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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Dollhouse: New Joss Whedon show

  
  

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ONLY NICE THINGS
16:14 / 28.02.09
I don't think Kali meant the board, just that the post's tone might not be ideal for an effective discussion of the show, because ze seems rather agressive from the get-go

What did you find so aggressive? Where were the threats against other members of the board? Seriously, justify this. I am absolutely fascinated at the conditions under which people should not be allowed to post to threads. How about if I really, really like Dollhouse?

The only point at which the fellow addressed another member was identifying Papers' claim that pilots are always weak as a cop-out, which it demonstrably is: pilots have to do a lot, but that doesn't mean they should inevitably be cut slack - Being Human, Battlestar Galactica and Terminator:SCC leap to mind as shows with strong pilots.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
16:19 / 28.02.09
Of course, since we are all still giving houseroom to Mr. "Latina bitch" buttergun, possibly my compass of what kind of a happy fun gang we want around here is awry.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
16:39 / 28.02.09
Even better, we get to hear what he feels like after sex! Blurg.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
16:40 / 28.02.09
Anyways, I suppose I should elaborate, and I will do just that as soon as I finish checking out of my hotel and get near a computer.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
17:06 / 28.02.09
Well, I think that the show keeps on getting better and better. The show is starting to become gleefully subversive, in my estimation.

My sole criticism of this weeks episode, is it’s echoes of past buffy episodes were in an internal character struggle is externalized in a somewhat gory fashion (in the case of the depressed movie star). It can reduce a character to an obvious allegory and embroider their speech and actions with a big-ass capital T for Theme.

As with Buffy, this leads to a character reciting some variant of the “you need to check yourself, before you wreck yourself” speech. On the other hand, I sort of love this about Whedon’s work. It breaks you out of the maze of plot and the show's reality long enough to get you philosophizing.

Still, it can seem a bit to overly earnest, blustery, and a bit like an after-school special, at its worst.

The show, in many ways reminds me of Grant Morrison’s the Filth, which (spoiler) has a plot twist where we discover that the agents of the Hand are in fact all people with para-personalities implanted to make them perform certain functions for the cosmic organization. While Dollhouse shares this salient device of personality implantation, it also shares the dark and grunge stench of pornography, violence, and exploitation, albeit these themes are subtext in Dollhouse whereas in the Filth they are the musical numbers (plus, Dollhouse is more neurotic in nature, than the tasty orange slice the Filth finally morphs into). Dollhouse is also the closest thing currently on television that we will see to a Filth tv-miniseries.

But what I love most about the show, even more than the trippy paranoid process of analyzing ever point of character interaction on the show (looking for a potential doll among the ranks of the normal folk), is the unique aesthetic and thematic crossroads the show inhabits. At first, this was the part that I most disliked about the show, now I see the light:

The show is intentionally very Californian and very Hollywood. More specifically, Whedon & co. create a wonderful slipstream world that combines the aesthetics and themes of 80s A-team or Charlie’s Angels-style shows with those of Phillip K. Dick and, surprisingly, those of Brian De Palma.

Overtly, if you look at last night’s episode about the singer, the show borders on becoming a giallo, especially with the almost fetishistic filming of obsessed fan’s assembling of his hidden rifle. A more subtle illustration of this influence is how the Dolls in their Tabulla Rosa state sound like porn actors. To quote:

“Friends help each other.” (Said in same tone as, "Did you order a sausage pizza?" or "You're a repair man, will you help me fix my pipes?")

That reading just oozes with the post-hitchcockian, Quaalude popping luridness and wit of the especially good 80’s Hollywood thrillers (i.e. Body Heat, Body Double, the Phantom of Paradise, Blue Velvet).

