Dollhouse News, Articles, Reviews Misc. tidbits

[Madwelshboy]

You watched the series premiere—but should you move into the Dollhouse for more?

Well, you've seen the first episode. What do you think? Did Joss Whedon's sci-fi spy-ish Dollhouse move you? Did you love it? Or did you rail against the Hollywood Powers That Be for taking Joss and us away from vampires and spaceships?

Friday's premiere proved Dollhouse is not Buffy, Angel or Firefly. Gone are the quippy dialogue and fun that made us worship all things Joss.

But let's face it: What could Joss give us at this point that wouldn't be just a little disappointing? What he did offer is a brave new Jossiverse that, thank God, has got more La Femme Nikita in it than My Own Worst Enemy ... not to mention Eliza Dushku doing a little ass-kicking (at least when she's not being wiped).

If you've decided to hang in there and see what Dollhouse has in store for us in the future, fear not. Joss offers us the one thing he's not capable of leaving out of any of his shows ... mythology. The next few episodes delve into the mystery behind Alpha, glitches with the wiping technology, and Agent Paul Ballard's continued search for Echo.

In next week's "The Target," Echo ends up in a most dangerous game as we learn more about her handler, Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix). Meanwhile, the Dollhouse personnel continue to have problems and Ballard pushes forth with his investigation. And in "Gray Hour," Echo is mysteriously remotely wiped in the middle of a perilous and illegal engagement, leaving the team to attempt a rescue.

These episodes offer the best and worst of Dollhouse. On the good side, the stories are well told, with terrific pace and action, while the mythology continues to intrigue. On the not-so-good side, the childlike Echo just isn't that interesting. The actress manages to infuse charisma into her different implanted personalities, but it's hard to hang on to a character that is constantly changing. Sure, it's fun to see Dushku play the ultimate outdoorswoman or a backup singer or a savvy thief, but which one of them are we supposed to care about?

Fortunately, Dushku has solid actors backing her up. Lennix is especially good. And it's great to see Amy Acker as Dr. Claire Saunders, even if she isn't as prominent as she could be. One note, though ... Fran Kranz's Topher Brink could be toned down a bit. Whedon's trying a little too hard to stuff as much comic relief as he can into this one character.

The one thing that becomes very apparent through the next episodes is that Whedon is going to take his time to tell his story his way. And while that may not be what all of us want out of Joss's latest brainchild, he's earned this. So suck it up, people. Give back a little, and give Dollhouse a few episodes to win you over.

As for me, I'll keep watching ... and promise to only occasionally whine because there aren't any vampires or spaceships.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/02/dollhou...-jossverse.php

[Madwelshboy]

Snap Judgment: 'Dollhouse' -- Barbie or bad-ass?

Well, boys and girls, the moment we've all been waiting for -- the premiere of a new Joss Whedon TV show -- has come and gone. Dollhouse has reared its not-at-all-ugly head; what do We think of it? Did the mindbending adventures of Echo (Eliza Dushku) tickle your geek fancy, or were you left as blank as an Active's brain after an "engagement"?

You can read Ken Tucker's official take here, but I've got a few SPOILERY thoughts of my own...after the jump.





1. It's all pretty cool. Literally, there's something very calm, very serene about the way Dollhouse unfolded. Despite the warm earth tones of the Dollhouse itself, "Ghost" was a sterile, emotion-lite episode. Much of that comes from the fact that we know that whatever Echo is experiencing isn't "real" -- yes, her breakdown when confronted with the kidnapper-rapist was heartfelt and moving, but it wasn't Echo's breakdown. It belonged to the personality she'd been imprinted with. Maybe as time goes on, and Echo herself registers as a character, I'll become more invested.

2. Eliza Dushku sure is purty. In the words of my buddy Josh, so long as each adventure finds her in progressively fewer clothes, we're all good. (And is it weird that Tahmoh Penikett was wearing less clothes, on average, than Dushku? Whedon is, apparently, an equal opportunity titilator.)

3. But I'm not sure she's got the tools for the job. As I watched the premiere, I couldn't help but wonder, What would an actress like Naomi Watts do with this role? Super-confident and tough-as-nails are right in Dushku's wheelhouse, but when Whedon asks her to play brittle, or overwhelmed, or sheepish, or do an accent, things might not go as smoothly.

