Dollhouse ramblings
Tom and I just Netflixed disc 4 of Dollhouse (the one with the original pilot and the unaired season finale "Epitaph One"). "Epitaph One" was awesome, in large part because it showed that Joss has REALLY thought out the implications of his premise in a way that I didn't think he had. The original pilot was less so.
First off, THANK YOU, INTERNET, for not spoiling that "Epitaph One" was post-apocalyptic. I knew that it was set ten years in the future, but I thought that it was just going to be an episode where we watched Echo, Sierra, and Victor back in their normal lives post-Dollhouse. It sounded like a nice idea for an episode, but I didn't understand why everyone kept raving about it so much. Now I do. Hoo boy.
I also, as mentioned, really loved the way that it explored the premise. I know that some people find the dollhouse morally ambiguous, and I've never understood why--I'm very much in camp "burn the damn thing down and salt the earth." But even at my most cynical, it never once occurred to me that remote wiping could be freaking weaponized. Holy shit. I was mildly disappointed that Dollhouse was getting canceled before I saw this episode, and now I'm much more so. I want to see how we get to that.
Then we watched the original pilot. Now, I hated Dollhouse's pilot. My thoughts on Dollhouse's pilot are quite literally a matter of public record. That said . . . Fox was completely right to make Joss rewrite the original. Characters talked. And talked. And then when they were done talking, they talked some more, with a side of extra talking. And to make matters worse, Echo's main imprint made it sort of confusing as to exactly how the imprinting process works. It wasn't as bad as "Ghost," because that would be next to impossible. But that's on Joss for turning out a shitty product after an utterly justified request to rewrite a confusing episode.
I can't believe I just sided with Fox against Joss Whedon. I need to take a shower now.
First off, THANK YOU, INTERNET, for not spoiling that "Epitaph One" was post-apocalyptic. I knew that it was set ten years in the future, but I thought that it was just going to be an episode where we watched Echo, Sierra, and Victor back in their normal lives post-Dollhouse. It sounded like a nice idea for an episode, but I didn't understand why everyone kept raving about it so much. Now I do. Hoo boy.
I also, as mentioned, really loved the way that it explored the premise. I know that some people find the dollhouse morally ambiguous, and I've never understood why--I'm very much in camp "burn the damn thing down and salt the earth." But even at my most cynical, it never once occurred to me that remote wiping could be freaking weaponized. Holy shit. I was mildly disappointed that Dollhouse was getting canceled before I saw this episode, and now I'm much more so. I want to see how we get to that.
Then we watched the original pilot. Now, I hated Dollhouse's pilot. My thoughts on Dollhouse's pilot are quite literally a matter of public record. That said . . . Fox was completely right to make Joss rewrite the original. Characters talked. And talked. And then when they were done talking, they talked some more, with a side of extra talking. And to make matters worse, Echo's main imprint made it sort of confusing as to exactly how the imprinting process works. It wasn't as bad as "Ghost," because that would be next to impossible. But that's on Joss for turning out a shitty product after an utterly justified request to rewrite a confusing episode.
I can't believe I just sided with Fox against Joss Whedon. I need to take a shower now.