I find lentils... completely incomprehensible.
Apparently Dollhouse is in danger of being pulled due to ratings at the opening of Season 2. I think this is unfair and unfortunate, but understandable.
Dollhouse is a show with a pretty brilliant premise: a shadowy organization provides completely programmable human beings to high-paying clients for any purpose they may desire. The arc of the show ostensibly follows one of these Dolls - Echo (played by Eliza Dushku), and traces her growing sense of self-realization and self-awareness of who she "really" is and what is happening to her. The rest of the show is dedicated to following Echo's engagements or the engagements of other dolls, and establishing its mythology; who runs the Dollhouse? Who works there and who are these people? What goes wrong? Who is trying to chase them down and why? This sounds, on the face of it, like a great way to investigate a lot of really interesting ideas, and also gives Joss the chance to have another plush gorgeous set a la Wolfram & Hart in Angel. And to employ a lot more incredibly beautiful people, which, to be fair, he does very well.
But anyone who's been following it knows that "teething trouble" doesn't even come close. Most of the first half of the first season was, let's face it, sub-par, with Joss blaming FOX and fans alternately blaming FOX, Eliza Dushku's acting, and Joss Whedon. The threat of cancellation was ever-present and most people were very surprised when FOX renewed it for a second season (out of guilt for Firefly? Maybe). But it doesn't seem like it's faring much better this time around. Why?
I am bewildered as to why Joss Whedon went back to FOX again; and I'm sure the fact that it's Eliza Dushku had something to do with this. Dollhouse is not a show which will fulfil itself best on that kind of channel. It should be on HBO or Showtime or some place where he would be able to let his ideas flow more honestly, without feeling pressure to create very episodic, lame stories. Most of Season 1 was dragged down by silliness like that. "Stage Fright"? Really, Joss? The writing also let it down (some terrible dialogue, especially early on) and overall the show felt like it was being pulled in different directions and didn't really have a good idea of what it wanted to be. The thing is that towards the end of Season 1 it got really good; episodes like "Briar Rose" were exciting and well-written, and the DVD-only "Epitaph One", set ten years into the future, was maybe the best thing Dollhouse has yet produced (Topher's "I know what I know" scene alone was wonderful). There are two main things working against the show, it seems to me: FOX, and Eliza Dushku. FOX because a major network like that, in today's world, is not prepared to invest in a simple fact about Joss Whedon: he is a storyteller who is best when the stories are long, when he can spend a season establishing his universe, guiding it through teething trouble, figuring out what needs to happen, and then it takes off. And Eliza Dushku because as much as it pains me to admit it, she is the weak link, acting wise. There are some really good actors in Dollhouse: Harry Lennix as Boyd, Olivia Williams as Adele, Enver Gjokaj as Victor, and most of all, the gorgeous Amy Acker as Dr Saunders (Amy Acker is wasted AGAIN in this show, as she is being in her new one, Happy Town; someone just needs to make a vehicle for her NOW, she is a superb actress). Eliza Dushku is not one of those great actors. Sure, the role is tough for anyone, but even so, she falls short. And what makes this worse is how much the show is about her, when it doesn't have to be. Is this Eliza and her production company stamping her feet? I AM THE STAR? Regardless, the show would benefit from a more collective focus on the world as a whole, rather than zooming in on Dushku every week (and hey, anyone who knows me knows that aesthetically I have NO problem with that, haha, but honestly, it's not the best thing for the show).
Nevertheless, with all of that said, I'm not one of these people who is uber-critical of the show. Dollhouse is, overall, a really good show. A lot of the back end of Season 1 was fantastic. And the truth is... to anyone who likes Joss' work, I would say: go back and watch the first ten or fifteen episodes of Buffy or Angel and compare them to Dollhouse. Dollhouse comes up smelling of roses. The entire first season of Buffy (with the possible exception of its final episode) is woeful. Ditto Angel. Episodic, lame, weak. They never produced anything as good as "Epitaph One", "Omega" or "Briar Rose" so early on into their lives. Dollhouse is better than most TV shows, and given how long it has been in existence, better than most of Joss' other shows at comparable points. I hope it doesn't get pulled, and I hope that if it does it can be picked up by a channel more willing to let Joss do what he wants to do.
