About me / Dollhouse

Hello, fellow Whedon fans. Mood: Good and awake Food - cereal and coffee Music - none

http://www.whedonverse.co.uk/ Well, it's the fifth day of my blog and the fifth day of the website. How quickly time flies. I plan to talk about two subjects today myself (oh what fun) and Joss' latest (but certainly not greatest) Dollhouse.

ABOUT ME (here's ten things that you may or may not know about me)

1 I am a huge wrestling fan (I'll leave my Summerslam predictions tomorrow) Yes it's choreographed but it's also a lot of fun and it can be as dangerous as any sport (if not more so)
2 My favourite films (it's a tie) are Donnie Darko (I've seen it way too many times and I'm in love with Gretchen) and Serenity (Joss Whedon's space western)
3 I hate onions but I like pickled onions and onion rings. Regular onions make me gip
4 I've broken my arm, my wrist twice and my other wrist once.
5 I love thunder and lightning and rainy days. Yep, I'm weird like that.
6 My favourite kind of movies are comic book adaptions
7 I'm agnostic
8 I am a loner. I spend a great deal of time on my own. Seriously, people start to annoy me after a little while. I will spend time with them but usually on my own terms
9 I have my lip and my ears pierced.
10 I don't have a posh accent (not very many people from the UK do)

That was difficult. Have you ever tried to think about yourself? it's harder then you think.

Here's a few more:

1 My favourite show as a child was ALF and I had the ALF puppet (still do)
2 My favourite show as a teenager was Quantum Leap
3 My favourite show as a young adult was Buffy
4 My favourite show now is - (Hmm...I like a few True Blood, Smallville, Sons of Anarchy, Chuck and Supernatural)
5 My all time favourite show is Frasier or Buffy

DOLLHOUSE

So, Joss' latest arrived with enough hype to make a blockbuster summer movie profitable (in the extremes) and yet somehow it only averaged between three and four million viewers on a big network like Fox. The signs weren't good from the beginning. Fox moved the show from a coveted position after American Idol to the Friday night death slot. When most of the targeted audience would presumably be out getting drunk. They also asked for a pilot re-shoot for un-known reasons which apparently Joss was on-board with (what choice did he have?) So, it arrived earlier this year with as much anticipation as anything could possible have...from Joss' loyal fans. And that's the problem! Can the series reach out to a wider audience later this year or will it end up just another cancelled network television show? Only time will tell...

Credit to Fox for re-newing the series in the first place. Apparently it was between this and Terminator SCC and I'm glad that Dollhouse got a second chance. The Fox president said one of the reasons for the renewal was they didn't want a million e-mails from joss' fans the next day if they cancelled it. But if the ratings don't improve what choice will they have?

The problem with Dollhouse is it's not very good. Ok, it's watchable but it's certainly the weakest (so far...) of all Joss' shows. Why? Well, for several reasons. The doll of the week episode is as bad as creature of the week (think early Smallville) It's hard to get to know Caroline or Echo is she's constantly someone else. Topher is extremely annoying (I have no doubt that this isn't the actors fault and he seemed overwhelmed by the fan support at comicon) the character is an example of how you shouldn't create a geek stereo-type. Want a good example? Xander Harris.
The story lines for the first few episodes were ok but hardly ground breaking or essential viewing.

The cast are all very good especially the guy who plays Victor. He handles the transition from one character to another with ease and he's a superb actor. Yep, there's far too much talent on display for this not to be better then it is.

The fans look to episode six for a major improvement (the time the network left them alone to make the show how they wanted) but it still didn't live up to the hype. The last episode was as good as any of Joss' work. Epitaph one is a fantastic hour of television but with the announcement that they're going back to the old set up next year (with only occasional flashes to the future) it might be more of the same. The last episode could have been a complete re-boot - a group of misfits trying to survive their horrific future (it sounds like a much better show to me) but hey it's not all bad.

This is what I liked about the first season.

1 Eliza. She makes a captivating lead.
2 Alpha. Alan Turdock is fantastic.
3 The characters are all pretty good (if they could just tone Topher down)
4 The last episode was great
5 Felicia Day! Amy Acker!
6 The cult episode was very good. Spy in the house of love was excellent too.
7 The show got better as it went along
8 The clever doll programming (there are three flowers in a vase...)

I just hope Joss writes more episodes this year. I hope that Alexis can bring something good to the table (I'm sure he will!) and I hope that Victor has a bigger role. Lets find out more about the characters pasts and who they really are! So that we care about what happens to them. Bring back the Spy! He was one of the best characters. I'm sorry but I'm really bad with names.

But not these names. I hope we see Summer Glau and someone hire James Marsters!

I'm still gonna buy the first season blu-ray because I want to re-watch it. I also want the extras (the unaired pilot and the commentaries) At the end of the day I usually buy anything that Joss has made or been involved with so it continues... but I just wish Dollhouse had lived up to the hype.

Steven Lee is the creator of Whedonverse and Whedonverse forum.