The show is going to some groovy places.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
18:48 / 28.02.09
That's a very interesting reading, Klarion. I like the Charlie's Angels / PKD idea. This show has potential but it's been very slow to realize it, and they keep including ideas that dilute things--I'm thinking of the plotline with Paul the FBI Agent, who is inexplicably boring and cliched as the guy who believes in and investigates the mysterious organization that nobody else believes in (but, no, wait, everybody knows about! If you're in power or have money or both). He's Will from Alias all over again, but they bothered to make the reveal that he's being intentionally led astray by the Dollhouse a lot faster than happened on Alias, so I live in hope that he'll be tapped as a potential new Doll or, I don't know, end up as one of the handlers relatively quickly.

Dushku's not holding my attention, sorry. For a character who's supposed to be someone new every week, there's a palpable sense of sameness about her performances.
 
 
Lugue
22:37 / 28.02.09
I’d love there to be anything to the pulpness of it, Klarion- it is pulpness you mean?, I don't get your references -, but I think it’s just shit writing. We’ll see.

Re: how the heavy-handed Theme writing can work well, I felt it did in Buffy – but Buffy was completely engaged with and dedicated to its absurdity. All the mythological contrivances and the constant use of humour throughout made it borderline camp. Drop the “borderline”, even. And I think its self-conscious, commited cheesyness was what allowed it go get away with its many “DO YOU SEE?” moments; it didn’t mess with the show’s workings and its tone because, well, proudly campy pop fun was the show; it never set up its absurdity and its heart as incompatible.

Dollhouse, on the other hand, feels, to me, deadly, deadly serious and seriously, seriously, profound. Both tonally and in the way it’s been set up and presented. Everything means an awful lot here. Nothing much overall has happened yet, but trust, everything means an awful lot.

Only it doesn't: we spend an entire episode moving along sluggishly through bits of info (satisfying, yes) while most of the episode is wasted away on an incogruously chessy, heavy-handed and dull-as-fuck The Tragedy of Talent and Success! plot which puts its emotional weight solely on a character that will never be seen again.

There’s something to Sierra, though. And the kidnapper-kidnappee scene was surprisingly well-executed. Boyd has been warm and great throughout. The Ballard fight finally gave us some sense that yes, he is engaged in the story. Olivia Williams keeps rocking it, and I’m curious about Acker’s doctor. I do like the set-up.

It’s just that it’s starting to feel to me that the show would be stronger either if the weekly plot was stripped down (see: episode 2, the most successful one so far) or there were more than one engagement per episode. Maybe because Dushku is, basically, shit.

Hmm. My posts are too long.
 
 
Lugue
23:04 / 28.02.09
Re: Haus, TBP’s post was bluntly negative without much development of the whats and the whys, so to me, it read as agressive not in any personal sense; simply that it didn’t immediately, to me, seem to be inviting discussion. I’m glad ze wants to elaborate. I thought I got Kali’s point. I wasn’t fully agreeing with her (“Not that I necessarily agree...”). I don’t get the sarcastic “fascination” remark because none of my own posts have been glowing reccomendations themselves.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
23:13 / 28.02.09
No sarcasm intended. I am genuinely fascinated at what level of engagement is sufficient to avoid being invited to leave the thread, and what level of approbation is required to avoid the label of "hater" which precedes that invitation. I'm not getting any indication of that so far. I don't understand why that invitation was made.

However, it's not likely that there will be an answer to this. If the thread can avoid descending into a welter of misogyny I imagine we'll probably be doing quite well.
 
 
Lugue
23:14 / 28.02.09
That I wouldn't know.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
00:13 / 01.03.09
There’s something to Sierra, though.

So far she's got the most potential for me, character-wise (ironically without being a character) -- particularly that last moment in the episode with Echo; I'm most curious about what her arc is going to be. Echo's doomed to the classic "coming awareness/awakening" which Whedon can write in his sleep, but there's something else going on with Sierra, and the actress seems to be more skilled.

