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

[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.