Dollhouse

[Usurper]

Didn't even remember this was on Friday on account of A) I gots Battlestar fever and B) there was no marketing that I ever noticed. Was able to catch it on Hulu, and all I can say is "Seriously? You thought this would pull an audience at all, let alone on a Friday night?"

The idea is that some mystery group has the resources to wipe out a person's mind an implant a new personality to fit whatever the situation calls for. Cool enough. Five minutes in, I can guarantee that anybody who's never heard of Joss Whedon has already changed the channel because the intro is haphazard, explains nothing, and doesn't make you care about any of the characters.

By the end, you still know next to nothing and you still don't know why you should care about any of the characters. But the hostage mission they send their doll on was pretty compelling, if you made it that far.

There's a cop investigation subplot that seems pretty cliche as well.

I'll keep watching in hopes it gets better until they cancel it in two weeks. Beats punishing myself with Heroes.

[Paroxysm]

First episode was terrible but even those involved haven't been positive about it. Apparently Fox basically scraped the first episode because it was too focused on backstory and setting up the concept and wanted a more "Action" focused pilot instead. What they came up with didn't work. Second ep is apparently better. We'll see! A show where the lead always has a new personality is a tricky concept for the audience to care about long term.

[crunchy superman]

^ They did pretty much the same thing to Firefly. You'd think Whedon would stay the hell away from Fox - they've ruined way too many good shows with their corporate-thinking bullshit.

edit: there's a funny quote on Joss' Wiki:

When asked about returning to Fox, Whedon stated, "These are different people [...] they didn't do to me what was done to Firefly."

[Usurper]

Apparently Fox basically scraped the first episode because it was too focused on backstory and setting up the concept and wanted a more "Action" focused pilot instead.

That makes a LOT of sense. I wonder if they shot the original pilot or killed it at script-level.

[Jiminator]

hrm, an interesting concept, there will be lots of comparisons about what happened to his firefly series. The firefly movie was great, the shows a little less so. The series was a bit slow moving, and somehow had received a cowboys in outerspace type image. Anyways this show is likely to suffer from comparisons from "my own worst enemy" (spy with dual personalities, cancelled) not to mention that dollhouse, featuring beautify young women, also sounds like it should be some sort of soft-porn title. The show was a bit of a mess and the sleeping chambers at the end were just plain silly. Anyway I hope they can work out the kinks and retain an audience.

[QuiGonJ]

To me it was a sci-fi riff on the tv series version of Nikita. Lot of the characters just about copied, but it didn't seem to be as well written. (The Nikita team, Jon Kassar and company, went on to make 24.) Love Eliza Dusku, hope it gets better.

[Grande 3:16]

I can guarantee that anybody who's never heard of Joss Whedon has already changed the channelAnd even if they have. :D

[Pansa]

The firefly movie was great, the shows a little less so.
im sorry i disagree strongly.

the movie had its nice ideas, but also "the most unescesairy and stupid character death" !ever!

the series was one of the best i have ever seen, great chars, and great mix of secrets, jokes and a great setting.

dollhouse i dont care about until now, i wonder how they want to make us connect to characters constantly switching their whole identity.
the first firefly episode had me hunger for more, this one had me hope it would get better ^^

[Marty]

A show where the lead always has a new personality is a tricky concept for the audience to care about long term.

yes, that's what I've been concerned about mostly.
even the supporting characters havent really appealed to me yet, they just seem very predictable.

[Jiminator]

yeah, but she is going to have memories, and then there is her handler. I suspect they will break away from the company at some point....

[Paroxysm]

the movie had its nice ideas, but also "the most unescesairy and stupid character death" !ever!
Two of them!

Yeah series > movie

[Klaus Kinski]

Two of them!

Yeah series > movie

That last death (you know, the one with the soaring and the huge metal impalement) was not exactly unecessary. It raised the climax's stakes, from then on, everybody could've died. Killing that one character takes away the security that they all gonna make it. Whedon and the fans had no reason to believe that there would be a follow up to the movie at all, therefore he could and did take risks to make the movie more suspensefull. So far, it seems the show is dead for good. :(

However, I do agree with the first death. It was unnecessary. I loved that man. I loved them all.