I'd like to see more interaction between the Dollhouse Powers-That-Be; ie, Olivia Williams talking to Amy Acker or Geeky Technician.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
01:39 / 01.03.09
Right-o: first off, this is not some alternate name for Flyboy, although that may be the closest thing to Barbelith celebrity status I'll ever reach (except for some hullabulloo in regard to a thread about how to fight a dog should the need ever arise, which I still totally stand by). Haus guessed right the first time.

Moving on-topic.

The standalone gets a pass this time because it was the pilot, and regardless of how well-planned this thing is, the pilot is always going to be weak.

I'm hearing this a lot lately (not necessarily here). "I'll give this crappy episode, which I did not find entertaining, a pass because it's a pilot which are always shit" or "it's on fox, they won't let Whedon do Whedon and that's why it's slow and not interesting". As to the first, comments have already been made, and I don't think anyone can claim that it's not a cop out. Add to Haus' list Arrested Development.

As for the second, this is no reason to avoid leveling criticism. If the show is bad, the show is bad. Maybe it is Fox's fault, perhaps if left to his own devices and free from network interference Whedon would give us all gold or at least something of value. But this is not the case. Why does Whedon get a free pass for this?

Granted, I've only watched the most recent episode, which I believe is the third. But I read things like

Well, I think that the show keeps on getting better and better.

which I interpret to mean that the third episode is, so far, the peak of the series, and I can't help but think "Guh?" Who exactly am I supposed to like in this show? Which character? How on earth can someone view that episode as quality television? Klarion, when you write

My sole criticism of this weeks episode, is it’s echoes of past buffy episodes were in an internal character struggle is externalized in a somewhat gory fashion (in the case of the depressed movie star). It can reduce a character to an obvious allegory and embroider their speech and actions with a big-ass capital T for Theme.

are you seriously saying that's your sole criticism? Not the crappy dialogue? Not the plot holes? Not the absolutely below average performance of Dushku?

Still, it can seem a bit to overly earnest, blustery, and a bit like an after-school special, at its worst.

Yes. Yes it can. And it is this episode. A two dimensional non-character saying "I'm not crazy, I just want to be free". While standing in a goddam cage, which made me gag. Trite story, lazy characterization, terrible line.

While Dollhouse shares this salient device of personality implantation,..

Sir, I must admit that I believe you either don't understand The Filth or the meaning of the word "salient". I'll elaborate further if you wish, although this particular thread may not be the best place to talk about either The Filth or the definition of "salient".

The show is intentionally very Californian and very Hollywood. More specifically, Whedon & co. create a wonderful slipstream world that combines the aesthetics and themes of 80s A-team or Charlie’s Angels-style shows with those of Phillip K. Dick and, surprisingly, those of Brian De Palma.

No. It could do that. With good writing, good directing, characters that you empathize with and believe are heart-breakingly normal but confronted with the awful and the awe-full (to steal a line from a book-cover), it could become that. But it is not, as of right now, doing those things. Maybe it will in the future, but right now it is not, and I'm wondering why you think it is.

Overtly, if you look at last night’s episode about the singer, the show borders on becoming a giallo, especially with the almost fetishistic filming of obsessed fan’s assembling of his hidden rifle. A more subtle illustration of this influence is how the Dolls in their Tabulla Rosa state sound like porn actors.

Umm, I very much doubt either of those are

a. intentional

b. not the product of looking too deeply for meaning. The rifle assembly bit is a very common film device that stretches out a tense scene.

Finally, I have to ask: what are the redeeming qualities of this show? What, exactly, makes this good television?
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
04:05 / 01.03.09
In the interest of being fair, I've just watched the second episode. I found it more entertaining than the latest, but still below par. I found myself asking the following questions:

1. There's something wrong with the imprinting and erasing process (as evidenced by Alpha), and they don't know what it is, so why do they continue to operate as normal? Doesn't that strike anyone else as incredibly unwise and certainly not up to any sort of professional standard?

2. Why would the resident medical officer not bother to bandage her open, blood-oozing cuts?

3. If the House is so rich and well supplied, why do they have such crappy field tech? Does anyone believe anymore that breaking a monitor makes a radio stop working?

