?Dollhouse? Joss Whedon's recent series

The opinions of Fox mean little to me.

 

I actually enjoyed it for the most part. The last five minutes certainly opened up those questions that the series is apparently hoping to answer down the road. It seems though that the viewers (unsurprisingly) didn't turn out for it, so that's a bit of a shame. Hopefully, it'll stick around long enough for me to get a better feel for the show.

 

It reminds me somewhat of Alias.

The pilot wasn't great. Honestly, there's a lot of room for a lot of great stories to be told, but I don't think that this show can coast based on premise. It's going to need those great stories to push it.

 

I actually quite liked it. I think it did a pretty good job at setting up the premise, which is the main thing it needed to do. Dushku did a pretty good job, but the most interesting parts came from Tahmoh looking for the Dollhouse and those working in the Dollhouse, most especially Lennix. I think if those characters get good development, this show can really shine.

I enjoyed EJO being the example for a fatherly figure. Oh, so true, and probably a shout out to Tahmoh's past.

 

I don't think so. I think that's one of the shows mysteries meant to be solved later on if it survives cancellation.

 

Don't know who the bodies were (old classmates maybe), but I kind of thought the guy who killd them was Alpha. Which I'm guessing is an active gone rogue or something. But I don't really think we're supposed to know what that last scene was about except that he was sending information to Paul Ballard.

 

Well I take it back. This show can be great. This second episode was excellent. It really should have been the pilot.

 

Anyone still watching this? I am and I really like it.

 

Yeah, I find that my fears that "everyone is a Cylon" has morphed into fears that "everyone is an active"


But yeah, the first five episodes slowly built up in quality, each one better than the last, with every episode after the first giving us a nice little nugget at the end with Echo remembering something. But now the show has burst out into that full Joss Whedon quality that we were all expecting from the beginning. It was a slow buildup, but it was worth it. Plus we finally get to see lots of interesting stuff happen to Tahmoh, who was sadly underused in the first few episodes.


And that fight scene between Tahmoh and Eliza was one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen on TV. The only way I could imagine it being better is if you threw Summer Glau into the mix

 

I gotta say I'm surprised (but not deterred) by the significant amount of 'adult' content in Dollhouse compared to Buffy and Firefly etc. Not to say that Whedon's previous shows didn't have adult content, just seemed less full on.

Episode six was intense! I loved it!

I also gotta say, that given the stories basic premise, I wasn't expecting many different scenarios and was thinking it would get old very quickly, so I am very pleased in the variety of personalities shown so far as I wasn't expecting most of them.

 

This thread has been quiet the last little while.

Anyone else still watching the show? After Galactica ended, I figured I'd no longer have a reason to hang around the TV after SCC, but Dollhouse has actually become something I'd watch even if SCC isn't back next year. The latest episode was great, and I don't think that the full extent of the traitors in the Dollhouse has been revealed. I also want to see what happens when Tamoh's character actually does find the Dollhouse.

 

I can't believe that there isn't more conversation about this show here.

 

I have been enjoying the show more and more with each episode. But it looks like it's gonna be cancelled. They aren't even gonna air the last episode.

 

That's a shame.

If so, this show was killed by a really slow start.

All this may beg the question, why can't North American audiances support a good sf/f television show? Firefly, Dollhouse, Terminator, Angel, Farscape, all killed off (or at least dying) before their time. I'm sure that there are others - I sometimes suspect I'm the only person to remember Brimstone, which I found to be excellent. Even Battlestar Galactica, critically acclaimed triumph that it is, ended up very close to the chopping block on more than one occaision. There are rare exceptions, like Lost and to some extent Heroes, but they're few.

I know that the shows are expensive to make, that much is plain and obviously a factor in their cancellations. However, they'd still be made if people tuned in. I suspect that CSI Bangor would get higher ratings than a theoretical Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic show.

 

One doesn't automatically lead to the other. FOX counts the unaired pilot as one episode, and they ordered thirteen episodes, therefore they aren't showing the last episode. It will be on the DVD release, so there's nothing to worry about. They haven't made any announcement as to whether or not it's cancelled yet, so I think it's a bit early to sounding the death knell on account of this, don't you think?

 

I've been watching this since the beginning and I like it. The three main actives are likable enough, though Ballard doesn't interest me too much.

 

I too am surprised this isn't being discussed more.

And I just find it hard to believe that a CGI-light show like Dollhouse that pretty heavily re-uses its sets is more expensive than something like Heroes.


