Dollhouse- Actual Review

So, that in depth discussion of Dollhouse just turned into speculation about what the myth arc of the show will be about. I neglected one key detail: Is the show actually any good? So here are some actual thoughts on the quality of the show rather than the plot hooks. Bear in mind that all statements and assertions made here should be read with a "thus far" immediately following, as there have only been two episodes, so yeah.

Is it good?

Short answer: Yes

Long Answer: Yes if it was written by anyone other than Joss Whedon. Whedon has set the bar for himself pretty high and over the past couple years managing to deliver sequentially more with less (Buffy ran for 7 seasons, Angel for 5, Firefly for 1/2, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog for 42 minutes of pure awesome). So from anyone else this would be phenomenal, from Whedon it's a little below par. So far.

Pros:
Eliza Duskhu- Eliza Duskhu is always great, and giving her a show she can essentially use as a massive demo real can only be a good thing. Her ability to create substantially different personas for each set of implanted memories

The ensemble- For the most part the ensemble is pretty solid, with a few welcome familiar faces (Look it's Helo! Look it's Fred!). Harry Lennix as Echo's handler, Boyd Langdon, is the moral center of the show, and combines fatherly affection for Echo with trepidation at the actions of the Dollhouse. Reed Diamond's head of security, Laurence Dominic, was mildly irritating in the first episode but by episode two I began to sympathize with the guy whose job it is to deal with rogue actives and cases gone wrong. The only false notes are Fran Kranz' smarmy lab tech and Olivia Williams' Dollhouse CEO. The former is annoying, and the latter... I'm not sure what it is exactly, but the character doesn't feel all there yet.

Cons:
Sketch- The premise of the show kinda sketches me out. I mean sure the Dollhouse creates hostage negotiators and assassins and, I dunno, Pilates instructors, but a lot of what they do is essentially prostitution. And that's a little creepy. I find myself wondering if, in addition to wiping the Actives' memories after mission, they also check them for STDs.

Humor- Or rather, lack thereof. All of Joss Whedon's works to date have been awesomely funny, even (especially?) at their darkest. Dollhouse is not especially funny. There is a distinct lack of the idiosyncratic dialogue Whedon is known for. Perhaps part of the problem is that a lot of the "funny" lines come from Topher, the sketchy lab tech, and he's just annoying.

Jury's Still Out:

Universe- All of Whedon's previous works have had exceptionally well realized universes. So far we haven't gotten much of a glimpse at the Dollverse or whatever term fans are calling it. The technology exists to extract and implant memories, so what also exists? The terms haven't been defined yet so we don't know what to expect. So there's a little super science, but how much? Is Active creation the one divergence from reality or will we later run into robots and ray guns?

Overall:

It's neat. Certainly worth watching. Give it time and it may become something truly awesome. Place your betts on how Fox will screw it over.

Dollhouse

So yeah, Dollhouse. Thoughts.

I just finished watching the second episode. As far as I noticed, people held off on reviewing the series after the pilot, which was a good call. The pilot basically said "Hello, I am the premise! Goodbye!" It was interesting, but left you waiting for the other shoe to drop. In essence, the pilot set up a fairly formulaic adventure of the week series. Echo gets a new personality each week to deal with some new problem. Agent Ballard slowly gets closer but never quite finds the Dollhouse. You could milk two or three seasons out of that, and it wouldn't be that bad. Take a look at Burn Notice for a show that gets a lot of mileage out of a solid cast and a good formula.

But the thing is, this is a Joss Whedon show, so we expect more. Joss Whedon's shows have over arching plots, and season or series long adversaries. That's where episode two comes in. It says to us "Hello, I am the Meta-plot! My friend premise is here too, but I think you and I can be great friends!" And we all breathe a sigh of relief because that's what we were waiting for.

Rather than discuss the plot of either episode I'm just going to talk about possiblities for meta-plot. There may be spoilers though. So far the plot hooks established:

An escaped Active, Alpha, with a composite personality and a tendency to cut people up. (Note: Something about being called Alpha leads to weirdness. Alpha was a rogue agent in the MiB cartoon and the master AI in RvB: Reconstruction.) He spared Echo's life during his killing spree.

A myserious naked guy who knows Echo's past. Odds that it's Alpha- 2:1

Mark Sheppard, world's greatest character actor (Badger-Firefly, Romo Lamkin-Battlestar Galactica, Whatever the villain's name was-Bionic Woman, Awesome bank robber-Burn Notice, I watch too much tv), plays his least sketchy role ever. Odds he's actually sketchy- 3:2

Dollhouse has mysterious backers. Odds they're evil- 1:1

Echo is retaining some memories, at least subconsciously. Not giving odds as I'm pretty sure that her developing her own personality is the main plot of the series.

Odds that at least one character we've already met is secretly an Active- 5:1

Some mysterious agency orchestrated a massive plot to hire Echo for a round of "Most Dangerous Game," involving hiring a psycho outdoorsman, hiring a mercenary disguised as a cop, falsifying a complete background, and killing two people. During the chase she drank a canteen of drugged water that made her start to see past incarnations of herself. Odds that the whole plot was a Xanatos Roulette to get her to do that- 3:1

Alpha killed the aforementioned mercenary. Odds are split even whether he was doing it to protect Echo or cover his own tracks.

At one point the Actives' base programing was Ninja. They flipped out and killed each other. Odds that that is awesome- Chainsaw:Bacon