Dollhouse Unpopular Opinions
I gave some more thought to frelling_tralk's great prompt for my three Unpopular Opinions re: Dollhouse Season 2. They are below the cut because it's filled with spoilers. I want to do the meme again! Feel free to prompt me. To repost: Pick a (1) show (2) season of a show (3) pairing (4) character and I'll try to give three (or more) unpopular opinions. (Not sure if I have unpopular opinions for everything- but take a leap. I'm pretty ornery.)
1. I don't think there are two sides to Adelle giving Topher's "mass imprint" tech to Rossum to get back her role as Head of the LA Dollhouse- it was just wrong, and evil and stupid. In fact, IMO, Adelle is smart but I don't think she's wise enough to consistently play her assorted good and bad hands well. She overstates her own intelligence- and I think that arrogance is as much or maybe even more her undoing than Topher's.
We don't know exactly when Adelle decided to defect against Rossum- that's between you and your personal canon. However, I don't think Adelle had to be head of the LA Dollhouse to mount an effective resistance (most of years on the resistance happened after she lost her position) or that Adelle's powers as Head of the LA Dollhouse made it all worth it for Rossum to have Topher's technology. Delivering that tech to Rossum made the world infinitely more dangerous
Moreover, I think it took Viktor breaking up with Adelle/Miss Lonelyhearts, Alpha breaking in AGAIN and confronting them all with the monster they created, Echo living self-aware with Ballard for months, Adelle's spiralling alcoholism and guilt, and even more Rossum announcing its plans to start using Topher's technology full speed ahead for Adelle to fully realize her guilt for the horrors that she's either directly propagated or enabled, her duty to switch sides, and perhaps most pivotally, that this technology wasn't going to just continue a chrome-and-reclaimed-wood wonderland of fancy high-tech bordellos/security squads where she was Queen but instead, plunge the world into dystopia which would even suck for the upper-crust.
IMO, when Adelle gave Topher's "imprint anyone without Doll architecture" tech to Rossum, Adelle just wanted to reclaim her leadership of the LA Dollhouse. And IMO Adelle's somewhat more benevolent reign of the LA Dollhouse isn't anywhere near worth the destructive global power of Topher's tech. To me, that's like a Nazi justifying a hand-over of atomic bomb technology geared to destroy all major American, British, and Soviet cities because....if he gets back his leadership at a concentration camp, he'll be slightly nicer to the inmates.
One can argue that it was just a matter of time before another one of the brilliant scientists working for Rossum figured out Topher's tech independently. However, no one knew when that would happen and Adelle didn't even try to start brainstorming ways for Topher, et al to sabotage Rossum's computers or scientific development programs to inhibit such discovery. (Moreover per my point #2, an active US governmental prosecution of Rossum could have stopped further scientific projects at Rossum.)
2. I think Team Free Will's folly in their false take-down of Rossum is under stated. I think they failed, partly, because of the stupidity and selfishness of their members. Obviously Boyd as an out-and-out traitor to end all traitors, but also with Adelle, Echo, and Ballard.
I think the Perrin plot underscores that it DOES matter whether the US government (or any government) retains its intellectual integrity because the law and government are the only forces that could truly check a major evil corporation like Rossum. A gang of six can't defeat Rossum like all of the military and scientific resources of the global political community backed by the world's population interested in preserving their own minds and bodies. As it turned out, Rossum as a mega-profitable global corporation was actually taken down by its own hubris and miscalculations and the Chinese government manipulating Rossum's technology to go berserk until Rossum was just a fiefdom operating solo units in the flyover American states.
Once the Free Will gang was mobilized to take down Rossum, they should have passed on the tech and Rossum's intention to the most high-level government officials they could find (after verifying with Topher's tech that they weren't Dolls themselves). Of course, that's an imperfect strategy. Even if a government official wasn't a Doll, they could be the real-life version of that analogy- on the take for Rossum based on campaign contributions.
However, no one in the gang even considered trying to get cleaner and more powerful hands from the FBI or elected politicians involved. And I think that was because of selfish or tragically flawed motives. Adelle and Topher wanted to end Rossum's reign of terror- but on their terms. They didn't want to take a trust fall and go to the FBI to report that they've been involved in an illegal enterprise and committed heinous acts against humankind for years. Ballard probably knew decent, honest, smart FBI officers who they could trust with solid, irrefutable evidence of the Dollhouse- but he didn't want to tank his future career (which he'd probably reclaim once Rossum was destroyed and he was out of a job) and admit criminal wrongdoing because he went AWOL and actually worked for the Dollhouse. Caroline/Echo still clung to her anarchist roots, and her inability to trust strangers was justifiably but tragically hardened even more post-Dollification. Poor Victor and Sierra weren't really leaders in their gang, and they were discombobulated from their years of mindwipes to start assertively declaring how they should use institutions to win the war. Boyd's lack of interest in getting law enforcement/government involved speaks for itself.
3. I thought Alexis Denisof was terrific as Senator Perrin, and I think he would have OTT grabbed my attention relative to his four-episode turn on the show even if I wasn't already attached to his portrayal of Wesley. I think the character and his performance were just that fascinating. I think it's hilarious when fans complain that Alexis Denisof has a terrible American accent- even when they know that he's actually American. Like whatever, his American accident is slightly northeastern. To quote Michael Ginsberg (Mad Men), "For your information, it's a regional accent and everyone's got one! We can't all sound like Walter Cronkite."