4. Fridays might be a blessing. It seemed like a curse, Dollhouse being scheduled on Friday night, usually the death zone for first-run TV. But perhaps the diminished expectations could do it a favor -- ratings that would be a failure on any other night might be seen as victory on a Friday.

5. For all that, I can't wait to see what happens next. Whedon is one of a handful of creators -- like Ronald D. Moore, James Cameron, and Warren Ellis -- whom I will trust to either get it right, or fail because their reach exceeding their grasp. Their mistakes are often as interesting as other people's successes. So I'm in for the long haul.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009...use-premi.html

[Madwelshboy]

Dollhouse's Memory Science Mixes Fact with Fiction

Memory erasure might seem like pure sci-fi, but it's actually on the cutting edge of science. PM's Digital Hollywood speaks with three memory experts to separate what's fact from what's fiction on Fox's new show, Dollhouse, premiering tonight at 9 pm

http://www.origin.popularmechanics.c...h/4303554.html

[Madwelshboy]

Dollhouse: ''Ghost'' Review

US, February 13, 2009 - Advance Review: So… I've seen the first episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Yes, the much anticipated, much discussed, much stressed over -- by Whedon fans nervous about network tampering -- series arrived on my desk yesterday.

As you may have read by now, Dollhouse tells the tale of Echo (Eliza Dushku), a young woman working (though some would use more damning words) for a mysterious company as an "Active." Her memories have essentially been wiped clean, leaving her in a simplistic, childlike state... until she gets an assignment, at which point she has a completely new identity and skill set imprinted upon her, as she temporarily becomes whomever the client wants or needs her to be for a given situation.

The show doesn't feel like anything Joss Whedon has done before, in ways both positive and negative. On one hand, it's great that the man who brought us such amazing television as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly (all among my very favorite TV shows) is creating another new world and a series that isn't directly evoking his earlier work or feeling like a simple copy of something he's done before. And there's no doubt he's come up with an idea that is noteworthy and raises lots of intriguing questions.

On the other hand, some small moments aside, the first episode – and note, this is the new first episode, replacing the earlier one which has been discarded – is surprisingly lacking when it comes to the trademark wit Whedon is known for. Even the most outwardly geeky character, Topher (Fran Kranz), has only some mildly amusing lines rather than anything all that funny or memorable, and he's the type of clever audience proxy and/or sarcasm supplier Whedon usually excels at.

There is definitely a strong concept at work here – In a nutshell, you have a show that feels like Alias meets The Matrix, which is a pretty cool combination. The idea that Echo and her fellow "actives" can have any identity and skill imprinted upon them means the show has tremendous opportunities as far as exploring very different scenarios and even delving into multiple genres, depending on what Echo is sent to do each week. Without getting specific, the two scenarios in the first episode do a good job showing how very different these situations can be, as one is basically about romance and excitement, while the other is truly about life or death............

Rest can be found here:-
http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/940/940128p1.html

[Madwelshboy]

Clearing up confusion about episode 2 of Dollhouse.

There's a lot of people online saying they are looking forward to the next episode of Dollhouse is see Joss's original vision on the series, as it's the original pilot. It's not. The original pilot episode, "Echo", has ended up in the trash can. (DVD extra please?). I know Joss said it was going to be episode 2, but the plan changed since then.

There is a LOT of confusion about this amongst folk, so to avoid let down on the day, that's where things stand.

Here's what to expect on Friday: a good episode written by Steve Deknight (you might recognise him from Buffy The Vampire Slayer). The introduction of Miracle Laurie's reoccurring character, a major new Whedonverse actress. The big bad of the series. And, yes, some funny.

http://www.dollverse.com/2009/02/cle...episode-2.html

[Madwelshboy]

Titles for upcoming episodes

Season 1, Ep 2: The Target
Season 1, Ep 3: Stage Fright
Season 1, Ep 4: Gray Hour
Season 1, Ep 5: Man On The Street
Season 1, Ep 6: True Believer
Season 1, Ep 7: Echoes
Season 1, Ep 8: Needs
Season 1, Ep 9: Haunted
Season 1, Ep 10: Four Engagements
Season 1, Ep 11: Briar Rose

http://www.tv.com/dollhouse/show/752...ode_guide.html

check the spoiler thread for spoilers on all upcoming episodes.
http://forum.gateworld.net/showthread.php?t=64251

[Madwelshboy]

