10 TV Shows That So Badly Wanted To Be Game Of Thrones

With Game Of Thrones ruling the fantasy roost, it wasn't long before there was an urge to rework other classics of the genre in its image. Step forward Emerald City, NBC's attempt to make a dark, adult and edgy reimagining of L. Frank Baum's whimsical children's fantasy Oz books.

In this version, Dorothy is an adult nurse transported to Oz in a stolen police cruiser with which she runs down the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West, meanwhile, is an opium addicted brothel madam. Because it wouldn't be a Game Of Thrones knock-off without someone vying for political power and running the sex trade at the same time.

But are all the sex, violence, witches, giants and revived corpses ultimately all in service of a political power struggle for who gets to rule the kingdom? Of course they are.

Emerald City had the kind of sumptuous, imaginative fantasy visuals that we have come to expect from director Tarsem Singh but, beyond that, it was difficult to tell who this show was supposed to be for.

The series' Rotten Tomatoes summary, which describes Emerald City as "the Game Of Thrones/Wizard Of Oz mash-up nobody asked for", nails the problem. The show was cancelled after its only season in 2017.