Dollhouse

[DreamOutLoud13]

Did anyone catch this on Friday night? It looks like it's going to be a pretty cool new series. And we all love Joss Whedon

The show's premise, via Wiki:

Eliza Dushku plays a young woman called Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls." The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments. The new persona is not an original creation, however, but an amalgam of different, existing personalities. The end result incorporates some of the flaws, not just the strengths, of the people used as templates. The Actives are then hired out for particular jobs -- crimes, fantasies, and the occasional good deed. On missions, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse." The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Official site: FOX Broadcasting Company: Dollhouse

The first episode was really good, and I plan to continue watching it. For those that missed it, you can watch the pilot on the official site (in America), or on YouTube:

YouTube - Dollhouse Season 1 Episode 1 Premiere 1/6

 

[corianderstem]

I really want to like this show. I love Eliza Dushku. But it was a bit of a snooze for me.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

I really love the story, but the first episode could've used a little bit more flavour. I've found that Joss Whedon's first episodes of most of his shows tend to have that problem. Hopefully the second episode will come forth and blow us away.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I'm going to give this one a few more tries before I write it off, overall not the greatest premier or anything but not terrible either.

 

[Dalton]

I really want to like this show. I love Eliza Dushku. But it was a bit of a snooze for me.

Agreed. I wanted to like it, but didn't. I'll give it a few weeks.

 

[deep]

Overall,
this is better than most of the new crap they are throwing at us these days.

I expected less. All the reviews were mixed.

It sounded a lot like the Christian Slater project that I think got canceled.


The Terminator series is quite good, this seems to be a decent show to follow it.


I'm in.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I'm just looking forward to seeing Amy Acker back on TV.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

I liked the second episode better, how about you guys?

It certainly opened up a mystery I'm gonna want to keep watching to find out more about. Who is this Alpha and why did he go nutso?

 

[corianderstem]

Yes, I liked the second episode MUCH better than the first.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

This show really does seem to be getting better as it goes along. Hopefully enough people are tuning in so that Fox doesn't screw it over and cancel it. Last week's episode (with the cult) was my favourite since the second one (the crazy hunter dude.) Everyone's been saying that episode 6 (tonight's episode) is going to be reaaally good.

Anyone else still tuning in?

 

[lazarus]

I'm downloading it weekly. It's good, not great. That guy who plays the resident genius is totally fucking annoying, though.

 

[corianderstem]

I gave it up after two weeks, but I've been hearing tonight is supposed to be that magical episode #6 that Joss and Eliza keep going on about. Apparently Fox made him change a ton of stuff at first, so he wasn't really happy with the show until this episode tonight.

 

[melon]

I gave it up after two weeks, but I've been hearing tonight is supposed to be that magical episode #6 that Joss and Eliza keep going on about. Apparently Fox made him change a ton of stuff at first, so he wasn't really happy with the show until this episode tonight.

Too bad it's up against the two hour BSG series finale tonight, so I won't be able to see it until Monday, when I can watch it on my work DVR.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I finally got around to watching Friday's episode and it was definitely the best so far, a couple of good twists and turns in this one.

I went from being slightly interested to very curious as to where this all leads.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm glad I DVRd Friday's episode, because that was all kinds of kick-ass. Will definitely try watching this again, see if it sticks.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

for the first time I actually give a shit about the FBI guy... up until now he was completely pointless, now he's more useless than pointless

 

[Muldfeld]

I really love the story, but the first episode could've used a little bit more flavour. I've found that Joss Whedon's first episodes of most of his shows tend to have that problem. Hopefully the second episode will come forth and blow us away.

I'd say Joss has this tendency in every season of Buffy and Angel to do 6 boring episodes and only the 7th one has any teeth. Totally anti-climactic way of doing a show. Remember the start of Buffy Season 3; took forever to get to the good stuff. He does this every damn season. It's basically suicide on Fox.

I'm all about "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" though. Hope it gets renewed.

 

[melon]

This show has hit its stride over the last few episodes. It's definitely become one of my favourites. FOX had best not fuck it up!

 

[corianderstem]

I stopped watching it a few weeks ago.

 

[deep]

This show has hit its stride over the last few episodes. It's definitely become one of my favourites. FOX had best not fuck it up!

I have watched all the episodes.

I think they have been good to great.

Last night was very good. The woman with the scarred up face always intrigued me a bit. I thought I must have missed the explanation for her injuries. But then I realized they never gave any. Also, the Alpha character had been established a few episodes back with random references to him thrown it.

Now, they bring it full circle (I think) and it pays off well.

 

[melon]

The first thing FOX needs to do is put it on a better night. Very few in its target demographic is sitting at home watching TV on Friday!

(Lucky for them, I don't have much of a night life...heh.)

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Yeah, Friday's episode was one of the better ones, While I saw this coming for some reason I was still surprised when it happened.

Spoiler

Anyone think FBI guy is going to be offered some sort of a position in the Dollhouse? It seems his character arc is pretty much over now. I can see him and Echo’s former handler teaming up to track down her and Alpha…

 

[lazarus]

That's exactly what I was thinking, Elfa. He's been completely discredited in the FBI and has pretty much gone rogue anyway.

 

[UberBeaver]

Cancelled.

I wonder if FOX could bring back Sarah Connor now.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

you're fucking kidding me! Fuck!

 

[lazarus]

Uhh, I was under the impression the execs said the rest of this season would be completed?

EDIT: Apparently, the rest of the 13 episodes will air.

I can live with that. To be honest, I didn't expect it to come back for a third season anyway.

 

[Muldfeld]

Hey, Dollhouse fans, remember that Fox is going to air 2 Dollhouse episodes tonight and for the next few weeks, starting at 8 pm Eastern.

Here's an amazing interview with Joss Whedon by Maureen Ryan about the show and what he wanted to do and how the network wouldn't let him do it; I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I now see he was trying to do something quite interesting with it. I'll definitely tune in for these final eps

The Watcher: Sex, secrets and 'Dollhouse': Joss Whedon talks about the end of his Fox show

 

[lazarus]

Wow, some good shit tonight. Victor as Topher was fucking hilarious. Great acting.

And next week is another two episode night. They're just rushing to dump this thing.

 

[Muldfeld]

I've long thought the guy who acts as Victor is a great actor (the way he can do a convincing Eastern European mobster, a US soldier, etc) and he did a great job, but it was a bit overloaded with Topher's more noticeable idiocyncracies.

Otherwise, these eps were just okay to me. I don't know what's wrong, but Alexis Denisoff was great on Angel, but doesn't do a convincing job here. It's an odd problem the show has; even Tamoh Penikett, who was always convincing as Helo on "Battlestar Galactica" is pretty terrible and Olivia Williams is not as good as she should be as Adelle Dewitt, but she was very good in the film "An Education" to the point that I barely recognized her. I just didn't feel the drama was that powerful in these episodes. I think that, like Buffy and Angel, this show needed time to really develop writing quality; Angel wasn't really good until some time in Season 2 and 3 and Buffy wasn't good until Season 2. I just found these eps boring and the resort to fight scenes to resolve everything is just plain boring.

 

[lazarus]