'Dollhouse': Things are looking up
Feb 21, 2009, 04:32 PM | by Abby West


What a big improvement from last week's premiere, which I didn't love the way I wanted to. The dialogue and pacing just worked better in this episode ("The Target") than it did in the first — even with the timeline jumping back and forth. (Never mind the special thrill of seeing Matt Keesler (The Middleman) playing it dark as the villain.) We got some juicy back story on Alpha, a human doll who went crazy after his memory failed to be wiped clean and killed a bunch of people back at the dollhouse. But he spared our girl Echo. We also saw Langdon (Harry Lennix) begin his time as Echo's handler. Lennix sold his progression from having barely-contained disdain for Echo to something akin to care and concern. And he got to break off some of the best lines. (Topher explaining Alpha's meltdown: "Still working out the kinkies." Langdon: "Like the blood? The screaming? The dying?")

And there was more insight into the extent of Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett)'s obsession with finding out about the dollhouse. All the while, Echo was seeing images of previous implanted personalities and that can't be good. And then there was the overarching conspiracy that seems to involve Alpha and Echo. All good stuff that I have to believe will tie together satisfyingly because...well because I'm a Whedonite.

I really enjoyed Echo's up-for-anything, outdoorsy-girl personality this week but it made me realize that I like Elisha Dushku best when she's kind of a badass (like the clip below). The wounded-or-scared-girl act doesn't always ring true for me, mostly because it's just her looking confused. While I hate to call into question Dushku's acting chops, I have to agree with Marc Bernardin's comment last week: Asking more of her than badassness "might not go as smoothly."

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009...use-episo.html

[Madwelshboy]

'Dollhouse': The Verdict
Sunday, February 22 2009, 08:00 GMT

By Ben Rawson-Jones, Cult Editor


Dollhouse has generated plenty of headlines over the last year, with numerous delays and rumours of artistic differences between creator Joss Whedon and the Fox network. Now that the original pilot has been ditched and a new one assembled, the series has finally hit the airwaves over in the States - but is it worth the wait?

Fans of Buffy and Firefly will be fully aware that when the words 'Written and Directed by Joss Whedon' flash up on the screen at the start of any given episode, it's a surefire sign of quality. Sadly, this is not the case for Whedon's handling of the opening Dollhouse episode, which is largely an uninvolving mess. It's hard not to feel like a passive bystander to the onscreen events, such is the lack of any compelling dramatic hook, and the show looks like little more than an excuse for lead Eliza Dushku to play dress-up and make believe.


The former Buffy star plays Echo, an operative for a mysterious, non-government agency called Dollhouse, who frequently has her mind partially wiped and new personas and memories implanted for the sake of a new 'engagement'. Later on, an FBI Agent investigating the Dollhouse suggests that this identity erasure is tantamount to murder. An interesting premise on paper, but the pre-credits scenes - so vital in the structure of a pilot episode and selling the show - fails to sufficiently build up the intrigue. The rest of the show is hardly an improvement.

A cryptic chat between Echo and her stiff upper-lipped boss (Olivia Williams) opens proceedings and hints at a compelling backstory. Yet then we're quickly whisked off to a couple of painfully long sequences featuring Echo racing round on a motorbike and dancing around to Lady GaGa on a dancefloor with the man of her dreams. These happy memories are soon erased when her team extracts her from her location.

The problem here, and the rest of the episode, is that there's no reason to care for Echo's predicament or fate. A few hints about her and the 'Dollhouse' organisation's circumstances are thrown in along the way, but are simply not compelling enough to hook viewers into the on-screen events. Alongside failing to successfully establish the show's premise, a self-contained story featuring the abduction of a 12 year-old girl fails to impress.


It all feels rather laboured as Echo, in her new guise as the facilitator of the exchange of the girl for the $5 million ransom, has guns pointed at her and has some painful childhood memories (not hers) come back to haunt her and help her tackle the kidnappers. Again, this is all depicted in such a subdued and undramatic manner that it's hard to greet these developments with more than a shrug. Where is the wit and punch so abundant in Buffy?

