CSBG Archive
Friday This and That
Once again I find myself with several smaller items that, in and of themselves, do not really constitute a full column’s worth of stuff. So here they all are together in another grab-bag effort. Some television thoughts, a bit of antiquarian book lore, and, oh yeah, comics.
*
Dollhouse: You know, it’s almost funny, in a sad way, to watch the review sites and the blogosphere trying to find a way to review this show that won’t kill it. It’s a bit like watching everyone at a party trying desperately to avoid telling a sweet-natured guy, beloved by all, some sort of horrible ugly truth about himself. Even though everyone but the sweet guy already knows, no one wants to be the the one to break his heart.
By all reports Joss Whedon is a sweet guy and an amazingly talented writer. But the ugly truth is… his new show Dollhouse is not very good. At least the pilot wasn’t. (Spoilers follow, if you are concerned about that.)
All the reviews I’ve seen are tepid things like “finding its feet” or “we’ll give it another couple of weeks” or whatever, and I am certain this is a manifestation of loyalty to Joss Whedon himself, who’s become a beloved brand name in nerd circles. I haven’t seen this much tiptoeing around the word “sucks” from the fan press since Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s first season.
But the bottom line is that the Dollhouse pilot — the one that, incidentally, was completely reshot from the ground up when Whedon decided the original one wasn’t working — honestly is out-and-out sucky. Unfortunately, the flaws aren’t really in the acting or the dialogue or even this particular episode’s plot. The flaw’s in the premise. This is just not a good idea for a television series.
If by some miracle you are reading a site like this and yet you don’t know what the show’s about, I’ll sketch it for you. The Dollhouse is a secret, illegal facility that supplies people with their personalities programmed-to-order for various millionaire clients…. essentially whoring the programmed people out. The people these invented personalities are imprinted onto are called Actives, and the series follows a particular Active code-named Echo, who’s played by Eliza Dushku.
The conceit is that each week Echo will become a different personality and that personality will have an adventure, while each episode also advances the subplots regarding who Echo really was before she joined the Dollhouse, and the efforts of an obsessed FBI agent to prove the Dollhouse exists and shut it down.
This is so screwed-up as a series premise that I almost don’t know where to start.
First of all, it’s set up in such a way that the only way any of this will work is if we buy into not one, but several, completely unbelievable propositions.
One: that millionaires will pay for a pre-programmed substitute personality rather than just hire a real one. I mean, they’re millionaires, right? Why hire a guy to forge something you can just as easily get for real (and probably cheaper, as hinted in the pilot)? For example, in this episode, Echo is programmed as a hostage negotiator in order to save the kidnapped daughter of a ‘valued client.’
So we are expected to believe that the valued client, instead of calling the cops, or even a real expert from a high-priced K&R firm, instead calls his high-tech pimp and tells him to program one of the girls to be a negotiator. There’s even a throwaway line of dialogue about this illogical turn of events, as though Whedon is acknowledging how dumb it is but begging us to just go with it anyway. If you have to beg for us to buy the premise, doesn’t that imply the premise itself is deeply flawed?
Two: it defies all logic that a facility this big and complex, apparently staffed with dozens if not hundreds of people all walking around the giant facility where the Actives are stored in sleeper units, could still somehow evade detection by an FBI agent obsessed with discovering them.
The Dollhouse is shown to have a full medical staff, administrative staff, security squad… and all are portrayed as brilliant, competent people. Which incidentally leads me to Dumb Premise Idea Number Three: except for the ex-cop running their security, who’s shown to be somewhat wavering in his convictions, everyone else seems to be fine with working illegally as support for high-priced brainwashed prostitutes. That doesn’t make sense to me on any level to begin with — you’re a brilliant neurological support technician, or a crack security squad leader, and an illegal pimp job is the best you can do? – but when you add to that the idea that an obsessed FBI guy couldn’t track down one of them and make them give up the Dollhouse…. come on, that’s just ridiculous.
And again, there’s a snippet of dialogue designed to provide a fig leaf for this when the ex-cop says, “I thought we were supposed to be helping people.” Another red flag that Whedon knows this employee loyalty doesn’t make sense but nevertheless is asking us to play along (or there’s no show.)
Joss Whedon is a good enough writer to know these are flaws and try to cover them. However, he’s not good enough at covering them to make all this work. No one could be.
That’s a lot of stuff to work at getting over in the first twenty minutes of a pilot episode, and you really have to work at it. Sorry, but you shouldn’t have to spend that much time muttering to yourself, “Just go with it,” when a new series explains its setup — not even if you’re a comics fan who’s willing to play along with things like the Hulk’s amazingly elastic purple pants or Clark Kent’s glasses.
