Dollhouse: Goodbye and good riddance
Let me start by saying, I love Joss Whedon’s work and ditto for Eliza Dushku’s. In fact, I really liked Dollhouse when it premiered. Not loved, but I figured it would grow on me, which it did.
If you’re not familiar with the show, here’s a nutshell version: the Dollhouse is a series of super-secret “stores”, run by a large corporation, which rents out, if you will, people called Actives. An active is a person who has volunteered to have their mind wiped and replaced with other personalities for some contractual period of time (typically five years), in return for a large sum of money. (Never divulged, but presumably millions of dollars.) The services rendered by the Actives can be everything from espionage to romance.
The actives are sometimes approached by the Dollhouse and offered the contract as an Active in order to avoid prison, though we’ve seen one who was a soldier with PTSD, and another who was a mother who lost her child. But make no mistake, these people are volunteers. That is quite clear.
Except, for some reason, the show began to make the point that they aren’t, against all its internal logic. First, a main thread in the first season - in my opinion the least interesting part of the first season - was of an FBI agent who was searching for a missing woman who happens to be an Active. He had become obsessed with her, suspecting she is in a Dollhouse - the existence of which is considered an urban legend. Eventually he is let go from the FBI for his obsession.
I had hoped that once his story was over, the idea of “Dolls as slaves” would be dropped. Principally because it’s a vacuous, stupid idea. But no, it wasn’t dropped. In fact, in the second season it became the primary storyline.
If the Dollhouse really existed, I wouldn’t have to be on my way to prison to volunteer for a contract as a Doll, I’d do it right now. As, I suspect, would most of the people who used to watch the show and no longer do; and it’s those lost ratings - never high to begin with - that have gotten the show canceled.
Who in their right mind would not want to avoid prison by going to sleep and waking up a multimillionaire? Even when there is a risk of death; after all, isn’t there a significant risk of death in prison? How on Earth is that slavery? It’s f-ing voluntary. Don’t want to do it? Fine, serve your time in prison. No one is stopping you, no one is twisting your arm.
The show has gone out of its way this season to throw in ridiculous clichés about corporate evil - typical left-wing tripe - in order to justify this ridiculous “Dolls as slaves” idea. I really thought Joss was above that, but apparently not.
Dollhouse is ending. Can’t happen soon enough for me.
If you’re not familiar with the show, here’s a nutshell version: the Dollhouse is a series of super-secret “stores”, run by a large corporation, which rents out, if you will, people called Actives. An active is a person who has volunteered to have their mind wiped and replaced with other personalities for some contractual period of time (typically five years), in return for a large sum of money. (Never divulged, but presumably millions of dollars.) The services rendered by the Actives can be everything from espionage to romance.
The actives are sometimes approached by the Dollhouse and offered the contract as an Active in order to avoid prison, though we’ve seen one who was a soldier with PTSD, and another who was a mother who lost her child. But make no mistake, these people are volunteers. That is quite clear.
Except, for some reason, the show began to make the point that they aren’t, against all its internal logic. First, a main thread in the first season - in my opinion the least interesting part of the first season - was of an FBI agent who was searching for a missing woman who happens to be an Active. He had become obsessed with her, suspecting she is in a Dollhouse - the existence of which is considered an urban legend. Eventually he is let go from the FBI for his obsession.
I had hoped that once his story was over, the idea of “Dolls as slaves” would be dropped. Principally because it’s a vacuous, stupid idea. But no, it wasn’t dropped. In fact, in the second season it became the primary storyline.
If the Dollhouse really existed, I wouldn’t have to be on my way to prison to volunteer for a contract as a Doll, I’d do it right now. As, I suspect, would most of the people who used to watch the show and no longer do; and it’s those lost ratings - never high to begin with - that have gotten the show canceled.
Who in their right mind would not want to avoid prison by going to sleep and waking up a multimillionaire? Even when there is a risk of death; after all, isn’t there a significant risk of death in prison? How on Earth is that slavery? It’s f-ing voluntary. Don’t want to do it? Fine, serve your time in prison. No one is stopping you, no one is twisting your arm.
The show has gone out of its way this season to throw in ridiculous clichés about corporate evil - typical left-wing tripe - in order to justify this ridiculous “Dolls as slaves” idea. I really thought Joss was above that, but apparently not.
Dollhouse is ending. Can’t happen soon enough for me.