Dollhouse renewed for 2nd season!

The news that Fox’s Friday night ratings tanker will live to see another day has been greeted with both rejoicing from its small but devoted fanbase and disbelief from the industry speculators who’ve been prognosticating its imminent demise for months. Although the official announcement of Dollhouse’s renewal won’t be made until tomorrow, sources have confirmed that it’s already a done deal. Personally, I can’t say that this (welcome) development came as that big of a shock. In spite of the show’s rocky start and abysmal performance ratings-wise, it’s been pulling in consistently good DVR and Hulu numbers. Plus, the network invested about a zillion dollars in building the show’s amazing mega-set; it’d be a shame to scrap it after a only a measly half season’s mileage. I guess they’re hoping the show’s fanbase will grow enough over the summer for it to do better the second time around. Well, here’s hoping.

So, now’s probably as good a time as ever to address the fact that I haven’t written anything about this show in six weeks. I kept watching it up through last week’s series finale (and patiently monitoring the news releases for hope of its renewal), but I just haven’t had the time or motivation to review. So, I’m just going to treat this as a final wrap-up post for season one, in which I’ll talk briefly about episodes 8-12. Ok, so to sum up the last six episodes of season one of Dollhouse – well, I can’t really do that. It’s just not feasible; they were really, really complicated. There was a lot of really awesome, intriguing stuff going on, but talk about weaving a really tangled web! Instead of trying to produce a thorough summary, I’ll just focus on some of the more salient developments that stand out in my mind when reflecting on the end of the season.

First up, Victor. Let me just say that Enver Gjokaj is too cute for words. He’s pretty much the only active that I find inevitably appealing in all his many personalities. Plus, his performance as Victor in the “in between” state is pitch perfect; more so than any of the other actives he manages to give off less “mind-wiped zombie slave” and more “gentle, childish innocence.” Which of course makes what happens to him at the end all the more tragic. I’m really curious to see what happens to him in season two. He obviously can’t go out on engagements anymore, what with the marring of his (beautiful) face. Will the Dollhouse find a way to “recycle” him like they did with Whiskey (now known as Dr. Saunders)? Or will they simply send him to the Attic? Whatever happens, I hope they keep him around in some capacity, as I really love this actor and this character.

Secondly, Mr. Dominic turns out to be a mole and gets sent to the Attic himself. Whoa, I did not see this one coming. The guy always seemed so devoted (excessively so) to his job as chief of Dollhouse security. Turns out he’s an NSA agent charged with the mission, not of destroying the Dollhouse, but rather of monitoring it for as of yet unknown purposes. When she finds out her longtime associate and right-hand man is actually someone [else’s] inside man, DeWitt demonstrates just how cold and ruthless she can be. Speaking of which, the whole getting sent to the Attic thing turned out to be way more creepy and sinister than I’d initially thought. Really intense scene, that.

Also, Paul Ballard gets a lot more to do in these episodes, particularly towards the end. He discovers that Mellie isn’t really Mellie and uses her to find a way into the Dollhouse. Once inside, he actually finds himself cooperating with Boyd, DeWitt, and Topher in order to track down Alpha, who’s taken Echo. I never really and completely warmed up to Ballard, but he certainly had his moments. I still think his obsession with the Dollhouse, and his obsession with and need to save Echo/Caroline, don’t really make a whole lot of sense, unless of course there’s more to his story that we don’t yet know. Still, I thought it was way cool of him bargain for November’s release at the end, considering his history with “Mellie”, when he could have asked for Caroline. I’m really curious to see if he’ll continue his tentative association with the Dollhouse in season two. It would at the very least give him the opportunity to watch over Echo. Maybe he’ll even become her handler now that Boyd’s replaced Mr. Dominic as chief of security?

As for Alpha, while Alan Tudyk gave a great performance, the character itself kind of underwhelmed me, considering the season-long build-up. I could go into all the reasons why this is, but I’m getting tired and this post is getting long, so I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm. Basically, underneath all the evil (and illogical) machinations and the genius personality compilations, Alpha turns out to be a pretty standard baddie whereas I really though his particularly brand of villainy would be something to write home about. Still, I love Alan Tudyk (whom I literally bumped into in a Starbucks once), and he did a great job with the role.

Overall, I think this show’s got loads of potential and I’m psyched it’s returning for at least one more season. The premise of the show is an extremely difficult one to market and execute, and some of those difficulties definitely manifested themselves in the final product, but it’s still a really unique and fascinating creation. So congratulations to the cast and production crew of Dollhouse on beating the odds and getting renewed. See you next fall.