Dollhouse 1x06: Man on the Street
Ha! Bet you thought I wasn't going to post about this. I missed it on Friday, but watched it on Hulu the other day. I'd never looked at Hulu before. The array of things I can stream -- full screen, with closed captioning even -- astounds me. (I am not hard of hearing, but my computer speakers don't go very high, and we usually keep the TV captioned because then we can keep the volume down. Also I enjoy reading subtitles.) I can't figure out how Hulu's making money on this stuff, because there really aren't many ads, and I suspect this is going to be one of those things that goes *poof* soon, along with Facebook, which as far as I can tell is bleeding money.
Right. Dollhouse. Yeah. Anyway.
I know that this is Joss, trying to be clever, and... it irks me.
Like, okay, I like the idea of interviewing the public and seeing what they think of the Dollhouse. (As an aside, am I seriously the only person with no interest in hiring the perfect magic disappearing sex slave? I wouldn't like it.) I just think some of it came off a little... weird. Did we really need the joke where the guy says he'd like to have a same-sex experience (but not, you know, a "gay" thing) and his wife/girlfriend stares at him in horror? I didn't think so.
Buffy was great, I will give Joss that. Firefly, I also liked. But, come on, you're not writing teenagers anymore. Agent Ballard and Mellie do not need to have awkward teenager-ish pauses. They just didn't act like... adults. And a lot of the characters were spouting off lines that would have been fine on Buffy but that are too... witty for a lot of these people. I wish I could remember the lines, but Guy Who Wanted Echo to Be His Wife said a few things where I went, "Huh. Someone like that probably wouldn't say that." And Topher talking about a "soupçon" of something? It really kind of stuck out.
Okay, so there are Dollhouses everywhere and the neighbor is a Dollhouse agent. I am not surprised. I will also not be surprised when Echo's message to Ballard turns out to be a complete fabrication by the Dollhouse to put him off. I will also, also not be surprised when everyone we have ever met, including Ballard, turns out to be an Active.
And, okay, the episode dealt with rape. It was uncomfortable. It was probably supposed to make everyone uncomfortable and to try to show us that this is a good feminist show because all the good guys hate rape, and to have a couple of people on the street bring up the point that the Dollhouse is kind of creepy. (They did, right? Or have I imagined that?)
However, then you show us the guy breaking in to attack Mellie, who is half-naked, and there's classical music playing, and it's clearly supposed to be beautiful and artistic... and now you're sexualizing violence against women. Gee, thanks. I don't care that then she beats him up. That is because Joss Whedon thinks women who can beat people up are sexy. I would believe him more about being a feminist if there were women who were not Awesomely Sexy being cool and awesome and powerful in ways that did not involve punching people in the face all the time. I don't think it's necessarily any better than cowering damsels in distress, because it's just prizing the ways that the awesome privileged straight white dudes value as a means of showing power and awesomeness, i.e, violence. Master's tools, master's house, blah blah blah. Insert Audre Lorde quote here.
And yet somehow I am still watching.
Right. Dollhouse. Yeah. Anyway.
I know that this is Joss, trying to be clever, and... it irks me.
Like, okay, I like the idea of interviewing the public and seeing what they think of the Dollhouse. (As an aside, am I seriously the only person with no interest in hiring the perfect magic disappearing sex slave? I wouldn't like it.) I just think some of it came off a little... weird. Did we really need the joke where the guy says he'd like to have a same-sex experience (but not, you know, a "gay" thing) and his wife/girlfriend stares at him in horror? I didn't think so.
Buffy was great, I will give Joss that. Firefly, I also liked. But, come on, you're not writing teenagers anymore. Agent Ballard and Mellie do not need to have awkward teenager-ish pauses. They just didn't act like... adults. And a lot of the characters were spouting off lines that would have been fine on Buffy but that are too... witty for a lot of these people. I wish I could remember the lines, but Guy Who Wanted Echo to Be His Wife said a few things where I went, "Huh. Someone like that probably wouldn't say that." And Topher talking about a "soupçon" of something? It really kind of stuck out.
Okay, so there are Dollhouses everywhere and the neighbor is a Dollhouse agent. I am not surprised. I will also not be surprised when Echo's message to Ballard turns out to be a complete fabrication by the Dollhouse to put him off. I will also, also not be surprised when everyone we have ever met, including Ballard, turns out to be an Active.
And, okay, the episode dealt with rape. It was uncomfortable. It was probably supposed to make everyone uncomfortable and to try to show us that this is a good feminist show because all the good guys hate rape, and to have a couple of people on the street bring up the point that the Dollhouse is kind of creepy. (They did, right? Or have I imagined that?)
However, then you show us the guy breaking in to attack Mellie, who is half-naked, and there's classical music playing, and it's clearly supposed to be beautiful and artistic... and now you're sexualizing violence against women. Gee, thanks. I don't care that then she beats him up. That is because Joss Whedon thinks women who can beat people up are sexy. I would believe him more about being a feminist if there were women who were not Awesomely Sexy being cool and awesome and powerful in ways that did not involve punching people in the face all the time. I don't think it's necessarily any better than cowering damsels in distress, because it's just prizing the ways that the awesome privileged straight white dudes value as a means of showing power and awesomeness, i.e, violence. Master's tools, master's house, blah blah blah. Insert Audre Lorde quote here.
And yet somehow I am still watching.