Let's all play at the DOLLHOUSE. TV Review!
Dollhouse
TV Review
By Kristi Walsh
Good news: There’s finally a Joss Whedon series on our television screens again! Bad news: It’s on Fox. On Friday nights. Sound like a familiar scenario?
To be fair, Dollhouse has a lot of factors in its favor that a certain short-lived space western did not. The first being that the network actually aired the pilot episode, “Ghost” (admittedly, a reshot pilot). It also benefits from the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicleslead-in (starring another Whedon leading lady, Summer Glau), and promotion for the show has been pretty much everywhere. Actress and producer Eliza Dushku has proven herself to be equally adept at kicking butt and breaking hearts, and the creative crew is practically a dream team of veterans from prior Whedonverse works.
So why do I feel so…empty? It’s action-packed, it’s intriguing, it’s got pretty people walking around the most glorious set this side of Galactica. And yet, this seems like a case of style over substance.
Based on an idea born during a writers’ strike lunch date, Dollhouse is the story of Echo, one of many “actives” who can be imprinted with any personality and any set of skills to match a given situation. We first see Echo racing motorcycles and dancing the night away with a clearly lovestruck yuppie named Matt. But as the sun rises, Echo walks away from him to a waiting van where her handler Boyd Langdon (Harry Lennix) waits to take her back to the Dollhouse for her treatment. A procedure which consists of her reclining into a chair and having her memory wiped. Not only of her weekend with Matt but also earlier memories of her own childhood, when she was a girl named Caroline.
Caroline was recruited to the Dollhouse by Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams), who promises Caroline that she’ll be free to go after her five-year commitment is completed. There’s lots of vague talk about clean slates, second chances and actions having consequences. I’m sure the details of whatever prompted Caroline to sign over herself and her soul to this shadowy organization will be revealed in due time, but is it a good idea for a show to be this disconcerting before the first commercial break?
Alas, there is no rest for the mind-wiped, as Echo is prepared for her next assignment: acting as negotiator Eleanor Penn for a wealthy Mexican businessman whose daughter, Davina, has been kidnapped. Techie Topher Brink (Fran Kranz), who handles the imprinting of the actives, explains to handler Langdon that Echo’s been programmed with an amalgam of several people. He’s also fiddled around with her neural circuits to make her near-sighted and asthmatic. Unfortunately, one of the people that make up Eleanor’s personality is a kidnapping victim herself. When her kidnapper appears at the ransom drop, Echo/Eleanor understandably freaks out. They end up losing the girl and the money, causing DeWitt to rush Echo back into treatment.
But Langdon insists that whatever knowledge Echo now has, is their best shot at getting Davina back. So they hold off on the mindwipe and allow Echo to continue her Eleanor act. She finds an isolated house where the three kidnappers are counting the money, sowing dissent among them as she tells them how their creepy third partner is going to kill them before running off with the girl. And she should know, since she’s the one girl that got away from him.
A shootout ensues that allows Echo to free Davina from her refrigerator cell. As she heads back toward the front door, new active Sierra bursts in with backup and guns blazing. When Echo protests that she was supposed to wait, Sierra tells her to get over it. Looks like her imprint is working just fine.
Something for the guys
After another mindwipe, Echo heads for the communal shower and then to bed, a lovely coffin-shaped hole that is covered by opaque glass as they sleep. It’s a good thing dolls aren’t claustrophobic. Meanwhile, DeWitt is in her office fretting about containing “this,” referring to the contents of a folder marked Alpha. And elsewhere, an unknown man sits on a table going through photos and watching a videotape of a young Echo, while several men bleed out on the floor and furniture around him.
The secondary plot revolves around Agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), who has spent months investigating the Dollhouse without any results to show his superiors. He explains that the only way to imprint another personality on a human being is to wipe out their own, making them equal to murder victims in his eyes. Which is a slight stretch in legal terms.
However, this scene is inexplicably intercut with scenes of a shirtless Penikett sparring with another boxer, which keeps distracting me from the dialogue. Um, what was I saying? Oh, right. After his meeting with the higher-ups, Paul goes to visit Victor (a Russian Michael Buble) at some sleazy club. He offers to overlook all the human trafficking and prostitution that Victor’s mafia friends are involved in, if Victor will tell him everything he knows about the Dollhouse. Threat accomplished, Paul takes off, never to be seen again. Until episode 2, I’m guessing, when we’ll find out why he’s so curious.
The role of Echo is a dream role for any actress. An active can be anyone, she can do anything, she can even give Gabrielle Anwar a run for her money in the micromini department. Thus Dushku can be a no-nonsense negotiator, a ruthless assassin, or simply a hot chick who can show a guy a good time. There’s a strange mix of confidence and vulnerability as she plays her imprinted part to the hilt while experiencing flashes of the life she left behind. Pondering a knee injury that she can’t remember receiving, witnessing the painful indoctrination of a new active that she isn’t supposed to see, accepting gold necklaces that she will never have the opportunity to wear. Although when she’s not on duty, Dushku’s Echo wanders the halls in her tank top and yoga pants, staring into space with a pleasantly blank look like she’s had one too many Ambien pills. It’s not exactly riveting acting and really should be avoided.
Williams as DeWitt, Reed Diamond as Laurence Dominic, and Amy Acker as Claire Saunders (the Dollhouse’s resident doctor) are all equally shady. Boldly declaring that they’re helping people, but in ways that no one really needs to know about just yet. Harry Lennix as Echo’s handler does a fantastic job of being compassionate and committed to her safety. He seems to be one of the few, if not the only, Dollhouse denizens actually interested in doing the right thing. And Tibetan/Australian actress Dichen Lachman is barely onscreen but makes a major impression as Echo’s fellow active Sierra.
“Ghost” is a pilot episode, which means there’s a lot of exposition and backstory to be told. And I think at the very least, viewers will tune in to see if we learn any more secrets about Echo and her colleagues. Or to see what revealing outfit Eliza will be sporting in her next assignment. That strategy worked well for Alias, which balanced the heart-racing action with heart-rending relationships. But since Echo has no friends or family that she can remember, what makes Dollhouse more than just a dress-up show? I suppose time will tell, if Fox allows it to do so.
And just so the girls know that there's stuff for them too....I give you a couple of the Dollhouse's hotties
He could handle me all he wanted
Do we really need another caption?? Just look at the cheekbones, that's all you need.