[shiranui]

I watched it with my wife last week - she was a fan of Tru Calling, right up until it was cancelled.

It was OK i s'pose; we'll give it a chance for a few more episodes.

[Pansa]

That last death (you know, the one with the soaring and the huge metal impalement) was not exactly unecessary. It raised the climax's stakes, from then on, everybody could've died. Killing that one character takes away the security that they all gonna make it. Whedon and the fans had no reason to believe that there would be a follow up to the movie at all, therefore he could and did take risks to make the movie more suspensefull. So far, it seems the show is dead for good. :(

However, I do agree with the first death. It was unnecessary. I loved that man. I loved them all.

actualy i see it the other way round.
while i could "rationalize" the one death, although i was a bit miffed that it was only shown as "something that has happend".

but the impalment. it cam out of the blue sky, and did nothing for the scene except to be an annoyant surprise.
i agree with your assesment that it creates this "all bets of" athmosphere, but for me that doesnt help over the fact that the timing was so mean and bad that my reaction was "why was THAT nescesairy".

arguing that the deaths are unsescesairy for me wasnt about the lost ability to ever realy create more firefly, but that scene just felt like a twohanded flipped bird directed at the screen yelling "see that Fu**ers? im gona kill them off, just because i can."

the other death hat its reasoning, even if we sadly werent shown.
imho there is a difference between a fight i didnt see which resulted in someones death, and a scene where one "dies because the script says so, even if it istn realy connected to the scene.

its like in a horrormovie if the guy you think would go last or second to last just walks outside and falls and breaks his neck, without "the evil" being involved at all...

[Bludd]

Posted this at another forum. I think it's pretty boring. The only Joss Whedon series I've ever liked is Firefly, and it looks like it's going to stay that way.

The woman playing the Dollhouse boss woman gives a bad performance, the token nerd is annoying and I don't like the FBI-guy from BSG at all. He played some part in a NFS game and everything he does after that is coloured by that performance.

[Pansa]

After the second installment..

Still boring, and The Middleman shouldn't be such a ridicilously unplausible .... guy.....

If i was a extreme optimist i'd say that it COULD get interesting, if they have an innovative way to exploit the aspect of "multifront war". They seem to add up quite a range of "groups of different motivation" (may consist of just one member).
If they play the trust/mistrust game right it could get entertaining.

Although i still think this whole brainthing suffers from dejavu in respect to "my worst enemy".

[razgriz]

I'll watch it mainly for Eliza Dushku.

[Marty]

2nd episode was better, but still lacks in a few departments

[Jiminator]

second show was pretty good. I think maybe it should have been/was originally the first show, seemed like a better introduction. Just hope they can figure it all out....

[Marty]

yeah i think FOX screwed it around like what they did with Firefly

[razgriz]

^^^I agree on that.

Joss Whedon should have gone to a different network.

[Paroxysm]

Yes you wonder why he sticks with Fox. Masochist?

Anyway I still have to watch the second ep. The concept just doesn't seem interesting enough for me make time for it.

[Jiminator]

anyone watching this? last nights show was really great, a few unexpected twists thrown in. the series is maturing pretty well after a rough start.

[Marty]

I havent watched the last episode yet, but the few episodes before have been continuing to dissappoint. the show is going nowhere fast. It could at least try at humour to make it watchable.

[Paroxysm]

It's starting to grow on me. I'll give it the rest of the season at least.

[razgriz]

Eliza Dushku would make a fine Duke Nukem babe.

[Marty]

the last episode was pretty good actually, finally felt it was getting somewhere. just wish they would have cut the vital parts of the previous episodes into one that isnt so mediocre. the pop concert episode sort of lost me since.

[Jiminator]

next to last episode really kicked ass. look forward to the finale. hopefully it gets renewed. some things I noticed. alpha (evil guy) started with troper's (brain geek) personality. they definitely played that out. so it either implies that he is the real troper and troper is a doll, or maybe they are both sharing someone else's personality. anyway the conclusion should be pretty good.

[Jokke_r]

Nah dude, that just sounds stupid, and his name is Topher. Just cos he played a geek doesn't mean nothing.