Yes, I am on a bit of a blog frenzy. I almost posted a political entry the other day, but thought better of it.
OK, so as most of you don’t know, Dollhouse as a show, was awesome.
Now, I am certainly a big Joss Whedon fan. I’ve watched every episode of every show he’s created, and read pretty much every comic he’s ever written. Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Fray, Astonishing X-Men? Move over girls in white dresses, THESE are a few of MY favorite things. That being said, I don’t think he’s the greatest writer in history, or even of our age (that honor goes to the wonderful Mr. Brian K. Vaughan). And, as awesome as Dollhouse was, it will never compare to the other things I listed up there. Why?
Well, the biggest criticism I – and most people – had against the show was somewhat unavoidable. In a show where half the characters are totally different people every week, it’s hard to form an attachment to any of them. Strangely however, by the end the characters I cared most for were two of the dolls (Victor and Sierra), and the ones I cared least about were “real people” – Ballard and Boyd. I don’t know, I guess what that means is that while I would like to blame FOX for forcing the story of the week, start at the beginning crap on me, I can’t; characters who never reset fell flat to me. Honestly I think the writers just failed to make me care about the people we were supposed to care about (most).
The concept. Was super cool. The execution, wasn’t always. Again, I wish I could lay all the blame on FOX for making the show more episodic and slow, but again, it’s not all their fault. Look at Burn Notice, the highest rated show on cable. Or White Collar too. Both of these are “episodic” in nature. Every week a different client comes to Michael, and in a fun, creative, interesting way, he and his two friends deal with the situation. Meanwhile, at the end of every episode maybe 5 minutes is given to the ongoing mystery of who burned him and why. It works. In White Collar, every episode is devoted to solving a different crime, but a few minutes are given at the end to help discover what happened to Kate, who the man with the ring is, and what they want. Again, it works. Or Veronica Mars – mystery of the week, ongoing mystery of the season. I don’t think you can blame FOX (exclusively) for making the first season and a half of Dollhouse incredibly slow. If every episode had been like Epitaph One, the show would still be on – in my opinion.
Anyway, issues I had with the show aside, I really did like it. Who doesn’t like an evil company (or hate it?)? The whole question of nature vs. nurture, of real vs. fantasy, and all of that, is really cool, and a lot more intelligent than you normally find on TV these days. Victor and Sierra were the main relationship I cared about. Adelle was awesome, except when she saved her people by destroying the world…And Topher was cool when he finally grew a conscience.
Now for the finale itself. It was cool. As you may or may not know, I’m passionately in love with Felicia Day, so it was good to see her, even though she didn’t do anything…In fact I thought it was weird that Epitaph One made me care about a random group of characters in one episode and then Epitaph Two basically dropped them. I guess the “main” characters were more important (they are) but still. I loved Priya and her son (who was – I’m about to use a girly word so bear with me – adorable), and I loved the dynamic with her and Victor/Tony. It was cool to see time pass and just have to guess what happened. I thought the Road Warrior-esque band of techheads was a really cool concept, even if they were random and douchey. I thought that Topher being able to save the world in one go was kind of out-there, but we’re dealing with a show where people’s brains are re-written, so… I’ll be quiet. His end had a poetic justice about it. Adelle was awesome. Ballard dying should have made me sadder (I did yell WHAT?!?) but it didn’t. Echo’s response to his death, however, was more-or-less worth it in my opinion though.
Now for the main part I had a problem with. Echo downloaded her dead True Love into her brain, so they could never be alone. WHAT. I just…don’t know what to do with that. Somewhere over the course of my life, I read or watched something about someone having either a virtual or psychic romance, and I seem to remember the character just basically wasting away, preferring to live in a fantasy than in the real world. That idea impacted me a lot – I’m incorporating it into one of my comics – and it always stuck with me. I mean, what’s she supposed to do, walk around like everything’s normal but talking to him? Spend all day in bed having imaginary sex with…herself? What. It actually reminds me of Katherine Heigl’s character on Grey’s. She had a fantasy affair with someone. I did not like. I would have much rather seen Alpha erasing his personalities except for Paul’s (which he had!) and living with Echo forever, but OH WELL.
All in all, I’m sad the show is over, but I’m not going to cry over it, because I can’t bring myself to care on that high a level. I will probably rewatch the show periodically, but there are no guarantees that I don’t just skip most of the first season because it is frankly boring. I wish the show had been more fast-paced at the beginning and less so at the end, but I choose to take the good with the bad and no longer complain.
Deuces.
