*sigh*
The last episode of Dollhouse , "The Hollow Men", was probably one of the weakest we have seen in two seasons. It had good ideas(Joss' I assume) but it was rushed, poorly written, poorly executed; it looked cheap, the editing was bad and the acting was uneven, off even...
I'm sure I'm in the minority here but:
I think that Tahmoh delivered the best performance. The others were not very good, I mean the others but Enver of course, although what Enver did was hardly new, actually it was very much déjà-vu so it felt like a rehash, as if they were recycling stuff, using what had worked before (he is very good at impersonating Topher to the point of looking like him when giggling but I don't think that it is his best acting performance, it's mimicry). On the other hand given the bad material they had to work with I can't really blame the actors.
It is sad because Dollhouse deserved better. Besides many flaws(dialogues, editing), the thing that truly ruined the episode for me was the plot writing. Am I the only one who could no longer suspended my disbelief when Anthony reversed to his ninja-enhanced self after being imprinted with Topher's persona? I thought that a doll couldn't regain his/her original persona without using a wedge that saved said persona along with the memories the person had until they had dolled them up (they made a point about it concerning Caroline)...And here we have Anthony who obviously didn't have his brain scanned before jumping in Topher's chair but woke up still with the full memories of what happened just before he used the chair, a few minutes ago. Okay...that's the kind of loophole that I can't accept. It's so amateurish!
As for Mellie's death, well there was no surprise in it, it has been telegraphed and, even though I didn't think of the trigger that switched her on killing mode, I predicted in my previous post that she would sacrifice herself to save her beloved Paul. Having said that, Tahmoh was really good in that scene. The look on his face! Mellie's death was predictable but at least made sense; she had to die, and she had to die in a way that would make Paul rethink his own dollhood and of course Echo's.
But I must be a perverse person, because unlike many fans, I like it when Joss suddenly kills his characters and decides to go the dark and painful road. I like that he has the sense of tragedy and that he dares not to abide by Hollywood's formula. I like that Greek side of him that is so un-American (I can't help remembering something that Daniel Mendelssohn said about Americans not getting tragedy and needing happy endings here).
I'm not too kind on the dialogue Paul and Mellie had just before the scene though. It sounded like the writers simply plagiarized BSG! Helo almost said the same thing to hsi wife, Athena the Cylon, that she was a person. Except that it sounded much better on BSG, and that Paul is not Helo. Tahmoh is that good an actor. When I see Eliza on Dollhouse I keep seeing the same character she played on various shows, over and over(different states of Faith but Faith still), when I see Paul I don't see Helo at all.
As for the Boyd and Clyde15.0 stuff, it was a mess. I don't mind ellipsis in movie/tv writing-- it's often even more elegant than anything else--but this was just bad.
I had foretold that all our main characters have been Boyd's pet project, so I wasn't surprised by his "I chose you" I love you guys" "you're my family" and his behaviour towards them echoing the croquet game the serial killer from "La Belle Chose" played was a good idea, but the writing was too poor to make it fit in.
Same thing with the reveal about Caroline. On the paper it's a good idea. At the end of the day what matters is her body and not her wedge mind! In theory it's a good twist, but the execution sucked.
Boyd, whom we saw as a father figure, turned out to be a tall aging kid who played with dolls (some of them being Actives others being just Rossum's employees) so his being dolled up by Topher, the guy who used to play with toys(and Sierra), was a nice ending, not sure we needed to see Echo running in a corridor, Chosen-style, afterwards...
I hope "Epitaph 2" will allow the show to bid its farewell in a decent way. We deserve it.
I'm sure I'm in the minority here but:
I think that Tahmoh delivered the best performance. The others were not very good, I mean the others but Enver of course, although what Enver did was hardly new, actually it was very much déjà-vu so it felt like a rehash, as if they were recycling stuff, using what had worked before (he is very good at impersonating Topher to the point of looking like him when giggling but I don't think that it is his best acting performance, it's mimicry). On the other hand given the bad material they had to work with I can't really blame the actors.
It is sad because Dollhouse deserved better. Besides many flaws(dialogues, editing), the thing that truly ruined the episode for me was the plot writing. Am I the only one who could no longer suspended my disbelief when Anthony reversed to his ninja-enhanced self after being imprinted with Topher's persona? I thought that a doll couldn't regain his/her original persona without using a wedge that saved said persona along with the memories the person had until they had dolled them up (they made a point about it concerning Caroline)...And here we have Anthony who obviously didn't have his brain scanned before jumping in Topher's chair but woke up still with the full memories of what happened just before he used the chair, a few minutes ago. Okay...that's the kind of loophole that I can't accept. It's so amateurish!
As for Mellie's death, well there was no surprise in it, it has been telegraphed and, even though I didn't think of the trigger that switched her on killing mode, I predicted in my previous post that she would sacrifice herself to save her beloved Paul. Having said that, Tahmoh was really good in that scene. The look on his face! Mellie's death was predictable but at least made sense; she had to die, and she had to die in a way that would make Paul rethink his own dollhood and of course Echo's.
But I must be a perverse person, because unlike many fans, I like it when Joss suddenly kills his characters and decides to go the dark and painful road. I like that he has the sense of tragedy and that he dares not to abide by Hollywood's formula. I like that Greek side of him that is so un-American (I can't help remembering something that Daniel Mendelssohn said about Americans not getting tragedy and needing happy endings here).
I'm not too kind on the dialogue Paul and Mellie had just before the scene though. It sounded like the writers simply plagiarized BSG! Helo almost said the same thing to hsi wife, Athena the Cylon, that she was a person. Except that it sounded much better on BSG, and that Paul is not Helo. Tahmoh is that good an actor. When I see Eliza on Dollhouse I keep seeing the same character she played on various shows, over and over(different states of Faith but Faith still), when I see Paul I don't see Helo at all.
As for the Boyd and Clyde15.0 stuff, it was a mess. I don't mind ellipsis in movie/tv writing-- it's often even more elegant than anything else--but this was just bad.
I had foretold that all our main characters have been Boyd's pet project, so I wasn't surprised by his "I chose you" I love you guys" "you're my family" and his behaviour towards them echoing the croquet game the serial killer from "La Belle Chose" played was a good idea, but the writing was too poor to make it fit in.
Same thing with the reveal about Caroline. On the paper it's a good idea. At the end of the day what matters is her body and not her wedge mind! In theory it's a good twist, but the execution sucked.
Boyd, whom we saw as a father figure, turned out to be a tall aging kid who played with dolls (some of them being Actives others being just Rossum's employees) so his being dolled up by Topher, the guy who used to play with toys(and Sierra), was a nice ending, not sure we needed to see Echo running in a corridor, Chosen-style, afterwards...
I hope "Epitaph 2" will allow the show to bid its farewell in a decent way. We deserve it.