The final nail in the coffin for me with the just-go-with-it philosophy that this show is founded on is…. the ride’s not worth it. I like Eliza Dushku, I like Amy Acker, I like Joss Whedon, all these people are capable of great work; but this isn’t it. By the time I’d talked myself into playing along with the premise because it was Whedon, I was bored. The hostage story wasn’t particularly engaging, the drama of Echo struggling with her implanted personality’s past trauma was too hard to set up and a nightmare of exposition…. it was all kind of a mess.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Like all the other nerd faithful, I had great hopes for this show and was interested in seeing what new wonders Mr. Whedon had lined up for us. This is a very pro-Joss Whedon household. And hell, I read superhero comics, so it’s not like I can’t say, “It’s fun, just play along.” But in this case, I can’t really recommend Dollhouse as being worth the bother. I think we’d all be better served by watching our Firefly or Buffy DVDs again while Whedon and company try to come up with another series, because my hunch is this one won’t last.
*
What do you get a comics geek for Valentine’s Day? If you’re someone like my wife Julie, who delights in digging around in thrift shops and old bookstores and so on looking for rarities, you’d get your nerdy beloved… something like this.
Best Cartoons of the Year 1958, edited by Lawrence Lariar. “I thought it looked cool and I thought maybe you could find something interesting to write about in there,” Julie told me.
So for the last few days I’ve been looking through it and noodling around on the internet seeing what there is to see.
Just looking at the book as a book, my reaction wasn’t so much, “wow, these cartoons are awesome,” though the average level of craft in play is a hell of a lot higher than what you see on newspaper comics pages today. No, it was more, “wow, what a fascinating time machine.” There are cartoons about harried husbands and spendthrift wives, busty secretaries testing a boss’ resolve, Sputnik, suburbia… there are even a few that were so out of touch with my reality I wasn’t sure where the joke was. Why would it be funny for politicians not to play golf?
It’s also interesting just as an artifact. The look of the book itself stirred a vague memory for me, and after doing a little digging I realized that I was sort of recognizing it from the trade dress. This was a hugely successful series of hardcovers that ran for decades.
I remember the later editions as being commonly found in school libraries and pediatrician’s offices. They were the sort of books you’d flip through while you were waiting for someone, or something, but you’d rarely sit down and read one cover to cover. I think Scholastic may have put together some kind of greatest-hits paperback version as well — my memory keeps trying to connect them to my junior high school library somehow, the Youth Center that was full of Scholastic Book Club softcovers.
Apparently today the hardcover editions are highly sought-after collector’s items, if you can find them in good shape with the dust jacket intact; a quick online search turns up prices ranging from $70 to $110. One auction site points out that the 1942 edition of Best Cartoons is the Holy Grail for these collectors… for some reason it’s way scarcer than the others. (My thought is that this must be due to the paper shortage during World War II, but I’m just guessing.)
More interesting was the stuff I turned up reading about editor Lawrence Larier himself.
He was not only a fair cartoonist in his own right, but also a successful mystery novelist who would incorporate cartoons and illustrations into his novels to be used as clues.
Somewhere in the story the plot would include a painting, a drawing, or a comic strip — something — and that would invariably be the key to unlocking the mystery. These books are very rare and those are the ones collectors pay insane amounts of money for.
Lariar was also cartoon editor of Liberty, and then later of Parade magazine. He had gag cartoons all over the place in the 1950′s in prestigious publications like The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s, as well as shepherding the Best Cartoons series.
He even — sort of — worked at DC Comics.
His syndicated strip Barry O’Neill was reprinted in New Fun Comics, back in 1935. He went on to script other syndicated comic strips like The Thropp Family (which he did in collaboration with Lou Fine, among others) and Ben Friday with artist John Spranger. (Spranger later would become famous for his work on The Saint with Leslie Charteris.)
All in all, it’s quite a respectable comics resume for Mr. Lariar. He passed away in 1981, but he cut a pretty wide swath while he was with us; I feel a little embarrassed now at not knowing his name.
But Julie was right about my finding something interesting in her gift of the book; any embarrassment I had in not knowing more about Lawrence Lariar is mitigated by the fun I’ve had the last couple of days reading up on him. And you can bet I’ll be keeping an eye peeled for his mystery novels.
*
You know, if we had to give up John Rogers writing Blue Beetle, I’m inclined to be a lot more forgiving about it now that I’ve discovered his new TNT cable-original show, Leverage.
It’s the story of ex-insurance investigator Timothy Hutton leading a crew of thieves and con men who go after corporate criminals the law can’t touch. A series where it’s all about watching the scheme unfold, whether it’s Mission: Impossible or Hustle, lives or dies on the cleverness of its writing, and Leverage delivers. The first couple of episodes stuttered a bit and at first I thought this was just going to be Hustle lite; the style looked like it was lifted bag and baggage from that show right down to the sudden slo-mo camera work. But Leverage had found its own groove by the third episode, and even that first episode was more engaging than Dollhouse (for those of you wondering why I don’t show the same patience with Mr. Whedon that I did with Mr. Rogers.)
