Dollhouse cancelled! Sad, but not terribly shocking...

The bad news, which the small yet devoted Dollhouse fanbase has been trying to stave off since the show's inauspicious premiere in February, has finally arrived. FOX officially announced this week that Joss Whedon's television allegory about identity and exploitation will be cancelled after the remaining nine episodes air. This was a huge disappointment for me (I've really enjoyed watching and writing about this show, and I feel like there's so much about the characters and story yet to be explored), but I cannot say that it was wholly unexpected. Whether due to it's undesirable Friday night timeslot, or to its overly complex and unwieldy plot structure, or to a combination of the two, the show never managed to build up a large enough live audience to keep it going. I was grateful and optimistic when Dollhouse was picked up for a second season last spring, but seeing as how the show remained in it's Friday night spot, continued to draw depressing ratings, and got swept out of the November sweeps, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear the news. Still, it's hard to face the finality of the cancellation after stubbornly holding out hope for the better part of the year that things would turn around, and that the show might yet have a bright future. It must suck even more for the actors and production team.

And speaking of those actors, let me just say how much I dearly hope Enver Gjokaj finds a new project soon. It's not just that I have such a crush on him. I also think he's an amazing actor, and really deserves more recognition. I also wouldn't mind seeing Dichen Lachmen again on either the big or small screen.

If there's a silver lining here, it's that the remaining nine episodes will air throughout December and January, and that advanced notice of the cancellation will at least allow Joss & co. to prepare for the end. What that means is that fans will most likely be given a degree of closure which wouldn't be possible if the show had been cancelled in a more brutal fashion (as in kind of like, oh I dunno, the last show Whedon created for this network. At least Dollhouse won't go the way of Firefly. Although, if it meant we'd get a feature film several years later it might be worth it.)

So there's nothing much for fans to do except reconcile themselves to the harsh reality, and to console themselves as best they can with the remaining nine episodes of season two. On the other hand, if finishing DH means Whedon can actually get to work on the Dr. Horrible sequel he's been promising for, like, ever - well, that wouldn't be a completely terrible thing either.

Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, volume 6)

Gosh, it seems like forever since I wrote about volume 4 back in June. This most recent volume of Dark Horse’s comic continuation of the epic television series was released in September, but it’s taken me quite some time to catch up. First, Barnes and Noble postponed my order for about a month, and then when it finally did arrive one thing lead to another, and now here we are in November and I’m finally getting down to business.

All in all, this was a decent installment of Season 8, but the comic as a whole still fails to recapture the awesomeness that was the original television show. It has all of the same characters (well, most of them anyways), and I do like how it has boldly continued to develop the mythology of the story beyond the cataclysmic series finale. Yet much of the magic of the series has been lost in its translation into the comic medium. One of the main casualties of the switch is the show’s humor, which by and large has not carried over. The writers of Season 8 do sprinkle in the occasional witty one-liner here and there, but without the delivery of live actors the dialogue tends to fall rather flat on the page. The show should always find fresh, surprising ways of being laugh-out-loud hilarious. So far, Season 8 has yet to achieve that. Or maybe I’m just too picky, or too close to the original material to judge the comic objectively. I will say that, for what it is, Season 8 is usually a pretty solid, entertaining read. So long as one remembers that what it isn’t is as good as the original.

But anyways, on to a discussion of the particulars of volume 5, which contains issues #21-25, plus a few extras.

Issue #21, “Harmonic Divergence”, was pretty exciting in that it reintroduced one of my favorite recurring characters from the show, Harmony Kendall. Harmony was a vapid mean girl, characterized by pettiness, petulance, a week will, and an absurd love for tacky unicorn figures. Very little of her personality changed when she was made into a vampire at the end of season three (with hilarious results.) Her incorporation now into Season 8 is a really good illustration of why the comic both works and doesn’t work. Harmony’s foray into the world of reality television in this issue was a great storyline that stayed true to her original character and was very entertaining. And yet, at the same time, it just wasn’t’ the same as watching Mercedes McNab’s pitch-perfect performance. I’m not sure, but I also think the writers may have been taking a dig at (or at least playing off of) True Blood in this issue, what with their setting up Harmony as a kind of spokesperson for vampire rights, spearheading the integration of vampires into mainstream society. Of course the twist here is that the social justice movement modeled in True Blood (“vampires are people too!”) is made out to be shallow, manipulative PR designed to put a negative spin on the real heroes of society (i.e. the slayers).

