I had to leave a comment just to use the icon. :-)
For me, I feel like Joss and the writers (sans Fox) get and are trying to portray just how creepy the Dollhouse - and the dehumanizing of individuals - is. But I totally respect you and others who just find it skeevy. I'd much rather have folks of your opinion that the other. Those who find nothing disturbing in the concept worry me.
Which leads me to the fact that Dollhouse may end up having the divisive, messed up fandom to trump all others. I say that because in the limited amount of fic I've read, there are those who get the creepiness that is always present in all things Dollhouse and there are those who don't get it at all and are writing fic that skeeves me out. Very much the spectrum of responses seen in "Man on the Street".
See, I think on the one hand, Joss and the writers are aware, but I think they're not *as aware* of how it comes off. Like, sure, this place is dehumanizing and creepy, but now we want you to sympathize with the guy who does the mindwiping because he's lonely! Uh, no.
I think it's necessary for those who work in the Dollhouse to be more complex. Evil is rarely pure evil complete with the mustache to twirl, and when it is its not engaging.
In a small way the last episode did make Topher a bit more complex and engaging, but I'm not sure I'd say it made him more sympathetic. Yes, I felt pity for him, that he's so friendless he needs a programed doll to have someone to celebrate his birthday with him. But the fact he's lonely and isolated doesn't give him a pass on what he does to other human beings inside the Dollhouse.
The other thing is, in seeing him with his defenses down, we learned that they are just that, defenses. It's not that he's so socially inept that he doesn't know how to be a decent human being, but he chooses to be an ass. Which makes him more distasteful to me.
And on a more philosophical level, seeing Topher so open raised the question, "What would we be like if we fully trusted the people around us? If we knew they would fully accept us?"
I don't know, I like that the "bad guys" are complex; they'd have to be, in this situation. I like Topher, honestly, but I think I'd be less weirded-out by the whole thing if someone had a sense of "what the hell are we doing?!". It makes me wonder what Boyd is doing there, since he doesn't like what they do, and yet he still does it.
For me, I feel like Joss and the writers (sans Fox) get and are trying to portray just how creepy the Dollhouse - and the dehumanizing of individuals - is. But I totally respect you and others who just find it skeevy. I'd much rather have folks of your opinion that the other. Those who find nothing disturbing in the concept worry me.
Which leads me to the fact that Dollhouse may end up having the divisive, messed up fandom to trump all others. I say that because in the limited amount of fic I've read, there are those who get the creepiness that is always present in all things Dollhouse and there are those who don't get it at all and are writing fic that skeeves me out. Very much the spectrum of responses seen in "Man on the Street".
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In a small way the last episode did make Topher a bit more complex and engaging, but I'm not sure I'd say it made him more sympathetic. Yes, I felt pity for him, that he's so friendless he needs a programed doll to have someone to celebrate his birthday with him. But the fact he's lonely and isolated doesn't give him a pass on what he does to other human beings inside the Dollhouse.
The other thing is, in seeing him with his defenses down, we learned that they are just that, defenses. It's not that he's so socially inept that he doesn't know how to be a decent human being, but he chooses to be an ass. Which makes him more distasteful to me.
And on a more philosophical level, seeing Topher so open raised the question, "What would we be like if we fully trusted the people around us? If we knew they would fully accept us?"
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