Dollhouse: okay, I'm definitely hooked

[jducoeur]

Just finished watching through Season 1 of Dollhouse. Thanks to ladysprite -- I hadn't realized that there was an extra unaired episode until she mentioned it, and it was seriously not one to miss.

I'm avoiding direct spoilers, but let's put it this way. When the series started, a lot of people had the reaction that the premise was kind of sick and weird. By the time you get through Epitaph One (the unaired episode), it's really clear that the whole point of the series is that there is no "kind of": when you carry the idea through logically, the results are horrifying. It's classic science fiction: take one idea (in this case, the notion of being able to record human minds and imprint them on others), and see where it goes. The show is unflinching, both in showing why the concept is alluring, and just how dangerous it can be.

It's now on DVD (the only way to get the original pilot and extra episode), and IMO is worth watching that way. Like all Joss shows, it builds in momentum over the course of the season. I strongly recommend *not* watching the unaired pilot until you've watched the season: for a change, I think the network's decision to demand a better pilot was correct. The original pilot gives a great deal away very quickly, whereas the season as aired lets the secrets play out much more gradually. (And Epitaph One goes at the end, as an epilogue to the first season and a hint of things to come...)

Comments

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

And now that you've seen season one, go read _All My Sins Remembered_ by Joe Haldeman, and tell me that wasn't an inspiration for the series.
-- Dagonell

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

Season 2 is starting out quite powerful as well.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll give it another shot some day, but it solidly failed my "did it grab me after two episodes?" test. I think Adam-Troy Castro nailed my feelings about those first two episodes square on the head with his analysis:

http://www.sff.net/people/adam-troy/random/dollhouse.htm

[jducoeur]

Let's just put it this way: this is a Joss series. Joss is pretty consistent about a few things, and more than anything, he is consistent that what you think is going on at the beginning, isn't what's going on by the end. His preferred granularity of storytelling is the full season, and you generally have to get halfway through before you really even know what's going on. This is no exception; if anything, he's playing a longer game with this story than usual. (Really, the pacing reminds me of B5 in many ways.)

The ostensible purpose of the Dollhouse is the most banal, most *safe* use for this technology. The writers -- heck, even some of the characters -- are well aware that that's just scratching the surface...

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why the show didn't give any indications of that in those first two episodes. Andy and I walked away from it shaking our heads at just how poorly thought-out and frankly *awful* the premise was. It's as if they wrote those episodes to drive away viewers like me, and to lure in people who didn't like complexity in their storytelling (and who liked naked chicks, if the promos are any indication). Having been cured of my rabid Joss-o-philia by Serenity, and my schedule being too busy to accommodate mediocre television, I wasn't willing to stick around past two episodes to see if things improved.

Andy and I also walked away from the first season of B5 after the first handful of episodes (I think Sinclair's wooden "everybody lies" speech was the straw that broke the camel's back), and didn't come back until friends swore to us that it had vastly improved. We're fairly ruthless when it comes to our television time.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

There was significant network interferrance in the first six episodes- Fox kind of backed off after that.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

True, but Firefly suffered from the same problem, and I was easily able to see the promise in it.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this interference was at the level that both Whedon and Dushku, as I recall, were saying "Please, stick with us until episode six when it finally gets to be the show we want it to be".

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I got actively nervous when I heard that. It sounded like a cancellation just waiting to happen. And since I've been there with Joss before, I wasn't eager to be in that position again. I was genuinely shocked when this show was renewed (and pissed as hell that they killed the Sarah Connor Chronicles, but that's not germane to this conversation).

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

A lot of people were genuinely shocked, including, I believe, Joss. When word came out that they were refusing to air Epitaph One at ALL, we all figured that was it, time to put away our toys and go home.

[jducoeur]

Interesting. While I actually like the way it came out better from the standpoint of the whole season, this may indicate that Joss' original instincts were right, that the original unaired pilot would have been smarter television. Suffice it to say, that pilot hits the ground running, giving away in one episode what took the first half-dozen as aired. (Not by any means everything, but it at least hints much more strongly that there's more going on than meets the eye.)

I think I'm more inclined to give shows a chance: I tend to give a show half a dozen episodes before I give up on it. Admittedly, that's probably because of B5, which stands as my favorite show of all time, and which took almost half a season to hit its stride. (Not to mention Next Gen, which was *terrible* for the entire first season, erratic for the second, and didn't really start to get solidly good until the third.) I can definitely understand the "I don't have time for this", but I've seen enough shows that took a while to click that I tend to let my curiosity rule for longer. That's a gamble, though, wagering my time against the chance of a payoff, and I'm certainly not always right...

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

I strongly agree with jducoeur here. After a couple of episodes, I had the strong feeling I'd missed an episode or two at the beginning...I hadn't, of course, but the WTF? factor was strong enough for me to have almost tossed the series in the mental "thank you for playing" pile. But it was Joss and Eliza, and I'd pretty much watch Eliza read Joss's grocery lists. So I'm very glad I stayed with it. Like Mark said, Joss requires patience -- remember the first season of Angel? -- and this particular Joss takes more patience than most.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

When the series started, a lot of people had the reaction that the premise was kind of sick and weird. By the time you get through Epitaph One (the unaired episode), it's really clear that the whole point of the series is that there is no "kind of"...

Um. Yes.

I have been dismayed by the number of people talking about "moral ambiguity" in this show.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Having finally seen Epitaph One and the original pilot, I have to agree with you.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way. Perhaps I missed this, but so far it has all been about the "actives", and the moral (non)ambiguity about what is being done to them. But I don't recall any mention of how they get their "imprints" from donors, and what happens to donors when they do. Is it "copy", or is it "cut and paste"? There was an episode in which the "donor" was dead, and was "resurrected" into Echo, and Whiskey is a replacement for a dead predecessor, but are all their "donors" dead? And if not, does "donating" make them dead? Or is it something worse....

I have a feeling the answer is going to be unambiguous....and very icky indeed.

[jducoeur]

Actually, this is covered (very briefly, in passing) in one of the additional episodes on the DVD -- I believe it's mentioned in Epitaph One. The upshot (assuming it's true, which one can't take for granted) is that (a) no, the donors aren't dead, and (b) there are far more imprints on file than you might expect...