Issue #22, “Swell”, featured two characters I don’t really love (Kennedy, who first appeared in season seven, and Satsu, an original creation of Season 8), but still managed to be pretty cool, regardless. Kennedy shows up in Japan to run a “standard op” evaluation of Satsu’s performance in her new role as cell leader. That’s the official reason anyways, but in truth Kennedy just wants to give Satsu a little pep talk to help her get over the whole still-in-love-with-Buffy thing. (Of course, this is Kennedy we’re talking about, so her heart-to-heart, while well intentioned, is a little bit on the abrasive side.) Nevertheless, I like the way this episode provided some closure to the whole Satsu/Buffy thing without writing off her character or making her too one-dimensional. Well done, Season 8 writers. Oh, and the Japan team also takes down an army of vampire teddy bears as well.

Issue #23, “Predators and Prey”, was kind of a confusing issue, plot-wise, that involved Andrew and Buffy tracking down a rogue slayer and her team of marauding thugettes in the Italian countryside. While the duo fails to bring Simone and her gang back over from the dark side, they do share some much needed bonding time. Ah, Andrew. Another one of my favorites from the show. If I could pick any television character to be my real-life best friend, it would be a toss up between Marshall from How I Met Your Mother or Andrew from Buffy. Sure, he’s annoying, slightly delusional, and not too long ago he was a weak-willed accomplice to murder. Yet he’s become the poster boy for second chances, and I really dig that. He’s walking proof that even geeky villain wannabees can find redemption. Plus, how much do I love the fact that, in this issue, Andrew makes the confession when confronted with certain death that he’s always been on team Spike? (I love Angel too, don’t bite my head off, I just have a special place in my heart for Spike.) So although I wasn’t too enthused about the story of this issue, I thought the character stuff was great, and at the end of the day that’s what really counts.

In issue #24, “Safe”, we return to Giles and Faith, who teamed up and kind of broke away from the slayer organization, at least temporarily, back in volume two. While I’m very glad to see these two back in action, it’s also very sad for me to be reminded of how distant Giles and Buffy have become. They barely keep in touch with each other anymore. Their relationship underwent a great deal of strain in season seven, and although there’s no real animosity between them they’ve kind of grown apart. It’s just sad considering how uber-close they were in the past, in spite of their differences. They shared a genuine father-daughter love for one another, but Buffy’s a hero, and Giles was always more willing to make the hard choices. I’d like to think their bond will never truly fade, but I guess only time will tell. Another question I had about this issue: didn’t the entire Watcher’s Council die in the bombing in season seven? Where did this survivor come from? I guess it’s not important, I just felt like that needed more explanation.

Issue #25, “Living Doll” was a little blah in the plot department as well, but it served a much greater purpose in the grand scheme of things: namely, turning Dawn back into her human form for good. This whole deal with Dawn and the tricewise’s curse dragged on long enough, and I was more than happy to see it finally explained and resolved. It seemed almost as if the writers didn’t really know what to do with her character in Season 8; this weird plotline has kind of marginalized her from the group for a while now. I hope now that she’s back to normal she will play a more integral role in slayer operations. I know Buffy wants to protect her, but Dawn’s practically grown up now, and has at least as much right to be included as Xander, who’s just as human and powerless as she. Oh! And how tickled was I when Dawn made that reference to Valley of the Dolls, which I recently finished reading?

After issue #25, volume five also contains a special short story featuring the misadventures of Harmony on her reality show, “Harmony Bites”, as well as some faux magazine inserts and advertisements from her publicity. Fun stuff, but I’m not sure how I feel about sweet, unaffected Clem (the loose-skinned demon who used to play kitten poker with Spike) being Harmony’s new “friend” (i.e. chauffeur/pawn/source-of-amusement-when-she’s-bored). I guess it makes sense, though, since Harmony uses people and Clem’s a total pushover. I just feel bad for the guy. I wonder if the two ever reminisce about their former mutual friend Spike?

Volume six of Season 8, entitled “Retreat”, will be released in March of 2010.

