Dollhouse 1x03: Stage Fright
This was... Well, that pretty much sums it up. It was by turns clever in some places and self-indulgent in others. Not a wasted 45 minutes however.
We saw Echo play Jordan this week, a back-up singer with a nifty right hook and a philanthropic urge to make a depressed diva realise that, you know, life is worth living and communicating with crazy stalkers is kind of silly. Only she didn't know to start with that Rayna (diva) was depressed, and was only supposed to protect her from the stalker - her 'thinking outside the box' led her to get into a weird situation wherein she kidnapped Rayna and held her as an exchange for Sierra/Audra (playing the Australian No. 1 fan - supposedly prepared to step in in extreme situations), whom the stalker had kidnapped. It all eventually ended happily with the stalker beaten up and Rayna happier with life. Only Echo is possibly thinking too much... (Oh yeah, Ballard also gets shot by the Russian mafia after following a lead from his friend Lubov (according to the Fox website), who if not a 'doll' because he seems to be on a permanent assignment is at least getting his mind read and controlled at the Dollhouse - they call him Victor. Next Door Lady (Mellie according to Fox) went and visited Ballard in hospital. Aww.)
OK, so as far as believing in the characters went I think I did actually believe in Jordan this week. She didn't exactly diverge from ED staple (tough girl with a touch of nerves/niceness), but it didn't feel like she was trying to. There weren't the annoying info-dumps of last week ('blah blah, my brothers, blah blah') and I think that actually worked in her favour. It felt like she was just a character and we were getting to know her at the same pace as everybody else. We didn't know her deeply, but it didn't feel like we were supposed to - the situation felt natural. More than that, because it didn't feel like Joss was trying to prove that Echo was a really!different!person the very simple wank filled in the gaps in my belief - ie. that, obviously, Echo's only going to get sent on assignments where her height/build/look is suitable, which need not necessarily but could easily put her in several relatively similar situations. I hope Joss keeps on this track of letting us do some of the work and just concentrating on writing the roles as much as he would any other character, rather than overwriting them.
Otherwise, the self-indulgence bit. The only moment, I suppose, that felt clunky was when the music cut out and went all moment-y as he made a speech about how human nature means that first thing we do with anything new is destroy and manipulate etc. etc. I would have thought Joss was subtler than over-done sound affects (though I have a feeling he might be in comics mode as far as subtlety is concerned). The end, when Jordan's audition was played over the sort of ending montage (a song I don't know, but relatively saccharine), annoyed me a little bit, but was permissable I suppose. I did like that, as Sierra and Echo crossed paths (Sierra smiling), Echo shook her head and they walked by each other without stopping to talk. It was nicely ambiguous - how much does Echo remember? Does every doll actually remember something, only there's an unwritten rule that they don't talk about it and this was Echo initiating Sierra into that? To me it was implied that Sierra was going to do something unexpected (stop and chat), which is possibly more interesting than Echo (or at least in the context of how special Echo is).
Ballard (who I've stopped calling Paul because his surname suits him more) and Lubov are my favourite duo, I've decided. They have some great (though highly subdued) banter. Lubov trying to get into Ballard's house and having a run-in with Mellie was cracking - 'I'm an old friend. From the navy. Old Navy. I used to work in retail and he would buy slacks.' And not delivered as if he is actually trying to be funny, which made it all the better.
The costume department is having so much fun with Adelle DeWitt.
What else is there to say? I suppose only that in response to various other people's reviews I've been thinking about just how good this show could be for discussing identity and, for want of a better phrase, The Dawn Problem - what does it mean that all these people that are being created are getting wiped clean too? We never saw it discussed how Rayna's manager (Biz? Bis?) told Rayna that Jordan had buggered off somewhere. But at the same time I didn't mind too much, because it felt relaxed as an episode rather than trying too hard, which I think is what this show needed.
PS. I'm getting my new glasses today! They're mega exciting - quite large with tortoiseshell frames and statement hinges.
We saw Echo play Jordan this week, a back-up singer with a nifty right hook and a philanthropic urge to make a depressed diva realise that, you know, life is worth living and communicating with crazy stalkers is kind of silly. Only she didn't know to start with that Rayna (diva) was depressed, and was only supposed to protect her from the stalker - her 'thinking outside the box' led her to get into a weird situation wherein she kidnapped Rayna and held her as an exchange for Sierra/Audra (playing the Australian No. 1 fan - supposedly prepared to step in in extreme situations), whom the stalker had kidnapped. It all eventually ended happily with the stalker beaten up and Rayna happier with life. Only Echo is possibly thinking too much... (Oh yeah, Ballard also gets shot by the Russian mafia after following a lead from his friend Lubov (according to the Fox website), who if not a 'doll' because he seems to be on a permanent assignment is at least getting his mind read and controlled at the Dollhouse - they call him Victor. Next Door Lady (Mellie according to Fox) went and visited Ballard in hospital. Aww.)
OK, so as far as believing in the characters went I think I did actually believe in Jordan this week. She didn't exactly diverge from ED staple (tough girl with a touch of nerves/niceness), but it didn't feel like she was trying to. There weren't the annoying info-dumps of last week ('blah blah, my brothers, blah blah') and I think that actually worked in her favour. It felt like she was just a character and we were getting to know her at the same pace as everybody else. We didn't know her deeply, but it didn't feel like we were supposed to - the situation felt natural. More than that, because it didn't feel like Joss was trying to prove that Echo was a really!different!person the very simple wank filled in the gaps in my belief - ie. that, obviously, Echo's only going to get sent on assignments where her height/build/look is suitable, which need not necessarily but could easily put her in several relatively similar situations. I hope Joss keeps on this track of letting us do some of the work and just concentrating on writing the roles as much as he would any other character, rather than overwriting them.
Otherwise, the self-indulgence bit. The only moment, I suppose, that felt clunky was when the music cut out and went all moment-y as he made a speech about how human nature means that first thing we do with anything new is destroy and manipulate etc. etc. I would have thought Joss was subtler than over-done sound affects (though I have a feeling he might be in comics mode as far as subtlety is concerned). The end, when Jordan's audition was played over the sort of ending montage (a song I don't know, but relatively saccharine), annoyed me a little bit, but was permissable I suppose. I did like that, as Sierra and Echo crossed paths (Sierra smiling), Echo shook her head and they walked by each other without stopping to talk. It was nicely ambiguous - how much does Echo remember? Does every doll actually remember something, only there's an unwritten rule that they don't talk about it and this was Echo initiating Sierra into that? To me it was implied that Sierra was going to do something unexpected (stop and chat), which is possibly more interesting than Echo (or at least in the context of how special Echo is).
Ballard (who I've stopped calling Paul because his surname suits him more) and Lubov are my favourite duo, I've decided. They have some great (though highly subdued) banter. Lubov trying to get into Ballard's house and having a run-in with Mellie was cracking - 'I'm an old friend. From the navy. Old Navy. I used to work in retail and he would buy slacks.' And not delivered as if he is actually trying to be funny, which made it all the better.
The costume department is having so much fun with Adelle DeWitt.
What else is there to say? I suppose only that in response to various other people's reviews I've been thinking about just how good this show could be for discussing identity and, for want of a better phrase, The Dawn Problem - what does it mean that all these people that are being created are getting wiped clean too? We never saw it discussed how Rayna's manager (Biz? Bis?) told Rayna that Jordan had buggered off somewhere. But at the same time I didn't mind too much, because it felt relaxed as an episode rather than trying too hard, which I think is what this show needed.
PS. I'm getting my new glasses today! They're mega exciting - quite large with tortoiseshell frames and statement hinges.