4. Why in gods name would an FBI agent discuss his top-secret work with his effing next-door neighbor? "Oh, this? Its just a picture someone dropped off at work that may be a clue to some huge conspiracy. Here, check out the file. And these other federal cases too."

The thing is, none of this would be a problem if the show wasn't trying to make me take it seriously.

The actor's turn from "wilderness guy who wants a wilderness girlfriend for a week" to "wilderness guy who will have sex with you and then give you five minutes before he tracks your ass down and kills you" was frightening.

That scene reminded me of a particular sketch from Kids In The Hall. It was such a comical setup I almost heard a "wah-wah" in my head. Well, that may be an exaggeration. But the setup was something that I think would have had some comical element, however small, in Whedon's earlier work. This show is trying to be a lot more serious but its almost like it doesn't know how. I want to blame this on the actors, but the I think the fault is largely the director's.

Especially when we find out at the end he was not who he said to be at all.

But he kinda was. We have no idea what was in his "file", but all the things he said in his interview, which is the only backround we the audience were allowed, are meant to be taken as true. If not, why would he make the comment "wow, you're really not like all the others" as they were rock climbing? Is that not a nod to his earlier conversation with the head of the House? And if it isn't, or even if he was full of shit during his meeting with the House head, why on earth would he say that? The line doesn't make sense if he's not telling the truth in his interview. We have no reason to believe that anything he said about his father wasn't true, either.

I'm honestly not trying to be a hater (what definition of the word are you using there, anyway?), I'm noticing people are into this show and I want to know why. Is there something I'm missing? Am I crazy? Do I just not know good television when I see it? Somebody, please explain it to me.


You know, this whole "Dushku Showcase" is starting to carry the stench of a bizarre overbudget Faith fan-fic.

Yes, doesn't it though.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
21:26 / 01.03.09
Maybe I am just being overly optimistic about the show's potential, seeing some of the weaknesses (some stereotypical characters, some occasional bad dialogue, the preaching) as intentional, as mere kernels which seem to emerge implicitly from the core concept of "the machine that gives people skills and false memories."

To me the unreality of some the scenarios and the design of show's premise enhances the power of the concept. It is some sort of weird feedback loop at work.

Though, I think that Luna was right on the money in identifying the essential power of camp (and absurdity) and its enhancement of the moralizing aspect of Buffy. In Buffy, the metaphysical aspect of the adventures serviced that disconnect, the device through which the human morality play could spread out effectively.

The monsters and gods where ultimately just hot air, a colorful void through which an ethical and human (melo)drama could play out. One of the show's ultimate messages is that people, however messed up they get, are ultimately responsible for their actions and (to a certain extent) for who they are. It's ultimately an existential and atheistic show. The monsters and gods don't have any real teeth that bite the soul of Man. They are at best metaphors for controlling, man-made forces in our lives that threaten the individual. Ultimately, they are not clear threats to the "concepts" of capital "S" self or the capital "I" identity.

In Dollhouse, the memory machine serves as the mcguffin, but unlike the Buffy pantheon of monsters and gods, the memory machine actually has teeth. Its existence doesn't just figure as some kind of external threat, but as something that undermines the whole concept of individuality and all of the earnest morality the characters project.

In Buffy the big bad Other is the threat. In Dollhouse, the self is the process of eating itself up.

I love this about the show (I don't necessarily agree with the overall message it projects...doom and gloom! wah! I wear sun-glasses at night...). But I just love how the concept looms threateningly over not only the characters, but their values, their messages, and their morals.

I love how nihilistic that is (or threatens to be). It actually feels dangerous and sexy: totally infused with the local californian and hollywood energy.

I agree that the show doesn't live up its full potential, yet.

