Late Thoughts on Dollhouse
I've been meaning to write about Dollhouse all week, but I haven't had the chance. This is probably good for you, since anything I'll say is going to be shorter.
TV or DVD?
A lot of folks have been wondering why Whedon would work with Fox and/or vice versa after the fiasco that was Firefly. But the fact that they are-and especially the fact that they offered Whedon backing without a traditional pilot-show that they've learned at least some lessons from the past. Firefly may not have done anything useful on the airwaves, but it was blockbuster on DVD, and in T-shirts and other merchandising, and in driving the early usage of Hulu (Firefly and another Fox-troubled show, Arrested Development, have remained popular on the site since its beginning).
Partly because of this, I don't expect Dollhouse to be a very static show. While I imagine there's going to be a "mission engagement of the week" format, I also expect that there's going to be progress in term of revealing the backstory of the Dollhouse, as well as changing up the nature of the Dollhouse, throught this thirteen-episode block (and future ones, if that happens). In fact, if Fox is expecting this show to be carried by a fanbase that will be more interested in Tivo, Hulu, and DVDs than in watching the show live as it happens, then we can expect the kind of show that we seem to be getting. A show where later episodes will cast earlier ones in a different light (so that fans will save them on DVRs and rewatch them online). A show where over-the-air advertising is less important than product placement (look at those vans!) and controlling ad viewing online (Fox announced that the show, like Fringe would have fewer commercials last spring). A show with clearly defined "half-seasons" stories (so that they can package the DVD sets like the Battlestar ones).
So I don't think it's too crazy to expect major changes from the show, not just an acceptance that everything is exactly what it appears to be.
Nothing Is What It Appears to Be
Dollhouse is a Joss Whedon show which starts with the words "Nothing is what it appears to be." It's hard to imagine a writer doing that without intending to send a metatextual symbol; it's impossible to imagine Joss Whedon doing it. The line is even set apart from the opening scene (which stands apart from the main episode) by setting it as part of surveillance footage (the reason for which is never explained). When I heard that line, I said to Joss Whedon, in my empty house, "So that's how it's going to be, huh?"
So when I said, above, that I expect the first 13 episodes to have a pretty clear arc, and when I heard that line, with writerly and directorly neon signs flashing toward it, it colored my view of the episode pretty strongly. It's creepy in lots and lots of ways. There are charcters that are clearly unlikeable. There are holes and contradictions. But nothing's what it appears to be, so I have to wonder what it will actually turn out to be.
That Strange Little Scene
Even after that first line, the first scene is bizarre. Lots of lines that could potentially have critical exposition are never finished (they cut off or trail off), leaving us to fill in the gaps based on what we already know. But if nothing is what it appears to be, how accurate are those fill-ins. The surface scene is: Caroline is "recruited" to the Dollhouse, apprently under some extreme external pressure. But there's a lot we don't know, as well. Caroline and Adelle seem to have a relationship of some sort, possibly related to Mrs. Dundee (whose name is mentioned at the end of the episode). It seems like Caroline may know about the Dollhouse and what happens there, but seems more concerned with what's just happened (leaving her looking extremely haggard). Caroline apprently volunteers for something, we assume it's service in the Dollhouse, but could it be something else?
There are more holes in the scene than just dialogue. We're led to believe elsewhere in the show that the Dollhouse uses human trafficking to "recruit" its members. So why does Adelle need to "recruit" Caroline? Why "recruit" someone she seems to already know? And incidentally, how come the scene doesn't take place in Adelle's office, which is much larger and has slightly different artwork (yes, I checked in a second viewing)? Why have a contract if the entire project is illegal?
The story of how and why Caroline/Echo entered the Dollhouse is critical to the show, and I don't think we've heard any part of that story yet. I expect this scene to be revisited at least once.
