Well, the day everyone expected a long time ago finally arrived: FOX has canceled "Dollhouse." I don't imagine any of its fans will be surprised.
If they were like me, they tried to hold the show at arm's length, because it was highly likely it wouldn't last long. While I personally know no one who loves the show, this sort of thing is always sad for those who do.
And while I've complained quite a bit about FOX and "Dollhouse" (though more about the former than the latter), I have to tip my hat to the network for bringing back such a poorly-rated show, and I'll also throw a nod Joss's way for the excellent last episode they aired.
And you know, FOX is still going to air all the remaining episodes, which is more than can be said for a lot of series. Plus, Joss HAD to know that there was a high chance he'd not get to shoot beyond the thirteenth episode, so surely he tied up the loose ends to give us a satisfying (or at least somewhat-satisfying) last episode. And I'll keep watching through till then.
I hope it's not too long before Joss graces us with another series. Or a movie. Or a comic book. Or a comic movie series. Or a sequel to "Dr. Horrible," 'cause I'm certainly not going to start watching "Glee."
Showing posts with label Dollhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dollhouse. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
"Dollhouse" addendum
Folks, it would be douchie (Dush-y?) of me to not post about the "Dollhouse" episode Jeff and I watched tonight. The reason: it was really, really good.
Yeah, I've bagged on the show of late, and I said recently that I hope that Joss can go on to a good show soon, now that "Dollhouse" is going to be canceled.
But maybe I spoke too soon (oh, not about the cancellation; they may as well start the "only four more episodes left"-type ad campaign), as I sure would hate for the rest of the bunch to be as good as the last one, and have my negativity posts be my final word.
So, the episode in question, "Belonging," written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, was unusual, in that Echo was a supporting character throughout. It something of an origin story for Sierra, and it went miles toward making Sierra, Adelle, and especially Topher into sympathetic characters. I never liked Topher from the very beginning, and except for the birthday episode, I got the impression half of the writers felt we weren't supposed to like him (despite the other half's filling him with clever/cute dialogue).
I've noticed Eliza Dushku's performances really vary, and while she's always nice to look at, sometimes she can't pull off the acting without visible effort. But in this episode (and the one before, where she had a lot more to do), she was very, very good.
There were a couple of really great, interesting, and thought-provoking moments in this episode. Commander Will Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes, directed the episode, and while I'm not suggesting he's slumming it doing episodes of television (he's got a "Castle" airing in just a week or two) and a wildly uneven couple of "Librarian" TV movies, but the man directed STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT. That alone should get him work on Sci-Fi, time travel, and horror movies.
Well, if anything, I'll check out the last episodes in December with a bit more anticipation than I otherwise would have.
Rish "Glass Is Half Fu--" Outfield
Yeah, I've bagged on the show of late, and I said recently that I hope that Joss can go on to a good show soon, now that "Dollhouse" is going to be canceled.
But maybe I spoke too soon (oh, not about the cancellation; they may as well start the "only four more episodes left"-type ad campaign), as I sure would hate for the rest of the bunch to be as good as the last one, and have my negativity posts be my final word.
So, the episode in question, "Belonging," written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, was unusual, in that Echo was a supporting character throughout. It something of an origin story for Sierra, and it went miles toward making Sierra, Adelle, and especially Topher into sympathetic characters. I never liked Topher from the very beginning, and except for the birthday episode, I got the impression half of the writers felt we weren't supposed to like him (despite the other half's filling him with clever/cute dialogue).
I've noticed Eliza Dushku's performances really vary, and while she's always nice to look at, sometimes she can't pull off the acting without visible effort. But in this episode (and the one before, where she had a lot more to do), she was very, very good.
There were a couple of really great, interesting, and thought-provoking moments in this episode. Commander Will Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes, directed the episode, and while I'm not suggesting he's slumming it doing episodes of television (he's got a "Castle" airing in just a week or two) and a wildly uneven couple of "Librarian" TV movies, but the man directed STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT. That alone should get him work on Sci-Fi, time travel, and horror movies.
Well, if anything, I'll check out the last episodes in December with a bit more anticipation than I otherwise would have.
Rish "Glass Is Half Fu--" Outfield
Friday, October 23, 2009
"Dollhouse" countdown begins
So, Jeff and I watched another episode of "Dollhouse" this week. It was the one where Echo is replacing a mother who died and gets this motherly instinct so powerful it continues when she is wiped. It was alright, had a couple fairly good moments, but nothing close to what I'd need to care when I hear that the show is being taken off the schedule during November sweeps.
Sweeps are when networks sell advertising space, and hence, is when the special guest stars, the big-budget episodes, and the entire run of ABC's new "V" are put on the air. For a show to be taken off the air during those months is pretty indicative of its fate.
"Dollhouse" hasn't been canceled yet, but their parking spots are already been divied out to somebody new.
Sweeps are when networks sell advertising space, and hence, is when the special guest stars, the big-budget episodes, and the entire run of ABC's new "V" are put on the air. For a show to be taken off the air during those months is pretty indicative of its fate.
"Dollhouse" hasn't been canceled yet, but their parking spots are already been divied out to somebody new.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Dollhouse Airing Out
So, apparently last week's "Dollhouse" was its lowest rated show yet. I heard somebody point out that "Stargate Universe" got higher ratings, and that's on a cable channel with an utterly moronic name. So, it looks like the show is going to be canceled.
Jeff and I started watching Eliza Dushku's last series, "Tru Calling" during the summer. It started out fairly weak, though it had a pretty bang-up premise. After four or five episodes, he and I considered not watching anymore, but decided to watch the rest of the disc before deciding for sure. Well, as if somebody somewhere in-a-time-warp-but-with-future-reality-altering powers heard what we were considering, and immediately, the show got not only better, but really quite good. I was surprised, and happy to discover that I was wrong.
I looked up "Tru Calling," though, and saw that while FOX did renew it for a second season, they canceled it after only five episodes had aired. Of course, "Tru Calling" had about twice as many viewers as "Dollhouse" does.*
So, it's going to get canceled, and I still don't get why it was renewed for this season, since FOX has always seemed to be about money. I guess the main reason for writing this is that I went to Jeff's place last night and we started to watch the new season of "Dollhouse," and it did absolutely nothing for me. If anything, most of the momentum and interest I had for it in the first season were gone, and except for looking at attractive young people (which I could watch the CW for), I could see very little worth sticking around for.
I guess that makes me a bad man. I know I was a big supporter of this show. It just doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Heck, I'm much more interested in the remaining "Tru Calling"s I haven't seen. Better luck next time, okay?
Rish Iscariot Outfield
*I was curious, so I checked out "Firefly"'s ratings, and you know what? It got twice as many viewers a week as "Dollhouse" too.
Jeff and I started watching Eliza Dushku's last series, "Tru Calling" during the summer. It started out fairly weak, though it had a pretty bang-up premise. After four or five episodes, he and I considered not watching anymore, but decided to watch the rest of the disc before deciding for sure. Well, as if somebody somewhere in-a-time-warp-but-with-future-reality-altering powers heard what we were considering, and immediately, the show got not only better, but really quite good. I was surprised, and happy to discover that I was wrong.
I looked up "Tru Calling," though, and saw that while FOX did renew it for a second season, they canceled it after only five episodes had aired. Of course, "Tru Calling" had about twice as many viewers as "Dollhouse" does.*
So, it's going to get canceled, and I still don't get why it was renewed for this season, since FOX has always seemed to be about money. I guess the main reason for writing this is that I went to Jeff's place last night and we started to watch the new season of "Dollhouse," and it did absolutely nothing for me. If anything, most of the momentum and interest I had for it in the first season were gone, and except for looking at attractive young people (which I could watch the CW for), I could see very little worth sticking around for.
I guess that makes me a bad man. I know I was a big supporter of this show. It just doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Heck, I'm much more interested in the remaining "Tru Calling"s I haven't seen. Better luck next time, okay?
Rish Iscariot Outfield
*I was curious, so I checked out "Firefly"'s ratings, and you know what? It got twice as many viewers a week as "Dollhouse" too.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Last "Dollhouse" on the left
So, I went over to tyranist's house to watch the last "Dollhouse." It had aired just a couple of days previous, and with the bang-up cliffhanger we'd gotten the episode before, I was happy to finish up the show as soon as we could.
Now, this wasn't the last episode that was shot. Apparently, Joss filmed a thirteenth (or fourteenth, if you want to be technical) show for inclusion on the DVD. It was either to fulfill contractual obligation or to show FOX what a second season might be like, and to show them how cheaply it could be made. That episode, which they called "Epitaph One," will be on the DVD release this summer.
So, the final episode of the real season, "Omega," was written
and directed by Tim Minear. Nice to see him back.*
So, we see a flashback, with Alpha and a dark-haired chick in silhouette, who we assume is Echo. They're part of some Bonnie & Clyde/NATURAL BORN KILLERS duo, and it turns out that it's Doctor Saunders aka Whiskey in the girl role.
In the present, Saunders realises she's not who she thinks she is, and it is revealed that the real Doctor Saunders was murdered by Alpha during his original escape. He had been walking around, pretending to be like all the others, and showing Echo particular attention, then one day, he went into the upload room and imprinted himself with all sorts of personalities.
Meanwhile, Alpha and Echo have abducted some girl named Wendy (who looks disturbingly like the youngest kid on "Growing Pains") and take her back to Alpha's hideout, where he has built himself his own imprint chamber. He straps Wendy to a chair and, having snatched Echo's original Caroline personality, uploads it into Wendy. Then, while "Caroline" watches, he uploads Echo with multiple personalities, like he did to himself in the flashback. He now calls Echo "Omega."
Paul Ballard helps Adelle and Langton figure out where Alpha is,
and working together, they manage to find his hideout.
Alpha tells Echo/Omega to kill "Caroline," but instead, she attacks Alpha. They fight. Alpha removes the hard drive containing Echo's original Caroline personality, and kills Wendy. He tosses the hard drive and Echo goes after it, allowing Alpha to escape. The hard drive (I believe they had a cute name for these things, but I don't recall what it was) falls from where Alpha threw it, but it is caught by Ballard. They get Echo back to the Dollhouse and wipe out all the personalities (or did they?), and Paul Ballard agrees to work for the Dollhouse in return for something.
In the end, we see that Mellie (aka November) has been released from her contract early, had her original personality reinserted, and leaves with no memory of Ballard or what she experienced as an Active. The end.
So, the season is over, and the status quo is . . . well, a bit different, I guess. I didn't quite get what Ballard will be doing for the Dollhouse--is he Echo's new handler? Head of security? A different, previously-unseen post? Maybe the handler for someone new next season?
And yes, there is a next season. I don't understand why FOX renewed the show--I really don't--but they did. They ordered thirteen more episodes, and we'll see if their faith is paid off. Boy, it would be great if this was like "Buffy," and the second season starts with some kind of new life and inspiration and quality . . . and most importantly, ratings.
FOX did cancel "Sarah Connor," which I thought was silly, since Warners just made another TERMINATOR movie that everyone's banking on to be a hit. And in the article I read, they stated that "Dollhouse" is the lowest rated show to get a renewal . . . of the year, or ever? I read an interview with Kevin Reilly, the FOX executive who okayed the renewal, and he said that the DVR numbers were good, and that if he canceled the show, "I'd probably have 110 million e-mails this morning from the fans." At first I thought that was a joke.
But folks, the FOX treatment of "Firefly" was a crime. The cancellation of "Dollhouse" was . . . well, probably just numbers. I don't see the logic in bringing it back, so it's actually possible that there was some kind of heart or intuition or faith-based reasoning behind it. We'll see if it turns out to have been a wise decision, and if season two is as good--or better--than the last three episodes of season one, then I'll be happy to keep on watching.
Well, as happy as one such as I can get.
Rish "Codename Golf" Outfield
*He was Joss's co-show runner on "Firefly," as well as doing great things on "Angel." But since he wrote the one where Echo was a blind woman, I guess he's been back before.
Now, this wasn't the last episode that was shot. Apparently, Joss filmed a thirteenth (or fourteenth, if you want to be technical) show for inclusion on the DVD. It was either to fulfill contractual obligation or to show FOX what a second season might be like, and to show them how cheaply it could be made. That episode, which they called "Epitaph One," will be on the DVD release this summer.
So, the final episode of the real season, "Omega," was written
and directed by Tim Minear. Nice to see him back.*
So, we see a flashback, with Alpha and a dark-haired chick in silhouette, who we assume is Echo. They're part of some Bonnie & Clyde/NATURAL BORN KILLERS duo, and it turns out that it's Doctor Saunders aka Whiskey in the girl role.
