19 Nov
of dolls and their houses, and of a Joss and a rabid Fox
theindiegeek on: Dollhouse’s Cancellation
So I’m sure by now that everyone’s heard about Dollhouse’s cancellation. Now, I enjoyed Dollhouse, but I wasn’t terribly surprised that it didn’t get a third season. To be brutally honest, I was surprised it got a second season to begin with. Ratings weren’t that great, and I’m not sure what it was, but to me it didn’t feel as strong as Joss’ other shows. (Note, I am currently watching Angel and absolutely loving it).
So what was it about Dollhouse that made it different? Well it certainly wasn’t the cast. I would like to give special mention to Fran Kranz as Topher, Dichen Lachman as Sierra, Amy Acker as Dr. Saunders and Enver Gjokaj as Victor. All around outstanding performances from them, not to say the rest of the cast was bad either. Also, the cameos were fantastic, Joss really pulled from his past shows and brought in many of his friends: Alexis Denisof, Alan Tudyk, Summer Glau, Felicia Day, etc.
The narrative also had great promise. The evil Rossum corp enslaving people by wiping their personalities, and yet the leader of the titular Dollhouse, Adelle DeWitt still believe herself a great humanitarian, and the actives Echo, Victor, and Sierra with whom things aren’t just status quo. Also, probably due to the nature of the characters involved, I quite enjoyed the backstory with Alpha, Echo, and Whiskey.
So if it wasn’t the characters or the narrative, what was it? I can’t speak for anyone else, but here’s why I didn’t fall in love with Dollhouse as I did with Angel or Firefly.
Joss Whedon’s shows generally start off slow, but with Dollhouse, it really took a while to see where they were going. The pacing wasn’t right. Sometimes it fell quite slow, and other times there were plot twits every 5-10 minutes. There’s a fine line between keeping the audience on their toes, and losing them. Also, when you have characters whose whole personality changes every episode, it’s hard to form attachments to them, as you don’t really know what they’re like. The time slot didn’t help either. Late Friday evening? When the target audience is mostly out doing stuff? Not good. Again, to be brutally honest, I just didn’t like the premise as much as that of Angel or Firefly.
That being said, I would like to specifically mention the episode “Epitaph One”, the last episode in season one. This episode has been on of my favorite episodes of any show. Partially due to the fact that I love dystopias, I absolutely loved this episode. It shows what can happen when technology goes too far (even beyond that of the dollhouse). It takes place several years after the rest of the series and the technology has turned the world into ruins. A group of survivors led by Felicia Day seeks refuge and finds the dollhouse, and with it several memories of the rest of the cast. These are flashbacks (such as Topher’s first day) and flash-forwards (which I won’t spoil). Although I must say there is one particular scene with Topher and Adelle that choked me up quite a bit and still does just thinking about it. And I don’t think I would have enjoyed that episode as much not having watched the rest of the season. It is worth watching the first season for that episode alone.
So the dollhouse is closed, props to it’s cast and crew on thier accomplishments, and know that fans will continue to follow Joss Whedon and the his crew onto whatever they do. Dollhouse, you had a fine run. Too short perhaps, but fun while it lasted. Cheers!
–theindiegeek
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Posted by Bryt on 19.11.09 at 5:36 pm
With Dollhouse, we finally see that thing with “strong female characters” go down the drain. Echo’s quite sickening to me(or rather her various incarnations). Combined with Summer Glaus character in Firefly it’s just that socially awkward nerd’s fantasy of the even more socially awkward child-in-woman’s-body thing. Which we’ve all seen before and is kinda tired.
Posted by TheHey!ster on 19.11.09 at 5:36 pm
Can I also put in my two cents worth? All Right: also the play for the Socially Conscious Utopia where A Person is A Person is A Person is A Person also leaves a sickening feeling in A Person’s stomach. What I truly mean is: What constitute “All Righteousness” to A Person, sometimes ,but not in all (Whatever) particular cases is not necessarally truthful in all or any case. A Person can be or cannot be “Rich” in Culture and Beliefs while others can or cannot be “Ruled” by the “Richness” of others or self “Richness” of one’s own Culture! Okay. Thank You For Listening! Bye!
Posted by Jessi on 19.11.09 at 5:36 pm
I think the big failing here was the dollhouse never truly capitalized on Joss’s greatest talents, which are fabulous, complete, whole characters that could be real people and witty, fast-paced, dialog. You can’t have the character development when the characters are always changing. Case in point, Topher is the saving grace of Dollhouse to me. Because he’s always Topher and I know him. And the dialog isn’t there because the actives are all either submissive or they are in someone else’s skin. I love Joss, but I think he should stick to his strengths a little more.
Posted by juan bergoso on 19.11.09 at 5:36 pm
I always liked the concept behind Dollhouse, the cast equally well – good point. Also in total agreement about the slow start. Second half of season 1 was pretty good though, at least on par for the Joss course. But they never explored the other branches of the Dollhouse nationally in story. They made one heavily plot twisted episode which covered up for a weak origin point in the little explained Rossum Corp – actually a good episode but kind of exposed a weakness at the same time IMO. That was expansive as they got on network.
Does having one of the executive producers star in the show make for weak teleplays? Um, duh. Not that Eliza Dushku is a bad television actress. She can be great as we know and had her moments in the series, but even I noticed enough internet response to the overall effect of the style of the show and her performances in it, which were varied but also ultimately tied to her, good or bad. People just zeroed in on her various roles right away. Some worked better than others.
I still think this show had a lot going for it. It was certainly the only current show on air I had been watching and am of course extremely disappointed to see it off the air. It seemed there could have been a plausible five season story arc. I’m almost getting the feeling some one or some party is bailing out on their story outlines.
I’ll be watching Hulu a lot less.
Posted by Yorickt on 19.11.09 at 5:36 pm
I thought it was a huge waste that Dollhouse was renewed for a 2nd season instead of Sarah Connor Chronicles, only to be cancelled later.
Personally I think Terminator would have made it to the 4th season if it weren’t for Dollhouse.