Dollhouse

[Whipporwill]

Dollhouse actually reminds me of Firefly quite a lot. It has the same mix of an unlikeable main character, a hard-to-swallow premise, and writing that thinks it's more clever than it actually is. Firefly wasn't a bad show in the sense that, say, Birds of Prey was a bad show, but it always felt slapdash and smelt of flop sweat. Its cancellation was neither surprising nor particularly disappointing.

 

I'll probably watch Dollhouse until it goes away, but I'm not expecting it to last long.

[Purkake]

I quite liked this episode. The PoV episodes can be really good if done well.

 

It's nice to see some more of Adelle's background and see that she really is a flesh and blood person with problems and needs, not the ice queen she appears to be. The Echo parts were also surprisingly good, Eliza didn't stick out like a sore thumb(except the dominatrix crap). Also, good job ruining the Ballard/Mellie stuff, it was going to come out anyway, but the way they did it was super awkward.

 

I agree that the Sierra "mission" was pretty pointless and overly drawn out. It was almost like FOX demanded some badass spy-stuff to keep people interested. Also, all the hand-to-hand fight scenes have been really weird and long. Who the hell picks up a piece of broken glass to use as a knife, I can understand it as a weapon of opportunity, but the glass shard knife battle was ridiculous.

 

They make a big deal out of the "true purpose" of the Dollhouse, is it to create the perfect human or something? It doesn't really seem that important to me, but whatever.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Purkake

[Volourn]

Too bad that deep down Adelle is a rapist - not really any better than the the guy she sentenced to death a few weeks back. So, it kinda puts a damper on her likeability.

[Blank]

Dollhouse actually reminds me of Firefly quite a lot. It has the same mix of an unlikeable main character, a hard-to-swallow premise, and writing that thinks it's more clever than it actually is. Firefly wasn't a bad show in the sense that, say, Birds of Prey was a bad show, but it always felt slapdash and smelt of flop sweat. Its cancellation was neither surprising nor particularly disappointing.

 

I'll probably watch Dollhouse until it goes away, but I'm not expecting it to last long.

I agree with your post, but I feel Firefly was unjustly treated, because if the standards for television you describe went across the spectrum, many shows that "make it" should have been canceled long ago.

 

And who does not appreciate the effort it takes to create flop sweat?

[Humodour]

This is no better or worse than Firefly, but unlike Firefly it's not set in space, so that's a bit of a let-down.

 

It's also a tad slow (just watched ep 9). Hurry up and make Echo develop some real ability or awareness. I know Whedon has a 5 year story planned out but that's meaningless if the show gets axed at season 1.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Krezack

[Blank]

... Unlike Firefly it's not set in space, so that's a bit of a let-down.

Mmm, too true. Too true.

[Purkake]

Damn Firefly haters derailing the thread *grumble grumble*

 

Anyway, this last episode was pretty interesting. It was nice to see them do something a bit different with the dolls. This time Eliza managed to act pretty well and didn't stick out like a sore thumb. It was awesome and ultimately sad to see Topher have some fun and Sierra was really good, as usual. The one thing that keeps annoying me is the "FOX-mandated 10-minute action sequence" that pretty much every episode has. It was pretty obvious that the shovel-crazy husband wasn't the murderer and the horror film-esque chase was laughable.

[Whipporwill]

I thought the "eternal life" thing was overplayed. Thinking you're Napoleon is not the same as being Napoleon, and while it makes sense for Echo-as-Margaret to be fascinated by the concept, both Adele and Boyd know how the dollhouse actually works and should not have taken the idea seriously. In fact, based on the attention paid to teaching life lessons to dead Margaret, I got the impression that the writer of the episode was also confused, and had the impression that the machine could actually summon the spirits of the dead.

 

The murder-mystery aspect of the plot seemed adequate, but I'm not much of a judge. I dislike the mystery-novel formula and have for years.

 

"There's been a murder."

 

"That's great! Let's see if we can figure out who did it!"

 

The best part of the episode for me was Topher and with Sierra. Once a year Topher makes a geek friend to play with. This managed to be cute and pathetic at the same time.

 

Ballard and November were very very creepy and dark this week. If Ballard sleeps with her he's basically raping her. If not, he risks tipping off the Dollhouse. He chooses to eat the kitten.

[Purkake]

I thought the "eternal life" thing was overplayed. Thinking you're Napoleon is not the same as being Napoleon, and while it makes sense for Echo-as-Margaret to be fascinated by the concept, both Adele and Boyd know how the dollhouse actually works and should not have taken the idea seriously. In fact, based on the attention paid to teaching life lessons to dead Margaret, I got the impression that the writer of the episode was also confused, and had the impression that the machine could actually summon the spirits of the dead.

