More Dollhouse thoughts
I have just learned that if you ever want to see what your gym looks like completely deserted, you should go during the Super Bowl.
Today's Amazon payphrase is "Lori's Strategic Mistakes." Is that like when you're late on purpose to miss a meeting you don't want to go to?
I have now finished watching "Dollhouse" season 1, except for the unaired final episode "Epitaph One" which I have watched about ten minutes of.
My verdict? Okay. Not exceptional. The thing that surprised me the most was, this is Whedon? There's no humor. Even at times when the situation was not humorous, his other shows had humor in their dialogue. There's very little of it in this show. And the concept kind of groans at the seams, like, a lot. Why would anyone pay jillions of dollars to have a Doll programmed to be a negotiator or a midwife or whatever when you can presumably afford to hire a REAL negotiator or a midwife? I know, maybe they don't want legal entanglements or they're off the grid or they're doing something they want to keep secret. But if they're that rich they could pay someone to do whatever and not care about the legality. Ironically the only scenario I see the real call for an active is the romantic/sexual stuff, because you'd remove the aspect of paying someone. I mean, you can hire a hooker to act like the perfect girlfriend, but an active wouldn't be pretending. And if the rationale is that the Actives don't have human failings or weaknesses like a real negotiator or midwife, well, that doesn't work either because the imprints are based on real people complete with failings and weaknesses. Where the actives seem the most useful is when the house itself uses them. It can program them to be its own army of investigators or spies or whatever because they can't go to the real FBI or CDC or whoever. I guess i can imagine a demand for this kind of service, but it strains the credibility ropes a tad.
And I thought the whole point of this show, the whole idea, was that Echo would start getting bleed through from her various imprints and start evolving as a person. That did not happen really at all. The arc of the show had to do with other things, but not really that. And it couldn't, if the show was to make any sense. They couldn't have Echo be having glitches and malfunctions constantly because it would not be believable that they'd continue to use her. In fact, it isn't believable that they used her as much as they did considering the issues she DID have. The show already suffered from the "It's all about Echo" syndrome that Buffy sometimes fell victim to. Every damn thing revolves around Echo. Adelle excuses her every malfunction for unclear reasons, Ballard is obsessed with her, Alpha is obsessed with her, Boyd is protective of her...thank God Victor had a crush on Sierra and not Echo just to break it up a little.
I'd also like to point out that given their practice of naming their Actives after the NATO phonetic alphabet, there are actives in that house named Papa and Hotel and Xray. Heee.
Now, I knew going in that Alan Tudyk played Alpha. I must point out that the guy we see from the back in the first episode putting Caroline's picture in the envelope to Ballard is clearly not Alan (understandable since they hadn't cast the role yet). I mean, Alan's pretty ripped for a geeky actor, but not that much. I remember when the first season was airing, there was all kinds of speculations and rumors and all about who would play Alpha, this much-feared specter who haunted the entire first season. Then of course it leaked, courtesy of some clandestine photo taken on set. I'm usually down with spoilers but that's one I kind of wish I hadn't known (note that I have no qualms about spoiling all of YOU, but if you cared that much you'd already have seen the show and if you hadn't you probably don't care that much). His first episode, acting like Stephen Kepler the pot-growing environmental engineer...I would have totally bought that he was really that guy, because he was the usual species of Tudyk Wash-Steve-the-Pirate manic/goofy character. It was totally casting with type. Then when he stepped out of the shadows to slash Victor's face, dead-eyed and murderous, and Saunders said "Alpha!" I gasped, and I knew it was coming! I can't imagine what a reaction I'd have had if I'd had no idea. And he was so damn good at playing that kind of a character, so against type, as he is the image of the affable funny-nice-guy character actor.
Another thing that bugged a tad was the whole BSG "everyone's a Cylon" syndrome. Is everyone an active? Mellie's an active (another good reveal, that one I did not see coming), Lubov is an active, Saunders is an active...anyone else? Raise your hand.
This is all making it sound like I hated the show which is not true. I liked it a lot. Enough that I'm downloading the second season as we speak. But it didn't wow me, it didn't really grab me.