Dollhouse throws up plenty of questions, but fails to make us crave answers in the same manner that a vaguely similar show like Alias managed to do in the space of its opening few minutes. It's early days for Joss Whedon's new show and it deserves time to develop and expand upon its central ideas, but the omens are not good given its soulless opener. One can't help but wonder how vastly superior the original pilot that Fox rejected is.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a14...e-verdict.html

[Madwelshboy]

Dollhouse: Ghost (season 1, episode 1)

A secret organisation uses ‘dolls’ with implanted personalities to undertake dangerous missions, including top agent Echo (Eliza Dushku). At the end of missions the dolls’ memories can be wiped for new missions…

There’s always a hellava lot of hype and expectation with any new Joss Whedon venture. Dollhouse is no exception, but those expectations have been been accompanied by stories of production woes: the pilot had to be completely re-shot, while Whedon shut down production after three episodes to spend time rewriting the scripts.

So is this an unmitigated disaster or simply a show that’s been finely tuned to perfection? Neither as it turns out…

The first episode of Dollhouse is as slickly put together as you'd imagine, featuring impressive sets, a cool-looking heroine and some neat action scenes. But going by this opening episode, the concept of Dollhouse is difficult to get to grips with. It’s too convoluted for its own good – especially as it just seems to be a set-up for a formula spy-fi drama along the lines of Alias – and there’s little in the way of the snappy dialogue you’d expect from Whedon.

The concept also appears to have a fundamental flaw – how can Dushku’s character really progress when her memory is wiped at the end of every episode? - though Whedon has talked about the various character arcs he's envisaged, so maybe future episodes will play with the central premise. The other characters in this episode – including Amy Acker’s Dollhouse doctor and Tahmoh Penikett’s federal agent – don’t get much of a look-in, but again hopefully future episodes will expand their roles a little more.

Whedon is an expert enough showrunner to ensure this isn’t an inferior drama along the lines of Painkiller Jane or Bionic Woman. But whether Dollhouse has the potential to turn into another Buffy-style phenomenon (or even pick up the smaller devoted fanbase of Firefly) is as yet uncertain…. James Skipp

VERDICT: 6/10

http://www.dwscifi.com/reviews/3161-...on-1-episode-1

[Madwelshboy]

Dollhouse - The Must List: What's Hot for the Week of March 1, 2009

Reader's Choice - DOLLHOUSE

It is a breath of fresh air to have Joss Whedon's voice back. The premise of the show has infinite possibilities for fantastic-ness. —Rachel

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,2020...060_11,00.html

[Madwelshboy]

Emily in Napa, Calif.: Any hopes of seeing Michelle Trachtenberg on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse?

Don't look for little Dawn to be back in the Jossverse any time soon. Michelle just told me that while she's happy for her former boss, she's not too familiar with his new show. "I haven't even seen it. I haven't heard much about it except it's premiered and congratulations for that!" Don't be too disappointed, though. Her lack of knowledge on all things Dollhouse is simply because she's too busy playing the evil Georgina Sparks again. "I'm most excited to be back on Gossip Girl. It has wonderful people, and it's really nice just having my first day back, hearing 'Welcome back.' "

http://uk.eonline.com/uberblog/watch...ally_over.html

[Madwelshboy]

Dollhouse’s Future In The Balance

The ratings for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse have not been good, but Fox’s experiment with “Remote Free TV” during the show and its resulting reportedly higher C+3 commercial ratings (what I hear from credible sources, I have not seen the numbers) than would be indicated by its show ratings has its future still hanging in the balance. I’m certain that all 13 episodes of Dollhouse will air this season, so the results of the later shows, and their ratings trend, will matter a lot more than the shows that have already aired.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/03...-balance/13836

[Madwelshboy]

Episode 1.12 will be called "Omega" and will air on the 8th May 2009.

http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/0...112-omega.html

[Madwelshboy]

Any news if Terminator or Dollhouse will be picked up for next year? — Patrick

MATT: Sarah Connor's fate seemed cinched (in the bad way) until last week, when both of Fox's Friday-night shows delivered somewhat unexpected ratings gains. Now, fingers are anxiously crossed in Terminatorland until May, when the final word comes down. The forecast looks a bit better for Dollhouse. Joss Whedon was not kidding when he touted this week's episode as the one to watch. I audibly gasped at least once while screening it, then fast hit rewind to make sure I had indeed heard what I thought I heard. It also boasts one of the best hand-to-hand fight scenes I have seen in some time, a cool reveal about the Dollhouse's business model and, as an added bonus, much shirtless Tahmoh.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/MegaBuzz...s-1004144.aspx

[LaCroix]

Jane Espenson recently had a live chat at AfterElton where she talked about her various projects past and present, inclueding Dollhouse.

Here's a link to that chat:


http://www.afterelton.com/blog/micha...-jane-espenson