Dollhouse

I've got to be up front here and say that I'm an unabashed Joss Whedon fanboy. I'm not a particular fan of Eliza Dushku, though she can be good at times. My hopes for Dollhouse were high, and yet early reviews had been mixed, so I wasn't too excited by the time I was finally able to watch the first episode last night.

On the plus side, there were a lot of intriguing plots put into place. There are questions I'd very much like to see answered. I can see a lot of depth in the supporting characters already, and there are a lot of good stories to be told with those characters. The premise of the series is a little shaky, but the writers address that very directly in the first episode, implying that there is an answer to the obvious question of why a person wealthy enough to afford a memory-implanted doll wouldn't just hire a regular (and cheaper) person with the necessary expertise; it's just that they're not going to answer that question quite yet.

On the negative side, I saw almost none of the trademark Joss Whedon witty dialogue. This might be a purposeful choice, being that the dialogue so beloved by the hardcore Whedon fans might be part of what puts off non-fans. The only characters that really grabbed me were Echo's handler and Dr. Saunders (she of the scarred face). That's not terribly surprising, as it often takes a few episodes for characters in Joss' shows to show enough of themselves for the viewer to get attached to them. The writing was generally more straightforward than Joss' other shows, though there were a few twists to keep things from getting dull. There were a lot of bits (the motorcycle chase and dance scene at the beginning for example) that were clearly added just to increase the amount of action and keep the suits happy, and I seriously think those detracted more than they added in the big picture. I wanted to know why I should care about these people and about the background of the Dollhouse, and instead we spend more screen time watching Eliza dance in a short skirt. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, but if I want to look at girls dancing in short skirts, there are other places I can get that. I wanted a good story involving characters I cared about, and only got a little of that here.

I've already read that FOX has made a commitment to show a dozen episodes of Dollhouse, if I'm not mistaken, but the flip side of that is that the creative staff had to agree that the first seven episodes will function as stand-alones rather than the layered plotting I generally enjoy in Joss' best work. We've been promised that after those first seven, the big picture plot will take off in earnest, and I hope that's true.

It's a good premise for a series, with lots of issues about identity, etc. to use as material, but honestly, that first episode was just okay. I doubt I'd stick with it if I didn't have faith in the creative people behind it to craft it into something far more powerful by the end of the season. The potential is definitely there, but Dollhouse hasn't truly grabbed me yet.