The premiere of the wildly anticipated show Dollhouse last February 13 was, admittedly, lukewarm. Lots of good, with an equal amount of "eh." The first ten minutes of the premiere episode, Ghost, was way too forced. That first little chat between Topher (Fran Kranz) and Boyd (Harry J. Lennix) was blatantly used for educating the audience about the set-up. It was like FOX expected the audience to be too stupid to get the premise. To be fair though, it was kind of needed. I get what they're trying to do, they want to reel in as much viewers as possible, so right now their storytelling is basically...well, basic. They want people to see the show and immediately get it, without too much of a headache. That's nice of them, but first of all, they should have expected Joss Whedon fans to be smarter that their average watcher. Haha, get it? Watcher.
Right.
And, despite the obvious tampering of the network executives, Ghost just isn't as bad most are making it out to be. It was actually good, not great, not bad, but good.
The second episode, The Target, was way better. More action, more backstory, more character introductions, more reasons why we should care. Extra kudos for bringing in Matt Keeslar, I love The Middleman! At this point, we get a glimpse of why Echo is the protagonist of the story.
(Harry J. Lennix as Boyd, Eliza Dushku as Echo, and Fran Kranz as Topher)The third and latest episode,
Stage Fright, is quite frankly, the worst. More of the cliched superstar "I want to be free" drama with obsessive and weird fans type of a story. The parallels of the Rayna character and Echo are obvious, but Rayna attracts very little sympathy (really, none). Although I loved the twist about Luboz (
Enver Gjokaj), I wasn't necessarily surprised, after all I've been following the progress of the Dollhouse production, but it was awesome nonetheless.
Needless to say, Dollhouse has its ups and middles, but I haven't wavered in my optimism. Okay, I
have. But only when I read those traitorous "fans" harshly criticisizing the show. But no matter what, I'm sticking by the Dollhouse. How could I not? I was ignorant enough to only learn about
Buffy the Vampire Slayer during its 4th season, and I didn't even know about
Firefly until I was flabbergasted by the awesomeness of
Serenity. I'm not about to make the mistake of missing out on more Joss Whedon's genius. Plus, girls kicking major ass every week? Sounds like my kind of show.
Dollhouse can only get better, and despite some stumbles, it really does seem like the show is slowly but surely finding its stride. As for
Eliza Dushku, so far she has done no wrong. I doubt she'll be brilliant in everything, but maybe there's an actual chance she'll prove me, and everyone else, wrong. At least Whedon seems to think so.
I actually can't wait for the 6th episode and onwards. Eliza Dushku has repeatedly said that the first 5 episodes were somewhat tailored for the FOX network's approval, and that the remaining episodes are where Whedon's novelist capabilities finally show. The themes are intriguing enough, questions like
"Who are you without your memories?," "In the grand scheme of things, how much is one person worth?" and
"Does personality make the person?" are already being subtly asked, and it can only sink deeper and induce more headaches. Good, healthy headaches, of course.
And for those who are ignorant, stupid, annoying enough to ask the infamous question "How will the audience relate/cheer for a heroine (Echo) who is a different character every week?"
Why don't you stop asking that question and actually watch the show and find out?