Inside Tim Minear
There's another strange metatextual level in the main story of the episode. The main "character" played by Echo is a hostage negotiator who is "the best" because she was once kidnapped (and molested) herself. This is eerily similar to the character of Rebecca Locke from the shortlived Fox series The Inside, co-created by Tim Minear. Minear worked with Whedon on his previous shows and is a producer on Dollhouse. A description of Locke from Wikipedia:Rebecca Locke (Rachel Nichols) is the rookie field agent brought in by Web, who wishes to use her gift to his advantage. She is able to put herself in the shoes of the victims, since she was one herself. This makes her excellent at getting inside the mind of a killer. Series creator Minear described her as a "character with no inside," hence the show's title. With clear trust issues and a lack of a social life, she slowly grows to like her colleagues more as the series progressed.
Topher to Bottom
I think special attention has to be paid to Topher, the mad scientist of the Dollhouse, who is currently positioned as the villain of the show. At the moment there doesn't appear to be any way to redeem him, other than by a revelation that he has been mindwiped himself, and that his current mad-scientist persona was given so that the person in charge of the important mind-wiping device would be someoen who believes, heart and soul, that mind wiping is the most awesome thing in the universe. With this show, that could happen. But right now, Topher seems destined for a bad end, even if that bad end takes a very long time coming. (We thought we killed him but now he's back! With his own UnDollhouse!)
Questions I'll Be Keeping in Mind
Benefit of the Doubt
I do want to disclaim that giving Dollhouse the benefit of the doubt in some ways, on feminism and racism and probably some other things, is influenced by white, male, etc. privilege. It's a bit easier for me to say that the show is intentionally creepy when it's creeping me out in a somewhat distanced way. As mswyrr pointed out, the first episode alone "mined rape, molestation, and human trafficking for good dramatic material," and that's a whole fist full of triggers.
If It Gets Really Awesome, We'll Let You Know
In light of that, I can see why lots of folks are giving the show a pass. But I've listed some of the reasons I'm sticking with it. If it gets really awesome, you'll hear about it. And the old episodes will be waiting on Hulu.
TV or DVD?
A lot of folks have been wondering why Whedon would work with Fox and/or vice versa after the fiasco that was Firefly. But the fact that they are-and especially the fact that they offered Whedon backing without a traditional pilot-show that they've learned at least some lessons from the past. Firefly may not have done anything useful on the airwaves, but it was blockbuster on DVD, and in T-shirts and other merchandising, and in driving the early usage of Hulu (Firefly and another Fox-troubled show, Arrested Development, have remained popular on the site since its beginning).
Partly because of this, I don't expect Dollhouse to be a very static show. While I imagine there's going to be a "mission engagement of the week" format, I also expect that there's going to be progress in term of revealing the backstory of the Dollhouse, as well as changing up the nature of the Dollhouse, throught this thirteen-episode block (and future ones, if that happens). In fact, if Fox is expecting this show to be carried by a fanbase that will be more interested in Tivo, Hulu, and DVDs than in watching the show live as it happens, then we can expect the kind of show that we seem to be getting. A show where later episodes will cast earlier ones in a different light (so that fans will save them on DVRs and rewatch them online). A show where over-the-air advertising is less important than product placement (look at those vans!) and controlling ad viewing online (Fox announced that the show, like Fringe would have fewer commercials last spring). A show with clearly defined "half-seasons" stories (so that they can package the DVD sets like the Battlestar ones).
So I don't think it's too crazy to expect major changes from the show, not just an acceptance that everything is exactly what it appears to be.
Nothing Is What It Appears to Be
Dollhouse is a Joss Whedon show which starts with the words "Nothing is what it appears to be." It's hard to imagine a writer doing that without intending to send a metatextual symbol; it's impossible to imagine Joss Whedon doing it. The line is even set apart from the opening scene (which stands apart from the main episode) by setting it as part of surveillance footage (the reason for which is never explained). When I heard that line, I said to Joss Whedon, in my empty house, "So that's how it's going to be, huh?"
