Dollhouse, Episode 1 -- "Ghost"
As any of you may have guessed from the title of this post, I just watched Joss Whedon & Eliza Dushku's new show, Dollhouse, on FOX tonight. I was utterly blown away, but that was my own personal response (I've always found multiple themes and symbols in Whedon's work that I could connect with, so I'm a little biased). So, I'm going to give my review on the pilot episode, what I thought was good, what I thought was iffy, and what I thought was bad. WARNING, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Dollhouse opens in a very confusing way. Eliza Dushku's character, whose name you don't know yet, is sitting in a swank conference room with a very coldly professional British-accented businesswoman in a slightly intimidating red suit. Dushku is confused, disoriented, angry, sad, and very afraid, and it's clear that she's been crying. They have a talk loaded with meaning about "actions having consequences" and then Ms. Businesswoman asks Dushku if she'll be signing the contract.
We flash from that to a time in the near future, when Dushku is dressed all in leather and having a blast racing a sleek motorcycle through the city in a race with another motorcyclist. They crash into a building where the sign says "Happy Birthday!" and it becomes clear that she is the man's date. However, the man makes cryptic comments about her leaving, and finally she does leave for "treatment." Dushku talks to all of her handlers about how much she likes the guy and how she doesn't want to get too clingy and such like and so forth. Then, things get weird -- she's strapped into a chair and all her memories of the previous three nights shoot through her mind, and are apparently erased.
"Did I go to sleep?" Echo asks.
"For a little while," Topher the science guy responds. Then Echo, calm and happy as anything, strolls out into the enormous, gorgeous, and highly zen Dollhouse, where she and the other Actives wait in between assignments.
What Dollhouse Had Right:
Dollhouse has an interesting premise that's either going to attract you to the show or drive you away from the first five minutes. It accomplishes setting up the bare bones of a storyline within the first clip of show up till the opening credits, and introduces the main character, at the very least.
The plot moves quite fast and FOX's lovely new initiative "Remote-Free-TV" makes for only four commercial breaks, each of them only either one minute or a minute and a half (Fringe shares this VERY attractive packaging). Therefore, Dollhouse manages to be engaging and keeps you watching, especially since there's nearly no commercial interruption (very prized these days, now that we're used to about twenty minutes of commercial in an hour-long program).
Dushku was a clearly good choice as a lead for two reasons. The first is that she is a very good character actor -- she has a very nice tendency to actually become the characters that she portrays. This is especially important in Dollhouse, where the premise is that the "personality" an Active recieves on "engagements" is a true personality, a living, thinking, feeling person. The second reason is that I can say, even as a gay guy, Eliza Dushku is a very attractive young woman. Those people who watched Buffy or Charmed or Alias just to watch hot chicks kick ass will be very happy with Dollhouse.
Dollhouse is also much deeper of a first episode than Whedon usually goes in for. The title "Ghost" comes from the meat of the show, where Echo is imprinted with the personality of a hostage negotiator. Unfortunately she comes face-to-face with the man who kidnapped her personality years ago and kept her for years, sexually abusing her. The man tells her "you can't fight a ghost."
"Ghost" explores child abuse and the consequences of it, and clearly establishes that the theme of human identity and what impacts it is going to be making a large impact on the development and the mythology of the show.
Also, Dollhouse has another secret weapon -- the set itself. The Dollhouse is indescribable, really; a mix of modern sophistication and zenlike antiquity and tranquility, the Dollhouse set is one of the stars of the show and really helps with the personalities of the Actives.
Dollhouse is suitably creepy. You connect with the Actives on an emotional level because they're essentially like children. They are the ultimate Tabula Rasa, or blank slate. Then they're hijacked and shoved into these new skins, so to speak. Ultimately you want Echo to remember something, to remember the guy who gave her the necklace to remember him by because when you first met her she genuinely liked him. Instead she doesn't even remember ever meeting him.
What was Rather Iffy about Dollhouse
Dollhouse really needed a two-hour premiere; it felt sort of like "Ghost" was jumping into too many places at once. We needed a nice, two-hour premiere that really set up the show in the first part and then launched the "Ghost" storyline in the second part. The pilot manages to stand on its own, but not without difficulty.
Whedon described Dollhouse's first seven episodes as "The Seven Pilots," and I can only hope that more of the show's mythology trickles through in the second episode, because there was just too much jammed into the first episode. Whedon, used to dealing with the obnoxiously long commercial breaks, seemed to try and cram the same amount of story into a one-hour block that he does in two-hour blocks. The result was a rather weaker pilot than could have been.
What was Bad in Dollhouse
The first complaint that I'll have to raise here is the marketing. Understandably, FOX is trying to appease fans of The Sarah Connor Chronicles by using the buzz about Dollhouse to save it, but it's going about it entirely the wrong way. Dollhouse and TSCC are being packaged as a two-hour sex block, essentially. I've never really got into Sarah Connor, but I know that it's storylines are involved and complex, and from what I've seen, Dollhouse is going to be a very deep show.
Marketing them as soft-core porn flicks is NOT the way to go; ultimately, the TV spots are making them look kind of cheesy and worthy of being on the ultimate stupid man channel, SPIKE TV (gag me, please).
Also, the first minute or so of the show. It was supposed to introduce you to who Echo was before she became an Active, but ultimately it was just confusing. As I said above, Whedon simply didn't have enough time to tell the story he wanted to tell, but he tried anway, so you're very confused about her in the beginning. I understand that by the end of the thirteen episode long first season she's supposed to gain more of her past, but I wish they'd had a different episode opener.
Summing it Up
Dollhouse is a very sleek and sexy yet sophisticated show, with its own base to stand on. The base is a little shaky right now but it shows every chance of firming itself up as the show goes on. The acting is fairly good, the storylines are a little dark and a little complex but understandable with far-reaching themes. The sets are amazing, too.
Ultimately, it was a good episode with minor flaws that any TV pilot would have. The only thing I can say about it is that FOX needs to NOT do to Dollhouse what they did to Firefly, and hopefully we'll have a full second season to right all the wrongs of the first season. I truly, sincerely hope that Friday night doesn't kill it, but with Firefly and Tru Calling behind me, I simply don't trust FOX anymore.
I believe that Dollhouse might just have what it takes to make it a couple of seasons on a strong fanbase, if FOX gives it room to grow and doesn't try to sex it up and make it just like every other boring show out there. With two threats to look forward to -- a rogue Active determined to kill the Dollhouse and an obsessed FBI agent determined to hunt the Dollhouse down, it'll be an interesting first season, to say the least.
7.5 out of 10 Stars