In the present, Saunders realises she's not who she thinks she is, and it is revealed that the real Doctor Saunders was murdered by Alpha during his original escape. He had been walking around, pretending to be like all the others, and showing Echo particular attention, then one day, he went into the upload room and imprinted himself with all sorts of personalities.
Meanwhile, Alpha and Echo have abducted some girl named Wendy (who looks disturbingly like the youngest kid on "Growing Pains") and take her back to Alpha's hideout, where he has built himself his own imprint chamber. He straps Wendy to a chair and, having snatched Echo's original Caroline personality, uploads it into Wendy. Then, while "Caroline" watches, he uploads Echo with multiple personalities, like he did to himself in the flashback. He now calls Echo "Omega."
Paul Ballard helps Adelle and Langton figure out where Alpha is,
and working together, they manage to find his hideout.
Alpha tells Echo/Omega to kill "Caroline," but instead, she attacks Alpha. They fight. Alpha removes the hard drive containing Echo's original Caroline personality, and kills Wendy. He tosses the hard drive and Echo goes after it, allowing Alpha to escape. The hard drive (I believe they had a cute name for these things, but I don't recall what it was) falls from where Alpha threw it, but it is caught by Ballard. They get Echo back to the Dollhouse and wipe out all the personalities (or did they?), and Paul Ballard agrees to work for the Dollhouse in return for something.
In the end, we see that Mellie (aka November) has been released from her contract early, had her original personality reinserted, and leaves with no memory of Ballard or what she experienced as an Active. The end.
So, the season is over, and the status quo is . . . well, a bit different, I guess. I didn't quite get what Ballard will be doing for the Dollhouse--is he Echo's new handler? Head of security? A different, previously-unseen post? Maybe the handler for someone new next season?
And yes, there is a next season. I don't understand why FOX renewed the show--I really don't--but they did. They ordered thirteen more episodes, and we'll see if their faith is paid off. Boy, it would be great if this was like "Buffy," and the second season starts with some kind of new life and inspiration and quality . . . and most importantly, ratings.
FOX did cancel "Sarah Connor," which I thought was silly, since Warners just made another TERMINATOR movie that everyone's banking on to be a hit. And in the article I read, they stated that "Dollhouse" is the lowest rated show to get a renewal . . . of the year, or ever? I read an interview with Kevin Reilly, the FOX executive who okayed the renewal, and he said that the DVR numbers were good, and that if he canceled the show, "I'd probably have 110 million e-mails this morning from the fans." At first I thought that was a joke.
But folks, the FOX treatment of "Firefly" was a crime. The cancellation of "Dollhouse" was . . . well, probably just numbers. I don't see the logic in bringing it back, so it's actually possible that there was some kind of heart or intuition or faith-based reasoning behind it. We'll see if it turns out to have been a wise decision, and if season two is as good--or better--than the last three episodes of season one, then I'll be happy to keep on watching.
Well, as happy as one such as I can get.
Rish "Codename Golf" Outfield
*He was Joss's co-show runner on "Firefly," as well as doing great things on "Angel." But since he wrote the one where Echo was a blind woman, I guess he's been back before.
Monday, May 04, 2009
"Dollhouse" keeping
So, tyranist went away for a couple of weeks (guess some political dissidents needed disappearing), so we didn't get together to watch "Dollhouse" for a long time. They skipped a week anyway, so it wasn't entirely our fault
His TiVo was filled to the brim with all sorts of new shows, and we've been watching "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire," "Harper's Island," "Fringe," "Sarah Connor," and "The Unusuals," so that delayed things even further.
So, by the time I'm typing this, I guess the show is over and done with. FOX hasn't said that it's canceled (at least as far as I know, since I'm trying to avoid [further] spoilers), but the coffin's as good as nailed.
And like I said in my last "Dollhouse" post--they actually gave the show a chance (even if it was in a lousy timeslot), by showing pretty much all the episodes, and in the right order. I have to admit that I'm curious about the two shows that were shot that haven't aired, but I can talk about that when I know a) how this season ended, and b) that the show is for sure canceled.
So, first up was an episode called "Haunted," written by Jane Espenson, Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon (which, if I recall correctly, means that Jane Espenson wrote the first draft by herself, and the other two did rewrites as a team).
In it, a rich middle-aged woman named Margaret, who is good friends with Adelle DeWitt, dies. But she has had her mind uploaded at the Dollhouse, and they plug Margaret's personality into Echo. She decides to go to the funeral and spend time at her mansion to figure out who murdered her.
This was unlike any of the other episodes we'd seen, and it really showcased the range of potential stories you could do on the show. Echo/Margaret goes around, interacting with her boytoy new husband, her spoiled daughter and son, and her drunk estranged brother, trying to find out which one killed her, and discovering in the process exactly what they thought of her. She gets to be young again, and knowing that she is actually dead, she realises that the Dollhouse provides the potential for immortality.
There was a rather interesting b-story, where Topher tells Boyd Langton he needs to do some testing on the imprint machine, and ends up programming Sierra to be his best pal. They hang out and have fun, and Adelle tells Langton that it's Topher's birthday, and it would seem that the only friends he has are the ones he makes up. It went a long way--for me, anyway--to making me like Topher.
There's another subplot where Ballard takes Mellie's (or "Mellie's") fingerprint and gets his friend in the FBI to check it out on the computer. It retrieves a criminal record, but less than a second after it comes up, the screen goes blank and the monitor claims there were no results found. He goes back to his apartment, and Mellie has noticed he's been acting differently toward her. She asks him if he's found any new Dollhouse clients, and as he kisses her, he now considers himself to be one.
In the end of the show, after about a thousand twists and turns, we discover that Margaret's son killed her, and has placed the blame on his stepfather. Then, in her own handwriting, she writes a new will and letters to her loved ones, saying goodbye. She goes back to the Dollhouse, talks to Adelle, and lets herself die for real. The end.
I turned to tyranist and semi-apologised for not liking the show, because I really enjoyed "Haunted," and found it totally engaging. When I got home, I found that of the eleven episodes that have aired, this one got the lowest ratings. Merrill has a strange way of looking at ratings, and claims that people must not have liked the episode before it. Tyranist just thinks the whole ratings system is flawed, and tries not to think about it.
Because we had another episode ready to go, I didn't have much time to think, and we started up the second-to-last episode, "Briar Rose." It was written by Jane Espenson, and due to my niece clicking through the channels on the night it aired, I had had the biggest twist of the show ruined for me. To my credit, I don't believe I said anything until later.
So, Echo is in a school or orphanage or institute for troubled youth or . . . Okay, let's just say that Echo is in a classroom, reading the fairy tale of Briar Rose, which sounds a felch of a lot like Sleeping Beauty, but what do I know? There's a kid in the class who freaks out, and we discover that Echo has been programmed with an artificially-aged version of that girl's personality, in order to help her cope with the terrible experiences that led her to being troubled.
Tyranist theorised that the Dollhouse must also do charity work, since there wasn't a super-rich client footing the bill for this job, but I doubt we'll ever know for sure.
Anyway, a dead body turns up in Arizona, that looks like the handywork of Alpha, the escaped, insane Active, so they send Sierra down there in the "guise" of an FBI pathologist. Also, the NSA sends a coded message for Dominic (who is "boxed" in the Attic). They upload Dominic's personality into Victor, and he is somewhat freaked out to be there.
That, though, does open up a couple of interesting story possibilities. Let's say there's a serial killer on death row, or a terrorist who is captured, and they scan that dude's brain and stick it into, say, November/Mellie. Could she then tell them where the bodies are buried or the children are being kept or where the bomb has been planted or how the Kennedys are involved, or would she just resume the activities of the killer/terrorist and need to be captured once again? This is the second time I've had to say, "Well, I guess we'll never know."
Maybe I'll ask Joss next time I see him.
So, the A-story of this episode is rather Ballard-centric, as he breaks up with Mellie, being a little harsher than necessary. She goes off alone and he follows her when she is picked up (I wondered if she had a handler, and how that would work if she did). She's taken to a building in Century City (I'm pretty sure it was one of the ones blown up at the end of FIGHT CLUB), and Ballard realises that the Dollhouse is located beneath the city.
Back with his bald-headed FBI associate, Ballard researches the architect who designed that particular building, and goes to his house. His name is Stephen Kepler (I had to look up the guy's name so I wouldn't refer to him as Alan Tudyk), and he's a totally paranoid, stoned-out-of-his-gourd shut-in, who apparently hasn't left his apartment since a white guy was the heavyweight boxing champion. He's rather uncooperative.
Alan Tudyk is a likable, comedic actor, and the two times I'd seen him in person, I didn't know what "Firefly" was, but the part of the stoner does seem tailor made for him. He claims to know nothing about the Dollhouse, but he does remember the strange floorplan he drew up for the building. Ballard finally forces him to leave his home/hydroponics bay, and help him enter the Dollhouse. Sure enough, there's a way to climb in through an air conditioning grate, and descend to Ballard's destination.
Tudykepler is also a computer genius, and he manages to shut down the security system so Ballard can locate Echo (who he knows as Caroline). She's in her little sleep-bay, and while Tudykepler shuts the power down, Ballard pulls Echo out . . . and runs into Boyd Langton. They fight, and Ballard is taken before Adelle DeWitt. They exchange words, and it's up in the air whether they're going to just kill ex-Agent Ballard or send him to the Attic, when Adelle gets a call from Sierra. The dead body they found in Arizona is that of the architect that designed their building, some guy named Stephen Kepler.
Elsewhere, Doctor Saunders and Victor run into Alan Tudyk, who pulls out a blade and slashes Victor's face in the same way he did hers. You see, Alan Tudyk is Alpha, and the whole deal with Ballard was a diversion so he could get back into the Dollhouse and achieve his goal. He grabs Echo and puts her in the imprinting chair, uploading an unnamed personality into her. She immediately recognises Alpha as her handsome prince, come to rescue her at last, and the two of them leave the Dollhouse together. The end.
So, that's about it. I have to hand it to the writers on this one, by giving Alan Tudyk a role that so obviously suited his clownish track record, they completely lowered our guard that he could be the psychotic mastermind the show has lived in fear from since the first episode. It came as a great surprise (at least I imagine it did, since I had the surprised ruined when my niece turned the TV to FOX the other night just at the moment that Dr. Saunders sees him and says, "Alpha!"), and I really look forward to the next, final episode, where we can see him in action.
I'll just leave it at that. I'm sure I'll have something to say when the last episode airs, and who knows, maybe a miracle will happen and the show will get renewed, and I'll have to continue doing these blog posts for a good long time.
Rish Alpha-field
His TiVo was filled to the brim with all sorts of new shows, and we've been watching "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire," "Harper's Island," "Fringe," "Sarah Connor," and "The Unusuals," so that delayed things even further.
So, by the time I'm typing this, I guess the show is over and done with. FOX hasn't said that it's canceled (at least as far as I know, since I'm trying to avoid [further] spoilers), but the coffin's as good as nailed.
And like I said in my last "Dollhouse" post--they actually gave the show a chance (even if it was in a lousy timeslot), by showing pretty much all the episodes, and in the right order. I have to admit that I'm curious about the two shows that were shot that haven't aired, but I can talk about that when I know a) how this season ended, and b) that the show is for sure canceled.
So, first up was an episode called "Haunted," written by Jane Espenson, Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon (which, if I recall correctly, means that Jane Espenson wrote the first draft by herself, and the other two did rewrites as a team).
In it, a rich middle-aged woman named Margaret, who is good friends with Adelle DeWitt, dies. But she has had her mind uploaded at the Dollhouse, and they plug Margaret's personality into Echo. She decides to go to the funeral and spend time at her mansion to figure out who murdered her.
This was unlike any of the other episodes we'd seen, and it really showcased the range of potential stories you could do on the show. Echo/Margaret goes around, interacting with her boytoy new husband, her spoiled daughter and son, and her drunk estranged brother, trying to find out which one killed her, and discovering in the process exactly what they thought of her. She gets to be young again, and knowing that she is actually dead, she realises that the Dollhouse provides the potential for immortality.
There was a rather interesting b-story, where Topher tells Boyd Langton he needs to do some testing on the imprint machine, and ends up programming Sierra to be his best pal. They hang out and have fun, and Adelle tells Langton that it's Topher's birthday, and it would seem that the only friends he has are the ones he makes up. It went a long way--for me, anyway--to making me like Topher.
There's another subplot where Ballard takes Mellie's (or "Mellie's") fingerprint and gets his friend in the FBI to check it out on the computer. It retrieves a criminal record, but less than a second after it comes up, the screen goes blank and the monitor claims there were no results found. He goes back to his apartment, and Mellie has noticed he's been acting differently toward her. She asks him if he's found any new Dollhouse clients, and as he kisses her, he now considers himself to be one.
