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To put it very mildly, Dollhouse is an uncomfortable show to watch. Many of the themes, presented as they are in a bright light of day, evil Wolfram & Hart-type aesthetic to a mass-market, prime time, non-cable audience are dark without being seedy ... yet. They will be or, if not, they should be. Human trafficking, most explicitly (despite the male dolls floating around the House) the traffic of women, and the rape of mind and body are themes that build the frame of our new dollhouse. It might be more interesting, less apparently (or obnoxiously) gratuitous, if we could find an entry into the show and a place to attach.
As outsiders, I think, we're meant to begin our identification with Boyd Langton, Echo's handler. He is our moral compass, pointing True North (at least mostly). He's our wise, if conflicted, Jossian Father figure following ably in the footsteps of Mal, the Mayor and Giles. Like us, Langton must be introduced to the world of the Dollhouse. The Target as the true pilot does much to set-up the Echo/Langton relationship, introduce us to the characters and back story, giving us a place to enter the world. Ghost tries to take us there via Echo and fails because we can't, and don't, attach to Echo. We can sympathize with her, but at this point Echo is unknowable. Until she develops a greater sense of self-awareness she will remain unknowable and, arguably, unlikeable.
I am constantly aware that the Echo we're being presented (in the Real World and in the Dollhouse) are fakes. Even as Echo begins to composite in The Target, I was very aware that what was being built was a construct that just happened to include her "real" or true base personality. Langton and Echo, as team mates, provide an anchor for our attachment to Echo and, through Echo, the show as a whole. That is crucial to the show's success because as of right now, everyone else is totally unlikable.
And that's a huge problem with Dollhouse. The premise and the organization's purpose are so repugnant that it's difficult for me to find a way into the story. This show reminds me so much of La Femme Nikita, but it's so unsavory in a way that LFN never was despite the similarities. Those differences bring to mind Gunslinger Girl, but the girls aren't required to engage in sexual activities (at least not until the suggestion of sexual availability presented by Petrushka in the manga that I'm not currently reading), and that difference is huge to my perception and understanding of Dollhouse. And unlike Nikita, Echo doesn't emote, all she does is swim, and who cares about that?
Then there's the question of the show's sustainability. The premise being what it is, I'm not sure how far this theme can be carried. How do we contain Echo, the person, and still expect the audience to care about her? Of course, the Dollhouse, as an experiment, is bound to fail. Alpha is our first indication of that, but how long do we have to wait and how is that fracture going to occur and how does it get resolved into a lasting and extended plot? And how long will the audience go along for the ride? At what point do those perverted but not yet seedy elements of the show completely turn off the audience? I have to say that watching Echo with Connell in The Target I was completely disturbed. If she hadn't slept with him it probably would have been different. But that pitch offered up by DeWitt and the way its followed up just makes me queasy. The way that she pimps out Echo and sees nothing wrong with it makes my skin crawl. That should be part of the draw, I suppose. The dolls' complete belief in what they are doing and feeling and the fall out from that, but until there is some sort of dilemma from Echo I don't think that this show is going to take off for me. And until Echo remembers something from the imprints, until she begins to "echo" and composite (in a way that *she* recognizes and not just the audience), I'm afraid that this show just isn't going to be all that interesting. It's going to remain skeevy. And that's a sad, bad thing.
Specifics on The Target:
Besides the continued buy-me-a-girlfriend plotline, I was bugged by the switcheroo halfway through when Echo becomes "the target". It bugged me because this guy, who claims to want someone who can live up to his expectations, doesn't request a weekend warrior survivalist. If you're testing your mettle, why not pick someone who already knows how to hunt or knows something about survival tactics. Echo just runs. He's not quite psychopathic enough to try and take her down without sabotaging her (i.e. the poison). I don't get that.
I really enjoyed Langton. He continues to be the better part of the show for all the reasons that I mention above. His sarcastic smackdown with Topher was gold.
I find Topher especially abhorrent. In his excitement over the technological aspect of imprinting, he loses sight of the moral implications and I find him very distasteful.
It's totally shallow, but Adelle De Witt's shoes. I KNOW! I KNOW!!!!! I said it was shallow, didn't I?
Anyway, the jury is still out and will remain out. My fingers are crossed and I hope that Dollhouse doesn't tank and take Terminator with it. That would REALLY suck!!
As outsiders, I think, we're meant to begin our identification with Boyd Langton, Echo's handler. He is our moral compass, pointing True North (at least mostly). He's our wise, if conflicted, Jossian Father figure following ably in the footsteps of Mal, the Mayor and Giles. Like us, Langton must be introduced to the world of the Dollhouse. The Target as the true pilot does much to set-up the Echo/Langton relationship, introduce us to the characters and back story, giving us a place to enter the world. Ghost tries to take us there via Echo and fails because we can't, and don't, attach to Echo. We can sympathize with her, but at this point Echo is unknowable. Until she develops a greater sense of self-awareness she will remain unknowable and, arguably, unlikeable.
