Rule 32: Enjoy the little things in life.

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