this angle for Azkadellia. What did you think?