I am constantly aware that the Echo we're being presented (in the Real World and in the Dollhouse) are fakes. Even as Echo begins to composite in The Target, I was very aware that what was being built was a construct that just happened to include her "real" or true base personality. Langton and Echo, as team mates, provide an anchor for our attachment to Echo and, through Echo, the show as a whole. That is crucial to the show's success because as of right now, everyone else is totally unlikable.
And that's a huge problem with Dollhouse. The premise and the organization's purpose are so repugnant that it's difficult for me to find a way into the story. This show reminds me so much of La Femme Nikita, but it's so unsavory in a way that LFN never was despite the similarities. Those differences bring to mind Gunslinger Girl, but the girls aren't required to engage in sexual activities (at least not until the suggestion of sexual availability presented by Petrushka in the manga that I'm not currently reading), and that difference is huge to my perception and understanding of Dollhouse. And unlike Nikita, Echo doesn't emote, all she does is swim, and who cares about that?
Then there's the question of the show's sustainability. The premise being what it is, I'm not sure how far this theme can be carried. How do we contain Echo, the person, and still expect the audience to care about her? Of course, the Dollhouse, as an experiment, is bound to fail. Alpha is our first indication of that, but how long do we have to wait and how is that fracture going to occur and how does it get resolved into a lasting and extended plot? And how long will the audience go along for the ride? At what point do those perverted but not yet seedy elements of the show completely turn off the audience? I have to say that watching Echo with Connell in The Target I was completely disturbed. If she hadn't slept with him it probably would have been different. But that pitch offered up by DeWitt and the way its followed up just makes me queasy. The way that she pimps out Echo and sees nothing wrong with it makes my skin crawl. That should be part of the draw, I suppose. The dolls' complete belief in what they are doing and feeling and the fall out from that, but until there is some sort of dilemma from Echo I don't think that this show is going to take off for me. And until Echo remembers something from the imprints, until she begins to "echo" and composite (in a way that *she* recognizes and not just the audience), I'm afraid that this show just isn't going to be all that interesting. It's going to remain skeevy. And that's a sad, bad thing.
Specifics on The Target:
Besides the continued buy-me-a-girlfriend plotline, I was bugged by the switcheroo halfway through when Echo becomes "the target". It bugged me because this guy, who claims to want someone who can live up to his expectations, doesn't request a weekend warrior survivalist. If you're testing your mettle, why not pick someone who already knows how to hunt or knows something about survival tactics. Echo just runs. He's not quite psychopathic enough to try and take her down without sabotaging her (i.e. the poison). I don't get that.
I really enjoyed Langton. He continues to be the better part of the show for all the reasons that I mention above. His sarcastic smackdown with Topher was gold.
I find Topher especially abhorrent. In his excitement over the technological aspect of imprinting, he loses sight of the moral implications and I find him very distasteful.
It's totally shallow, but Adelle De Witt's shoes. I KNOW! I KNOW!!!!! I said it was shallow, didn't I?
Anyway, the jury is still out and will remain out. My fingers are crossed and I hope that Dollhouse doesn't tank and take Terminator with it. That would REALLY suck!!
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 03:28 am (UTC)From:One thing that bothers me about the show is that no one has presented me with an argument to stick with it besides "it's Joss frakkin' Whedon." Yes. It is. I know that. I don't need to be sold on the writer, I need to be sold on the show. ::sigh::
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Date: 2009-02-24 05:54 am (UTC)From:I don't think the idea that it's Joss Whedon is enough to make me watch the show. I'm willing to give it a try and to wait on it because his track record with me is aces, so far. I loved BtVS, Angel and Firefly. However, Joss Whedon being the creator definitely won't keep me on board, neither will Eliza Dushku (much as I love her) or the hotness of Tahmoh Pinkett. I have no problem with cutting the show. I dropped Heroes after two seasons because I really felt that the beginning of S3 had jumped the shark. Never looked back. I'm just hoping that Dollhouse doesn't force me to do the same.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:24 am (UTC)From:Am I the only one who thinks Harry Lennix is hotter than Tahmoh Penikett?
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 07:03 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 07:06 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 05:24 am (UTC)From:I still don't care about Topher, but Alpha intrigues me as does Ballard and his neighbour (yes, I'm a hopeless shipper...already...pathetic).
The only thing I want Whedon to do is move away from the case-of-the week format. They're week. Last week's was boring and this week's was nonsensical, pointless, and gratuitous. And it's not doing Eliza any favours either in terms of proving to people that she can do more than be Faith. 'Cause another thing I'm still not liking? Eliza.