Today's Amazon payphrase is "Lori's Strategic Mistakes." Is that like when you're late on purpose to miss a meeting you don't want to go to?
I have now finished watching "Dollhouse" season 1, except for the unaired final episode "Epitaph One" which I have watched about ten minutes of.
My verdict? Okay. Not exceptional. The thing that surprised me the most was, this is Whedon? There's no humor. Even at times when the situation was not humorous, his other shows had humor in their dialogue. There's very little of it in this show. And the concept kind of groans at the seams, like, a lot. Why would anyone pay jillions of dollars to have a Doll programmed to be a negotiator or a midwife or whatever when you can presumably afford to hire a REAL negotiator or a midwife? I know, maybe they don't want legal entanglements or they're off the grid or they're doing something they want to keep secret. But if they're that rich they could pay someone to do whatever and not care about the legality. Ironically the only scenario I see the real call for an active is the romantic/sexual stuff, because you'd remove the aspect of paying someone. I mean, you can hire a hooker to act like the perfect girlfriend, but an active wouldn't be pretending. And if the rationale is that the Actives don't have human failings or weaknesses like a real negotiator or midwife, well, that doesn't work either because the imprints are based on real people complete with failings and weaknesses. Where the actives seem the most useful is when the house itself uses them. It can program them to be its own army of investigators or spies or whatever because they can't go to the real FBI or CDC or whoever. I guess i can imagine a demand for this kind of service, but it strains the credibility ropes a tad.
And I thought the whole point of this show, the whole idea, was that Echo would start getting bleed through from her various imprints and start evolving as a person. That did not happen really at all. The arc of the show had to do with other things, but not really that. And it couldn't, if the show was to make any sense. They couldn't have Echo be having glitches and malfunctions constantly because it would not be believable that they'd continue to use her. In fact, it isn't believable that they used her as much as they did considering the issues she DID have. The show already suffered from the "It's all about Echo" syndrome that Buffy sometimes fell victim to. Every damn thing revolves around Echo. Adelle excuses her every malfunction for unclear reasons, Ballard is obsessed with her, Alpha is obsessed with her, Boyd is protective of her...thank God Victor had a crush on Sierra and not Echo just to break it up a little.
I'd also like to point out that given their practice of naming their Actives after the NATO phonetic alphabet, there are actives in that house named Papa and Hotel and Xray. Heee.
Now, I knew going in that Alan Tudyk played Alpha. I must point out that the guy we see from the back in the first episode putting Caroline's picture in the envelope to Ballard is clearly not Alan (understandable since they hadn't cast the role yet). I mean, Alan's pretty ripped for a geeky actor, but not that much. I remember when the first season was airing, there was all kinds of speculations and rumors and all about who would play Alpha, this much-feared specter who haunted the entire first season. Then of course it leaked, courtesy of some clandestine photo taken on set. I'm usually down with spoilers but that's one I kind of wish I hadn't known (note that I have no qualms about spoiling all of YOU, but if you cared that much you'd already have seen the show and if you hadn't you probably don't care that much). His first episode, acting like Stephen Kepler the pot-growing environmental engineer...I would have totally bought that he was really that guy, because he was the usual species of Tudyk Wash-Steve-the-Pirate manic/goofy character. It was totally casting with type. Then when he stepped out of the shadows to slash Victor's face, dead-eyed and murderous, and Saunders said "Alpha!" I gasped, and I knew it was coming! I can't imagine what a reaction I'd have had if I'd had no idea. And he was so damn good at playing that kind of a character, so against type, as he is the image of the affable funny-nice-guy character actor.
Another thing that bugged a tad was the whole BSG "everyone's a Cylon" syndrome. Is everyone an active? Mellie's an active (another good reveal, that one I did not see coming), Lubov is an active, Saunders is an active...anyone else? Raise your hand.
This is all making it sound like I hated the show which is not true. I liked it a lot. Enough that I'm downloading the second season as we speak. But it didn't wow me, it didn't really grab me.