So when I said, above, that I expect the first 13 episodes to have a pretty clear arc, and when I heard that line, with writerly and directorly neon signs flashing toward it, it colored my view of the episode pretty strongly. It's creepy in lots and lots of ways. There are charcters that are clearly unlikeable. There are holes and contradictions. But nothing's what it appears to be, so I have to wonder what it will actually turn out to be.
That Strange Little Scene
Even after that first line, the first scene is bizarre. Lots of lines that could potentially have critical exposition are never finished (they cut off or trail off), leaving us to fill in the gaps based on what we already know. But if nothing is what it appears to be, how accurate are those fill-ins. The surface scene is: Caroline is "recruited" to the Dollhouse, apprently under some extreme external pressure. But there's a lot we don't know, as well. Caroline and Adelle seem to have a relationship of some sort, possibly related to Mrs. Dundee (whose name is mentioned at the end of the episode). It seems like Caroline may know about the Dollhouse and what happens there, but seems more concerned with what's just happened (leaving her looking extremely haggard). Caroline apprently volunteers for something, we assume it's service in the Dollhouse, but could it be something else?
There are more holes in the scene than just dialogue. We're led to believe elsewhere in the show that the Dollhouse uses human trafficking to "recruit" its members. So why does Adelle need to "recruit" Caroline? Why "recruit" someone she seems to already know? And incidentally, how come the scene doesn't take place in Adelle's office, which is much larger and has slightly different artwork (yes, I checked in a second viewing)? Why have a contract if the entire project is illegal?
The story of how and why Caroline/Echo entered the Dollhouse is critical to the show, and I don't think we've heard any part of that story yet. I expect this scene to be revisited at least once.
Inside Tim Minear
There's another strange metatextual level in the main story of the episode. The main "character" played by Echo is a hostage negotiator who is "the best" because she was once kidnapped (and molested) herself. This is eerily similar to the character of Rebecca Locke from the shortlived Fox series The Inside, co-created by Tim Minear. Minear worked with Whedon on his previous shows and is a producer on Dollhouse. A description of Locke from Wikipedia:Rebecca Locke (Rachel Nichols) is the rookie field agent brought in by Web, who wishes to use her gift to his advantage. She is able to put herself in the shoes of the victims, since she was one herself. This makes her excellent at getting inside the mind of a killer. Series creator Minear described her as a "character with no inside," hence the show's title. With clear trust issues and a lack of a social life, she slowly grows to like her colleagues more as the series progressed.
Topher to Bottom
I think special attention has to be paid to Topher, the mad scientist of the Dollhouse, who is currently positioned as the villain of the show. At the moment there doesn't appear to be any way to redeem him, other than by a revelation that he has been mindwiped himself, and that his current mad-scientist persona was given so that the person in charge of the important mind-wiping device would be someoen who believes, heart and soul, that mind wiping is the most awesome thing in the universe. With this show, that could happen. But right now, Topher seems destined for a bad end, even if that bad end takes a very long time coming. (We thought we killed him but now he's back! With his own UnDollhouse!)
Questions I'll Be Keeping in Mind
- Who else has been "brainwashed"? Presumably everyone in the Dollhouse could be. Boyd and Topher seem like prime candidates, along with the more obvious Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker).
- How "blank" are the blank personalities?
- Was "Caroline" just another amalgam character for Echo?
- Are Adelle and Caroline somehow working together on their own side (with Mrs. Dundee)?
Benefit of the Doubt
I do want to disclaim that giving Dollhouse the benefit of the doubt in some ways, on feminism and racism and probably some other things, is influenced by white, male, etc. privilege. It's a bit easier for me to say that the show is intentionally creepy when it's creeping me out in a somewhat distanced way. As mswyrr pointed out, the first episode alone "mined rape, molestation, and human trafficking for good dramatic material," and that's a whole fist full of triggers.
If It Gets Really Awesome, We'll Let You Know
In light of that, I can see why lots of folks are giving the show a pass. But I've listed some of the reasons I'm sticking with it. If it gets really awesome, you'll hear about it. And the old episodes will be waiting on Hulu.