My thoughts on Dollhouse, let me show you them

[kirbybits]

I was home sick yesterday, so I caught up on Dollhouse out of boredom and throughadoor's insistence that if I pretend it's a shitty 2 AM show on the VS. network, I'll like it more. That didn't work though, and let me tell you why by talking about my deep, nerdy passion for alt-rock

Comments

[roniliquidity]

I'll agree anybody can have a dud. Otherwise I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, it's really hard to debate such vehemence.

[kirbybits]

Oh feel free to debate away! But then, I also don't think Joss Whedon has the most clear view on feminism or what "strong female character" means in the first place, so I'm less likely to give him a pass on representation-of-women issues. I will always have a soft spot for BtVS, but it's kind of hard to think of something like Farscape, and then watch Dollhouse. Which is to say, "Dear Joss, 'I swam 30 laps today!' 'Exercise is good for you!' doesn't quiiiite satisfy the Bechdel Rule."

[roniliquidity]

I just don't have a sense there's a chance in hell of convincing you otherwise, so it just sounds exhausting. A whole lot of what you're saying; who can act, what's inspired vs. what's derivative, is all very subjective. For instance, I about died when my mom complained she couldn't watch (David Mamet's ) The Unit because the writing was awful.

I agree that Dollhouse is a clear knock off of Alias, which is a SUPER clear knock off of La Femme Nikita. It's a genre I enjoy while recognizing the power dynamics are problematic. As we are talking about a guy whose thing is riffing on genres with problematic gender dynamics, I'm still holding out hope that the big Epi 6 switch will be subverting the genre after he set out the premise.

Though for the record, most of the 3rd episode is women talking to each other about about fame and it's cost, even if you consider stalkers "talking about men." So the Bechdel rule has been way met.

[kirbybits]

Just because my post highlighted the parts of the show I didn't enjoy (well, some of the parts), doesn't mean you aren't allowed to say "I think XYZ thing was successful". At the same time, yeah, it is subjective - it is my journal, aka the place where I get to voice my opinion without necessarily expecting or soliciting a lot of people arguing with me. And no, there's no after-the-fact commentary that will make me say, "Ah, but now I see it's not kind of a rape-pit of a show!" I don't think it's Quality Television, and it's not even really effectively fun junk food TV, because it seems to take itself seriously as Quality Television. There are shows (like Supernatural) where I'm willing to give a pass the raging suck-hole of problem re: treatment of women, because that's not why I'm turning it on in the first place

[muddyslush]

for Joss that's just the one trick he knows.
OMG fucking for real. I've only watched one episode of Dollhouse so I don't have a really fleshed out opinion but I've been doubting the Whedon-as-Progressive-Feminist thing since the last two seasons of fucking Angel when all of the female characters were murdered or turned into fucking demons. Especially the send-off to Fred, which he wrote, which turned a rather interesting, intelligent, and sexy female character into a damsel in distress while allegedly and completely unsuccessfully trying to subvert that whole thing. Still pisses me off.

[muddyslush]

Not to mention Wesley's disturbing "crush on Fred" where he clearly only ever knew her as the perfect angel in his head and never a real person.

[kirbybits]

Not to mention Wesley's disturbing "crush on Fred"

Dude, for real. Part of me feels like Joss stumbled across the massive, massive trove of Wesley/Angel slashfic on the internet and was like, "NO HE IS STRAIGHT OH-KAY" and made Wesley "fall in love" with Fred.

I realize I have no foundation for this, but then again, he stretched out the "Willow goes evil" plot across season 5 AND 6 because people on the internet loooooved Willow/Tara so much, and he didn't want to take that away. This makes me hate season 5 even more than I already do, FYI, since the whole point was apparently supposed to be that Glory was the fake-out, and the back half of season 5 would be dedicated to Willow becoming eviler and eviler. Which would have been amaaaaazing.