April 4th, 2009 by Max
Dollhouse keeps getting better.
The latest episode, The Awakening, was perhaps the best yet.
Joss realized that this scifi setup can go anywhere. He allows the characters out on their own. Seemingly.
[Spoilers] The four main dolls, Sierra, November, the guy, and Echo (and the other guy, who we haven’t actually seen with a real role) all wake up with their own personalities, but not any memories. They watch the other dolls, and now there seem to be lots more dolls and they seem to live in a much bigger facility, which begs the original question, how much do people pay to have time with these dolls? But I digress.
So the dolls, recognize that they have been tampered with, but they have their original personalities, they decide to break free. The cool thing is, the unexpected thing is, that while the dolls know that they are up against tough odds, the Dollhouse itself is already aware of their planned escape.
And its ok with them!
Blonde guy doll is wiped, but they persist. And this setsup real drama. Will they make it out? Will they survive in the real world? Will they reveal the dollhouse?
Then they DO get out, and they split up, and Echo even decides to go back!
I’m thinking how are the writers going to keep the show going? Will there be dolls vs dollhouse?
Then it all gets cleaned up and tucked away nicely. In a finish that I for one, never saw coming. So …
Yay Joss for making me wonder. This one was utterly compelling. It was cool.
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March 27th, 2009 by Max
Dollhouse today was funny. Especially Topher and Adelle.
Topher’s Brink: You haven’t seen my drawer of inappropriate starches? -Was the best line. Here are some others, in no particular order.
Topher: He wouldn’t try to have fun!
Adelle DeWitt:Lentils.
Topher: I’ve got a huge phalanx of machines that go Bing!
Adelle: I am your superior – Topher: In every way!
We also learned that Caroline was an “activist” before. We learned that the actives can be degraded by drugs, or should we say “unblocked”. This appears to culminate next week.
But who did Caroline need to get out of that building? Was it the dog?
And we still don’t know what the Russom Corp had over her that would make her give them 5 years of her life, epecially since she hated them and they killed her boyfriend. I know … she could think she’s being a spy. But why would they have made the offer in the first place?
Its getting a little more complicated … and a little more funny.
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March 20th, 2009 by Max
Joss … is doing better.
Tonight Paul Ballard kicked ass. Tonight Echo kicked ass AND told us there was a spy inside the Dollhouse. Tonight Mellie became a major character. Tonight … Eliza Dushku was … funny!
Big props for the much expanded Dollhouse. We find out tonight that there are several Dollhouses around the world and they are tied into bigtime world power. Paul Ballard meets the girl of his quest, twice, and kicks ass for her, then kicks her ass [and she kicks his ass].
Last week we get a lot more “in house” drama. They explain why the communal showers exist and why no one seems to care, we get new dramatic tension when the doll who plays Lubov gets a little tense about Sierra. Its not important, but it begged the question.
So more questions are being answered. And more questions are being created. Who is the mole? Who does she work for (I think its the Asian helper woman who works with Tohper (supergeek) [and btw its really frustrating to go to the Fox webpage and not be able to find all the characters names]).
We also learn that the goofy, shy neighbor (Mellie) is really a plant from the dollhouse to watch the FBI man. She is not just the girl next door but goes from unnoticed casual throw in wanna be lover to the batmanlike detective but now is his lover and is the spy and kick ass killer and doesn’t know it. She with the baked goods is hot too. Intended to look like the girl next door Mellie turns out to be “gorgeous”.
And finally Echo makes a funny. As the naive fantaasy housewife to a dot com millionaire, when the fantasy goes way wrong and the FBI kicks ass on all the bodyguards, she jumps to the conclusion that it must be about porn! Its not the most hysterical thing Joss has written, but it was a nice break for humor, in a show that Joss has said won’t be typical Joss in reference to his usual pop cultural referencial humor.
But that could change.
So to sum. We got the main characters together. We find out the Dollhouse is watching the cop. We find the good ex cop saves Sierra. We find Mellie is a Doll. And we find lots o action and a little bit of humor.
And oh yeah. I just learned that there are 5-6 more minutes of show and less commercial due to a special deal that Joss has worked out with advertisers. More show! I thought those breaks went fast! Dollhouse will be back in 90 sec …
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March 14th, 2009 by Max
Joss is saving Dollhouse.
Tonights episode finally cracked my perception. The thing about Echo is that she really IS herself. This from the first episode: “Have you ever tried to clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before.” So today it made sense to me, when Echo who was in a cult compound, not pretending to be, but actually being a believer who had just had her sight restored from being blind for years … when that Echo was told by the cult leader to stay and withstand the flames of a burning building, just as the hebrew children did … she konked him on the head and lead the people out of the buring building. Not for religious reasons, but just because that’s is who “Caroline” is, and what she would really do.
In other words she is still herself to a small degree, even after her personality is wiped.
The other thing that I thought would be trouble for Dollhouse was the lovely Eliza herself … but I think I’m seeing just a smidgen of differentiation of character in her characterizations of the “implant” personalities.
In other words Eliza is getting better at acting.
And she’s still a babe of babes! 
The Fabulous Eliza Dushku
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February 21st, 2009 by Max
I liked it.
Ok. It has some troubles. But its Joss Whedon and for that alone, I’m willing to give it a long leash. And then there’s Eliza Dushku!
Its too early to give up on a show that has that much going for it. But one wonders about the structure of this little corner of the Whedonverse, where we usually get to know the fears and strengths of what are typically flawed characters, who soon feel like friends of our’s. Only this time the lead character is “wiped” at least once a show. How will we come to find sympathy with a character who is “not in there” for a while each episode?
Also typical for Joss is writing on multiple levels at a time. A growing sense of menace hangs over each season as our heroine, for Joss likes to write female leads, battles through episodic danger and romance. We do have the federal agent who is destined to break the Dollhouse ring, despite his comrades mockery and disbelief. Is he this season’s “big bad”? I doubt it. Is it Alpha from episode 2? I doubt it. Perhaps its Alpha. Perhaps Alpha can play Angel to Echo’s Buffy! Dollhouse seems a bit reworked, if not derived, from Joss’es masterwork “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”.
Then there’s the problem of disbelief. This Dollhouse organization is massive, complete with a small army, helicopters and mulitistory faciliy with a bunker like sub-basement where the “active” arrives after each hired session. Each active comes with a van and “handler” (read “watcher”) for each operative as well as an organizational hierarchy and a pile of computers complete with the obligatory nerdy super-geek.
Finally, in a interview for his masterpiece Buffy, Joss said that he liked to have a little romance, a little action and a little humor in every episode.
After two episodes, he’s got some good action sequences. The romance is all artificial by construct. And the humor is completely absent.
But its got Eliza Dushku who mezmerizes us on the screen, but is more compelling in the field when she kicks some ass, than when she stares blankly after being “wiped” This role is a huge challenge for her, let’s see if she’s up to it.
And its got Joss Whedon!
And I’m going to watch it next week!
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