I have interpreted what people on the board dislike about the show as such:

- Too much Brian De Palma! Who I love, but whose movies can be enjoyed with pop-corn and soda and can have a great intellectual, but ultimately safe, aftertaste (you know! Too arch.). Remember, I compared the show to Brian De Palma, who depending on who you talk to is either just shit, or capable of making a stupid but entertaining film, or a brilliant satirist and post-modern trickster. To that end, as I said, the show really reminds me of Body Double, both in setting, tone, look, and theme.

- Not enough David Lynch! (who I worship and whose movies can't be enjoyed with soda because they hit you in the third eye with a clenched fist and the sense of spooky dread is turned to 11 and could maybe blow the doors off). The delight in the fearful dread needs to be more palpable.
 
 
wicker woman
04:20 / 02.03.09
Or, more seriously, there's something more complex at play then mere hetero-desire projection.

See: Buffy Season 8 (comics). Joss had Buffy in bed 'experimenting' with another woman, multiple times, faster than you can say The first season was the weakest. Something I'm thinking he would've (or quite possibly did) have trouble talking Gellar into during the series.
 
 
PatrickMM
02:40 / 03.03.09
The internet fanbase reaction to Dollhouse has been really fascinating because so much of Whedon's fanbase is having issues with, or even actively doesn't like the show, but feels the need to support the guy. It's the contradiction of I like Joss Whedon's work, how can I not like Dollhouse?

That's led to a lot of justifications, ranging from the idea that Fox is responsible for all the problems with the show to one blog post I read that claimed the reason you don't like Dollhouse is because it's not meant to be enjoyed. I think using Fox as this all purpose figure that represents everything wrong with the show is a classic example of the problems with having idols. It's the same kind of thing as blaming Mark Frost for all the bad things in Twin Peaks, and holding David Lynch responsible for everything good.

I think the idea that you're not supposed to enjoy the show is fascinating because the premise so explicitly deprives us of almost all typical points of emotional engagement with the show. But, if a show sets out to make you not like it, and succeeds, what are you left with?

My central issue with the show is the fact that there is a ton of interesting thematic stuff going on, and I can certainly see The Filth and PKD parallels. But, the substance of most episodes is these rather generic standalone missions. And for a self proclaimed feminist, so much of this last episode seemed about showing off various actress's abs, where's the line between a comment on shameless pandering and shameless pandering?
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
11:18 / 03.03.09
Spoiler!

(note: not a spoiler)
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
16:17 / 03.03.09
The blog link identified much of what I like about the show: the economic model, the falseness of some of the adventures, the evilness and desperation underlining so much about what is going on.

To clarify something I wrote earlier about the nihilistic Californian energy the show has: It is as though the American middle class personality complex jumped off the west coast and surfaced in a covertly cyber-punk version of Lone Wolf and Cub or Hanzo the Razor set in a Chinese sweat-shop, trading the suburban teenage drama for third-world conditions and violence. It's a western set on the edges of the psychological landscape.

It walks the line between out and out sleaze and something good and revealing for the soul and mind.

It is pulp (it is cheap and corny at times), but it's firmly rooted in the sociological world of noir.

It's "Chinatown," Jake.
 
 
Dead Megatron
17:22 / 03.03.09
Klarion, the surreal nonsense of your post above is almost poetic. But, alas, what the hell are you saying! "covertly cyber-punk version of Lone Wolf and Cub"? How so?????
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
19:40 / 03.03.09
I'll explain:

"Covertly Cyber-punk":
The show is clearly cyber-punk, being both cyber (with a man-machine interface) and punk with the abusive economic model and s&m qualities (stuff that makes you feel like a meat puppet).

However, it subsumes the 80's ground-down aesthetic (blade runner, ghost-in-shell, etc.) in favor of a glossy, mat-painted, fake Hollywood look (a la De Palma's Body Double and Scarface). As of yet, the grungy side is not presented as a visual highlight or centerpiece. It is of the five minutes ago future you see in Gibson's Spook Country.

