MVC and Unit Testing

I set up a entity framework in my model for Northwind:

I then created a Region Controller to return all of the regions for the Index() Method

        public ViewResult Index()

        {

            var region = (from r in dataContext.Regions

             select r);

            return View(region.ToList());

        }

 I then set up a Unit Test to check to make sure I am getting 4 regions back (Yes, I know I should be using a stub).

        [TestMethod()]

        public void IndexTest()

        {

            RegionController target = new RegionController();

            List<Region> regions = (List<Region>)target.Index().ViewData.Model;

            int expected = 4;

            int actual = regions.Count;

            Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);

        }

The thing that surprised me is that the chain I needed to go though to get to the model and the cast.  However, seeing this:

makes it all worthwhile.