Dollhouse 2x12: The Hollow Men

[quinara]

I think we might have finally fastforwarded far enough that we can go at normal pace again! 'Twas Dollhouse once more (if S5 edition and lacking on my part the gutpunch of good context). :D

Comments

[eowyn_315]

Hahaha, aww, you will never fit in

[quinara]

Hahaha, aww, you will never fit in.

It's reassuring!

I should confess that I made myself a promise as the credits rolled for this episode that I would treat it completely fresh, as if everything that had come before it (ie. that I knew) was stuff I had accepted and stuff that made sense. So I accepted they were 'at war' with Rossum, that destroying the boss/the tech was the main thing at stake and all that stuff, my reasoning being that I was pretending we were in S5 now and I'd managed to see some not-very-good fan-edited catch up episodes to get me up to speed. So, yeah, I refused to stop and think about Boyd's piss poor, opaque characterisation and recast him as a standalone baddy who wasn't my primary focus apart from what his relationship used to be to the rest of the team. And it seemed to work...

(On the other hand, Captain Logic steps in to ruin my fun by asking what are the odds that the ONE person who happens to be immune to imprinting ALSO happens to take up a terrorist campaign against Rossum and get herself in a

[eowyn_315]

I should confess that I made myself a promise as the credits rolled for this episode that I would treat it completely fresh, as if everything that had come before it (ie. that I knew) was stuff I had accepted and stuff that made sense.

That is definitely a positive approach. I don't think I have it in me to be that forgiving, lol. But that's always been a sticking point between Joss and me - we value very different aspects of storytelling, and his blase attitude about plots making sense has bothered me in every single thing he's ever done (even BtVS).

[quinara]

Oh, it bothers me as well (usually). I think after the whole Twilight fiasco I was sick of caring so much about it and managed to find some sort of zen. Dunno where from!

[anonymous]

Hi, I just read this review and really enjoyed it. I'm probably leaning closer to the Whedonesque crowd than to you in my enjoyment of the last few weeks, but you bring up some points I can't wait to look for on a rewatch

[quinara]

Hi! I'm glad you enjoyed it - I've been a right miseryguts about the show the last few weeks, so I promised myself I'd watch this episode as if it was something new like a standalone or something, rather than bringing my baggage to it.

The general Whedon party line is that emotional connections are a big part of what makes us human, but the scary side to the formation of an Us--the formation of a Them--is either left to the subtext or brushed aside. Here we get a person making the world his Them. Pretty bold/awesome. Yes, I absolutely agree - and it makes so much sense in a show that's all about self-identity that the Us groupthink is just as much a problem as the Them trying to kill the group. And I agree with you on the annoyingnees of Boyd - he played a really interesting thematic role (if you squint a bit), but his internal characterisation doesn't make sense at all. I wonder if I've been bizarrely desensitised to it after Adelle's peculiar characterisation during the Rossum takeover? And Echo's near-instantaneous assumption

[anonymous]

I read your last few posts, heh. :) As I said, I'm probably closer to the whedonesque crowd; I enjoyed the last few episodes more than you, I suspect, and this one less. I don't mind Adelle's characterization as much as you do, for example, even though I've had to double back and do some reconstruction, which, ideally, I shouldn't have had to. I kinda wish that maybe around "Getting Closer" they had had an "Inside Out"-style exposition/explanation ep for Boyd, Adelle, and any other characters playing deceit games, inelegant though that might be; it would be a lot easier to ensure we are on the same page as the characters and not bring our baggage (as you suggest with yourself). My biggest problem is that I can't tell what parts of the episode are subtext undercutting the text, and what parts are oversights.

[quinara]

*nods* Thinking about last season, something like the structure of A Spy in the House of Love could have maybe worked really well to show lots of different characters' perspectives on things, rather than forcing the audience into the position of the lowest common denominator.

My biggest problem is that I can't tell what parts of the episode are subtext undercutting the text, and what parts are oversights.

Definitely agree with you there - I felt like in this episode there was enough for me to trust that the show wanted me to read more than it was giving, but things like Boyd make it quite hard to trust that that's meant to be the case.

[bogwitch]

I enjoyed it too.

[quinara]

Hooray! We can be weirdos together. :)

[bogwitch]

I thought we already were.

[quinara]

Not in this particular context. Though otherwise DEFINITELY!!