Dollhouse 2.05, "Belonging"

Oh my dear sweet goodness gracious, it is such a shame that hardly anybody is watching this show anymore, because last week’s episode totally killed!!!. It was intense, the acting was amazing, the dialogue was sickeningly provocative, and (best of all) it was coherent! I feel like “Belonging” finally succeeded in what this show has been trying to do all along, and has only been dancing around achieving. As a sci-fi allegory, Dollhouse has set itself up as a show that explores issues of exploitation and consent. Yet on multiple occasions the show has fallen on just the wrong side of the fence, with its treatment of these ideas coming off as gimmicky rather than serious. This episode, however, hit the nail dead on the center of the head; I’m still reeling from how awesome it was.

This episode explores the details of how Sierra came to be in the Dollhouse, and it is not a pretty story. Unlike the other dolls, she did not volunteer for this "service." She was originally a free-spirited artist named Priya who became the obsession of a Rossum bigwig named Nolan. Nolan tries everything he could to win her over: money, luxury, gallery showings for her paintings, the works. When she makes it very clear she’s having none of it, the guy shows his true colors. We don’t actually see this next part, but we later learn that he kidnapped her and drugged into a state of paranoid schizophrenia, then used his Rossum connections to get her admitted into the Dollhouse. Once she’s become a doll not only can he have her, but he can have her in any way he wants. He can make her say she loves him and mean it. It’s the ultimate form of abusive fantasy-fullfilment, and it’s sick, sick, sick.

When the situation is finally brought to the attention of the DH staff (by an increasingly cognizant Echo, no less), Nolan and the other higher-ups exert pressure on Adelle to imprint Sierra and hand her over to him permanently. She caves, and tells Topher to do it. Feeling repulsed and guilt-ridden at the role he played in turning Sierra into a doll in the first place, Topher rebels and imprints Sierra with Priya, the original, and sicks her on an unsuspecting Nolan. What follows is a harrowing chain of events that has irrevocable consequences and far-reaching implications for Topher, Sierra, Adelle, and everyone in the Dollhouse.

This episode marked somewhat of a turning point for Adelle. Up till now she’s always staunchly defended the “purity” of the engagements, and of the Dollhouse’s mission, to the moral dissenters like Paul and Caroline. (Remember her words to Caroline in the pilot? “What we do here helps people.”) She’s always been able to rationalize and justify the work she does, to herself and to everyone else, but in this episode she just can’t, and it’s a real blow to her. This was satisfying for me because I’ve been bothered for a while by Adelle’s pseudo-morality. She’s shown an increasing level of genuine concern for her actives' welfare, and has come to see herself as their guardian and protector. Yet this conflicts with the very nature of what she’s doing with them. When she first learns what Nolan did to Sierra, she’s livid (I would no sooner allow you near one of our other Actives than I would a mad dog near a child… Given that you're a raping scumbag one tick shy of a murderer.) And yet, as her sinister, amoral boss points out to her, Nolan isn’t really behaving differently from their other clients. Boss-man’s words to her are chilling in their ugly truthfulness:

Adelle: If we do this, what does that make us?
Boss-man: [raising his eyebrows] What are we already? … If the feeling that you’re somehow decent and moral helps you get through your day, [shrugs] that’s your business. This house, however, is our business.

She can’t keep hedging any longer; confronted with the true implications of her work and feeling the pressure from above, Adelle makes the despicable choice... Which leads to another intense scene in which she tells Topher to carry out the order to imprint Sierra permanently for Nolan.

Topher: [dazed, unbelieving] How can you expect me to do this?
Adelle: [Quietly] You’ll do it because you must. The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals had been compromised in some way. Everyone [walking towards him] except you. You, Topher, were chosen [putting her hand to his face, gently] because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as your playthings. This is not a judgment. You always take good care of your toys. But you’re simply going to have to let this one go.

Ouch! Man, that hurts. Adelle’s recent disillusionment with her own identity has left her cold and brutal and bitter. But do you see what I mean about this episode’s dialogue? During both of these exchanges, as well as the rest of the episode, I was glued to the screen: fascinated, horrified, almost unbelieving.