While I suspect the show will be cancelled (and have been running on this assumption since the show was announced) I am still crossing my fingers for a second season.



I think at this point this episode and "Man on the Street" are about tied for the best. And while I liked the twist that Dominic was a traitor-ish (and the fact that it wasn't the too-obvious choice of Ivy), I'm not entirely sure he's Ballard's traitor.

 

Pretty much agree with you on both points--that it's gonna get canceled and that Dominick's not Ballard's traitor. I've been trying not to get attached to this show because of the likelihood that it's only going to last one season so that's why I haven't been posting about it much.

 

The whole "it's probably going to end up cancelled" thing hasn't factored into my watching of Dollhouse since I'm used to the shows I enjoy watching getting pulled off the air. The fact that's it's a Whedon product is enough to get me in.

And despite what seems to be the trend, I prefer shows that go with the slow build, peeling back what's going on a layer at a time so that you start to think you know what something means only to have the rug pulled out from under you (although I do have to admit I did guess a few episodes ago that it was Dominic that was a traitor). There's also the small things that don't get overlooked, like the moment there at the end of this episode where Echo was looking at Boyd instead of Travis when going through the new bonding process.


As to Lost and Heroes being exceptions to the SFF rule, they're not really. It's been the international market that has kept both alive. I saw an article on it recently where it was stated that if it hadn't been for the fact that Lost was the No. 1 show in 5 of the major non-US markets then it wouldn't have made it past Season 3.

 

This week's episode was two thirds of a good episode.

The A story, Echo being used to let a woman investigate her own murder, fell flat. There was no need for there to be a murder. The story would have done fine with just being about a woman saying her goodbyes to her family. On the other hand, the Topher story was excellent - perfectly fun and sad and creepy. And yes, it is creepy. The Topher story, through being upbeat and happy with an excellent zinger at the end (that it's his birthday present to himself, and he's allowed to have it) made up for how dark Ballard's story is.

I'm not sure why, but Tahmoh Penikett seems to appear in more twisted sex scenes than just about any other actor in television. His last few scenes in this episode were pretty heart wrenching. He knows that Mellie is a Doll, that she doesn't really feel anything for him - despite what she thinks she feels. When he stops telling her about the Dollhouse and stops having sex with her - bringing things down to romantic dinners and such - her programming clues in to that and tries to determine what's wrong. She basically says "do whatever you want to me, anything." And it's essentially a last line of defense to avoid being shut out of his life - where she can no longer keep an eye on him. Paul realizes what Mellie doesn't - if he doesn't go along with things, November will activate and he'll have a fight on his hands.

So, he goes along with it, and has sex with her. He's grieving for Mellie, who never really existed, who is right in front of him, who is worse than dead and who thinks that she's alive. So, he uses November. He lets out his anger and frustrating and rage and hate and has sex with her. He's forced to have sex with her to maintain the illusion and ensure that she doesn't try to kill him - at best, he might still have to seriously hurt her to stop her. And due to her programming, she has to enjoy being raped. It's mutual rape, and the most twisted sex scene I've seen since Boomer seduced Helo.

Seriously, seriously warped and twisted.

And at the end of it, he's in the shower, with the knowledge that he used a doll just like everyone else uses the Dolls.

 

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

Using the Dollhouse to explore life after death was a really interesting idea, but for the most part, they went about it in a terribly uninteresting way. The only part of that story that really hit on the mark for me was Boyd's discussion with DeWitt about the implications of this. I kind of wish they had went more in that direction. But yeah, the actual murder mystery was boring.


I agree that both Topher and Paul's stories were excellently done. Topher's story really went a long way to show how wide eyed and innocent the guy really is, despite all the terrible things he does. In a world where he can more or less be anyone and have anything, all he wants is a friend to play with. The fact that it was Sierra and that her character was so gender neutral, also really drove this home after all the horrible things she's been through. I <3 Topher. Some great character development here.


And in addition to the great Ballard/Mellie development you talked about, I was glad to see he was finally able to strike a bit of a win on his own, even if it confirmed that Mellie is a doll. But now he has someone (hopefully real) who believes him.

 

Tonight's episode was awesome I love Alan Tudyk in general, but he was fantastic in this episode, and ever since I saw him in the preview for this episode last week I had a feeling/hope that he would turn out to be Alpha which is really cool. Great episode all around.