 

The murder-mystery aspect of the plot seemed adequate, but I'm not much of a judge. I dislike the mystery-novel formula and have for years.

 

"There's been a murder."

 

"That's great! Let's see if we can figure out who did it!"

 

The best part of the episode for me was Topher and with Sierra. Once a year Topher makes a geek friend to play with. This managed to be cute and pathetic at the same time.

 

Ballard and November were very very creepy and dark this week. If Ballard sleeps with her he's basically raping her. If not, he risks tipping off the Dollhouse. He chooses to eat the kitten.

 

Well, Echo actually WAS Margaret from the time she had scanned her memories scanned. It was like another Margaret.

 

I agree that the Topher-Sierra stuff was the highlight of this episode. I think that Topher imprinted Sierra with himself. Poor Topher

 

EDIT: The Napoleon stuff made me think of Psychonauts...

Edited April 27, 2009 by Purkake

[Volourn]

At first, i thoguht this wa sjust an okayish episode. More I think about it, it was a fantastic episode - one of the better ones. Ms. Eliza did a fantastic job as her character today. The two subplots were solid too. The murder mystery was rather pathetic though, and drops the episode's value down.

[Purkake]

Some images from the lost 13th post-apocalyptic episode featuring Felicia Day. There's apparently some evil spoiler hidden in the images, but I didn't see it...

[Purkake]

Well that was certainly interesting, they really managed to stuff three episodes of content into this one. I can't say that I like Alpha or even understand his motives. Whedon's villains are usually really good so I hope that the next episode will give some more insight into his character.

 

EDIT: It's like they went out of their way to find the most unlikable child for the abused girl.

Edited May 2, 2009 by Purkake

[Gorgon]

It just got good. About time they started advancing the Alpha storyline. The Doll missions on their own are just boring filler. By the way wasn't that the pilot from Firefly.

[Purkake]

It just got good. About time they started advancing the Alpha storyline. The Doll missions on their own are just boring filler. By the way wasn't that the pilot from Firefly.

 

That's Alan Tudyk aka Wash from Firefly. I though everyone knew...

 

Also, Victor better get's his face fixed, he got sliced up pretty bad.

[Volourn]

Great episode.

[Pidesco]

That was pretty awesome.

[Darque]

Awesome and unexpected! Poor Victor

[Blank]

EDIT: It's like they went out of their way to find the most unlikable child for the abused girl.

Makes sense to me. Abused children, such as the girl in this story, tend to have trouble developing likability the way their peers do.

[Volourn]

Largely a product of them disliking themselves because of what they want through. I felt sympathy even though she was a brat. Kind of hard to grow up 'normal' under those circumstances.

[Whipporwill]

Aaand ... we're out.

 

A bit of a fizzle, I thought.

[Purkake]

The set up for the next (possible) season looks promising.

 

I agree that the end itself fell a little flat.

 

- So the great Alpha, while played great by Alan Tudyk, was just a crazy dude with no real plan? He was hilariously incompetent.

- The girl who got imprinted with Caroline played her more believably than Eliza, I was surprised at how good she was.

- The hooker/Echo/Omega was pretty meh. She didn't really feel like the

Edited May 9, 2009 by Purkake

[Whipporwill]

- So they created Alpha by Topher messing up and accidentally imprinting him with a bunch of personalities? What?

 

 

They didn't create Alpha. They imprinted him with a bunch of personalities, but he was always ax crazy.

[Purkake]

- So they created Alpha by Topher messing up and accidentally imprinting him with a bunch of personalities? What?

 

 

They didn't create Alpha. They imprinted him with a bunch of personalities, but he was always ax crazy.

 

But if Topher hadn't messed up and imprinted him with the 40 personalities, he'd just be a crazy dude. Thanks to the mess-up his a crazy dude with ninja skills.

 

I always thought that his previous personalities just came out slowly ala Echo and that drove him mad and eventually he learned to use them.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Purkake

[Volourn]

" The girl who got imprinted with Caroline played her more believably than Eliza, I was surprised at how good she was."

 

You kidding right? She was horrid.

 

Whisky was awesome, and definitely a greta part of the episode.

 

Echo is fantatsic as a lead.

 

 

The episode, while not as great as the previous one, was a very solid season/series finale. Hopefully it'll be renewed but I dunno if it will be.

[Pidesco]

It's like Volourn lives in the upside down, backwards land. And I don't mean Canada.

 

 

 

I thought this episode was a fairly good set up for the next season, although the show would improve a great deal if they changed the lead. Sierra should be the lead actress.