In addition to Adelle and Topher, both Sierra and Victor really got to shine in this episode. I’ve already gushed enough about the incredible acting (and adorableness!) of Enver Gjokaj, but Dichen Lachman is also very good. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s got a beautiful, unique look. I love that no matter what situation these characters are in, no matter what personalities they’re imprinted with, these two people always find themselves inevitably drawn to one another. It may sound cheesy and trite, but it really isn’t. Their innocence and sweetness actually provides a brilliant contrast to the darker, grittier, more cynical and sinister elements of the Dollhouse world. With the odds so hopelessly stacked against them, and with so many forces constantly driving them apart (mentally as well as physically), they still manage to find tiny, yet momentous ways to connect with each other. It really is very touching.

In other news, Dollhouse is going on hiatus until December 4th, at which time Fox will air the next six episodes in three weeks. Although the network has officially committed to airing all thirteen produced episodes of season two, the future for the show beyond that point is looking grim indeed. Yet if the show can maintain the intensity, focus, and all-around awesomeness of “Belonging” for the rest of its run, however long that may be, I guess I can’t really ask for more.

Dollhouse: season two opens with inauspicious ratings

But, hey, what else is new for this show, huh? It’s still hanging on, if only just by a thread; after its seemingly miraculous renewal in the face of dismal ratings last spring, Dollhouse has returned to the Friday-night-graveyard of primetime where its return has been heralded once again by down-right depressing numbers. This post will cover the first three episodes of season two in one go, partly because I’ve been backlogged and haven’t gotten around to them until now, and partly because episode three rocked just a little bit more than the first two. So, yeah, I’m still enjoying this show because it’s grappling with some very heavy, far-out material (albeit often in an awkward, rough and ready kind of way.)

2.01 “Vows” In this episode, former agent Ballard (I think I’ll just call him Paul from now on) tests out his new, shaky alliance with Adelle & co. by arranging for Echo to be imprinted as an undercover agent programmed to help solve a case he himself never resolved with the FBI. So she goes undercover and actually marries this international arms dealer. Things start out well but soon go south, of course, and Paul is forced to improvise, actually using Echo’s rather unique “personality disorder” to solve the case in a rather unorthodox way. At the end of the day, when the bad guy’s all arrested and everything, Paul gets to be made Echo’s official handler, at which point the un-imprinted Echo asks him if he’ll help her find Caroline. Meanwhile, Dr Saunders struggles with the recent discovery that she herself was once an active, and that her entire personality and life as Saunders are just a construction of Topher’s, the guy she already hates (by design, it would seem.) She responds at first by finding cruel and petty ways to torment and freak him out, which culminates in this great confrontational scene between the two of them. I found it really interesting that she doesn’t seem to want to reclaim her original identity; she’s too afraid of relinquishing the reality she knows isn’t really real. To her, that would be like dying, and it scares her. Perhaps even more interesting is what Topher finally tells her: that he programmed her to question him, yes, because he thought it was necessary and prudent, but he never programmed her to hate him. She chose to. As much as I like the usual, smarmy Topher, it was really great to see this unnerved, vulnerable side of him.

2.02 “Instinct” Echo gets imprinted as the mother of a baby whose real mother died giving birth. (The father, too grief-stricken to love the baby himself, had turned to the Dollhouse to provide the infant with someone who could give it everything he needed.) When the father gets cold feet and tries to call off the engagement, we everybody learns the hard way that maternal instinct isn’t so easy for Topher to wipe away. Side note: a lot of people think that Eliza Dushku’s the weak link in the cast, and that she doesn’t have the versatility to play Echo. Well, I don’t know about that, but I must admit that she did a great job portraying the panic and terror of a mother losing her child. It was really quite affecting, I thought. Meanwhile, Madeline (the former active known as November) pays a visit to the Dollhouse for her post-release check-up, which is really just a way for Adelle to keep tabs on her. In the process, she runs into Paul, whom she of course doesn’t recognize, and also witnesses one of Echo’s more, er, colorful treatments. She remains blissfully unaware of the painful history she once shared with both of them, a seeming testament to the success of Dollhouse technology. Overall, this wasn’t a particularly strong episode, but it definitely had its moments. Even in her new incarnation of Madeline, Miracle Laurie is still a joy to watch.

