Brian - July 24th, 2010 - Dollhouse
Another Joss Whedon show I like. How shocking. <-- That's sarcasm, just so we're clear.
I wasn't expecting much out of Dollhouse. The premise seemed shaky at best, and Eliza Dushku's performance in Buffy was stomach-wrenchingly abysmal. Though I am a huge fan of most of Whedon's works, the existence of Buffy Season 6 and Angel shows he is fallible, and thus I waited a good long while before bothering.
I shouldn't be surprised that my expectations were wrong. Scratch that. My expectations are generally solid. All the same, they were wrong here. It's one of Whedon's best works. Not Firefly quality, but on par with the memorable Buffy seasons.
Like all of Whedon's successes, the show understands the necessity of creating good characters. It's hard to do any proper development when half the cast takes on a different persona each episode, but the supporting cast picks up the burden splendidly. Topher, the charming mad scientist, spearheads some excellent comedy in an otherwise somber toned show. Adelle does stalwart matron without missing a beat, and Ballard (at least initially) perfectly executes the struggling FBI agent fighting against all hope. Dr. Saunders and Boyd are both somewhat flat, though they serve their purpose adequately.
The dolls themselves are largely forgettable, even Dushku's character - Echo never quite established enough of a personality for me to care about her, and her original self wasn't particularly notable or likable. The standout here was Sierra, who took on some interesting personas and beyond that was a well-developed, interesting person. Plus she had an accent a good majority of the time, which always makes my heart do funny things.
Moving past the characters, the story itself was admirable. There were some expected twists (November's initial role being the most obvious), but happily a lot of cliches were avoided. I was especially pleased that there were absolutely no government conspiracies. The first season's antagonist Alpha was inventive and menacing. The LA Dollhouse's growth and its response to the Rossum corporation played out naturally, and it never felt like anything was forced/rush. Aside from the end, where the "villain" is revealed - his motives were a tad contrived. The leaps into the future were beautifully done and managed to provide some closure to a show canceled before its entire story could be told.
In general, I would say there were a lot of top-notch story arcs, with my only real complaint here being the lack of strong villains - they're revealed too late to properly antagonize and typically do too little. This is something Buffy did very well, so I'm a bit surprised Whedon didn't carry that trend forward.
In terms of production quality, the show doesn't have any hiccups. Some of the fight scenes are done extremely well, with Ballard hurting a lot of poor folk. The smattering of special effects were fun, and the "forward leap" episodes did a lot with a little.
I recommend this show. It probably won't make a Whedon fan out of someone who didn't like Firefly, but those someones aren't very smart anyway. It stays true to his general quality of work, and although it's not his best, it's not far off.
Oh, and Eliza Dushku does a much better job of acting. It's clear she's grown quite a lot.
Have you seen my cabinet of inappropriate starches?