Dollhouse is a show with a pretty brilliant premise: a shadowy organization provides completely programmable human beings to high-paying clients for any purpose they may desire. The arc of the show ostensibly follows one of these Dolls - Echo (played by Eliza Dushku), and traces her growing sense of self-realization and self-awareness of who she "really" is and what is happening to her. The rest of the show is dedicated to following Echo's engagements or the engagements of other dolls, and establishing its mythology; who runs the Dollhouse? Who works there and who are these people? What goes wrong? Who is trying to chase them down and why? This sounds, on the face of it, like a great way to investigate a lot of really interesting ideas, and also gives Joss the chance to have another plush gorgeous set a la Wolfram & Hart in Angel. And to employ a lot more incredibly beautiful people, which, to be fair, he does very well.
But anyone who's been following it knows that "teething trouble" doesn't even come close. Most of the first half of the first season was, let's face it, sub-par, with Joss blaming FOX and fans alternately blaming FOX, Eliza Dushku's acting, and Joss Whedon. The threat of cancellation was ever-present and most people were very surprised when FOX renewed it for a second season (out of guilt for Firefly? Maybe). But it doesn't seem like it's faring much better this time around. Why?
I am bewildered as to why Joss Whedon went back to FOX again; and I'm sure the fact that it's Eliza Dushku had something to do with this. Dollhouse is not a show which will fulfil itself best on that kind of channel. It should be on HBO or Showtime or some place where he would be able to let his ideas flow more honestly, without feeling pressure to create very episodic, lame stories. Most of Season 1 was dragged down by silliness like that. "Stage Fright"? Really, Joss? The writing also let it down (some terrible dialogue, especially early on) and overall the show felt like it was being pulled in different directions and didn't really have a good idea of what it wanted to be. The thing is that towards the end of Season 1 it got really good; episodes like "Briar Rose" were exciting and well-written, and the DVD-only "Epitaph One", set ten years into the future, was maybe the best thing Dollhouse has yet produced (Topher's "I know what I know" scene alone was wonderful). There are two main things working against the show, it seems to me: FOX, and Eliza Dushku. FOX because a major network like that, in today's world, is not prepared to invest in a simple fact about Joss Whedon: he is a storyteller who is best when the stories are long, when he can spend a season establishing his universe, guiding it through teething trouble, figuring out what needs to happen, and then it takes off. And Eliza Dushku because as much as it pains me to admit it, she is the weak link, acting wise. There are some really good actors in Dollhouse: Harry Lennix as Boyd, Olivia Williams as Adele, Enver Gjokaj as Victor, and most of all, the gorgeous Amy Acker as Dr Saunders (Amy Acker is wasted AGAIN in this show, as she is being in her new one, Happy Town; someone just needs to make a vehicle for her NOW, she is a superb actress). Eliza Dushku is not one of those great actors. Sure, the role is tough for anyone, but even so, she falls short. And what makes this worse is how much the show is about her, when it doesn't have to be. Is this Eliza and her production company stamping her feet? I AM THE STAR? Regardless, the show would benefit from a more collective focus on the world as a whole, rather than zooming in on Dushku every week (and hey, anyone who knows me knows that aesthetically I have NO problem with that, haha, but honestly, it's not the best thing for the show).
Nevertheless, with all of that said, I'm not one of these people who is uber-critical of the show. Dollhouse is, overall, a really good show. A lot of the back end of Season 1 was fantastic. And the truth is... to anyone who likes Joss' work, I would say: go back and watch the first ten or fifteen episodes of Buffy or Angel and compare them to Dollhouse. Dollhouse comes up smelling of roses. The entire first season of Buffy (with the possible exception of its final episode) is woeful. Ditto Angel. Episodic, lame, weak. They never produced anything as good as "Epitaph One", "Omega" or "Briar Rose" so early on into their lives. Dollhouse is better than most TV shows, and given how long it has been in existence, better than most of Joss' other shows at comparable points. I hope it doesn't get pulled, and I hope that if it does it can be picked up by a channel more willing to let Joss do what he wants to do.