In the end of the show, after about a thousand twists and turns, we discover that Margaret's son killed her, and has placed the blame on his stepfather. Then, in her own handwriting, she writes a new will and letters to her loved ones, saying goodbye. She goes back to the Dollhouse, talks to Adelle, and lets herself die for real. The end.
I turned to tyranist and semi-apologised for not liking the show, because I really enjoyed "Haunted," and found it totally engaging. When I got home, I found that of the eleven episodes that have aired, this one got the lowest ratings. Merrill has a strange way of looking at ratings, and claims that people must not have liked the episode before it. Tyranist just thinks the whole ratings system is flawed, and tries not to think about it.
Because we had another episode ready to go, I didn't have much time to think, and we started up the second-to-last episode, "Briar Rose." It was written by Jane Espenson, and due to my niece clicking through the channels on the night it aired, I had had the biggest twist of the show ruined for me. To my credit, I don't believe I said anything until later.
So, Echo is in a school or orphanage or institute for troubled youth or . . . Okay, let's just say that Echo is in a classroom, reading the fairy tale of Briar Rose, which sounds a felch of a lot like Sleeping Beauty, but what do I know? There's a kid in the class who freaks out, and we discover that Echo has been programmed with an artificially-aged version of that girl's personality, in order to help her cope with the terrible experiences that led her to being troubled.
Tyranist theorised that the Dollhouse must also do charity work, since there wasn't a super-rich client footing the bill for this job, but I doubt we'll ever know for sure.
Anyway, a dead body turns up in Arizona, that looks like the handywork of Alpha, the escaped, insane Active, so they send Sierra down there in the "guise" of an FBI pathologist. Also, the NSA sends a coded message for Dominic (who is "boxed" in the Attic). They upload Dominic's personality into Victor, and he is somewhat freaked out to be there.
That, though, does open up a couple of interesting story possibilities. Let's say there's a serial killer on death row, or a terrorist who is captured, and they scan that dude's brain and stick it into, say, November/Mellie. Could she then tell them where the bodies are buried or the children are being kept or where the bomb has been planted or how the Kennedys are involved, or would she just resume the activities of the killer/terrorist and need to be captured once again? This is the second time I've had to say, "Well, I guess we'll never know."
Maybe I'll ask Joss next time I see him.
So, the A-story of this episode is rather Ballard-centric, as he breaks up with Mellie, being a little harsher than necessary. She goes off alone and he follows her when she is picked up (I wondered if she had a handler, and how that would work if she did). She's taken to a building in Century City (I'm pretty sure it was one of the ones blown up at the end of FIGHT CLUB), and Ballard realises that the Dollhouse is located beneath the city.
Back with his bald-headed FBI associate, Ballard researches the architect who designed that particular building, and goes to his house. His name is Stephen Kepler (I had to look up the guy's name so I wouldn't refer to him as Alan Tudyk), and he's a totally paranoid, stoned-out-of-his-gourd shut-in, who apparently hasn't left his apartment since a white guy was the heavyweight boxing champion. He's rather uncooperative.
Alan Tudyk is a likable, comedic actor, and the two times I'd seen him in person, I didn't know what "Firefly" was, but the part of the stoner does seem tailor made for him. He claims to know nothing about the Dollhouse, but he does remember the strange floorplan he drew up for the building. Ballard finally forces him to leave his home/hydroponics bay, and help him enter the Dollhouse. Sure enough, there's a way to climb in through an air conditioning grate, and descend to Ballard's destination.
Tudykepler is also a computer genius, and he manages to shut down the security system so Ballard can locate Echo (who he knows as Caroline). She's in her little sleep-bay, and while Tudykepler shuts the power down, Ballard pulls Echo out . . . and runs into Boyd Langton. They fight, and Ballard is taken before Adelle DeWitt. They exchange words, and it's up in the air whether they're going to just kill ex-Agent Ballard or send him to the Attic, when Adelle gets a call from Sierra. The dead body they found in Arizona is that of the architect that designed their building, some guy named Stephen Kepler.
Elsewhere, Doctor Saunders and Victor run into Alan Tudyk, who pulls out a blade and slashes Victor's face in the same way he did hers. You see, Alan Tudyk is Alpha, and the whole deal with Ballard was a diversion so he could get back into the Dollhouse and achieve his goal. He grabs Echo and puts her in the imprinting chair, uploading an unnamed personality into her. She immediately recognises Alpha as her handsome prince, come to rescue her at last, and the two of them leave the Dollhouse together. The end.
So, that's about it. I have to hand it to the writers on this one, by giving Alan Tudyk a role that so obviously suited his clownish track record, they completely lowered our guard that he could be the psychotic mastermind the show has lived in fear from since the first episode. It came as a great surprise (at least I imagine it did, since I had the surprised ruined when my niece turned the TV to FOX the other night just at the moment that Dr. Saunders sees him and says, "Alpha!"), and I really look forward to the next, final episode, where we can see him in action.
I'll just leave it at that. I'm sure I'll have something to say when the last episode airs, and who knows, maybe a miracle will happen and the show will get renewed, and I'll have to continue doing these blog posts for a good long time.
Rish Alpha-field
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Dollhousebreaking
I was asked the other day if I'd stopped watching "Dollhouse," since Big and I haven't talked about it on our podcast in a while. And the guy referred to it as "Dullhouse."
At first, this bothered me, because I want Joss Whedon shows to succeed, I watch it every week, and the show isn't dull.
But he did have a point in that we don't talk about the show much anymore. And even though I promised myself I'd blog every episode, I care less and less each week.
About the show, or about blogging about the show?
Yes.
It's not a bad show, no, but since the singer bodyguard episode, I haven't been really grabbed by "Dollhouse," and in watching the episode tonight, which didn't really have anything wrong with it, per se, I realised that, unlike how I felt six months ago, when the show premiered, or even a month back, I'm not going to cry a river if it's canceled.
I lived in fear every week for the first six episodes that I'd check and see the show had been axed. But now that seven have aired, I am willing to accept whatever happens, whether it's renewed or not.
That being said, I fully believe that the last three episodes of the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," are the best three episodes of its first season. Had I seen "Nightmares" or "Prophesy Girl" back in 1997, I think I might have become a fan a decade earlier than I did.
And if there are people who love "Dollhouse" for the show's sake, then I'd hate for them to lose something they love. I understand that much.
So, we watched a "Sarah Connor" that felt, to tyranist and me, like a season finale, even though there's one more episode left. They killed one of the supporting characters last week in a somewhat abrupt way, and this week, they killed one of the main characters in a totally unceremonious way, much like Joss Whedon has done on "Buffy" and in SERENITY.
I don't know if that show will be renewed for another season. We were talking about TERMINATOR 4 coming out this summer, and how if FOX is smart, they'll cash in on all the free publicity and new viewers that film might send their way, so it could come back. Neither show gets very good ratings, though.
So, the episode that night was called "A Spy In the House of Love," and it was written by one Andrew Chambliss (a name I do not recognise). In it, we find out who the mole in the Dollhouse organisation is.
They find evidence that someone is messing with the Actives and/or trying to take it down, and since Adelle DeWitt is out, Head of Security Dominic (who I always refer to as tyranist's brother) is in charge of finding out who it is. That's the A-story. Meanwhile, Victor gets sent out to romance "Miss Lonelyhearts," an old broad he often wines and dines. That's the B-story.
C-story is that Paul Ballard and (sleeping Active) Mellie are continuing to romance one another, but suddenly, she gets taken over by a subprogram and delivers another message from the Dollhouse. He is absolutely floored to find out she's a "Doll," and it makes him look at her and their relationship totally differently, even though she comes back to herself with no knowledge that she is not who she says she is. This was interesting stuff.
This was one of those shows that starts with the end first and then goes "x hours earlier," like manymanymany shows nowadays do, so we know the mole is going to be caught from the very beginning. But who will it be? Dominic puts Sierra in charge of the investigation, making her up to look like an Asian lady at the NSA, and sending her in to find their secret files on the Dollhouse.
Topher is going out of his mind, because Dominic is pointing fingers at everyone, and Echo offers to help him in the investigation. I guess she knows that she is a Doll and can have talents and knowledge loaded into her head. So Topher does so, and she helps ferret out the spy.
I don't really know why, but I found the B- and C-plots to be more interesting than the A-, and particularly loved it when Miss Lonelyhearts winds up being Adelle herself, who has Victor visit her with a suave British accent at her home from time to time. She confides in him the nature of what she does in the Dollhouse and how she feels doing it, and when Victor comments on Adelle's sad, pathetic clients, she remarks at how ironic that is. In my favourite moment in the show, he chuckles at how people always misunderstand what ironic means, just like she did.
Well, Sierra finds the evidence of who the mole is, and everything is fine . . . at least until Echo reveals that information to be false, planted by Dominic, since he was the mole all along. Well, he is captured, and they take him to the Attic, which is a horrible-sounding place we've not yet seen. Apparently, they'll wipe his memory and stick him in some kind of stasis coffin, only to be brought out, brainwashed, if ever they have use for him again. The end.
The episode was a pretty good one, with the usual number of twists and turns, and it would be a long time before I'd see the show again. Not that this really has anything to do with that, but there was a big snowstorm during that day and night, designed specifically to ruin April.
On the way home from watching this episode at tyranist's house, I was in a car accident. I wasn't going very fast, and it was late enough at night that nobody else crashed into me when my car spun out of control and ended up facing the wrong way on the freeway. Luckily, only the back of my car was smashed in, so I was able to start up the engine again and get turned around and drive home alright (even though, I kid you not, the goddamn car spun out of control twice more before I got home, BOTH times also facing the wrong way of traffic). This is the sort of thing that makes me want to pack up my things and head to California right this minute.
Except that now I have to spend my move-back-to-L.A. money on fixing my car, or, if they decide it's not worth fixing, get a new car. Ah well.
At first, this bothered me, because I want Joss Whedon shows to succeed, I watch it every week, and the show isn't dull.
But he did have a point in that we don't talk about the show much anymore. And even though I promised myself I'd blog every episode, I care less and less each week.
About the show, or about blogging about the show?
Yes.
It's not a bad show, no, but since the singer bodyguard episode, I haven't been really grabbed by "Dollhouse," and in watching the episode tonight, which didn't really have anything wrong with it, per se, I realised that, unlike how I felt six months ago, when the show premiered, or even a month back, I'm not going to cry a river if it's canceled.
I lived in fear every week for the first six episodes that I'd check and see the show had been axed. But now that seven have aired, I am willing to accept whatever happens, whether it's renewed or not.
That being said, I fully believe that the last three episodes of the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," are the best three episodes of its first season. Had I seen "Nightmares" or "Prophesy Girl" back in 1997, I think I might have become a fan a decade earlier than I did.
And if there are people who love "Dollhouse" for the show's sake, then I'd hate for them to lose something they love. I understand that much.
So, we watched a "Sarah Connor" that felt, to tyranist and me, like a season finale, even though there's one more episode left. They killed one of the supporting characters last week in a somewhat abrupt way, and this week, they killed one of the main characters in a totally unceremonious way, much like Joss Whedon has done on "Buffy" and in SERENITY.
I don't know if that show will be renewed for another season. We were talking about TERMINATOR 4 coming out this summer, and how if FOX is smart, they'll cash in on all the free publicity and new viewers that film might send their way, so it could come back. Neither show gets very good ratings, though.
So, the episode that night was called "A Spy In the House of Love," and it was written by one Andrew Chambliss (a name I do not recognise). In it, we find out who the mole in the Dollhouse organisation is.
They find evidence that someone is messing with the Actives and/or trying to take it down, and since Adelle DeWitt is out, Head of Security Dominic (who I always refer to as tyranist's brother) is in charge of finding out who it is. That's the A-story. Meanwhile, Victor gets sent out to romance "Miss Lonelyhearts," an old broad he often wines and dines. That's the B-story.
C-story is that Paul Ballard and (sleeping Active) Mellie are continuing to romance one another, but suddenly, she gets taken over by a subprogram and delivers another message from the Dollhouse. He is absolutely floored to find out she's a "Doll," and it makes him look at her and their relationship totally differently, even though she comes back to herself with no knowledge that she is not who she says she is. This was interesting stuff.
This was one of those shows that starts with the end first and then goes "x hours earlier," like manymanymany shows nowadays do, so we know the mole is going to be caught from the very beginning. But who will it be? Dominic puts Sierra in charge of the investigation, making her up to look like an Asian lady at the NSA, and sending her in to find their secret files on the Dollhouse.
Topher is going out of his mind, because Dominic is pointing fingers at everyone, and Echo offers to help him in the investigation. I guess she knows that she is a Doll and can have talents and knowledge loaded into her head. So Topher does so, and she helps ferret out the spy.