2.03 “Belle Chose” Now, I really liked this episode a lot. It featured two separate, seemingly unrelated engagements that ended up converging in a hideous and hilarious way. The first is your basic fantasy fulfillment engagement, with Echo being turned into a bimb-tastic sorority girl named Kiki at the request of a creepy old lit professor. The second one involves a Rossum bigwig calling in a favor with Adelle, and she imprints Victor with the guy’s serial-killer nephew in an effort to locate his victims. When Boyd pulls Paul off of Echo’s engagement to use his FBI profiling on serial-killer-Victor, his reaction is hilarious; completely unnerved by “Kiki”, he says in a dazed kind of voice, “A serial killer? Thank god!” Unfortunately, the real killer’s uncle springs the killer-imprinted Victor from the DH and inadvertently lets him loose on society. Desperate to control the situation, Adelle forces Topher to attempt a tricky remote wipe of Victor that ends up short-circuiting the entire active grid. In all the confusion, Echo’s and Victor’s imprints get crossed: she becomes the insane killer hell-bent on finishing what he started and poor Victor becomes the flighty party-girl, shaking his thang all over an LA club. The results are both frightening (in Echo’s case) and hilarious (in Victor’s). This episode really showcased Enver Gjokaj’s many talents as an actor. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but I really like this guy. I think he’s the best of all the dolls at really embodying each new character he’s given in a totally believable way, even when it’s something as ridiculous as Kiki, or intense as the serial killer. Plus, he’s totally adorable! I hope we get to see much more of him in the future.

Overall, I think this show’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: it’s complex to the point of being unwieldy. It’ll never be mainstream or popular, because it’s really not for the casual viewer. Its greatest hope for survival is to garner enough of a fringe, cult following to buoy it up. Well, here’s hoping!

Oh, and I also thought I'd post the link to this video recap of season one, which is a little long but does an excellent job of bringing together the most compelling elements of the first season and setting us up for furutre developments.

Time of Your Life (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Volume 4)

And speaking of semi-cannon print continuations of film/tv classics, the fourth collected volume of the “eighth season” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out last month. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the comic book medium (by which I mean traditional U.S style comics as opposed to graphic novels, for example, or manga). I generally prefer their cartoon adaptations, as is the case with my beloved X-Men. That being said, I have been following the comic book continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ended with its seventh season in 2003, primarily because I love that universe and am a total sucker for all things related to it. So when the fourth volume of the collected edition, entitled Time of Your Life and containing issues #16 – #20, came out a few weeks ago, I hustled my butt down to Barnes & Noble and plunked down sixteen bucks for my copy. While the comic series doesn’t necessarily retain all the charm and appeal of the show, it nevertheless provides lots of fun for fans and usually a good read as well.

The title “Time of Your Life” refers to issues #16 – #19, a time travel story arc that also crosses over with Fray, an eight-issue comic about the slayer of the future. In this arc, Buffy and Willow head to the New York group on some mystical tip Willow got through the vague and mysterious spiritual pipeline and end up – you guessed it – walking into a trap. Bottom line: Buffy gets transported 200 years into the future and finds herself in a sci-fi version of Manhattan coming face-to-face with Fray, a slayer whose English is even more garbled and incomprehensible than Buffy’s. Once she adjusts to the bizarre circumstances a bit, Buffy’s dismayed to see the rather grim conditions of the future, and to learn that the number of total slayers has somehow dwindled back down to one (in fact, Fray’s the first to be called in years.) Before she can piece together the whole, story, however, we find out just who’s been pulling the strings behind Buffy’s little jaunt through time. Well, the cover art kind of gave it away, but yes, it’s Dark Willow! (dun dun dun) But she’s not like the Dark Willow of season six, who was full of incontrollable rage. This is a Willow darkened not by sudden anger, but rather twisted and hardened by the inexorable passage of time and filled with cold, merciless calculation, and perhaps not a little sadness as well. Her motives for bringing Buffy to this time are not exactly clear, but it doesn’t take long for her to turn Fray and Buffy against one another.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Dawn and Xander are left to hold down the Scotland base. This proves rather difficult when Amy and Warren (these two never die, do they?) orchestrate a two-pronged supernatural/technical attack on behalf of their new boss, the ominous and mysterious Twilight (who is undoubtedly the big bad of Season Eight.) Xander and Dawnie and the rest of the troops pull through in the end, of course, but not before sustaining some casualties and having a hilarious encounter with the tree-folk of the forest surrounding the castle. Also in this arc, we get to see a lot more of Kennedy (she and Willow are evidently still a thing), and we learn that Riley Finn has apparently gone over to the dark side. Too bad Buffy still thinks he’s a reliable source.

