Dollhouse

Hi there,

I just wanted to take this (brief) opportunity to say goodbye to Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. We hardly knew ye.

I can't say Dollhouse was my favorite show, by any means, though it is, (was), one of the few I watched regularly, (again, due to my respect for Joss Whedon), and when all was said and done, (last Friday, for those of you keeping track), it turned out to be a neat little show.

Little, I say, because it went barely two seasons. One very uneven and the other a slow-ish, but steady climb to potential greatness. Yes, there was some great stuff there in the last eight or nine episodes. The arc moved swiftly and with many surprising twists and turns. And, while the end might not have been totally organic, (me thinks Joss poured much of seasons three and four into the latter half of season two), it was pretty damn good TV.

I'm a big Joss Whedon fan. Buffy The Vampire Slayer remains one of my favorite shows, (and one of TV's best of all-time). It helped redefine serial shows in the 21st century and many of todays great ones, (Lost, I'm looking at you; 24, Heroes, if you like, and many, many more), are a product of Joss Whedon's game-changing sensibility and style, blending stand-alone metaphorical allegories with season-long story arc and series-long character-arcs. He seemed to single-handedly usher in the TV on DVD/DVR phenomenon, which now dominates most of our viewing habits.

That said, Dollhouse never totally found its footing. It works fairly well, though, as a two-season mini-series, complete with great science-fiction-style concepts and questions that blur the lines between 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad', etc. It explores, (for my money), facinating philosphical terrain, mostly around issues of identity and the role of technology in our blisteringly-fast moving society. What makes you you? Is it your body? Is it your mind? Your memories? Your environment? What if we one day had the ability to free ourselves totally from such limitations and live forever as 'ourselves', going from body to body, human identity to human identity...it's all pretty heady, but timely and largely unexplored in such a popular and potentially large-reaching medium. Questions worth asking, I'd say.

I think shows like Dollhouse, it's predecessor, Firefly, (which did so well on DVD they made a follow-up movie), and even Lost, which has benefited tremendously from a fixed end-point, are the way of the future for American TV. Short two-four season lifespans that play out a lot more like their Brittish counterparts. Excellent for the short attention spans of the modern media-savy.

So farewell Dollhouse. Thanks for the (short-term) memories.
If you're a fan of Joss Whedon, challenging sci-fi, or just unconventional TV, I urge you all to check out the complete series when it comes to DVD.

D.A.

Dollhouse

Tonight marks the season 2 premier of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.

Is that good?

I hope so. I'm a big Whedon fan, actually. Love him or hate him, the man is a writer's writer, from a long line of TV Whedons, who blazed trails all up and down the dial for many a moon. For me, Buffy stands in a class by itself for both the embracing and defying of TV convention before it became, not only fashionable, but a downright prerequisite for any self-respecting new show to do so.

Back in season two, when it was rare, if not completely unheard of, to callously kill off a main character for keeps without warning or some 'it-was-all-a-dream/misunderstanding/insert your muggufin here' weaseling out, Joss and his crack staff raised the bar, and the stakes, (pun loosely intended), for what is now standard fare on American TV - the season-long story arc.

The show was the first true comic book on tv, and I don't mean that as an insult. Quite the contrary. Some of the best stories I've ever been told were in comic book form and, when done with tender loving care, few storytelling mediums are as original, expressive or hauntingly beautiful.

I watched all of Dollhouse last season because I feel, at the very least, Joss deserves the benefit of the doubt. At most, he deserves my patience. And, though at times I found it to be fairly hit and miss, it began hitting its stride down the stretch, and I was quite intrigued by the ideas hinted at, namely those revolving around identity. Science-fiction stories should have something to say, or at least foster healthy debate and thus far, Dollhouse, more than any other show of which I'm aware, shows the most potential to do what, at his best, Joss does best - entertain, inspire and misdirect.

You've done more than your share of all three for me, Joss. For that you have my undying gratitude, and respect. I'll be watching tonight. Godspeed.