Concluding My Top 5s: Top 5 Dollhouse Characters

[sunclouds33]

I just finished Dollhouse! I have mixed feelings about the show in general. Brilliant ideas. However, I was disappointed by the execution at many points. It makes an interesting contrast with Firefly. I feel like Firefly almost benefited in my mind from its shorter run. It told a pretty complete story in that season and a movie. In part, because

Comments

[sunclouds33]

Ah, I loved the plot/themes more than the characters on Dollhouse- except for Adelle and Topher who were character standouts. I had trouble connecting to the Dolls because their personalities only came out in glimmers until S2. I never warmed to Echo/Caroline. I enjoyed the show a lot- but it's one of the least character-driven shows that I've ever loved.

Sierra/Priya was good- but I'm a bigger Tony/Victor fan.

[kikimay]

Great list. I pretty much agree. I wish that we could have seen more of Saunders. For me she was the most interesting character of all, because she was a doll and she didn't want to give up herself and at the same time she was searching for truth. Plus Amy Acker is amazing.

Enver Gjokaj is the best. He just embodied all the characters 2000%

[sunclouds33]

Thank you! I loved Saunders- although I loved seeing Amy Acker play Clyde and Saunders as an assassin later on

[frelling_tralk]

Great list! I pretty much agree with most of it. Adelle, Topher, and Whiskey/Claire Saunders/Clyde were definitely among the most fascinating characters imo, while Paul never did grow on me

[sunclouds33]

Thank you! I thought I was going to *love* Paul in the early eps because it looked like he was going to blend a police officer's platonic ideal of tenacity and street smarts with compelling personal drama with Doll!Mellie and have a cool balance of being a personal victim of the Dollhouse but player to show how the institution of law enforcement reacts to it. (I was also biased to Paul in the early eps because the actor who plays him is gorgeous

[local_max]

These are pretty close to my favourites. I do think that there seems to have formed something like a consensus about who the most awesome non-Doll characters were in Topher and Adelle, and in who the most impressively chamaeleonic performers were in Acker and Gjokaj. Saunders/Whiskey is my favourite doll character, too

[local_max]

I really love how you point out the contrasting arcs between Topher and Adelle in terms of maturity. It not only touches on the old/young stuff of which you speak, but on order/chaos material, and on what it means to be "responsible" generally. Like Claire, Adelle *mostly* does care about the well-being of the Dolls, but in a fuzzy, "they're better off with me than at other Dollhouses" type of way. Her commitment to working within the system and doing the best that she can within it is the contrast to Topher's radical outside-the-box-at-all-times thinking, where she's totally aware of the consequences of her actions and Topher's brazenly unaware. In some ways, this goes back to our The Wire vs. Breaking Bad discussion -- in this very specific way, Adelle is much more a creature from The Wire and Topher a creature from Breaking Bad; Adelle is not McNulty (that might be Caroline, lol) but maybe Daniels or someone with just enough power to know how little she can effectively use it. Adelle is aware that if she makes too many waves they

[sunclouds33]

So, I lost my response to your comment here. I think I may have accidentally deleted it. To re-do

[sunclouds33]

I do think that there seems to have formed something like a consensus about who the most awesome non-Doll characters were in Topher and Adelle, and in who the most impressively chamaeleonic performers were in Acker and Gjokaj. Saunders/Whiskey is my favourite doll character, too