Loading...Dull House
So, after continuing his cult creator status with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Dominion approved), geekacentric writer Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) returns to series TV with Doll House – a show whose premise promises to leave the other Slayer (Eliza Dushku) a wide open range of acting potential.
The thing I find troublesome about reviewing a show based on it’s pilot can be summed up in two points. Point the first, they don’t know what the hell they’re doing with the show yet. The first show is the pitch to the audience and is likely vague enough to spark curiosity and make you want to watch more or make a decision that this isn’t your deal. It’s most similar Friday night competitor seems to be the Canuck SWAT team police drama Flashpoint – whose Wikipedia plot summary is making me want to check it out next week, when did Canada start having crime? Competitions assuming they both don’t get trounced by the highly acclaimed Friday Nights, an A-1 drama with the benefit of telling you when it’s on in the title. The first show of a series is trying to feel it’s way into a niche existing shows don’t cover – before Fox cancels it.
Point the second, the first show is less show and more lecture. Brace yourself for the exposition ride. The Doll House is an underground agency that takes desperate pretty people – from their casting choices – and erase their minds to be implanted with perfect personas to create the perfect specialist for any given job, or customizable hookers – which is after all are VERY specialized massage therapists if you think about it. Whedon and company are interestingly pushing Nature vs. Nurture to the be the forefront theme, which I find interesting as an amateur social scientist and proponent of the forced brainwashing of hot young actresses- for their own protection of course. Dushku plays Echo, the semi-retarded doll that walks around having brief flashes of suppressed insight until the staff turns her into someone interesting.
The Doll House premiere chose to go with path number 1. I’m not sure what the hell is going on exactly. Echo starts off on this Fast and Furious themed date then gets wiped to lose the man of her dreams and the entire identity the poor sucker fell for – if he wasn‘t some ultra-rich John with a taste for True love, cause you can’t buy me love. She then becomes a hostage-negotiating expert whose amalgamated memory helps save a kidnapped girl. This seriously jeopardizes any kind of character development – as former victim now turned badass investigator Eleanor Penn is flushed down the mental toilet. Dushku is no heroine, she’s literally a tool to the Doll House agency that must be mentally raping very accomplished experts to get the memories to implant on their slaves.
Warrants more watching, especially if you liked Quantum Leap and Dark Angel, or ever wonder what a hybrid story of the two would be. It’s lead in is The Sarah Connor Chronicles, so if you’re a fan you may just want to see what follows it on Fox’s new Weirdo Hot Chick Friday night.
Popularity: 4% [?]
An intriguing premise and strong supporting cast might just help to carry a show who’s central actress often lacks believability and depth. Though as bad as Dukshu is it wont be entirely her fault, rather, I suspect it will die by a confluence of events:
Whedon is strongest with a co-writer; who is working with him?
How much creative input will Dukshu have (since shes co-producing the show)? How much of that input is worth anything?
What will FOX insist on that will have to be worked around?
I’ll continue to watch and see how the series shapes up (or doesn’t) overall.
As for your suggestion that there is a Quantum Leap influence, I’d say it more contrasts Quantum**; Sam Beckett always knew who he was (mostly) but scarcely knew where he was or what role he was playing; Echo, as the anti-Beckett, is scarcely aware of who she is but is always oriented to her role.
Also, the tech at work seems more closely connected to that of NBC’s failed vehicle, My Own Worst Enemy or the passable Affleck feature, Paycheck.
———————————–
** Journeyman was actually much closer to the Quantum Leap formula.
Co-writers include Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, both from The Shield and Angel, with Tim Minear being the sci-fi genre representative for his work on Firefly, X-Files and Lois & Clark.
Tancharoen and Jed Whedon seem the writer nebs from Dr. Horrible. The other questions we’ll have to discover as the show continues.
There is a character contrast with Quantum Leap but both shows are about the exploration of different personas. That’s the influence I refer to. Beckett got to explore these, while it’s not clear Echo can do the same maybe retaining a bit of each to become an uber doll. The audience gets to see a new persona in DH while QL showed the artifacts of their lives if not them.
The Pretender maybe a closer analog to DH overall but the exploration is very QL to me.
I MISS Journeyman!
Fair enough.
I’m curious. Whats your opinion of Dukshu both as an actress and in general?
I suspect a higher opinion than you have, since you dont even care to get her name right
Never got into Buffy – as you know – but Liza is often the tawdry brunette badass: Faith in BtVS and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.
Doll house is giving her a chance to stretch a lot but her Eleanor Penn negotiator didn’t seem a believeable roll. She’s dressed professional sexy and has been the victim of sexual abuse. Works for strippers but not for supposedly highly educated women that have sublimated that damage. She portrayed an asthma attack good – i guess.
Echo so far is a non-character beginning to get the identity crisis syndrome.
Overall too soon to say but cliche seems foreshadowed.
[...] to the RSS Feed.Powered by Bookmarkify™ More »Remember Dullhouse, the cute paraphrased name I chose to confer my thoughts on the new Joss Whedon series, Dollhouse? [...]
[...] Dull House Da Dominion Home of DOMINIONCAST Posted by root 4 minutes ago (http://dadominion.com) Dushku plays echo the semi retarded doll that walks around having brief flashes of suppressed powered by bookmarkify more remember dullhouse the cute paraphrased name i chose to leave a reply you must be logged in to post a comment blog title is proudly p Discuss | Bury | News | Dull House Da Dominion Home of DOMINIONCAST [...]