Weekend TV roundup
So Dollhouse reminds me of Angel, and not in a good way.
I remember seeing the pilot episode of Firefly and being immediately hooked - I believed in the characters, cared about the world, and was royally pissed because I knew there were only 12 hours left of it.
Firefly convinced me to go back and give Buffy a chance. Again, after a single episode, I was interested. It wasn't as solid a debut as Firefly, but it was a good initial episode that drew you into the world and made you care about the characters.
Angel, on the other hand, had a rocky start, at least for me. I was willing to go with it, if for no other reason than because it was Joss' show. But at the end of the first episode I was really left sitting there thinking, "whoa, this could be a real train wreck." And of course, a couple of years down the road, that's exactly what it was.
The first episode of Dollhouse feels like that. Joss has got his work cut out for him, making us care about this character - while the premise may keep the show fresh, it's going to make it difficult to build any sort of consistent arc for Echo. Instead, we're expected to care about the (highly unlikely) conflict between a serial rapist and his (already dead) former victim?
I'll be back next week, but consider me nervous.
I'm also a bit nervous about Battlestar. Granted, the show needed some focus and direction, but a bit of it seemed just too convenient (surprise! Another Cylon! Who bets it's Gaius?). I'm going to have to think through all the reveals quite a bit - I'm still not satisfied that it explains how Adama didn't notice his friend never aging. I did think Cavil's motivations were fascinating - it was a great scene where a bitter creation could plausibly plead his case to his creator.