I don't really know why, but I found the B- and C-plots to be more interesting than the A-, and particularly loved it when Miss Lonelyhearts winds up being Adelle herself, who has Victor visit her with a suave British accent at her home from time to time. She confides in him the nature of what she does in the Dollhouse and how she feels doing it, and when Victor comments on Adelle's sad, pathetic clients, she remarks at how ironic that is. In my favourite moment in the show, he chuckles at how people always misunderstand what ironic means, just like she did.
Well, Sierra finds the evidence of who the mole is, and everything is fine . . . at least until Echo reveals that information to be false, planted by Dominic, since he was the mole all along. Well, he is captured, and they take him to the Attic, which is a horrible-sounding place we've not yet seen. Apparently, they'll wipe his memory and stick him in some kind of stasis coffin, only to be brought out, brainwashed, if ever they have use for him again. The end.
The episode was a pretty good one, with the usual number of twists and turns, and it would be a long time before I'd see the show again. Not that this really has anything to do with that, but there was a big snowstorm during that day and night, designed specifically to ruin April.
On the way home from watching this episode at tyranist's house, I was in a car accident. I wasn't going very fast, and it was late enough at night that nobody else crashed into me when my car spun out of control and ended up facing the wrong way on the freeway. Luckily, only the back of my car was smashed in, so I was able to start up the engine again and get turned around and drive home alright (even though, I kid you not, the goddamn car spun out of control twice more before I got home, BOTH times also facing the wrong way of traffic). This is the sort of thing that makes me want to pack up my things and head to California right this minute.
Except that now I have to spend my move-back-to-L.A. money on fixing my car, or, if they decide it's not worth fixing, get a new car. Ah well.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Campus Dollhouse
So, tyranist and I have watched the last two episodes of "Dollhouse," and I guess I'll blog about them, though I have little to say.
First up was "Echoes," not to be confused with "Echo," which never aired. It was written by Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain, and had Echo back with the motorcycle dude from the teaser of the first episode. Meanwhile, there was a death (a mysterious death, though I probably don't need to use the word "mysterious" on a show like . . . well, any show, really) on a college campus, and the Dollhouse team are brought in to get to the bottom of it. There was some kind of psychotropic drug released into the atmosphere, and everyone who is exposed to it (looks like it's passed from person to person by touch) goes a little bit loopy.
Echo sees what's happening on a news report, and feels compelled to return to the campus, even though she doesn't know why. We learn why: Echo, when she was Caroline, was responsible for a mishap there, because of the animal testing that was going on in one of the labs. Caroline, it would seem, was a bit of an activist* and all concerned about naughty corporations and secret experiments and poor cuddly animals. She was also responsible for the release of rage-infected monkeys in the U.K. not long before.
Anyway, Echo goes to the campus, and because she's acting strange, is taken to where the infected folks are. One of them is a young black dude who was there when the mysterious death occurred--a med student-type had a vial of something, then started freaking out, and smashed his head against a window until the credits started--and he decides to help Echo get to the lab where she is impelled to go.
Along the way, she begins to remember what happened to Caroline in the same place. Meanwhile, other people are being affected by the drug, and Victor and Sierra start acting strange, and Topher and Adelle act all stoned and relaxed.
In the end, it is revealed that the friendly black student with Echo is the one who got the guy in the teaser killed, and he's forced to attack Echo to protect his secret. The tables are turned on him, though, and Echo, trippingly remembering getting her boyfriend killed on the campus, subdues him until he can be taken away.
Caroline, instead of any prosecution for her actions, was given the choice to become an Active, which she accepted. The young black student (who I should have learned the name of, but didn't) is given the same choice. I thought that was pretty cool.
This episode was a pretty good one. I don't really have a problem with it, but nothing is standing out for me now. Oh wait, Eliza looked real good in her little skirt and leggings. So there's that.
Sometimes, I swear I see her struggling with the material (in the script, not on her body). It's something in her posture or what her hands do that tells me, "She's not quite able to pull this off." I wonder if anyone else has noticed that.**
I'm starting to like Topher less and less, but I can't really say why.
More on that later. Or maybe never.
The most recent episode was called "Needs," and it was written by Tracy Bellomo.
And basically, we see that a bunch of technical problems are happening at the Dollhouse--the computers are on the fritz, the lights are turning on and off, doors that should be locked are unlocking, and FOX is allowing "American Idol" to run long so it cuts off part of "Fringe."
Speaking of problems, each of our main Actives are, conveniently enough, the ones who are "glitching" the most. So, Adelle and Dr. Saunders and company come up with a plan to give them what they yearn for, and see if it fixes them. Actually, this isn't revealed until the very end of the episode. For the bulk of it, we're to believe that something went wrong, and the five Actives that we're focusing on: Echo, Victor, Sierra, November, and a new guy are awakened in a not entirely blank state.
They reason among themselves that they've been brought there against their will and that they have to play along like the rest of the Dolls, and see if they're able to get out of there.
Eventually, they not only get out of the Dollhouse, but out of the building and onto the streets. November remembers she has a daughter and wants to see her. Sierra remembers the face and name of a man who hurt her, and wants to go there to confront him. Victor just wants to go where Sierra goes. And Echo, well, she's not content to leave, but wants to free all the others who are being held captive in the building.
The whole point is that Dr. Saunders believes these Actives are acting up because they have unfinished business, and that, if they achieve closure on that, they'll normalise. So, when November finds the grave of the child she used to have, she falls asleep. Sierra faces this man who mistreated her (and he's aware of her being an Active, and even seems to have been responsible for her going to the Dollhouse), and Victor sweeps her away from there, proclaiming his love for her. They kiss, and both fall asleep.
Echo beats a couple people up, which is her way, and rounds up the blank Actives from the Dollhouse (tyranist and I have wondered if there's only twenty-six of them, but she either rescues all of them, or there's a lot more than twenty-six), and marches them right out of there. As soon as she reaches the light of day, she falls asleep too. They had all been programmed to go unconscious as soon as they got that closure they needed (Victor's was to get the girl). We further find out that, had Saunders not suggested this solution, the other option was to send these four to the Attic (which is where bad Actives go when they die). The end.
This was another good episode. It did that Joss Whedon where we're led to believe one thing, then, via flashback, we find we only got half of the conversation and were tricked (though I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two times he's done it it).
Originally, this was two posts, neither of which talked about the plot. I just wrote up my thoughts about the show on each, including my feelings about its impending cancellation. These two are so long in coming that a third episode has since aired, so I think I'll just stop here and include that other stuff in the next post.
Be well,
Rish Outfield
*Which is similar to Active, I guess, though it has no relevance.
**I've heard people call her a bad actress, but everybody who knows nothing about acting has called everybody a bad actor, from Mark Hamill to Al Pacino, so who knows?
First up was "Echoes," not to be confused with "Echo," which never aired. It was written by Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain, and had Echo back with the motorcycle dude from the teaser of the first episode. Meanwhile, there was a death (a mysterious death, though I probably don't need to use the word "mysterious" on a show like . . . well, any show, really) on a college campus, and the Dollhouse team are brought in to get to the bottom of it. There was some kind of psychotropic drug released into the atmosphere, and everyone who is exposed to it (looks like it's passed from person to person by touch) goes a little bit loopy.
Echo sees what's happening on a news report, and feels compelled to return to the campus, even though she doesn't know why. We learn why: Echo, when she was Caroline, was responsible for a mishap there, because of the animal testing that was going on in one of the labs. Caroline, it would seem, was a bit of an activist* and all concerned about naughty corporations and secret experiments and poor cuddly animals. She was also responsible for the release of rage-infected monkeys in the U.K. not long before.
Anyway, Echo goes to the campus, and because she's acting strange, is taken to where the infected folks are. One of them is a young black dude who was there when the mysterious death occurred--a med student-type had a vial of something, then started freaking out, and smashed his head against a window until the credits started--and he decides to help Echo get to the lab where she is impelled to go.
Along the way, she begins to remember what happened to Caroline in the same place. Meanwhile, other people are being affected by the drug, and Victor and Sierra start acting strange, and Topher and Adelle act all stoned and relaxed.
In the end, it is revealed that the friendly black student with Echo is the one who got the guy in the teaser killed, and he's forced to attack Echo to protect his secret. The tables are turned on him, though, and Echo, trippingly remembering getting her boyfriend killed on the campus, subdues him until he can be taken away.
Caroline, instead of any prosecution for her actions, was given the choice to become an Active, which she accepted. The young black student (who I should have learned the name of, but didn't) is given the same choice. I thought that was pretty cool.
This episode was a pretty good one. I don't really have a problem with it, but nothing is standing out for me now. Oh wait, Eliza looked real good in her little skirt and leggings. So there's that.
Sometimes, I swear I see her struggling with the material (in the script, not on her body). It's something in her posture or what her hands do that tells me, "She's not quite able to pull this off." I wonder if anyone else has noticed that.**
I'm starting to like Topher less and less, but I can't really say why.
More on that later. Or maybe never.
The most recent episode was called "Needs," and it was written by Tracy Bellomo.
And basically, we see that a bunch of technical problems are happening at the Dollhouse--the computers are on the fritz, the lights are turning on and off, doors that should be locked are unlocking, and FOX is allowing "American Idol" to run long so it cuts off part of "Fringe."
Speaking of problems, each of our main Actives are, conveniently enough, the ones who are "glitching" the most. So, Adelle and Dr. Saunders and company come up with a plan to give them what they yearn for, and see if it fixes them. Actually, this isn't revealed until the very end of the episode. For the bulk of it, we're to believe that something went wrong, and the five Actives that we're focusing on: Echo, Victor, Sierra, November, and a new guy are awakened in a not entirely blank state.
They reason among themselves that they've been brought there against their will and that they have to play along like the rest of the Dolls, and see if they're able to get out of there.
Eventually, they not only get out of the Dollhouse, but out of the building and onto the streets. November remembers she has a daughter and wants to see her. Sierra remembers the face and name of a man who hurt her, and wants to go there to confront him. Victor just wants to go where Sierra goes. And Echo, well, she's not content to leave, but wants to free all the others who are being held captive in the building.
The whole point is that Dr. Saunders believes these Actives are acting up because they have unfinished business, and that, if they achieve closure on that, they'll normalise. So, when November finds the grave of the child she used to have, she falls asleep. Sierra faces this man who mistreated her (and he's aware of her being an Active, and even seems to have been responsible for her going to the Dollhouse), and Victor sweeps her away from there, proclaiming his love for her. They kiss, and both fall asleep.
Echo beats a couple people up, which is her way, and rounds up the blank Actives from the Dollhouse (tyranist and I have wondered if there's only twenty-six of them, but she either rescues all of them, or there's a lot more than twenty-six), and marches them right out of there. As soon as she reaches the light of day, she falls asleep too. They had all been programmed to go unconscious as soon as they got that closure they needed (Victor's was to get the girl). We further find out that, had Saunders not suggested this solution, the other option was to send these four to the Attic (which is where bad Actives go when they die). The end.
This was another good episode. It did that Joss Whedon where we're led to believe one thing, then, via flashback, we find we only got half of the conversation and were tricked (though I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two times he's done it it).
Originally, this was two posts, neither of which talked about the plot. I just wrote up my thoughts about the show on each, including my feelings about its impending cancellation. These two are so long in coming that a third episode has since aired, so I think I'll just stop here and include that other stuff in the next post.
Be well,
Rish Outfield
*Which is similar to Active, I guess, though it has no relevance.
**I've heard people call her a bad actress, but everybody who knows nothing about acting has called everybody a bad actor, from Mark Hamill to Al Pacino, so who knows?
Monday, March 23, 2009
"Dollhouse" cleaning?
Look, I can't come up with something clever every week. As Khan said, maybe I no longer need to try.
So, tyranist and I got together for our weekly TV watching. I actually enjoyed tonight's "Sarah Conner Chronicles," which hasn't been the case in a very long time.
I was looking forward to the "Dollhouse" episode that followed it, because people were saying that this was a "Mythology" episode, the way that they would any time "The X-Files" would stop the episodic paranormal investigations and look at aliens and conspiracies and black ooze and cigarette smoking dudes.
This week's episode was called "Man on the Street," and it was written by some guy named Joss Whedon. It is framed by a television news report on the Dollhouse, asking people on the sidewalk (on Hollywood Boulevard) if they believed the Dollhouse was real. Tyranist and I watched these closely because, had we written this episode, you would've seen Echo or Sierra or Golf or somebody walk past just as the guy being interviewed says, "Nahh, that's just like bigfoot in the city. There's no Dollhouse."
Didn't happen, though.
It felt to me, like something of a catch-up episode, in case you hadn't been watching much. It didn't even start with the usual "In every generation, there is a Dollhouse..." set-up, but went a bit more in depth as to what the show was about. I thought it worked, even though I could see the seams.
