Did I fall asleep?
Can I just say that I am loving Dollhouse? I eat up morally ambiguous stories like delicious steak. It's not as good as Firefly, we can get that out of the way and admit it right up front. But honestly I don't believe it's fair to criticize the show for not being up to Firefly's standard of excellence. It's like saying, "Oh please lightning, strike me twice." Firefly is a fluke, an anomaly in the Joss Whedon system. Normally his shows start off clumsy with a hint of promise and then get substantially better as they find their voice. The last few episodes of Dollhouse have been showing that improvement and I'm relishing it.
What I like best is that the show creators are very aware of how creepy and skeezy the premise is. They use that, they toy with your moral imperatives and use it and twist it against you, giving you characters that viewed from any outside perspective would be undoubtedly considered repulsive villains. It humanizes them against your will, shows you viewpoints you may not have considered, makes you question your own objections to the idea. And then just to throw you for a fucking loop they'll do something that completely confirms every twisted perverse, skeezy little thought you've had and remind you of how twisted the concept is all over again. And I for one can't get enough of that kind of storytelling.
The character of special agent Ballard fascinates me in particular. He actually doesn't get very much screentime or character development and yet his role in the story intrigues me more and more. Our gut reaction is to immediately ally with him, to cheer him on, to want him to succeed in exposing and toppling this Dollhouse. But the further the show goes on, the deeper in you get, it becomes harder to tell whether or not he is right just for being on the moral highground.
It seems almost fitting that I am also watching Angel Season 5 at the same time as this. I'm getting a vibe that what Dollhouse is doing now is very similar to what they wanted to do with that season, but Angel was far less subversive and more heavy-handed about it. It's the transitional form between the black-and-white form of Good and Evil of much of the Buffy series and the far greyer territory to come in the later shows.
All in all, I won't be made to feel like an ass by Tycho or anyone else for supporting it through those weaker early episodes (1 and 3 especially). I would very much like to see this one through to a second season, and I'm willing to support it through thick and thin.
What I like best is that the show creators are very aware of how creepy and skeezy the premise is. They use that, they toy with your moral imperatives and use it and twist it against you, giving you characters that viewed from any outside perspective would be undoubtedly considered repulsive villains. It humanizes them against your will, shows you viewpoints you may not have considered, makes you question your own objections to the idea. And then just to throw you for a fucking loop they'll do something that completely confirms every twisted perverse, skeezy little thought you've had and remind you of how twisted the concept is all over again. And I for one can't get enough of that kind of storytelling.
The character of special agent Ballard fascinates me in particular. He actually doesn't get very much screentime or character development and yet his role in the story intrigues me more and more. Our gut reaction is to immediately ally with him, to cheer him on, to want him to succeed in exposing and toppling this Dollhouse. But the further the show goes on, the deeper in you get, it becomes harder to tell whether or not he is right just for being on the moral highground.
It seems almost fitting that I am also watching Angel Season 5 at the same time as this. I'm getting a vibe that what Dollhouse is doing now is very similar to what they wanted to do with that season, but Angel was far less subversive and more heavy-handed about it. It's the transitional form between the black-and-white form of Good and Evil of much of the Buffy series and the far greyer territory to come in the later shows.
All in all, I won't be made to feel like an ass by Tycho or anyone else for supporting it through those weaker early episodes (1 and 3 especially). I would very much like to see this one through to a second season, and I'm willing to support it through thick and thin.