anyone catch the premier of 'Dollhouse' last night? i'm glad to see joss whedon and company return to the airwaves, it just hasn't been the same without him.

Dollhouse seems pretty cool: after one episode i'm thinking: a combination of Dark City and Matrix and The 12th Monkey. the main character (Eliza Dushku) is a woman whose criminal background apparently leaves her little choice but to submit to a super secret organization called the 'Dollhouse' wherein scientists remove her personality and imprint her mind with whatever personality is necessary for her to accompish the top-secret/challenging task at hand.

in the first episode she becomes a hostage negotiater, but suffers intermittently from memories of being 'processed' and from the memories embedded in her mind by the Dollhouse. meanwhile, a plucky (and hottie) male detective is grimly seeking out the Dollhouse, having heard rumors of its existence, determined to shut it down.

at first, watching the premier i was a bit put off by the objectification of women; they are all selected for their beauty and physical perfection, yet become mindless puppets/human tools during processing. then i realized this may be one of the points being made by whedon. in a way it is a statement about society; all women are in the Dollhouse, in a manner of speaking. the greater point, imo, is that we are all players on the stage of life, one way or another.

anyhow, i'm just glad whedon is back.

I had purposely avoided reading much about it beforehand cause I prefer to be surprised (and form my own opinions).

I agree that Whedon's making a statement as far as the beauty/puppet aspect. Whedon's been a long-time feminist, I don't see him selling out here.

And it's gonna take a few more episodes for me to really get into it, but I'm happy with what we've got so far.

And I didn't know Fred was gonna be in it!

YAY! I love her!

CarrieMpls said:

FRED?!? I didn't know she was going to be in it either!

CarrieMpls said:

dushku has the ultimate acting job, eh? she'll be a totally different character in each episode. i thought she did an excellent job in the premier, being several different people. started out rebellious like faith, from buffy, turned into echo, vapid and sweet, then into the strong, certain negotiater, then into a frightened child. dushku has some amazing acting chops, imo. she's grown up a lot since her buffy days. then again, her role as faith was limited.

i also kind of wonder if joss is making a tongue-in-cheek dig at the hollywood scene?

thekidsgirl said:

whedon has a real knack for choosing the right people imo

Why do you lot always get it b4 us. Its not fair. any idea when its coming to the uk? Lets hope it goes better than firefly!

CarrieMpls said:

I saw Amy Acker's name in the opening credits and was all

Poor Fred's face was all scarred. I thought she was still hot though. I had the sudden desire to caress her facial scars when she first appeared on screen.

The show wasn't bad. It will take a few more episodes for me to really get into it.

There's a great article in the latest RS about Whedon and the problems he's had with 'Dollhouse' as well as 'Firefly'. This thing's not being done in his original image. Pretty much, this guy is not for television. At least not network tv. He's talking about all of his future projects being distributed through the internet.

violator said:

Are internet-only projects profitable?

Eliza Dushku again
Amy Acker again

It sounds like Joss Whedon's take on "Alias"


X, you're off your rocker - the right people?

Teacher said:

Isn't the show a joint project between Joss and Eliza? I don't think it's a case where he got lazy in casting and just went for someone he knew again.

sextonseven said:

You mean as opposed to all the other times he's done that? It'd be refreshing if that wasn't the case, but as I've mentioned on every Buffyverse-related thread ever before, I dislike Eliza Dushku. She only seems to do well cast in hand-sewn parts.

XxAxX said:

I love her! She's so cute and endearing
Haven't seen Dollhouse yet...which is a crime, I know

But now I'm even more pumped to catch it

Eliza Dushku is hot! 'Nuff Said!

Hate to act like the Grinch here but I just get the feeling that this series is going to be canceled in the next two weeks. Nothing necessarily due to the content of the show, but just because FOX has buried this show on Friday night, which has historically been the network's graveyard for TV shows since The X Files was moved from Friday nights to Sunday nights in 1996. Every scripted show that Fox has sent there since has gone on to die within a few weeks to a few months. Witness the deaths of Party of Five, Dark Angel, Boston Public, Bernie Mac, Wanda At Large (Wanda Sykes), and now most likely Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles. They also put on really interesting shows that could have developed into cult hits and eventually became huge like Firefly, John Doe, and Wonderfalls but instead of nurturing those shows FOX instead yanked them after a few episodes.

Yeah! Speaking of John Doe, what the hell ever happened to that show? It looked like it was really going to be a big hit back in 2003. They just dropped it after a few shows in. Fox really has a bad rep for dropping shows that dates as far back as In Living Color.

728huey said:

I can't quite understand Joss having anything to do with Fox after "Firefly" really. Actually, I can't understand ANYBODY having anything to do with Fox.

Teacher said:

someone's neighbor must have been noisy again last night yeah, i guess my personal tastes do not mirror your own.

728huey said:

i think it will only be a six or seven episode endeavor

728huey said:

It's being promoted as some kind of sexy, bad-girl block. For the entire two-hours, Summer Glau and Eliza Dushku are in commercials together talking to each other about both shows basically trying to appeal to lonely nerds that have nothing better to do on Friday nights.

I can't invest time in another Joss Wheadon/Tim Minear/Fox porject. I have been disappointed by FOX's lack of committment time and again.

violator said:

There was nothing wrong with Firefly. Fox was what was wrong with it.

superspaceboy said:

firefly was cool

I don't have cable anymore so I won't be able to watch it, but I'm intrigued. Sounds like a good, challenging role for Eliza. And knowing Joss, some good pro-woman commentary is going to come out of the project. Considering Buffy and Angel are both now college and university textbook fodder these days, I predict good things in a similar vein for this show if Joss plays his cards right.

That said, I think he's kind of a dumbass for even considering Fox again. That network's not kind to good shows.
[Edited 2/17/09 1:13am]

superspaceboy said:

Who said there was anything "wrong" with it?

I hope all the re-tooling that they did on it pays off and hasn't completely ruined it.

XxAxX said:

I can't remember if they were that night but obviously we don't agree on this one.

superspaceboy said:

Actually, Fox is what's wrong with loads of things.