After all the intense action of issues #16 – #19, I really loved how issue #20 provided a little break from the increasingly entangled developments of the Season Eight mythology. Entitled “After These Messages … We’ll Be Right Back”, this issue was much lighter in tone and really played up the nostalgia factor by hearkening back to the early days of the original series, showing us how much has changed since then, but also how much is still the same. In this issue, Buffy returns to the base totally exhausted from an evening of demon slaying and has a strange dream in which she finds herself back at Sunnydale High, as if the past eight years had never happened. Initially thrilled to be relieved of the pressures of leading a worldwide slayer army, she soon finds that high-school slaying isn’t all fun and games the way she remembers. I loved this issue. I loved seeing old characters like Cordelia and Joyce and Principal Snyder, not to mention the high-school versions of Buffy and Willow (let’s face it, Xander hasn’t really changed all that much, bless his heart). I loved how the art during the dream sequence shifted to a more cartoonish, Betty-and-Veronica type of stylization. I loved how it was funny like the original series was, but also drove home a really powerful message about what changes over time and what remains constant.

All in all, Time of Your Life was a pretty nifty installment of Season Eight. I never read the Fray series, but I was still able to follow and enjoy the crossover. The series may not be as funny or clever as the show was, but it’s still really engaging and enjoyable. Plus, with little gems like “After These Messages” and the tree-folk embedded here and there throughout the series, how could I not read it? Also, the artwork is gorgeous. I kind of like that the characters don’t look exactly like the actors from the show; the series has its own distinctive style. And if there’s one thing that comic books have over manga and graphic novels, it’s color. The colors in here are so prettyyyy. If nothing else, Season Eight sure is easy on the eyes.

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.

Dollhouse episodes 6 &7: the plot thickens

In fact, it's even starting to congeal. But is that good or bad? Is it just too little too late, or is it the beginnings of awesomeness? Difficult to say, really. I always find it hard to write about this show, if for no other reason than because it's just so gosh-darn complicated. There hasn't been a single episode thus far that could be reduced to a 20-words-or-less explanation, and you can just forget about summing up the whole series' premise in one sentence. Anybody who's tried to explain this show to an ignorant friend knows exactly what I'm talking about. On the one hand, this is good; Dollhouse is not a stupid show. It's not hackneyed or cliché or simplistic. On the other hand, there are definitely reviewers and critics who think the show's trying to be so many things at once that it ends up being nothing much in particular. Yet Joss Whedon's creations have never really been tailored to the expectations of the casual viewer. They're much more suited to cult followings than to mainstream audiences. All in all, some people might scoff and ratings basically suck, but I'm officially invested in the rest of this season, and I'm kind of hoping there will be more in the future.

So, episodes six and seven contained some major plot developments. Firstly, Mellie, Paul Ballard's neighbor and the closest thing he has to a friend, is actually an Active herself (her Doll name is November). Also, there's somebody else on the outside (other than Ballard) who's trying to bring the Dollhouse down. And unlike Paul, this person seems to have considerable knowledge of the Dollhouse's inerworkings, and has even managed to plant a mole on the inside who can tamper with the imprints if necessary. I can only assume at this point that this person is Alpha, and I'm betting the mole is Topher's sacrastic assistant, but who knows. Thirdly, we find out that "the" Dollhouse is actually only a Dollhouse. There are apparently Dollhouses in major cities all across the globe, all run by a single corporation for an as-of-yet unknown purpose. We've been lead to believe up till now that the actives' engagements are the main purpose of the Dollhouse, the actual reason for its existence. But now it seems that the engagements merely provide funding for the organization's true purpose, whatever that may be.

Episode six proved that the show is not afraid to tackle some pretty ugly themes. The sexual abuse of a Doll by a handler, for example, I found particularly disturbing. It was sick, really, the way Hearn would tell Sierra it was a game, and that she had to be very quiet because "noise is upsetting", and of course she wouldn't think to resist, but she would cry and say that the game wasn't fun. Talk about your abuse of power. Ugh. The violent scene with Mellie/November was also pretty intense. It was upsetting without being graphic, and kind of creepy. This episode in particular had some really great plot-twist revelation moments, not the least of which was when Adelle dropped the "trigger" to turn the choking Mellie into a very scary kick-ass November.