Still have to see the third though.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 05:14 pm (UTC)From:Topher is interesting only in that he is so repugnant.
but Alpha intrigues me as does Ballard and his neighbor (yes, I'm a hopeless shipper...already...pathetic)
Point of Interest: I don't know if you're aware but initially the actress who is playing the neighbor was intended to be an Active named November who's forte was emotional attachment. In a way, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that she still IS an Active and is set-up up to keep an eye on Ballard. I admit that I tend to read her that way. It makes her more interesting for me because the puppy dog-I-made-lasagna neighbor crush thing isn't really working for me yet. Like most of the characters in these opening episodes, she's too indistinct. There's no real sense of character, only caricature.
Alpha holds the potential for so much that he's interesting without actually being there. His relationship to Ballard, also, holds a wealth of promise. We just need to get there and that's the problem with the show so far. Waiting until we get there. TPTB making the show interesting enough to encourage us to wait until we get there.
The only thing I want Whedon to do is move away from the case-of-the week format.
That's a problem for everyone I think. But, it's vintage Whedon. Both Buffy and Angel began with Monster-of-the-week formats and remained that way for a good two seasons, slowly incorporating longer, more obvious plot arcs as the shows coalesced and found their audiences. In a way, I think, it's a pitfall of cross genres the way that Whedon is so fond of doing. The shows are initially established as something very recognizable and then begins to grow outwards from there.
Firefly, of course, started with a very obvious and very immediate arc from jump, but also had a pretty strong week to week motif. Within the frame of that structure, he built in much stronger overall storylines. I think that may have been part of the problem, the network execs just don't know how to market or quantify the shows. Dollhouse seems to be hinged on Whedon's established fans as a base audience with the hopes of dragging in the broader TSCC audience.
Word on the street is also that Fox, not unlike with Firefly, was very involved in the direction that the first half of the season was going to take which may be the reason for the over the head CotW format. I can't say that I care for it, especially as it seems only superficially tied to the show. The nature of Echo's "job" depends on the CotW format, but it isn't something that seems necessarily intrinsic to the underlying plot. The meat that we're waiting for, the bits that we really care about, which is all about that longer underlying narrative.
I'm still so unsure how they're going to make this show work for the long term, but again, that could be irrelevant depending on how successful the first nine to thirteen episodes are.
I'm very curious to see how you like the third episode. For all of its very obvious flaws, I think that it is the strongest of these initial three. It really builds on that closing scene from The Target with Echo's "shoulder to the wheel" gesture.
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Date: 2009-03-02 10:03 pm (UTC)From:I don't think I'd like that idea, if only because it's too easy. I know about the Russian mob guy being an Active and I'd heard about November and her being an Active (before the character was discarded). I'm half expecting half the world to be Actives by the time Whedon is through with the show. And while that idea has some intriguing possibilities, I think I'd rather see Whedon explore the idea that Topher really is that horrible, and why he's that horrible.
The Target kinda sorta piqued me interest with regard to Topher. We'd seen be all wise-cracking and generally abhorrent and arrogant in the pilot, and then we see him in The Target and he's scared. He's asking for gun but his face and his eyes scream ABJECT TERROR. But why is he so scared? Because Alpha got loose, or because Alpha got loose because of something being wrong with Topher's programming and tech? The first implies fear for his life, but the second implies devotion to his work - an almost shared identity with his work. If it fails, he fails. Obviously it's way too early to know any of this for sure, but I'd definitely rather explore an imperfect human, imperfect by nature, then explore the mind of someone programmed to be imperfect in Topher's way and therefore has no other recourse than to be that way.
Did that make sense?
Simply put, I think it would be become a far too convenient plot device if all the bad people were bad because they were programmed to be bad. And Whedon would lose out on some great chances to explore the human psyche and tell some great stories. In my opinion anyway.
...the network execs just don't know how to market or quantify the shows.
Le sigh. That is the biggest problem indeed. Personally, I loved Firefly (once I saw it in the right order) and I loved Whedon's story-telling in that series. I hope he's allowed more freedom to make Dollhouse more in line with how he'd written Firefly. I think the story demands that sort of attention. Otherwise it'll end up being a gratuitous display of the hotness (supposed) of Eliza Dushku.
An Aside: I like the lasagna/dinner thing. I thought it was some sweetness and authenticity that a show about an organization "making" people for people with lots of money sorely needs at times. I hope she's not an Active and I hope we see more of her. That and I like the fact that the actress actually looks she would actually eat the lasagna.
I'm very curious to see how you like the third episode.
I'm curious as well. I'll probably end up doing that tonight and posting a review soon after. I wanted to write about the second and third episodes at the same time after watching the second. I agree with you on another aspect; they might as well have never aired the pilot.