Anyhow, this episode was about FBI Agent Paul Ballard more than Echo, and we follow him as he finds a lead that's what he's really been looking for. Turns out that there's an internet zillionaire played by Patton Oswald, who hires out the Dollhouse every year on his wife's deathday, and they send someone (maybe it's always Echo, maybe it's not) out to the new house he had bought to surprise her before she was killed in a car accident. Echo arrives, thinking she's his wife, he takes her inside, they have champagne, they have intercourse on all the kitchen appliances.
So, Paul Ballard goes to this house, takes out Patton Oswald's bodyguards, and comes in with his gun drawn, meeting Echo for the first time.* Well, she thinks she's the wife and has no idea what's going on, and a moment later, Langton the Handler whisks her away, leaving Ballard and Patton Oswald to talk. We hear the story of how he kept his internet success secret from his wife until he could buy them her dream home, and that she died before she ever found out, and through the services of the Dollhouse, he is able to get that moment with her the Sky Bully stole from him.
It's actually much nicer than I'm making it out to be, and while I find it rather Sci-Fi that a hot chick would marry Patton Oswald when he was penniless, these are the sorts of fantasies that keep us from pulling a Sergei Kravinoff. One of the bodyguards comes to, and calls the police, which finally arrive. Of course, Ballard has no proof, so he is seen as a wacko, and that's the final straw at the FBI, and he is suspended.
There is a subplot that is rather significant. Over at the Dollhouse, our gal Sierra starts to freak out whenever Victor touches her. The brains start to wonder if she is getting molested by Victor at night. They play back the security tapes, and nothing like that is going on. Sierra's handler is pretty sure it's Victor, and he comes off as something of a tool around Boyd Langton. Langton goes around the building until he finds a spot where the security cameras don't show.
Sierra's handler is vindicated when security take Victor away for mistreating Sierra, hauling him to the doghouse, where he is to be neutered. Sierra's handler then takes Sierra to a shady alcove away from the cameras to perform sex acts, only to have Langton step out of the shadows and deck him. The Victor-thing was just a ruse to catch him in the act.
Back on the a-story, Ballard seeks refuge in the quite-capable arms of Mellie, his unsettlingly hot neighbour. He tells her all that he found out, and she tells him she believes in him and will help him find out the truth about the Dollhouse. Then, they roll around in the sheets.
We find out that there are cameras placed in Mellie's and/or Ballard's apartment, so Adelle and the Dollhouse can monitor them. Mellie knows too much. Adelle tells Sierra's disgraced handler that, if he goes to her house and murders her, then he will atone for his crimes and they won't terminate his employment.
Ballard goes out to get ice cream and Chinese food and KY Jelly, and runs into Echo there. We get a fast-paced Buffyesque fight scene, but then Echo suddenly stops. We were led to believe in an earlier scene that someone may have tampered with her upload, and now, she tells Ballard that he has a friend inside the Dollhouse, and that together, they may be able to take the organisation down. Echo doesn't know who it is (and won't remember this conversation ever taking place), but they'll communicate again.
Back at Mellie's place, Sierra's handler bursts in, beats her up a bit, and starts choking her. Mellie's answering machine picks up a call, and it is Adelle's voice, uttering a phrase that triggers a subpersonality in Mellie. She becomes a superhuman killer, and kills her attacker instead. Yes, she too is an Active.
When Ballard gets home, Mellie has no memory of being triggered, and thinks that she managed to kill the assailant by accident. They hug. The end.
There was a heck of a lot going on in this episode. My chief complaint to tyranist was that this probably should have been two episodes, so that this information, the fights, the revelation, and the sex would have had more impact.
My friend Merrill, however, told me he thought this show was better than the first four episodes combined. So there's that.
I think I would've enjoyed the show more if A) I hadn't heard it was totally awesome before I saw it, and B) if I hadn't considered that Mellie might be an Active in the past. I'm sure it would've been an awesome surprise, especially if you thought our girl Mellie was about to meet her end.
Tyranist and I did talk about the mole inside the Dollhouse that gave Ballard the message through Echo. I thought it might have been Amy Acker or Alpha The Rogue Active. He thought it might have been Echo herself, or Amy Acker, or maybe, more intriguing, no one at all . . . that there is no mole, but that she was programmed to act like there was a mole to further mislead Ballard.
Time will tell, of course, and since this show has still not been canceled, we may actually find out.
Rish Outfield
*Unless you've already seen them meet in the unaired pilot like I have.
So, tyranist and I got together for our weekly TV watching. I actually enjoyed tonight's "Sarah Conner Chronicles," which hasn't been the case in a very long time.
I was looking forward to the "Dollhouse" episode that followed it, because people were saying that this was a "Mythology" episode, the way that they would any time "The X-Files" would stop the episodic paranormal investigations and look at aliens and conspiracies and black ooze and cigarette smoking dudes.
This week's episode was called "Man on the Street," and it was written by some guy named Joss Whedon. It is framed by a television news report on the Dollhouse, asking people on the sidewalk (on Hollywood Boulevard) if they believed the Dollhouse was real. Tyranist and I watched these closely because, had we written this episode, you would've seen Echo or Sierra or Golf or somebody walk past just as the guy being interviewed says, "Nahh, that's just like bigfoot in the city. There's no Dollhouse."
Didn't happen, though.
It felt to me, like something of a catch-up episode, in case you hadn't been watching much. It didn't even start with the usual "In every generation, there is a Dollhouse..." set-up, but went a bit more in depth as to what the show was about. I thought it worked, even though I could see the seams.
Anyhow, this episode was about FBI Agent Paul Ballard more than Echo, and we follow him as he finds a lead that's what he's really been looking for. Turns out that there's an internet zillionaire played by Patton Oswald, who hires out the Dollhouse every year on his wife's deathday, and they send someone (maybe it's always Echo, maybe it's not) out to the new house he had bought to surprise her before she was killed in a car accident. Echo arrives, thinking she's his wife, he takes her inside, they have champagne, they have intercourse on all the kitchen appliances.
So, Paul Ballard goes to this house, takes out Patton Oswald's bodyguards, and comes in with his gun drawn, meeting Echo for the first time.* Well, she thinks she's the wife and has no idea what's going on, and a moment later, Langton the Handler whisks her away, leaving Ballard and Patton Oswald to talk. We hear the story of how he kept his internet success secret from his wife until he could buy them her dream home, and that she died before she ever found out, and through the services of the Dollhouse, he is able to get that moment with her the Sky Bully stole from him.
It's actually much nicer than I'm making it out to be, and while I find it rather Sci-Fi that a hot chick would marry Patton Oswald when he was penniless, these are the sorts of fantasies that keep us from pulling a Sergei Kravinoff. One of the bodyguards comes to, and calls the police, which finally arrive. Of course, Ballard has no proof, so he is seen as a wacko, and that's the final straw at the FBI, and he is suspended.
There is a subplot that is rather significant. Over at the Dollhouse, our gal Sierra starts to freak out whenever Victor touches her. The brains start to wonder if she is getting molested by Victor at night. They play back the security tapes, and nothing like that is going on. Sierra's handler is pretty sure it's Victor, and he comes off as something of a tool around Boyd Langton. Langton goes around the building until he finds a spot where the security cameras don't show.
Sierra's handler is vindicated when security take Victor away for mistreating Sierra, hauling him to the doghouse, where he is to be neutered. Sierra's handler then takes Sierra to a shady alcove away from the cameras to perform sex acts, only to have Langton step out of the shadows and deck him. The Victor-thing was just a ruse to catch him in the act.
Back on the a-story, Ballard seeks refuge in the quite-capable arms of Mellie, his unsettlingly hot neighbour. He tells her all that he found out, and she tells him she believes in him and will help him find out the truth about the Dollhouse. Then, they roll around in the sheets.
We find out that there are cameras placed in Mellie's and/or Ballard's apartment, so Adelle and the Dollhouse can monitor them. Mellie knows too much. Adelle tells Sierra's disgraced handler that, if he goes to her house and murders her, then he will atone for his crimes and they won't terminate his employment.
Ballard goes out to get ice cream and Chinese food and KY Jelly, and runs into Echo there. We get a fast-paced Buffyesque fight scene, but then Echo suddenly stops. We were led to believe in an earlier scene that someone may have tampered with her upload, and now, she tells Ballard that he has a friend inside the Dollhouse, and that together, they may be able to take the organisation down. Echo doesn't know who it is (and won't remember this conversation ever taking place), but they'll communicate again.
Back at Mellie's place, Sierra's handler bursts in, beats her up a bit, and starts choking her. Mellie's answering machine picks up a call, and it is Adelle's voice, uttering a phrase that triggers a subpersonality in Mellie. She becomes a superhuman killer, and kills her attacker instead. Yes, she too is an Active.
When Ballard gets home, Mellie has no memory of being triggered, and thinks that she managed to kill the assailant by accident. They hug. The end.
There was a heck of a lot going on in this episode. My chief complaint to tyranist was that this probably should have been two episodes, so that this information, the fights, the revelation, and the sex would have had more impact.
My friend Merrill, however, told me he thought this show was better than the first four episodes combined. So there's that.
I think I would've enjoyed the show more if A) I hadn't heard it was totally awesome before I saw it, and B) if I hadn't considered that Mellie might be an Active in the past. I'm sure it would've been an awesome surprise, especially if you thought our girl Mellie was about to meet her end.
Tyranist and I did talk about the mole inside the Dollhouse that gave Ballard the message through Echo. I thought it might have been Amy Acker or Alpha The Rogue Active. He thought it might have been Echo herself, or Amy Acker, or maybe, more intriguing, no one at all . . . that there is no mole, but that she was programmed to act like there was a mole to further mislead Ballard.
Time will tell, of course, and since this show has still not been canceled, we may actually find out.
Rish Outfield
*Unless you've already seen them meet in the unaired pilot like I have.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
"Dollhouse" of the Lord
This week's episode was called "True Believer," and it was written by Tim Minear.
So, some singing members of a religious cult go into town to buy supplies, passing a note to the cashier at the gas station. On the back of the note, they find a plea for help. So, Echo is sent in there to gain the trust of the group, and especially their leader, who never comes out of there. The Dollhouse implants Echo with a camera in her eyes, and takes away her sight, so that she'll be blind. I didn't really get it either, but if you can buy that people can be imprinted with skills, personality, and memories, you should be able to accept that they can make you blind and turn you into a breathing camcorder.
Paul Ballard tries to find Echo/Caroline by using one of those facial recognition programs, but it turns nothing up. He also grows closer to his friendly neighbour Ellie, though that seems like little comfort to Agent Ballard.
Echo's personality is a very sweet, very trusting young woman, and sure enough, the group takes her into their compound. Their leader does check to make sure she's really blind, and is suspicious of her . . . but not too much to take her into his armoury, where the government agents (and Langton) can see enough guns to give Ted Nugent an erection.
Echo, apparently, has not been given any special instructions beyond joining them and convincing them of her faith. But once the g-men arrive and surround the compound, the religious leader knows who must have brought them there. He punches Echo, and a miracle happens . . . her sight returns.
Oh, and speaking of miracles (and erections), it would seem that Victor, the "Russian" Active, has been renobbing out when he sees Sierra in the shower. This should not be possible because the Dolls, when they are in their childlike state, are supposedly incapable of this sort of thing. And also, while they're sleeping, they are flashed images of Rosie O'Donnell dressed in leather, to further prevent boneage.
Anyway, the cult leader starts a fire, deciding that they should all burn up and depend on the Lord to protect them, but Echo knocks him out and tells everyone that they should live rather than throw their lives away on their knees. Well, Langton gets her out of there, and only the cult leader ends up dying. In the end, we find out that the government agent in charge of everything had manipulated the events so he could get a warrant and raid the compound, even going so far as to write the "Help me" note himself.
But I'm sure miracles still happen, kids. If "Dollhouse" gets a second season, that'll be one of them.
The end.
Tyranist felt oh, so sad for Ellie, and mentioned it, oh, I'd say ninety times throughout the show. But Ellie is so ridiculously attractive that she not only makes Echo look like a battery acid gargler . . . but I'm starting to suspect that she too is an Active, placed conveniently in Ballard's life so that he'll stop looking in any other direction but hers.
Hey, it could happen.
Also, I'm starting to think her name is Mellie rather than Ellie, even though I'm sure I heard it without the "M" the first time. And maybe it's like that piece of crap animated LORD OF THE RINGS, where Saruman was called "Haruman" literally every other time he was addressed. It breaks my heart that people I respect own that movie.
I didn't much care for this episode.
I don't know why, exactly.
