BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Dollhouse: New Joss Whedon show

  
  

Page: 12(3)

 
 
Aha! I am Klarion
01:31 / 10.05.09
Not to mention the Blue Velvet homage.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
00:12 / 11.05.09
That was one of my thoughts, too. I was like, "Wow, someone really likes Blue Velvet."

Honestly, the season (or series?) finale was a bit of a letdown. There were some nice surprises---Saunders/Whiskey's background, Ballard asking for November's contract to be paid up instead of Echo's---but for the most part, MattS and I agreed it seemed like they were trying to cram multiple episodes' worth of stuff into nearly 50 minutes.

I hope it's renewed for a 2nd full season because I would like to see where they could take it if they had a real entire season to run with.

Memo to Joss, though: stop being behind the scenes and write more of the episodes. Tim Minear did a good job but I'd like a more hands-on touch, please.
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
19:07 / 26.05.09
For no particular reason, I sort of flashed on the idea this morning that Dollhouse is Whedon's way of working out all his aggression against Hollywood, and Alpha is his projection of a half-insider half-outsider Whedon trying to bring the house down. I natter on at more length on my blog.
 
 
Mistoffelees
20:40 / 26.05.09
He can have lots of aggression to work with for next season. I read this evening, there are plans for a new Buffy movie from the people who have the rights of pre-JW Buffy and so far there are no plans to work with Whedon or any of the TV show actors.
 
 
Mistoffelees
17:59 / 25.07.09
Heads up! The missing episode can be acquired if you know how, and it's supposedly very good.
 
 
Mistoffelees
20:28 / 26.07.09
Just watched it, it is very good. The best episode so far. Very dystopian, like a mini scifi movie. I hope they'll use some of this material for the 2nd season.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
02:20 / 23.09.09
I need to download it. Season 2 premieres this Friday and I want to be all caught up.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
18:40 / 25.09.09
I'm sure we would all like to see you caught, young lady. Brought to book by the stern and fatherly hand of justice!
 
 
FinderWolf
20:25 / 13.11.09
Cancelled by Fox after being put in the Friday night death slot! Millions of TV vieweres and Whedon fans around the world are shocked. Film at 11.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
10:59 / 14.11.09
Count me as one of the none surprised. MattS read somewhere around on these here internets that someone had posted a lengthy discussion that Dollhouse might have succeeded had Dushku not been the lead. I am inclined to agree. I have nothing against her but she really isn't that strong of an actress.
 
 
PatrickMM
17:08 / 14.11.09
I don't think that's the reason. The premise of the show is convoluted and offers very little room for emotional engagement with the characters, which is the core of any long running serial narrative. That doesn't mean the characters have to be nice or good, but the ostensible main character, Dushku, isn't actually a character so much as just a vessel for things to happen to, and though they get some occasional moments, the motivations and personalities of the people behind the Dollhouse were never fleshed out too well.

That's a recipe for disaster as a show there, with this premise, and particularly with the extremely poor creative start to season one, there's no way this show would have been a success, big promotion or not. I'd argue that if it was more heavily promoted and well situated in season one, it wouldn't even have made it to season two because ratings expectations would have been higher.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
17:28 / 14.11.09
Well, the discussion around our household is exactly that. There is no emotional engagement. Hell, the supporting characters were starting to be the most interesting things about the show. It really isn't a very strong show; the concept is intriguing but ultimately it became its weakest point.
 
 
Billuccho!
04:17 / 17.11.09
I would say that the show has earned my emotional engagement with several/most of the characters, particularly Sierra, Victor, Saunders, and Adele, and most surprisingly, Topher, who started off as the most annoying and has now become the most fascinating.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
00:58 / 13.12.09
We just watched the first two episodes of the four-parter. Oh my god, seriously, Enver Gokaj WAS brilliant.
 
 
Dead Megatron
00:54 / 20.12.09
The other two episodes of the four-parter are even better, despite their alphalessness...
 
 
Billuccho!
21:15 / 24.12.09
I've particularly been enjoying how each successive episode feels like a season finale, and how Whedon is clearly compressing four years of television into about eight episodes.
 
 
Mistoffelees
09:50 / 26.12.09
Yes, It's finally worth watching despite the lacking lead. Why couldn't it have been this way from the beginning instead of these boring "doll of the week" episodes? Oh well.

I am looking forward how it will all conclude.

I don't know if the future episode of S01 counts as having actually having happened. That was still the best one yet.

Let's hope Whedon gets his act together and his next project is fun from the start and Dushku-free.
 
 
Billuccho!
23:07 / 26.12.09
Without the engagement-of-the-week episodes, I don't think the current spate of eps would be earning all their payoff. In the end, about a third of the show's run will have been standalones, and while they're not as good as the arc episodes, we kinda needed them, just like we needed to sit through all the lame episodes in the first season and a half of Buffy to get to the awesome stuff.
 
 
coweatman
05:39 / 06.01.11
i think there's something really interesting going on on a meta level with dollhouse - if it's a show about memory and repetition and identity and finding yourself in all of that, it's really interesting that it really heavily repeats a lot of joss whedon's themes and ideas from earlier shows, and puts an interesting edge on his repeat the whole ensemble again and again and again. watch eliza dushku play faith or play buffy in faith's body or watch her switch every week. watch amy acker as fred or illiana in fred's body or a whiskey or whoever else she becomes. i'm half convinced that the set for the LA dollhouse is the old wolfram and heart set from angel. heads getting messed with and people made into dangerous warriors is river tam all over again. the butchers are the reavers all over again. it makes me wonder if he's trying to pull it all together on purpose, subconsciously, or not at all.

any thoughts?
 
 
Madman in the ruins.
09:17 / 26.04.11
Its just Joss's thing.
He likes to play around with Multiple Personalities, warrior arcetypes and the noble few agaisns't the ignoble many.
 
 
coweatman
17:42 / 24.11.13
i just rewatched some of this, and it made me even more disappointed in agents of shield, which feels like this but dumber.
 
  

Page: 12(3)

 
  
Add Your Reply