While episode six was pretty gritty, episode seven gave us a healthy dose of humor while still maintaining much of that intensity (in general this is not a very light or jokey show). The best thing about the whole cast being affected by a wierd drug that breaks down their natural inhibitions is that we get to learn lots of interesting things about these characters. Boyd plays the piano, for example. More shockingly, Adelle has a conscience. And so does Mr. Dominic! And Topher - well, actually, he pretty much acted the way he always does. Anyways, it was pretty frickin hilarious watching him and Adelle blunder around together and argue about British-ness and eat chips on the floor and cower in the corner to hide froma potentially violent November. Additionally, this episode also revealed some more information on who Caroline was before she became Echo, and it wasnt' exactly the sort of thing I would have expected.

Anyways, the more I watch this show the more I like it, so I'm sticking with it. So, check out this montage style recap of episode seven, "Echoes", and be excited for episode eight.

Dollhouse, episodes 2-4: hope springs eternal

Note: I wrote this before I watched the most recent (fifth) episode. After watching the fifth episode the general impressions I expressed in this post remain unchanged, so I'll leave what I've already written. Also, I'd just like to say that I wrote this in a very sleep-deprived state.

So a few weeks ago I wrote about my belated discovery of Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse, and about my mixed reactions to the first episode. Now we're four weeks into the season's run, with the fifth episode soon to air, and although I'm not completely hooked (yet) I am still watching and hoping for great things to develop. The first four episodes were undeniably flawed, so maybe I'm just clutching vainly at straws and putting too much blind faith in Whedon's name. But still, I'll try to artiulate my reasons for believing that this show has lots of (as of yet unrealized) potential.

Thus far in the series, each episode consists of a different engagement for Echo that inevitaby goes awry in some way, forcing her to deal with situations for which Topher's imprints have not quite prepared her - something that goes against the very definition of what an active is/does. As Boyd, her handler, observes to Dr Saunders (the Dollhouse's resident physician, played by Amy Acker), "She seems to have the ability to think outside of the pieces we give her and create." So far this strange proactivity (remarkable in an active), as well as brief flashes of almost awareness in her eyes, and subtle hints of her retaining traces of her experiences in the engagements - these are the only things providing any sort of continuity to Echo's character. But I'm sure that will change as we learn more about her former (true? original?) identity as Caroline.

Meanwhile, the solitary, relentless FBI agent Paul Ballard continues his seemingly hopeless search for clues about the Dollhouse. He's continually finding his way blocked by the higher-ups who dismiss the Dollhouse as an urban legend (or who perhaps wish to keep him from exposing its existence). The clueless Russian mobster whom Ballard seems convinced has access to Dollhouse-related info actually actually turns out to be an active named Victor, no doubt imprinted planted to put Ballard off the trail. We also learn about the existence of a rogue active named Alpha who escaped from the Dollhouse at some point in the (recent?) past, but not before going on a bit of a killing spree first. This Alpha guy is very mysterious, and he's got "big bad" written all over him, but he also seems somehow to be connected to Echo/Caroline. He's even ananymously sent Ballard photos of her before she became an active, along with the cryptic message "keep looking." Oh, and I read somewhere that Alpha's going to be played by Alan Tudyk. Psych!

And that doesn't even cover everything that's already going on in this show. There's definitely some pretty complex, intriguing, mysterious stuff just beginning to evolve, but a show can't survive on this alone. It must also be thoroughly (not just mildly) enjoyable to watch, and so far each episode's been hampered by lackluster scripts and scenarios. There's also been a conspicuous lack of that quircky, quippy dialogue one customarily associates with Whedon' s works, and the stand-alone storylines of Echo's individual engagements have been decent enough, but nothing really extraordinary. There have been hints at really interesting things starting to percolate, but that's it - hints sprinkled throughout episodes that for the most part fall a tiny bit flat. But I still think this is just a show that hasn't yet reached its full potential. There's so much backstory (for Echo, Alpha, Ballard, and probably many others) that's so clearly being witheld at this point. There's so much that could be explored that isn't yet.