I guess I found the erection humour less than hilarious, and I just plain didn't GET the A-story.*
I have a real problem with religious nutjobs, and frankly, with overtly religious people of any kind, and my least favourite "Firefly" episode also happened to be the one with the religious cult.
I'm probably just too close to it.
However, I'm guessing that other people liked it, since it did get the highest ratings of the series beyond the first episode.
Rish Outfield
*Tyranist pointed out that I completely missed what happened to the chief antagonist, so maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Sorry.
So, some singing members of a religious cult go into town to buy supplies, passing a note to the cashier at the gas station. On the back of the note, they find a plea for help. So, Echo is sent in there to gain the trust of the group, and especially their leader, who never comes out of there. The Dollhouse implants Echo with a camera in her eyes, and takes away her sight, so that she'll be blind. I didn't really get it either, but if you can buy that people can be imprinted with skills, personality, and memories, you should be able to accept that they can make you blind and turn you into a breathing camcorder.
Paul Ballard tries to find Echo/Caroline by using one of those facial recognition programs, but it turns nothing up. He also grows closer to his friendly neighbour Ellie, though that seems like little comfort to Agent Ballard.
Echo's personality is a very sweet, very trusting young woman, and sure enough, the group takes her into their compound. Their leader does check to make sure she's really blind, and is suspicious of her . . . but not too much to take her into his armoury, where the government agents (and Langton) can see enough guns to give Ted Nugent an erection.
Echo, apparently, has not been given any special instructions beyond joining them and convincing them of her faith. But once the g-men arrive and surround the compound, the religious leader knows who must have brought them there. He punches Echo, and a miracle happens . . . her sight returns.
Oh, and speaking of miracles (and erections), it would seem that Victor, the "Russian" Active, has been renobbing out when he sees Sierra in the shower. This should not be possible because the Dolls, when they are in their childlike state, are supposedly incapable of this sort of thing. And also, while they're sleeping, they are flashed images of Rosie O'Donnell dressed in leather, to further prevent boneage.
Anyway, the cult leader starts a fire, deciding that they should all burn up and depend on the Lord to protect them, but Echo knocks him out and tells everyone that they should live rather than throw their lives away on their knees. Well, Langton gets her out of there, and only the cult leader ends up dying. In the end, we find out that the government agent in charge of everything had manipulated the events so he could get a warrant and raid the compound, even going so far as to write the "Help me" note himself.
But I'm sure miracles still happen, kids. If "Dollhouse" gets a second season, that'll be one of them.
The end.
Tyranist felt oh, so sad for Ellie, and mentioned it, oh, I'd say ninety times throughout the show. But Ellie is so ridiculously attractive that she not only makes Echo look like a battery acid gargler . . . but I'm starting to suspect that she too is an Active, placed conveniently in Ballard's life so that he'll stop looking in any other direction but hers.
Hey, it could happen.
Also, I'm starting to think her name is Mellie rather than Ellie, even though I'm sure I heard it without the "M" the first time. And maybe it's like that piece of crap animated LORD OF THE RINGS, where Saruman was called "Haruman" literally every other time he was addressed. It breaks my heart that people I respect own that movie.
I didn't much care for this episode.
I don't know why, exactly.
I guess I found the erection humour less than hilarious, and I just plain didn't GET the A-story.*
I have a real problem with religious nutjobs, and frankly, with overtly religious people of any kind, and my least favourite "Firefly" episode also happened to be the one with the religious cult.
I'm probably just too close to it.
However, I'm guessing that other people liked it, since it did get the highest ratings of the series beyond the first episode.
Rish Outfield
*Tyranist pointed out that I completely missed what happened to the chief antagonist, so maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Sorry.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
"Dollhouse" work
So, the last episode we saw (and fourth episode of the series) was called "Grey Hour," written by Sarah Fain & Elizabeth Craft.
As I type this, I quickly check my sources to see if "Dollhouse" has been canceled.
Nope, not yet.
So, in this latest unnecessarily sexed-up episode, Echo gets imprinted with what appears to be the personality of a hot slutty chick. She goes to a nice hotel with a couple of dudes, mounts them, and then goes running down the hall calling for help when they apparently mistreat her. The hotel concierge takes her in the back room and apologises for what happened, and in return for her silence, attempts to bribe her with a stack of cash. She decks him.
Apparently, this was all a ruse to get her access to this back room, and Echo is actually a confident, competent, and hot thief. She gets her partners-in-crime, the two young dudes, and a a nervous art expert, to come in the room with her, and they blast a hole in the hotel wall, leading them right into the museum next door, which just happens to be upgrading its security system for the next few hours.
Echo's new personality is very self-assured, and takes charge immediately. They get into a high-tech vault, where zillions of dollars of stolen art and antiquities are kept. I saw the Ark of the Covenant, the actual Excalibur sword, and John Dillinger's penis in there. Well, the nebbishy art expert gets when he wanted, pulls a gun, shoots one of them, and makes it out of the vault with a sickeningly valuable sculpture, closing the others inside.
Echo calls her handler, and he catches the thief (who stole from the other thieves, who were apparently taking stolen property from other thieves). He's talking to Echo on the phone, when there's a strange sound through the earpiece, and suddenly Echo is back to her default, childlike state. "Did I fall asleep?" she asks. She has been rebooted.
Well, the two remaining thieves don't get what's going on, or why their ringleader suddenly has the IQ of a Larry the Cable Guy fan. They try and get her to remember how she was going to get them out, but the knowledge is simply not there.
Back at the 'house, Topher the technogeek is freaking out, since someone hacked into the system, and using their extensive knowledge about Dollhouse operations, has wiped Echo's imprinting. His best guess is that Alpha, the rogue Active, was not killed as everyone was told. He tells Adelle, and with time running out, they grab Sierra and imprint her with the same personality that Echo had.
This is a really interesting transformation, and I gotta say, I'm more impressed with this Sierra chick every week. She's furious that someone else got her gig, and is initially unwilling to help, since the woman they put in charge of the heist was obviously incompetent. There's not enough time to get her down to the building and inside before the security system gets back online, but she calls Echo on the phone and tries to talk her out of the vault.
Echo doesn't know what she's doing, and triggers the vault door alarm. Before the security guards can arrive, she and the other thief grab the injured third man, and get the hell out of there.
Meanwhile, Boyd Langton is tired of waiting around, and he goes to the hotel and into the back room to rescue Echo. He arrives just in time to see that, somehow, his rebooted Active still managed to escape without being caught. They get her back to the Dollhouse and everything is back to normal (except that Topher now knows that Alpha is still out there, and is playing with Echo for some reason). Echo looks at herself in the mirror . . . but what does she see? The end.
This was a very interesting, very well-done show. I didn't love it like I did the episode before, but it's keeping me going. It also got terrible ratings, which I can't explain (strangely, the next week's show was up not only higher than this one, but higher than the one before too), but I enjoyed it.
I was telling tyranist that, were it my show, I'm sure I wouldn't have had the second/third episode be the one where Echo's assignment/John has lied and just wants to murder her, and I certainly wouldn't have had her get wiped in the field on just the fourth episode. Those seem like later season-type stories, where you turn the adventure on its ear, since the first few episodes should be to introduce the world and the typical adventures the character will have.
However, maybe, like "Firefly," they're aware that they might not get the chance to do these episodes, the stories they really want to tell, so they front-loaded them, making sure the ones they really want to see are seen.
We'll see how many more they get.
Rish Outfield
As I type this, I quickly check my sources to see if "Dollhouse" has been canceled.
Nope, not yet.
So, in this latest unnecessarily sexed-up episode, Echo gets imprinted with what appears to be the personality of a hot slutty chick. She goes to a nice hotel with a couple of dudes, mounts them, and then goes running down the hall calling for help when they apparently mistreat her. The hotel concierge takes her in the back room and apologises for what happened, and in return for her silence, attempts to bribe her with a stack of cash. She decks him.
Apparently, this was all a ruse to get her access to this back room, and Echo is actually a confident, competent, and hot thief. She gets her partners-in-crime, the two young dudes, and a a nervous art expert, to come in the room with her, and they blast a hole in the hotel wall, leading them right into the museum next door, which just happens to be upgrading its security system for the next few hours.
Echo's new personality is very self-assured, and takes charge immediately. They get into a high-tech vault, where zillions of dollars of stolen art and antiquities are kept. I saw the Ark of the Covenant, the actual Excalibur sword, and John Dillinger's penis in there. Well, the nebbishy art expert gets when he wanted, pulls a gun, shoots one of them, and makes it out of the vault with a sickeningly valuable sculpture, closing the others inside.
Echo calls her handler, and he catches the thief (who stole from the other thieves, who were apparently taking stolen property from other thieves). He's talking to Echo on the phone, when there's a strange sound through the earpiece, and suddenly Echo is back to her default, childlike state. "Did I fall asleep?" she asks. She has been rebooted.
Well, the two remaining thieves don't get what's going on, or why their ringleader suddenly has the IQ of a Larry the Cable Guy fan. They try and get her to remember how she was going to get them out, but the knowledge is simply not there.
Back at the 'house, Topher the technogeek is freaking out, since someone hacked into the system, and using their extensive knowledge about Dollhouse operations, has wiped Echo's imprinting. His best guess is that Alpha, the rogue Active, was not killed as everyone was told. He tells Adelle, and with time running out, they grab Sierra and imprint her with the same personality that Echo had.
This is a really interesting transformation, and I gotta say, I'm more impressed with this Sierra chick every week. She's furious that someone else got her gig, and is initially unwilling to help, since the woman they put in charge of the heist was obviously incompetent. There's not enough time to get her down to the building and inside before the security system gets back online, but she calls Echo on the phone and tries to talk her out of the vault.
Echo doesn't know what she's doing, and triggers the vault door alarm. Before the security guards can arrive, she and the other thief grab the injured third man, and get the hell out of there.
Meanwhile, Boyd Langton is tired of waiting around, and he goes to the hotel and into the back room to rescue Echo. He arrives just in time to see that, somehow, his rebooted Active still managed to escape without being caught. They get her back to the Dollhouse and everything is back to normal (except that Topher now knows that Alpha is still out there, and is playing with Echo for some reason). Echo looks at herself in the mirror . . . but what does she see? The end.
This was a very interesting, very well-done show. I didn't love it like I did the episode before, but it's keeping me going. It also got terrible ratings, which I can't explain (strangely, the next week's show was up not only higher than this one, but higher than the one before too), but I enjoyed it.
I was telling tyranist that, were it my show, I'm sure I wouldn't have had the second/third episode be the one where Echo's assignment/John has lied and just wants to murder her, and I certainly wouldn't have had her get wiped in the field on just the fourth episode. Those seem like later season-type stories, where you turn the adventure on its ear, since the first few episodes should be to introduce the world and the typical adventures the character will have.
However, maybe, like "Firefly," they're aware that they might not get the chance to do these episodes, the stories they really want to tell, so they front-loaded them, making sure the ones they really want to see are seen.
We'll see how many more they get.
Rish Outfield
Monday, March 02, 2009
"Dollhouse" warming
For me, "Dollhouse" already had two strikes.
I'm sure you're thinking 1) it's on FOX, and 2) it's on the Friday Night Death Slot.
And while those two things are true, I'm talking about what was going on with "Dollhouse" and yours truly.
Strike number one was that I, frankly, just didn't care for that first episode. The idea is interesting, but the episode itself did nothing for me. If I didn't love Joss Whedon like a pervert loves a raincoat, I probably wouldn't have continued.
And Strike Number Two was that, to my confusion and disgust, Joss's original pilot episode was scrapped, and not shown second, as we had been told (and indeed, as I had told everyone).
All I needed was one more strike, and then, it was anybody's ballgame.
Tyranist invited me over yesterday to watch the show with him, but I didn't really want to. I'm behind on work and writing, and that damn Facebook has games on it, so I was content to just sit around and do nothing. But I changed my mind today and hoped he'd invite me again. When he did, I quietly agreed and drove down south to his crumbling, hundred year old manor.
His monstrous spawn was only somewhat so tonight, and after watching a very uneven (and unsatisfying) "Sarah Connor Chronicles," it was time to visit the dollhouse.
Apparently, the new second episode was called "The Target," and was written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight. I knew his work from the later seasons of "Angel," but since that ended, I've been catching up on "Smallville" episodes, and saw his name on many of those (usually the better ones).
So, Echo is . . . "given" to a handsome outdoorsy type played by Matt Keeslar. I don't know where I know Keeslar from, or how I even knew his name was Matt Keeslar, but tyranist kept referring to him as "the other Paul Atreides," from the DUNE movies (the other being Kyle McLachlan). Still, he's Matt Keeslar to me, for some reason.
