From its murky sexual politics to the ethics of mind-wiping to some fairly on-point political satire, Dollhouse is a fundamentally more adult show than its predecessors, and while it is often very funny, fans of Buffy etc. Well-acted, thought-provoking and frequently devastating in its twists and turns, Dollhouse is a peculiar oddity, an extremely brave piece of fiction that fearlessly tackles uncomfortable concepts and themes and asks challenging questions.
What might the next level of augmented humanity look like? Is voluntary slavery still slavery? How much do we love Victor and Sierra answer: lots? With its more realistic setting and intelligent exploration of the side-effects of new technology, it has much more of a hard-SF feel than Firefly , and while there are undoubtedly bumps along the way — and one or two contentious twists near the end — if you can look past these and stay the course, it makes for a really rewarding viewing experience.
Give Dollhouse a chance. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here. Skip to main content area. There was never an official reason for why it never happened. However, the fact that the show had well documented pre-air issues, and the fact that it was clear it was never going to be a ratings winner for Fox meant it was unlikely anyone at the network wanted to spend money on extraneous content.
Williams had to face some unenviable trials in her real world personal life as well. Her seven-year relationship with actor Jonathan Cake ended when he left her just weeks before their wedding for another woman, future Doctor Who supporting player Jemma Redgrave.
The story would have a happy ending, as Williams has been happily married to playwright Rhashan Stone since With Boyd unable to help her, Echo has to fend for her life on her own.
It set the tone for the series in many ways, even more so than the initial episode. Director Steven S. DeKnight confirmed the woods in which they filmed the episode were full of rattlesnakes, massive beehives, and extreme temperatures. The bumpy mountain roads required to get to the location even led DeKnight to lose his lunch. Joss Whedon has been a cult icon for well over two decades. Whedon found himself in new controversial territory in when his ex-wife, Kai Cole, detailed the dissolution of their marriage in a bombshell op-ed, alleging Whedon cheated on her both physically and emotionally, sometimes with the stars of his shows.
But what should have been a wonderful mainstream debut for Dushku turned out to be a traumatic nightmare. She also alleged that after Kramer was confronted about the incident, Dushku was injured during a stunt in which Kramer was responsible for her safety.
Joss Whedon has cultivated a reputation as a feminist over the years, starting with Buffy, the story of a female warrior who fights back against not only the demons and monsters of the night. Somehow, the die-hards missed the subtext.
Especially when it airs on a Friday night. As it happened, they got something quite a bit smaller, and now the show is cancelled due to poor ratings. And they spend most of season 1 doing a whole lot of nothing. None of them carry over. None of them give us any indication of the question that plagues any series: Why Echo? Note: Sounds familiar. Remember what Fenzel said about the avatars in Avatar retarding the development of their characters? On Dollhouse , that happens every single episode.
Whedon of all people should know by now that this is how you get canned. I want to help. Make me into someone who can help. This is when we see what sets Echo apart from the crowd. Then, a year or two down the line, they could spring the heavy plot stuff on us.
This raises the question: How much is too much, too soon? How little is not enough? For the answer, we can turn to the other superstar auteur of network TV, J. Abrams, who has exemplified this dilemma perfectly: his megahit Lost , which spawned a whole sub-genre of ensemble cast dramas with interlocking stories, has allowed its plots to become so cumbersome in its first five years that reruns are now aired with a running stock-ticker of explanations, in case you missed an episode or two.
So Abrams decided to take a different angle when his new series Fringe got the green light. So maybe this is what Whedon was going for.
Maybe he could have simultaneously developed a weekly-adventure episodic action mood without sacrificing the larger serial story arc that would have kept those few viewers engaged. At the beginning of the show, Echo is the only doll we know. Later we meet Sierra, then Victor, then November. Each of these dolls is played by a competent actor, capable of playing any personality that might be thrust upon them. Suppose Whedon had decided, for the sake of the series as a whole, to sacrifice those big surprising moments when Victor and November got revealed, and just let us know right upfront that these characters are dolls?
Most episodes have an A-plot and a B-plot anyway, so why not divide your time up relatively evenly between the episodic material and the serial material? As it is, the first eight episodes of the show are mostly filler. I call it shooting himself in the foot. By the time he got to the big reveals near the end of the season, most of his already-small audience had already stopped caring — and stopped tuning in.
One wonders what might have been. But with the show as it was, even if someone had enjoyed parts of season 1 enough to recommend it to a friend, that friend would have to have an awful lot of faith in Whedon to sit around and wait for the story to get good. The diehards will wait like that, but everyone else… Well, they had better things to do on their Friday nights.
Echo, we hardly knew ye. Home News Cancelled or Renewed? Next Post ». Inline Feedbacks. September 25, pm. Would love your thoughts, please comment.
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