For the love of Whedon!
Just watched the latest episode of Dollhouse (2x11: Getting Closer), and I'm now at that point I get to with every Whedon show. y'know, the part where I'm cursing his name and vowing to never watch a show of his again. My friends know that when I get like that, it must be good TV.
I'll admit it, I'm a huge Whedon stan and not embarrassed of it. Joss has made the shows that influenced me most as a teenager. Like so many others, Buffy shaped my adolescent years and helped me come to terms with lots of things about myself. Angel was amazing as and the epitome of a spin-off that grows into its own.
Firefly, though it didn't last long, is still my favorite of his work. Not because it's stand-out sci-fi, but because its amazing characters were fleshed-out, flawed, people. They each had their own, very specific sets of morals, they fought against a corrupt government, they fought against each other at times, and they worked to stay true to themselves, no matter what it cost them.
They created their little hodgepodge family out of the unwanted bits of society floating through the 'verse, and all the work they did was to keep themselves afloat. I loved that about them. They became something I could look at as a way to do things as I entered adulthood, and realized that the people that you make your family are all that matter.
Dollhouse is something very different than all these shows. It's not about a cute super-powered girl easily taking out bad guys with her friends, it isn't about a broody immortal who does the same. It wasn't about a group of outlaws fighting to do what's right. Not in the beginning, anyway.
In the beginning, Dollhouse was about human identity and barraging its audience with questions of right and wrong. We were introduced to a company that took people, stripped them of their identities, and then filled them back up with ones custom-made to fit the wishes of their buyers. In short, it was human trafficking. The people in the Dollhouse agreed to be there. They may have been coherced, their other options may have been slim and not any better, but the contracts were still signed. Dollhouse made viewers debate and argue, throwing around their thoughts on rape, prostitution, and slavery.
The people who signed onto the Dollhouse may have given their permission for their bodies to be used, but once they left them, were they still really their bodies? Did they have the right to sign off on them when it was going to be the child-like state and the countless identities being poured into them that were living inside and dealing with the consequences?
I really love the stance of neutrality the show took in the first season. The people who ran the house and those that required its services weren't made out to look like villains; we saw them as they were- people doing their jobs, requesting their perfect person, no harsh light being painted on them for the jobs and did and people they wanted. By taking that step back early on in the show, we the audience were forced to make our own decisions.
That's what makes dollhouse one of my favorite Joss shows. Things aren't spelled out for you, you are forced to choose wether or not what you are seeing is immoral as well as illegal, or the future of technology. It's not until you reach the finale of season one, the unaired episode 'Epitaph One', that you see the show truly take a stance and decide what side of the question they're on.
The question of identity that the show brings up is really what interests me the most. What makes a person? Is it their conscious? can they exist as a person without the body that makes them so much of who they are? What about the child-like state that the dolls enter when they aren't being used? Is that now a separate identity that will disappear once their five years are up and their original personas are restored to their bodies?
I wonder over those questions more and more with every episode I see, and I'm still searching for the right answer. Every episode leaves my friends and I with differing opinions on things and a debate to have. I'm hoping by the time the show finishes airing, I'll have a decent grasp on my own opinions.
While season one of Dollhouse doesn't fit in the theme of Joss' other shows, when it reached season two, it was definitely starting to resemble them, especially Angel and Firefly. As with the crew of Serenity, the core group on Dollhouse have banded together to take down an evil corporation. Instead of facing evil law firms or sticking one to the government, their small army is going against the whole of a very powerful company with the ability to quite literally 'change people's minds'.
As was seen in 'Epitaph One' the group becomes something of a family themselves. They look after each other in a world where the smallest machine could erase them forever. They become a community, living their lives outside of the rest of the world, working to keep their own safe, very much like the Serenity's crew.
Since there's two episodes left for Dollhouse, I don't know yet if they're going to manage to win against Rossum, but like the other two teams before them, they most definitely are going to be fighting to the end.
I'll admit it, I'm a huge Whedon stan and not embarrassed of it. Joss has made the shows that influenced me most as a teenager. Like so many others, Buffy shaped my adolescent years and helped me come to terms with lots of things about myself. Angel was amazing as and the epitome of a spin-off that grows into its own.
Firefly, though it didn't last long, is still my favorite of his work. Not because it's stand-out sci-fi, but because its amazing characters were fleshed-out, flawed, people. They each had their own, very specific sets of morals, they fought against a corrupt government, they fought against each other at times, and they worked to stay true to themselves, no matter what it cost them.
They created their little hodgepodge family out of the unwanted bits of society floating through the 'verse, and all the work they did was to keep themselves afloat. I loved that about them. They became something I could look at as a way to do things as I entered adulthood, and realized that the people that you make your family are all that matter.
Dollhouse is something very different than all these shows. It's not about a cute super-powered girl easily taking out bad guys with her friends, it isn't about a broody immortal who does the same. It wasn't about a group of outlaws fighting to do what's right. Not in the beginning, anyway.
In the beginning, Dollhouse was about human identity and barraging its audience with questions of right and wrong. We were introduced to a company that took people, stripped them of their identities, and then filled them back up with ones custom-made to fit the wishes of their buyers. In short, it was human trafficking. The people in the Dollhouse agreed to be there. They may have been coherced, their other options may have been slim and not any better, but the contracts were still signed. Dollhouse made viewers debate and argue, throwing around their thoughts on rape, prostitution, and slavery.
The people who signed onto the Dollhouse may have given their permission for their bodies to be used, but once they left them, were they still really their bodies? Did they have the right to sign off on them when it was going to be the child-like state and the countless identities being poured into them that were living inside and dealing with the consequences?
I really love the stance of neutrality the show took in the first season. The people who ran the house and those that required its services weren't made out to look like villains; we saw them as they were- people doing their jobs, requesting their perfect person, no harsh light being painted on them for the jobs and did and people they wanted. By taking that step back early on in the show, we the audience were forced to make our own decisions.
That's what makes dollhouse one of my favorite Joss shows. Things aren't spelled out for you, you are forced to choose wether or not what you are seeing is immoral as well as illegal, or the future of technology. It's not until you reach the finale of season one, the unaired episode 'Epitaph One', that you see the show truly take a stance and decide what side of the question they're on.
The question of identity that the show brings up is really what interests me the most. What makes a person? Is it their conscious? can they exist as a person without the body that makes them so much of who they are? What about the child-like state that the dolls enter when they aren't being used? Is that now a separate identity that will disappear once their five years are up and their original personas are restored to their bodies?
I wonder over those questions more and more with every episode I see, and I'm still searching for the right answer. Every episode leaves my friends and I with differing opinions on things and a debate to have. I'm hoping by the time the show finishes airing, I'll have a decent grasp on my own opinions.
While season one of Dollhouse doesn't fit in the theme of Joss' other shows, when it reached season two, it was definitely starting to resemble them, especially Angel and Firefly. As with the crew of Serenity, the core group on Dollhouse have banded together to take down an evil corporation. Instead of facing evil law firms or sticking one to the government, their small army is going against the whole of a very powerful company with the ability to quite literally 'change people's minds'.
As was seen in 'Epitaph One' the group becomes something of a family themselves. They look after each other in a world where the smallest machine could erase them forever. They become a community, living their lives outside of the rest of the world, working to keep their own safe, very much like the Serenity's crew.
Since there's two episodes left for Dollhouse, I don't know yet if they're going to manage to win against Rossum, but like the other two teams before them, they most definitely are going to be fighting to the end.