1. I don't think there are two sides to Adelle giving Topher's "mass imprint" tech to Rossum to get back her role as Head of the LA Dollhouse- it was just wrong, and evil and stupid. In fact, IMO, Adelle is smart but I don't think she's wise enough to consistently play her assorted good and bad hands well. She overstates her own intelligence- and I think that arrogance is as much or maybe even more her undoing than Topher's.
We don't know exactly when Adelle decided to defect against Rossum- that's between you and your personal canon. However, I don't think Adelle had to be head of the LA Dollhouse to mount an effective resistance (most of years on the resistance happened after she lost her position) or that Adelle's powers as Head of the LA Dollhouse made it all worth it for Rossum to have Topher's technology. Delivering that tech to Rossum made the world infinitely more dangerous
Moreover, I think it took Viktor breaking up with Adelle/Miss Lonelyhearts, Alpha breaking in AGAIN and confronting them all with the monster they created, Echo living self-aware with Ballard for months, Adelle's spiralling alcoholism and guilt, and even more Rossum announcing its plans to start using Topher's technology full speed ahead for Adelle to fully realize her guilt for the horrors that she's either directly propagated or enabled, her duty to switch sides, and perhaps most pivotally, that this technology wasn't going to just continue a chrome-and-reclaimed-wood wonderland of fancy high-tech bordellos/security squads where she was Queen but instead, plunge the world into dystopia which would even suck for the upper-crust.
IMO, when Adelle gave Topher's "imprint anyone without Doll architecture" tech to Rossum, Adelle just wanted to reclaim her leadership of the LA Dollhouse. And IMO Adelle's somewhat more benevolent reign of the LA Dollhouse isn't anywhere near worth the destructive global power of Topher's tech. To me, that's like a Nazi justifying a hand-over of atomic bomb technology geared to destroy all major American, British, and Soviet cities because....if he gets back his leadership at a concentration camp, he'll be slightly nicer to the inmates.
One can argue that it was just a matter of time before another one of the brilliant scientists working for Rossum figured out Topher's tech independently. However, no one knew when that would happen and Adelle didn't even try to start brainstorming ways for Topher, et al to sabotage Rossum's computers or scientific development programs to inhibit such discovery. (Moreover per my point #2, an active US governmental prosecution of Rossum could have stopped further scientific projects at Rossum.)
2. I think Team Free Will's folly in their false take-down of Rossum is under stated. I think they failed, partly, because of the stupidity and selfishness of their members. Obviously Boyd as an out-and-out traitor to end all traitors, but also with Adelle, Echo, and Ballard.
I think the Perrin plot underscores that it DOES matter whether the US government (or any government) retains its intellectual integrity because the law and government are the only forces that could truly check a major evil corporation like Rossum. A gang of six can't defeat Rossum like all of the military and scientific resources of the global political community backed by the world's population interested in preserving their own minds and bodies. As it turned out, Rossum as a mega-profitable global corporation was actually taken down by its own hubris and miscalculations and the Chinese government manipulating Rossum's technology to go berserk until Rossum was just a fiefdom operating solo units in the flyover American states.
Once the Free Will gang was mobilized to take down Rossum, they should have passed on the tech and Rossum's intention to the most high-level government officials they could find (after verifying with Topher's tech that they weren't Dolls themselves). Of course, that's an imperfect strategy. Even if a government official wasn't a Doll, they could be the real-life version of that analogy- on the take for Rossum based on campaign contributions.
However, no one in the gang even considered trying to get cleaner and more powerful hands from the FBI or elected politicians involved. And I think that was because of selfish or tragically flawed motives. Adelle and Topher wanted to end Rossum's reign of terror- but on their terms. They didn't want to take a trust fall and go to the FBI to report that they've been involved in an illegal enterprise and committed heinous acts against humankind for years. Ballard probably knew decent, honest, smart FBI officers who they could trust with solid, irrefutable evidence of the Dollhouse- but he didn't want to tank his future career (which he'd probably reclaim once Rossum was destroyed and he was out of a job) and admit criminal wrongdoing because he went AWOL and actually worked for the Dollhouse. Caroline/Echo still clung to her anarchist roots, and her inability to trust strangers was justifiably but tragically hardened even more post-Dollification. Poor Victor and Sierra weren't really leaders in their gang, and they were discombobulated from their years of mindwipes to start assertively declaring how they should use institutions to win the war. Boyd's lack of interest in getting law enforcement/government involved speaks for itself.
3. I thought Alexis Denisof was terrific as Senator Perrin, and I think he would have OTT grabbed my attention relative to his four-episode turn on the show even if I wasn't already attached to his portrayal of Wesley. I think the character and his performance were just that fascinating. I think it's hilarious when fans complain that Alexis Denisof has a terrible American accent- even when they know that he's actually American. Like whatever, his American accident is slightly northeastern. To quote Michael Ginsberg (Mad Men), "For your information, it's a regional accent and everyone's got one! We can't all sound like Walter Cronkite."