"Lone wolf and Club" and "Hanzo the Razor" comparisions:
While the show doesn't share their extremes or structure, it does share the grimmy exploitative ninja-prostitute-women-with-tatooes-who-sit on-the-border-between-sex-and-death. You never know when the cute girl could turn out to be programed to be Ichi the Killer. Plus those series are westerns/noir/pulp in structure, like Dollhouse.

If you gave Dollhouse to Frank Miller or David Mack to draw a promotional webcomic, this element would be high-lighted to the point of eclipsing any other part of the story. As people have pointed out, the potential for really creepy, seedy, and crusty Fan-Fiction is almost hard-wired into the show.

Make sense now?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
20:21 / 03.03.09
I think you all might be too young, but it actually sounds quite a bit like Wild Palms.
 
 
simulated stereo
21:40 / 03.03.09
Apologies for the digression, but Wild Palms is great. Just watched it again the other day.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
22:40 / 03.03.09
Yes, Wild Palms is great (saw it on DVD). But I feel that Dollhouse's tone, theme, and look are significantly (or sufficiently) different.

They share a similar setting, but Wild Palms had more of an "under-the-ocean" feel to it, that owes a lot to Twin Peaks. Everything felt slightly over-exposed and baked. The sun burns your eyes in the show. Conversely, Dollhouse looks like a TV show set, perfectly lit.

Also, Wild Palms was about a grand omni-conspiracy of the Scientologist-Illuminati variety. It feels kind of naive and silly, now. Dollhouse, I suspect, is going to involve something more complex than a single conspiracy.


Another great Hollywood treatment of Cyber-punk, one that gets everything wrong technologically and tonally speaking, but which plays like a weird metaphysical journey, is "FreeJack," with Emileo Estavez, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Ruseo, and the amazing Mick Jagger (who actually rides a general's tank in the film).

It plays like an episode of the Prisoner butchered by a crazed Hollywood exec.
 
 
Mistoffelees
17:55 / 09.03.09
I just watched the fourth episode and figured out what is missing for me. In my favourite TV shows, there are interesting characters, and they´re riffing off of each other. Be it House fooling around with Cuddy, Wilson etc., or Ben Linus, Sawyer and Hurley squabbling over buried hatches or whatnot.
Where are the interesting characters in the dollhouse? The people working there seem cold and bland and the main protagonist has no character at all. There is no chemistry between these people. Why should I care about what happens to any of them?

That leaves only Alpha. That guy might be interesting. But so far, he reminds me a lot of V from V for Vendetta. A guy gets manipulated by mad scientists in a secret high security facility. He escapes with superpowers, in a remarkable and devastating fashion, and plots revenge. Let´s hope there´s more to Alpha than that.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
19:10 / 09.03.09
The character's are interesting in Dollhouse; they are mysterious. You don't know who they are, but their personalities and motives are slowly unfolding. As the characters spread out over the episodes the interactions will become more complex.

The banter on House (my other favorite show, besides Dollhouse and Battlestar Galatica) is a little overrated, in my own opinion, because sad thing is that it is the only good thing about the show.

The character work is keeps the show interesting, but that same character work functions at the level of chess. The game or the pieces never really change, just the places that the pieces are moved.

The many problems with House include its false premise: House will become a nice guy or grow as person. It is like the pre-Alan Moore Swamp-thing issues. The show is over as soon as Swamp-thing becomes a human again.

The verbal games House plays are the only reason to watch. Otherwise it is just a dumb formula show done smartly. The growth of the characters could be charted in millimeters.

Dollhouse seems to be setting up a larger over-arching plot. I think that the show could survive a major change in the formula because of the world building. Echo could get killed off, the dolls could rebel and get revenge, Etc. Conversely, it could settle into a rut. But I don't think the show will be that dumb at the end of the day.

Speak of the devil, here are some of my crystal ball predictions:

1) The show will follow the same pattern as the first season of Buffy. That is, by the end of season the main character will be empowered. Just as Buffy goes though a death experience and accepts her power, Echo will go through an awakening and become aware of her past while gaining full access to all of her programed skills; like the master, Alpha will die while attempting to seduce her (fruit-punch mouth!). There will be a slight twist though (more below).

