dollhouse

The buzz is all about the new Whedon creation, Dollhouse, and related issues with FOX. While Dollhouse is founded on a semi-interesting concept, it's also severely handicapped by a terrible main actress, horrendous writing, and choppy editing. It pains me to say that although the past few episodes have gotten much better, they're still bad.

First, I never really understood why there's such a huge deal about Joss Whedon. His work is appealing, but hardly something to kill over (The Whedonites are going to come kill me in my sleep with a stake or Vera just because I said that). This is hilarious:

Whedonites are fierce and terrible in their belief, and have been known to profoundly annoy and harangue any critic, writer, or network executive who fails to lavish what they deem a sufficient level of praise and adoration upon their demigod's undertakings. -TeeVeePedia

Um...really? The whole thing is scary, especially when you consider that there's been a schism between various Whedonite factions, but that's neither here nor there. Back to the task at hand: writing about a sub-sub-par TV show that I have no feelings for. Dollhouse consists of dolls, or humans who have had their memories erased and are imprinted with new memories and skills at will. Each doll is assigned to a handler and goes out on missions which either involve sexual fantasies, extreme violence, or both. Once they're done, the dolls' minds are erased and they resume their sweat pant-clad, yoga practicing life of zen in the dollhouse.

Echo is the main doll, and is endowed with an intelligence and self-awareness that the rest lack. She goes off mission every single time, but ends up doing the right thing for her bosses (not that she cares or even knows). The actress, Elisha Dushku, also seems like she's not quite aware of what she's doing. She is certainly not up to the task of being the main actor for any tv show, never mind one that demands a new personality every week. The other dolls are similarly bland (part of the job description?), but the rest of the cast is slightly better. Olivia Williams sparkles as much as an uptight British woman can sparkle as the head honcho, Adelle DeWitt. There's the requisite geek, Topher, the sensitive handler, Boyd, and the cold and snappy head of security, Lawrence Dominic. I admit to liking Reed Diamond's uptight security man quite a bit. Although his acting range is limited, he was appealing in the ill-fated Journeyman (which ultimately walked off the air) as the good guy with the bad guy front who sometimes does bad things. He plays a similar character here with a larger stick up his ass and less flair, but is no less amusing.

The ideas in this joyless ride are introspective and frequent. At the surface, we deal with the moral issues of objectifying people and essentially violating their minds as well as their bodies. There's the requisite question of human versus technology, and a deeper undercurrent of what constitutes morality. In the past few episodes, we see the dolls glitching as parts of their memories aren't erased completely, and ultimately gaining some power against the people in charge. It's a pity that the acting is still extremely poor (almost on the order of Legend of the Seeker awfulness), the story lines are uneven, and the editing is still erratic. Dollhouse is a piece of work that even the Whedonites will have a hard time salvaging.