He takes her out into the wilderness, for a hike, some rafting, some archery lessons, and some sleeping bag copulation. Then he tells her she has a head start, and then he's going to hunt her and kill her. I said to tyranist, "Already? They went there on the SECOND episode?" You'd at least think we'd get four or five regular assignments before she gets the guy who just wants the Active so he can kill her.
Well, we find out a bit about her handler, Boyd Langton, and get flashbacks to when he was brought on in that capacity. It was right after "Alpha," the rogue Active, went crazy, and killed a bunch of Actives, let Echo live, and scarred up poor Dr. Saunders's face. We see a bit more of what Echo and company are like before they've been imprinted, and see how they are "bonded" with their handlers. When Matt Keeslar's associate tries to take Langton out, we also see that he can take good care of himself.
Echo is pursued by Matt Keeslar, who is bowhunting, and puts one in Langton's stomach. Ultimately, Echo turns the tables on Keeslar, and shoots him, beats him, and sticks one of his arrows in his neck. This experience certainly brings Langton closer to Echo, but it's hard to tell if it makes any impression on Echo, since her memory of the whole ordeal is wiped along with her recent personality.
There's a subplot with Agent Ballard still trying to find out if the Dollhouse exists, and his badgering of a Russian thug named Lubov. He's sure Lubov knows about the Dollhouse, even though nobody else believes in it, and Ballard is a joke at the FBI. He and Fox Mulder should have coffee sometime. Also, Alpha sends Ballard a photo of Echo (back when she was Caroline), seemingly encouraging him in his investigation.
Oh, and we meet Ellie, Ballard's lovable neighbor girl. I thought she was attractive, oh yeah, but tyranist began writing love poetry in the air around us using his son's sonic screwdriver replica. It's happened before with him, but I can't remember when, it's been so long.
This episode was good, certainly better than the previous one, but I have to admit that I wasn't really jumping up and down with joy about the show.
It's not exactly rocking the kasbah in the ratings, and I have to admit that I'm unsettled by FOX's attempts to use sex to sell the show (which it is also doing with "Sarah Connor," which is an even less sex-centric show than this is).
Hey, I'll be the first to tell you how hot Dushku is in person, but the show isn't really about that (or at least it shouldn't be), and I'm aware of how coveted the Male 18-34 demographic is . . . but I can't say I appreciate each episode's obligatory sex or semi-nude scene. I guess I'm getting old.
But what FOX needs to be aiming for is the FEMALE demographic on a show like this. Joss Whedon's shows always tended to skew toward women (except maybe "Firefly*"), and with a strong female main character (as well as a title that's gonna resonate with girls rather than boys), and a lead in show with a strong female main character, I'd hope they'd realise that women are important, and probably less fixated on cleavage than, well, others.
Besides, even though I've heard detractors of the show call it "Whorehouse," it's got a really interesting Sci-Fi premise, is smart (or trying to be), and seems to be aimed at viewers who pay attention. And women aren't the lowest common denominator, shite-slinging talk shows notwithstanding.
I wouldn't be typing any of this had we not watched another one, so let me move on to what I really want to talk about.
During the end credits, the promo for the next episode began. Echo is protecting a R&B star by going undercover as a back-up singer. "Oh no," I thought. It was as though the episode was tailor-made to turn me off.
But it was already on tyranist's TiVo, so we started it up.
This one was called "Stage Fright," and it was written by Marissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon.
It begins with the performance of your generic sexed-up pop song, sung by a young, cleavagy black chick named Rayna. Something goes wrong and one of her backup singers bursts into flames. Well, it turns out that Rayna was supposed to be where that "accident" happened, and that, combined with several disturbing fan letters, cause her manager to go to the Dollhouse and get some kind of special protection for her (since Rayna despises and/or distrusts all her bodyguards). Of course, that protection turns out to be Echo, and they imprint her with aspirations to be a singer. She auditions to be the new back-up singer, and Rayna takes to her like a fatherless child to a Bratz doll. It seemed odd to me that Rayna would befriend Echo so quickly, but at least the other characters mention it (and it's possible that Echo was uploaded with all the personality traits that Rayna appreciates in the hopes they'd hit it off).
We also see Echo interacting with Sierra, the angular new Active, who is also dropped into the scenario, this one as an Australian fan who won a contest and gets to hang around with Rayna night and day. Despite myself, I found myself liking her (Sierra), since she was so harmless and passive, compared to the Terminatoresque persona we saw in the pilot 2.0.
Meanwhile, Ballard gets a call from his Russian contact, Lubov, telling him he's found news about the Dollhouse. Immediately after, we are shown that Lubov is also an Active, codenamed Victor. It seems to be a set-up, and Ballard is nearly killed by legitimate members of the Russian mafia. Tyranist's raison d'etre, Ellie, tries to be by his side and comfort him, but is prevented, and Ballard ends up thinking he's as alone in the world as, I don't know, Rish Outfield.
Meanwhile, Echo discovers that one of Rayna's fans, a gross-looking Ginger guy, has been sending her "I'm Gonna Kill You" cards (which Hallmark discontinued around 1997), and that Rayna has no intention of stopping her performances or wearing a bulletproof push-up bra. The crazed fan, we later learn, is so horrified by the public's (and media's) treatment of Rayna, and their constant attention and scrutiny, that he wants to put her out of her misery.
And I realised something at this point: either intended or subconsciously, this was the "Leave Britney Alone" guy. I found myself smiling, REALLY digging the show, all of a sudden.
Well, Number One Fan goes nutso when he discovers Sierra is being touted as Rayna's new number one fan, so he tries to kill her instead. And Rayna is really upset by this. Echo understands that Rayna WANTS to die. She is tired of how hard her life is, and thinks that being killed (especially in front of the fans and/or cameras) would be a really awesome career move. Echo then clobbers the singer with a chair.
Wow. The smile on my face had become a grin.
Well, the Dollhouse brass is really shicking a brit over Echo's behaviour, and want to pull the plug on Echo, "sending her to the attic," whatever ominous fate that is.
Meanwhile, Ginger Stalker takes Sierra hostage and Echo offers to trade Rayna's life for hers. They go up on the catwalks and Rayna nearly falls to her death. Echo and Langton her handler take the stalker out (and poor Sierra apparently never realises she's not just a big fan), and Echo rescues Rayna, only after Rayna discovers she doesn't want to die after all.
And that was pretty much it. Echo and Sierra get taken down to Anchorhead and have their memories erased, and about two seconds before the credits, they share some kind of look. A look that says that, hey, maybe their minds weren't wiped after all. The end.
Dude, I gotta say, this episode was right on the money. I shouldn't have liked it, but there were two or three great twists I didn't see coming (come to think of it, maybe there were four or five), and suddenly, I was completely invested in the show. You're damned right I'll be watching next week.
Thanks, kids.
Rish Outfield
*I can imagine FOX had even given a damn about "Firefly," and had tried to sex it up the way they do with these two shows.
"A space captain . . . in love with a space whore. But she's too busy screwing to notice. Fridays on FOX."
"A space harpie who really wants sexual intercourse with the hot new guy. But he's too busy being a space doctor to notice. Fridays on FOX."
"A crazy teenage girl who might go on to be hot one day. Will anybody have sex with her? Oh yeah, in space! Fridays on FOX."
"A tough brute with no sleeves on his shirt. He sleeps with guns. But is that all he does with them? Fridays on FOX."
"This week . . . space lesbians! Watch 'Firefly' Friday on FOX."
I'm sure you're thinking 1) it's on FOX, and 2) it's on the Friday Night Death Slot.
And while those two things are true, I'm talking about what was going on with "Dollhouse" and yours truly.
Strike number one was that I, frankly, just didn't care for that first episode. The idea is interesting, but the episode itself did nothing for me. If I didn't love Joss Whedon like a pervert loves a raincoat, I probably wouldn't have continued.
And Strike Number Two was that, to my confusion and disgust, Joss's original pilot episode was scrapped, and not shown second, as we had been told (and indeed, as I had told everyone).
All I needed was one more strike, and then, it was anybody's ballgame.
Tyranist invited me over yesterday to watch the show with him, but I didn't really want to. I'm behind on work and writing, and that damn Facebook has games on it, so I was content to just sit around and do nothing. But I changed my mind today and hoped he'd invite me again. When he did, I quietly agreed and drove down south to his crumbling, hundred year old manor.
His monstrous spawn was only somewhat so tonight, and after watching a very uneven (and unsatisfying) "Sarah Connor Chronicles," it was time to visit the dollhouse.
Apparently, the new second episode was called "The Target," and was written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight. I knew his work from the later seasons of "Angel," but since that ended, I've been catching up on "Smallville" episodes, and saw his name on many of those (usually the better ones).
So, Echo is . . . "given" to a handsome outdoorsy type played by Matt Keeslar. I don't know where I know Keeslar from, or how I even knew his name was Matt Keeslar, but tyranist kept referring to him as "the other Paul Atreides," from the DUNE movies (the other being Kyle McLachlan). Still, he's Matt Keeslar to me, for some reason.
He takes her out into the wilderness, for a hike, some rafting, some archery lessons, and some sleeping bag copulation. Then he tells her she has a head start, and then he's going to hunt her and kill her. I said to tyranist, "Already? They went there on the SECOND episode?" You'd at least think we'd get four or five regular assignments before she gets the guy who just wants the Active so he can kill her.
Well, we find out a bit about her handler, Boyd Langton, and get flashbacks to when he was brought on in that capacity. It was right after "Alpha," the rogue Active, went crazy, and killed a bunch of Actives, let Echo live, and scarred up poor Dr. Saunders's face. We see a bit more of what Echo and company are like before they've been imprinted, and see how they are "bonded" with their handlers. When Matt Keeslar's associate tries to take Langton out, we also see that he can take good care of himself.
Echo is pursued by Matt Keeslar, who is bowhunting, and puts one in Langton's stomach. Ultimately, Echo turns the tables on Keeslar, and shoots him, beats him, and sticks one of his arrows in his neck. This experience certainly brings Langton closer to Echo, but it's hard to tell if it makes any impression on Echo, since her memory of the whole ordeal is wiped along with her recent personality.
There's a subplot with Agent Ballard still trying to find out if the Dollhouse exists, and his badgering of a Russian thug named Lubov. He's sure Lubov knows about the Dollhouse, even though nobody else believes in it, and Ballard is a joke at the FBI. He and Fox Mulder should have coffee sometime. Also, Alpha sends Ballard a photo of Echo (back when she was Caroline), seemingly encouraging him in his investigation.
Oh, and we meet Ellie, Ballard's lovable neighbor girl. I thought she was attractive, oh yeah, but tyranist began writing love poetry in the air around us using his son's sonic screwdriver replica. It's happened before with him, but I can't remember when, it's been so long.
This episode was good, certainly better than the previous one, but I have to admit that I wasn't really jumping up and down with joy about the show.
It's not exactly rocking the kasbah in the ratings, and I have to admit that I'm unsettled by FOX's attempts to use sex to sell the show (which it is also doing with "Sarah Connor," which is an even less sex-centric show than this is).
Hey, I'll be the first to tell you how hot Dushku is in person, but the show isn't really about that (or at least it shouldn't be), and I'm aware of how coveted the Male 18-34 demographic is . . . but I can't say I appreciate each episode's obligatory sex or semi-nude scene. I guess I'm getting old.
But what FOX needs to be aiming for is the FEMALE demographic on a show like this. Joss Whedon's shows always tended to skew toward women (except maybe "Firefly*"), and with a strong female main character (as well as a title that's gonna resonate with girls rather than boys), and a lead in show with a strong female main character, I'd hope they'd realise that women are important, and probably less fixated on cleavage than, well, others.
Besides, even though I've heard detractors of the show call it "Whorehouse," it's got a really interesting Sci-Fi premise, is smart (or trying to be), and seems to be aimed at viewers who pay attention. And women aren't the lowest common denominator, shite-slinging talk shows notwithstanding.
I wouldn't be typing any of this had we not watched another one, so let me move on to what I really want to talk about.
During the end credits, the promo for the next episode began. Echo is protecting a R&B star by going undercover as a back-up singer. "Oh no," I thought. It was as though the episode was tailor-made to turn me off.
But it was already on tyranist's TiVo, so we started it up.
This one was called "Stage Fright," and it was written by Marissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon.
It begins with the performance of your generic sexed-up pop song, sung by a young, cleavagy black chick named Rayna. Something goes wrong and one of her backup singers bursts into flames. Well, it turns out that Rayna was supposed to be where that "accident" happened, and that, combined with several disturbing fan letters, cause her manager to go to the Dollhouse and get some kind of special protection for her (since Rayna despises and/or distrusts all her bodyguards). Of course, that protection turns out to be Echo, and they imprint her with aspirations to be a singer. She auditions to be the new back-up singer, and Rayna takes to her like a fatherless child to a Bratz doll. It seemed odd to me that Rayna would befriend Echo so quickly, but at least the other characters mention it (and it's possible that Echo was uploaded with all the personality traits that Rayna appreciates in the hopes they'd hit it off).
