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Dollhouse - First Episode Review 
Sun, Feb 15
1.01 Ghost
Whedon is back on TV and is playing with dolls.
Remember this will be a SPOILER review.
I plan to compile a list of my top 50 favourite TV shows and do this every year to see if the positions change or new entries appear. Buffy, Angel and Firefly would probably easily end up in my top twenty, Joss Whedon in my eyes can do no wrong. He is a genius in the land of TV and has created some of the most smart, riveting and entertaining shows around. To learn he was creating a new show was fantastic news, it’s been five whole years since we’ve seen a series from him. The end of Angel was heartbreaking because that universe which was first created through Buffy was ending but more-so that we wouldn’t be seeing a creation from the mind of Joss. Now those five years have come and gone and he’s given us Dollhouse.
The premise is simple, people have had their real personalities completely wiped, memories have gone and they walk around like, well dolls. Echo (Eliza Dushku, Buffy/Angel, Bring It On) is the lead, it’s good to see Dushku back on TV. You can’t really complain when you’re going to be seeing something that beautiful on TV every week. Echo along with many others live in a secret laboratory and have personalities implanted into them for assignments. During this episode, a wealthy man’s daughter is kidnapped and Echo is given a personality of a woman who is ideal in negotiations. Once an assignment is completed, their memory is completely wiped and they go about walking around lifeless.
From the basis of the first episode, I really am not seeing any potential the premise can offer. Honestly the concept is far too unoriginal and just not that interesting. I can’t see how this show could sustain a full season or even more than one. Though it’s seems very standalone in it’s execution, every new episode will have Echo being given a new personality and she’ll go off to do her mission, probably complete it and then return to have her memory wiped. I can see that becoming very tedious, very quickly. The one thing that I love about TV is character development. Echo doesn’t have any character, when walking around the dollhouse, she’s just a robot. Then when she’s on missions, she’s being whoever they want her to be.
The supporting players around her are sadly badly written, I except different from Whedon because even from the first episode of Buffy and Firefly, every character stood out with something unique about them. I don’t see any of that within this first episode. The only stand out character to me is Boyd Langdon (Harry Lennix, 24) who is Echo’s handler and seems to care for her welfare as well as wanting to do the right thing. Though it’s good to see Reed Diamond (The Shield, Homicide: Life on the Street) on TV, who seems a bit of an ass, hopefully he won’t be getting any bullets to the face anytime soon. The last mention of casting has to be Amy Acker (Angel) who’s still as hot even with lots of scars across her face.
For a pilot episode this was very dissapointing, it never felt like a set-up for a series, I’ve heard others mention it felt like a normal episode you would find in the middle of the season and that’s what it felt like. A pilot episode is supposed to create something for the viewer to return next week to keep watching. I’ve got so much faith in Whedon that I will probably return to watching Dollhouse because you can never judge anything on a pilot episode. Though my workload is a lot right now and I’m busy watching other shows that it’s doubtful that I’ll be watching this every week. It might have lots of Dushku walking around in little clothes but it’s going to take a lot more than that to keep me watching weekly. I think I’ll wait until the season is over and watch it over the summer when there’s nothing much else on. Though the season might be over sooner than I think.
Dollhouse is on FOX and if you’re a Whedon fan you’ll know that’s probably not a good idea. FOX gave the show a Friday night timeslot which in America is called the death slot. According to recent news, the ratings for Dollhouse were very low, lower than FOX’s estimations. Will Dollhouse be another casulty for Whedon? It’s FOX, they only care about one thing, it doesn’t matter the quality of the product. I’m hoping the show will be given a chance, I don’t want to wait another five years.
1.01 Ghost Whedon is back on TV and is playing with dolls. Remember this will be a SPOILER review.
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