There are also certain other factors that give me hope for this show's future improvement, and many of them concern network politics. If one is optimistic enough, the disorganized pilot and the not-completely-satisfying first few episodes could possibly be chalked up to Fox's meddling. The original preview for the show (the same one I included in my previous Dollhouse post) consisted entirely of clips from the original pilot, which was yanked by Fox and never aired. After giving the show the green light, the network apparently wanted so many changes and redirection done to that first episode that Whedon decided to scrap it and start from scratch. And that wasn't the end of it either, because it supposedly wasn't until the sixth episode that Fox really gave Whedon free creative reign over the show. And word on the cyber street is that things really take off in that sixth episode. And while all this talk might come to nothing, I'm somewhat inclined to believe it won't. Why? Well, optimism for one thing, and also the fact that I read the script of the unaired pilot (penned by Whedon) and noticed a huge difference from what I've seen of the show so far. That script was, in a word, awesome. I guess I can understand Fox wanting to make the show more "accessible" to people, but I really don't think they're going to score big ratings (on Friday nights, no less) by stiffling Whedon's wierdness. Because he is an evil genius after all, but in a decidedly good way.

As far as acting goes, Dollhouse's got a pretty good supporing cast, and I kind of love the side characters already. It's still a little difficult to really connect with Echo as a character, what with all the constant changes and everything, but I think Dushku's doing a pretty good job, regardless. Especially with Echo's more fragile, vulnerable moments. I'm used to a seeing a more kickass Faith-type from her, so it's nice to see a bit of range in that department.

Just one final consideration: all of Whedon's shows that I've seen (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) had more or less shaky starts. Considering how they all turned out, I'd say a little bit of faith and patience is justified with his latest endeavor. That being said, if that sixth episode doesn't turn out to be a real knockout I'll be sorely dissapointed.

Episode one of season one of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse

Gah! I am the worst fan ever! I think I must have been living under a rock for the past few years of my life. How could I not know that Joss Whedon, (TV mastermind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity, and most recently Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog) had a new TV show until after the first episode had already aired? What is wrong with me? Well, I usually don’t watch a show when it first airs, preferring rather to wait until it’s already gotten good before I jump on the bandwagon. But still, this wasn’t even on my radar until yesterday! I’m ashamed. Looking back, though, I’m glad I wasn’t aware ahead of time that this series was in the works, because I know I would’ve gotten way, way ahead of myself. I’d have waited and waited for it to premiere, banking on the magic of Joss Whedon, building up impossible expectations. As it is, the first episode wasn’t exactly a homerun for me (but then, the pilot doesn’t have to be a knockout for a series to be great), but it had definite potential. I’ve got a lot of faith in Joss that he knows what he’s doing, and that he won’t disappoint us. I hope he comes through.

One of the most jarring elements of the first episode for me was actually Eliza Dushku in the lead role. It’s just hard for me to not see her as Faith (her character on Buffy), and when she first appeared on the screen my initial reaction went something like, ‘No! Watch out, this bitch is psychotic, she’ll stab you in the back, look out!!!!’ (Side note: Yes, I know Faith had issues and eventually sort of redeemed herself, yadda yadda, but still. I’m a pretty patient, forgiving person when it comes to real life, but boy do I hold grudges against fictional characters. Uchiha Sasuke, for example? He’s dead to me.) Sooo, anyways, once I convinced myself that this was Echo, not Faith, the whole experience went along much more smoothely. I don’t think she’s a very consistent actress, but when she’s on she’s spot on, and I’m hoping she finds her footing and gets really comfortable in this role. As for the rest, time will tell. The first episode was a little scattered, but I think it has potential in the hands of Joss Whedon.

So, anyways, the basic premise has a kind of contemporary sci-fi vibe. The “Dollhouse” is a secret facility that houses the technology to erase a person’s mind, and reprogram it, giving them any conceivable personality, skills set, or attitude desired. These “dolls” are then hired out to anyone willing to pay the exorbitant fee in order to get exactly what they want or need. The dolls, also referred to as “actives” when programmed, are all young, healthy people who have ostensibly volunteered for this job, although none of them have any memory of doing so, of course. It’s still unclear exactly how aware they are of their true identities, but it seems like not very. They’re sort of blank in between jobs. The Dollhouse facility itself is a very lavish and nurturing place to live. Comfortable, yes. Creepy, most definely. I have no idea where Joss is going with this, but I trust that he’s got a destination in mind. So, I’ll be tuning in tonight to watch episode two on fox. Or I’ll watch it later on Hulu, but you get the idea.