We also see Echo interacting with Sierra, the angular new Active, who is also dropped into the scenario, this one as an Australian fan who won a contest and gets to hang around with Rayna night and day. Despite myself, I found myself liking her (Sierra), since she was so harmless and passive, compared to the Terminatoresque persona we saw in the pilot 2.0.
Meanwhile, Ballard gets a call from his Russian contact, Lubov, telling him he's found news about the Dollhouse. Immediately after, we are shown that Lubov is also an Active, codenamed Victor. It seems to be a set-up, and Ballard is nearly killed by legitimate members of the Russian mafia. Tyranist's raison d'etre, Ellie, tries to be by his side and comfort him, but is prevented, and Ballard ends up thinking he's as alone in the world as, I don't know, Rish Outfield.
Meanwhile, Echo discovers that one of Rayna's fans, a gross-looking Ginger guy, has been sending her "I'm Gonna Kill You" cards (which Hallmark discontinued around 1997), and that Rayna has no intention of stopping her performances or wearing a bulletproof push-up bra. The crazed fan, we later learn, is so horrified by the public's (and media's) treatment of Rayna, and their constant attention and scrutiny, that he wants to put her out of her misery.
And I realised something at this point: either intended or subconsciously, this was the "Leave Britney Alone" guy. I found myself smiling, REALLY digging the show, all of a sudden.
Well, Number One Fan goes nutso when he discovers Sierra is being touted as Rayna's new number one fan, so he tries to kill her instead. And Rayna is really upset by this. Echo understands that Rayna WANTS to die. She is tired of how hard her life is, and thinks that being killed (especially in front of the fans and/or cameras) would be a really awesome career move. Echo then clobbers the singer with a chair.
Wow. The smile on my face had become a grin.
Well, the Dollhouse brass is really shicking a brit over Echo's behaviour, and want to pull the plug on Echo, "sending her to the attic," whatever ominous fate that is.
Meanwhile, Ginger Stalker takes Sierra hostage and Echo offers to trade Rayna's life for hers. They go up on the catwalks and Rayna nearly falls to her death. Echo and Langton her handler take the stalker out (and poor Sierra apparently never realises she's not just a big fan), and Echo rescues Rayna, only after Rayna discovers she doesn't want to die after all.
And that was pretty much it. Echo and Sierra get taken down to Anchorhead and have their memories erased, and about two seconds before the credits, they share some kind of look. A look that says that, hey, maybe their minds weren't wiped after all. The end.
Dude, I gotta say, this episode was right on the money. I shouldn't have liked it, but there were two or three great twists I didn't see coming (come to think of it, maybe there were four or five), and suddenly, I was completely invested in the show. You're damned right I'll be watching next week.
Thanks, kids.
Rish Outfield
*I can imagine FOX had even given a damn about "Firefly," and had tried to sex it up the way they do with these two shows.
"A space captain . . . in love with a space whore. But she's too busy screwing to notice. Fridays on FOX."
"A space harpie who really wants sexual intercourse with the hot new guy. But he's too busy being a space doctor to notice. Fridays on FOX."
"A crazy teenage girl who might go on to be hot one day. Will anybody have sex with her? Oh yeah, in space! Fridays on FOX."
"A tough brute with no sleeves on his shirt. He sleeps with guns. But is that all he does with them? Fridays on FOX."
"This week . . . space lesbians! Watch 'Firefly' Friday on FOX."
Saturday, February 28, 2009
"Dollhouse" in the middle of our street
So, the first episode of "Dollhouse" aired, and I watched it. I may have mentioned that I tried to get my sister's eight year old to watch with me, since she loves "Buffy" and "Doctor Horrible," but she gave up on the show about ten minutes in.
I stuck with it longer than that.
Tyranist and I watched every episode of "Buffy" and "Angel" together, so it was probably wrong that I watched this show without him, but he was out of town, and hey, I had a silly idea that he could skip the first episode and tune into the second episode first, and we'd compare notes.
But alas, that was not meant to be. First of all, our local FOX station pre-empted "Dollhouse" its second week, and when tyranist was able to catch it on a later feed, it turned out not to be Joss's original pilot "Echo" after all. So, the waiting had been for naught, and he just went ahead and watched the show without me as well.
Serves me right, I guess.
So, I suppose I should blog about the show. The thing is, it didn't strike me as particularly good or bad, as I've heard a couple of people discuss. The premise might be really great, with a dozen different scenarios to get Eliza Dushku into skimpy clothing, and a chance for her to beat various people up. The characters, particularly Amy Acker's*, are interesting, and it's possible I will grow to like them in the coming weeks.
I already like Tahmoh Penikett and Harry Lenix from other shows, so that helps.
Apparently, the new pilot, written and directed by Joss Whedon, was called "Ghost." Basically, we meet Echo in the first episode, and catch a glimpse of who she was before she lost her memory. Her name was Caroline and she's talking to DeWitt (Olivia Williams) about something she's done and its consequences. DeWitt offers her a life WITHOUT consequences, and she joins up.
The Dollhouse is a secret organisation where several young people, called Actives, have their personalities erased and are imprinted with new personalities, skills, and memories. These enable them to go on specific missions for expensive clients, such as a unique date for the super-rich, or, in this case, as an experienced negotiator for kidnapped children.
Echo becomes this negotiator and arranges payment for the safe return of a little girl, only to discover that one of the kidnappers took her when she was a child. Or rather, took the person she has been imprinted with the memories of. Even so, Echo is able to use these memories to figure out how to track the stolen girl down, and rescue her.
We had a B-story of FBI agent Paul Ballard, who has been investigating the so-called Dollhouse, and who receives an important tip about Echo at the end . . . from someone who appears to be a rogue Active called Alpha.
I complained that this episode probably wasn't 100% integral to the overall plot of the show, since it was essentially a prequel created after the show had gone into production, and taking place before the pilot Joss wrote and directed. But now, knowing that Joss's original pilot has been jettisoned (sort of like "Serenity" was), I have to judge it on its own merits. And yeah, I didn't get a lot out of it, except that it was nice to see Amy Acker and the Wolfram & Hart set from "Angel" again. And it was cool when the "Grr, argh" guy showed up at the end.
I promise, though, to watch the next episode with tyranist, and try and get into the show as best I can. After all, it hasn't been canceled . . . yet.
Rish
*It really freaks me out to see her face cut up like that. Her character on "Angel" was just so damn sweet (she was the Willow/Kaylee on that show) that I instantly feel protective of her. And yeah, I realise that I'm one of those fans who is blurring the line between reality and the characters she plays on TV. It reminds me of the time I was stuck in an elevator with Hugh Laurie and I asked him if he could take a look at my hemorrhoids.
I stuck with it longer than that.
Tyranist and I watched every episode of "Buffy" and "Angel" together, so it was probably wrong that I watched this show without him, but he was out of town, and hey, I had a silly idea that he could skip the first episode and tune into the second episode first, and we'd compare notes.
But alas, that was not meant to be. First of all, our local FOX station pre-empted "Dollhouse" its second week, and when tyranist was able to catch it on a later feed, it turned out not to be Joss's original pilot "Echo" after all. So, the waiting had been for naught, and he just went ahead and watched the show without me as well.
Serves me right, I guess.
So, I suppose I should blog about the show. The thing is, it didn't strike me as particularly good or bad, as I've heard a couple of people discuss. The premise might be really great, with a dozen different scenarios to get Eliza Dushku into skimpy clothing, and a chance for her to beat various people up. The characters, particularly Amy Acker's*, are interesting, and it's possible I will grow to like them in the coming weeks.
I already like Tahmoh Penikett and Harry Lenix from other shows, so that helps.
Apparently, the new pilot, written and directed by Joss Whedon, was called "Ghost." Basically, we meet Echo in the first episode, and catch a glimpse of who she was before she lost her memory. Her name was Caroline and she's talking to DeWitt (Olivia Williams) about something she's done and its consequences. DeWitt offers her a life WITHOUT consequences, and she joins up.
The Dollhouse is a secret organisation where several young people, called Actives, have their personalities erased and are imprinted with new personalities, skills, and memories. These enable them to go on specific missions for expensive clients, such as a unique date for the super-rich, or, in this case, as an experienced negotiator for kidnapped children.
Echo becomes this negotiator and arranges payment for the safe return of a little girl, only to discover that one of the kidnappers took her when she was a child. Or rather, took the person she has been imprinted with the memories of. Even so, Echo is able to use these memories to figure out how to track the stolen girl down, and rescue her.
We had a B-story of FBI agent Paul Ballard, who has been investigating the so-called Dollhouse, and who receives an important tip about Echo at the end . . . from someone who appears to be a rogue Active called Alpha.
I complained that this episode probably wasn't 100% integral to the overall plot of the show, since it was essentially a prequel created after the show had gone into production, and taking place before the pilot Joss wrote and directed. But now, knowing that Joss's original pilot has been jettisoned (sort of like "Serenity" was), I have to judge it on its own merits. And yeah, I didn't get a lot out of it, except that it was nice to see Amy Acker and the Wolfram & Hart set from "Angel" again. And it was cool when the "Grr, argh" guy showed up at the end.
I promise, though, to watch the next episode with tyranist, and try and get into the show as best I can. After all, it hasn't been canceled . . . yet.
Rish
*It really freaks me out to see her face cut up like that. Her character on "Angel" was just so damn sweet (she was the Willow/Kaylee on that show) that I instantly feel protective of her. And yeah, I realise that I'm one of those fans who is blurring the line between reality and the characters she plays on TV. It reminds me of the time I was stuck in an elevator with Hugh Laurie and I asked him if he could take a look at my hemorrhoids.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Dollhouse . . . is a veryveryvery fine house
...or is it?
So, Joss Whedon's new show "Dollhouse" premiered tonight, and people are already complaining.
Okay, that's not entirely accurate; I've heard people complaining for months.* Hell, I'VE complained.
But the show aired tonight, so I consider the mid-February 2009complaints more valid and at least somewhat informed.
People thought the show was boring, people thought Eliza Dushku was miscast, people found the premise flawed (or derivative, or uninspired, or just dumb), my niece abandoned it at around the fifteen minute mark, and I'm not sure what to think. I hope FOX doesn't cancel the show for a while, just so we can see where it's going, and if it gets better.
Because the episode that aired tonight was a studio-mandated new pilot, and the episode that airs next week is the actual pilot that Whedon shot and intended to introduce the series . . . I thought it would be a cool experiment to ask/beg/demand my pal tyranist to watch the SECOND episode first, while I watched tonight's show, so we could compare notes about our experiences.
Of course, the fact that we won't be able to get together to watch "Dollhouse" until there's two episodes on the TiVo doesn't hurt.
We shall see.
Rish Dollfield Outhouse
*I think I blogged about the woman at the "Dollhouse" panel who said she loved "Buffy" and loved "Angel" and loved "Firefly" and loved TOY STORY and loved (the trailer for) ALIEN: RESURRECTION . . . but thought "Dollhouse" just looked boring. A few people agreed with her, but the vast majority were booing and wishing eye cancer on her.
So, Joss Whedon's new show "Dollhouse" premiered tonight, and people are already complaining.Okay, that's not entirely accurate; I've heard people complaining for months.* Hell, I'VE complained.
But the show aired tonight, so I consider the mid-February 2009complaints more valid and at least somewhat informed.
People thought the show was boring, people thought Eliza Dushku was miscast, people found the premise flawed (or derivative, or uninspired, or just dumb), my niece abandoned it at around the fifteen minute mark, and I'm not sure what to think. I hope FOX doesn't cancel the show for a while, just so we can see where it's going, and if it gets better.
Because the episode that aired tonight was a studio-mandated new pilot, and the episode that airs next week is the actual pilot that Whedon shot and intended to introduce the series . . . I thought it would be a cool experiment to ask/beg/demand my pal tyranist to watch the SECOND episode first, while I watched tonight's show, so we could compare notes about our experiences.
Of course, the fact that we won't be able to get together to watch "Dollhouse" until there's two episodes on the TiVo doesn't hurt.
We shall see.
Rish Dollfield Outhouse
*I think I blogged about the woman at the "Dollhouse" panel who said she loved "Buffy" and loved "Angel" and loved "Firefly" and loved TOY STORY and loved (the trailer for) ALIEN: RESURRECTION . . . but thought "Dollhouse" just looked boring. A few people agreed with her, but the vast majority were booing and wishing eye cancer on her.
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