2) Everybody at the House is a Doll (including the handlers), except for Olivia Williams's character, Topher (not so sure about him), and Amy Acker. Amy Acker was the one who engineered Alpha's escape (the scars were just to validate her story) as a coup.

3) The big twist/ wild theory: Olivia Williams's character is Echo's mother or aunt. The trouble Echo was in before the show was with the Dollhouse, which she worked for in some capacity before becoming a doll. She screwed up something bad and to make amends signed up for the program. Alpha left her alive under Acker's orders so she could recruit her as an ally, using the knowledge of her origins as leverage to convince a reintegrated Echo to join her. Echo will reject this plan, kill Alpha and Acker, and pursue her own revenge against the dollhouse financiers with an army of Dolls. It will be the Dark side version of Buffy and that final season of Angel.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
20:50 / 09.03.09
My fiance writes a very funny critique of Dollhouse. I wish I could've done something similar.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
22:04 / 11.03.09
Hmmm, see the preview for next week's episode with the cult leaders?

An Eye-ball camera!

That Filth comparison makes more and more sense now.
 
 
Imaginary Mongoose Solutions
15:09 / 13.03.09
"Everybody at the House is a Doll (including the handlers)..."

I think you're dead on about this.

Sadly, at this point it's something I keep on in the background while I'm working, only because of my Amy Acker fixation.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
04:55 / 14.03.09
Camera-eye/Cult episode wasn't as bad, although I find the "Victor Doll has a sex drive when he's blanked!" subplot is beyond yawn-worthy other than the mad-genius-nerd-hot thing that I suppose I should feel moderately embarrassed about. Dushku almost possibly was acting at one point, which shocked the hell out of me.

A lot of the mechanics of the show just fall flat for me. The cult leader never struck me as being charismatic, for example--he's given the option of a miracle happening and doesn't immediately take advantage of it! For some reason that seemed off.

At this point, the Dollhouse Authorities don't do much beyond make cryptic, biting comments at each other. None of them have any chemistry, which one hopes equals them all being Dolls, as people suggest.

At this point, I'm only watching this because there's nothing else on when I get home from work on Friday nights. I don't think I'd watch it if I wasn't working Friday nights, honestly.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
13:15 / 15.03.09
If you hate the show so much, wouldn't your friday nights be better spent looking for sexing?
 
 
Mistoffelees
21:44 / 22.03.09
This new episode was the most interesting so far, finally some development, some investment. I hope it´s not just because Whedon himself wrote this episode, because the next six will again be written by other people.

Plus I liked watching Helo fight Faith with kitchen utensils. Hopefully, they don´t turn him into a Jack Bauer clone. He was shot, was fighting half a dozen bodyguards, and still has the stamina for sex and the kitchen/back alley brawl.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
23:53 / 28.03.09
Flashbacks aside, wasn't there something a bit off with the dramatic unity of setting in the episode.

Except for the humor, this was the worst episode yet.

Next week's episode looks wonderful though.
 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
13:50 / 02.05.09
Well, that was a good episode. Is it just me or are they hinting that the Dollhouse is secretly a Utopian conspiracy beneath all the hookers and stuff.

Plus Alpha is great.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
11:01 / 06.05.09
Especially the about-face turn from Alan Tudyk.
 
 
Mistoffelees
19:00 / 09.05.09
That was a good finish. That Dr. Frankenstein scene with lightning and someone strapped to a table and getting injected with a new life was my favourite scene. And was that alpha actor already such a brick shithouse when he was on Firefly? It looked like he could hardly move with all that muscle.

Let´s hope they´ll decide for a second season. There´s still lots of things they could do with the concept and the characters. I wonder what´ll happen to Victor, since they already have a doll doctor. And will Ballard become Echo´s handler?
 
  

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