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

theindiegeek on:  Nathan Fillion/Castle

For those of you unfamiliar with Nathan Fillion, he’s kind of a big deal, at least in Geek and underdog circles.  He’s one of those guys who just can’t seem to get a break, despite how awesome he may be.  Fillion’s big break (in most people’s eyes) was on Joss Whedon’s Firefly, which shall be known hence forth as The Best Show That Never Was (TBSTNW).  Cancelled after only fourteen episodes, it was one of the greatest things on tv ever.  And Fox Network screwed it over.  Allow me to interrupt this blog post and say if you haven’t seen Firefly yet, stop reading to go hulu.com/firefly and watch it.  Don’t worry, the blog’ll be here.

Cast of Firefly

Watching it? Good.  Now you know who Fillion is.  The enigmatic Captain Malcolm ‘tightpants’ Reynolds.  One other thing Firefly did, besides introduce Fillion to us geeks, is it inducted him into the ‘Cult of Whedon’.  Y’know, the group of actors and actresses that Joss Whedon puts in everything? i.e. David Boreanaz, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, Eliza Dushku. (That’s a list of pretty awesome people, come to think of it…)  Despite only having a minuscule number of episodes, Firefly managed to spawn a movie Serenity which was made of win.  After Serenity and a few cameos and small movies, Fillion was to get another shot at playing lead, this time in a show called Drive.

Drive managed to have even worse luck than Firefly, being cancelled after six episodes.  Then, in 2008, genius happened.  Most people called it the writers strike.  During this time, Joss Whedon decided to try something different.  Different and legendary.  Using a crew of mainly his family and friends, Joss created a three part musical called Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog about an evil genius trying to a) get into the evil league of evil, b) defeat his nemesis, and c) win the heart of the girl of his dreams.  Filling these roles were Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser, and How I Met Your Mother fame) as the titular  Doctor Horrible, the aforementioned Felicia Day (of The Guild) as Penny, the love interest, and Fillion as Captain Hammer, the nemesis.  And it rocked.  Hardcore.  Despite being only 42 mins in length, it was very successful.

Then in 2009, something odd happened.  Fillion would once again get his own show.  Fearing a repeat, me and my friends decided to watch it, no matter what, in support of the late, great Mal Reynolds.  Having been a spaceship captain, a road racer, and a nemesis, naturally murder mystery writer came next.  A show about a writer who got bored with his bestselling character, Derrick Storm, and offs him prior to the first episode.  He then chooses a less than ideal time to get writer’s block.  To regain his inspiration, he follows around one of the men in blue, or in this case, women in blue, Detective Kate Beckett.  He follows her all throughout the day and her cases, much to her dismay.

So, will Castle follow the same fate as so many other of Fillion’s shows?  If history is any indication of the future, probably not.  While, it’s not the highest-grossing show on TV now, it has carved a nice niche.  The banter and relationship between Castle and Beckett is the highlight of the show, watching then banter, bicker and flirt, then come together to solve the case.  Fillion oozes charm, and Stana Katic plays Beckett excellently.  The rest of the cast also deserves props, from Castle’s family to the other cops at the station.  A truly remarkable cast.

Is it because he’s the underdog that people like myself keep a close eye on what Fillion’s doing?  Is it because he’s a witty, charming and intelligent guy?  Or is he just a damn fine actor who deserves better breaks?  The answer, my friend, is D) all the above.

–theindiegeek