The cast also does nice work all around– it’s great to see familiar faces like Christian Kane and Timothy Hutton and Mark Sheppard, but really the most hilarious character moments come from Aldis Hodge as uber-nerd Hardison, especially when he’s playing off Beth Riesgraf’s completely amoral second-story woman Parker. (I was floored to discover young Mr. Hodge was the same kid that played Voodoo on Friday Night Lights. Guy’s a chameleon.)
Anyway, the first season concludes next week, but if you want to catch up you can get the episodes free from Comcast On Demand, or streamed on TNT’s website.
Of particular interest to readers of CBR, though, is that John Rogers has a blog where he often shares tidbits about working on the show, along with other items of interest. Mark Waid and Michael Alan Nelson also contribute, and though I certainly think Leverage deserves a wide audience it was actually this cool new blog Kung Fu Monkey that I wanted to call to your attention. Check it out.
*
You know, I did that year-end review thing not too long ago, and I mentioned both BOOM! Studios and the Western comics mini-revival… and yet somehow I neglected to mention Galveston, the new four-issue Western mini-series from Boom. What’s especially cool about it is that it’s not just a Western– it’s a pirate Western.
At first glance, there are an awful lot of people involved with this book. “Created by Johanna Stokes and Ross Richie, Plot by Tom Peyer and Mark Rahner, written by Johanna Stokes” is the sort of credit line that makes one wince at the thought of what’s left of the poor story after going through that many hands. Four different writers (and two different artists, Greg Scott and Todd Herman) is usually a sign of trouble.
But somehow here it all works out okay. By issue #2 the creative team has settled down to Johanna Stokes and Todd Herman and they’ve got matters firmly in hand. I’m a little disappointed Scott couldn’t stay on, as I preferred his version of the characters and his style seemed more suited to the material, but that’s in no way suggesting that Herman’s work here is bad. His figures are just a little spindly and sketchy for my taste.
But really I’m a story guy at heart, not an art guy, and the story is great fun. Galveston is about the friendship of privateer Jean Lafitte and famed knife fighter Jim Bowie, and though both were real-life historical figures and there may well be a kernel of truth to the plot, this isn’t really historical fiction. This is a rootin’-tootin’ Butch-and-Sundance buddy Western (but with added pirates!) Lafitte is the fast talker who’s more dangerous than you’d think and Bowie is the tough guy with the deadpan wit, and that suits me just fine. There’s something that’s as comfortable as a favorite sweater about a story structured like this; even if the basic premise feels a bit familiar it’s still fun, and there’s enough twists to keep me interested. I don’t even mind the occasional bit of modern-day slang that slips into the dialogue every once in a while, though if that’s a pet peeve of yours, well, consider yourself warned.
We’ve seen three of the four issues so far and as always, my main caveat with BOOM books is that the monthly package seems awfully pricey; I’d hold out for a trade collection. But it’s certainly worth checking out and I do recommend it.
*
And finally: offered without comment. Except to say that I think we can expect a lot more of this.
*
That’s the last of the bits and pieces. See you next week.
31 Comments
Scavenger
February 20, 2009 at 9:29 am
re: Leverage…funny…Episodes 1 & 2 sold it for me…3 & 4 almost lost it…then 5 got right back up. I describe it as Ocean’s 11 Meets the A-Team.
re: Dollhouse. I likely agree with your opinion. I only read to “his new show Dollhouse is not very good.” as I’m really hoping to write up my review today, and I don’t want to be copying too much from elsewhere.
Scavenger
February 20, 2009 at 9:36 am
re: the offered without comment..there is no biblical prohibition against lesbians, only gay men. G-d clearly likes a bit of HLA as much as anyone!
jazzbo
February 20, 2009 at 9:43 am
Holy Lazy Headline Writing, Batman! Man, can we get a law passed that says if you’re writing an article about comic books, you’re not allowed to use “Holy (blank)” as your headline?
fillerbunny
February 20, 2009 at 10:35 am
3 things-
1) yes on Dollhouse. I’d like to think it was Fox doing what they do best to Msrs. Whedon and Minear, and that it’ll solidify into something better… Also, the very nature of the show is mostly likely influenced by the fact it is basically “The Dushku Showcase”, a vehicle to let lil’ Eliza play as much dress-up as possible (take that, type-casting!)
2) Very much Yes! on Leverage. I was incredibly sad when John left the series (Eep eepity eep!), but all the skill and humor he brought to that comic he brings in spades to Leverage. Blue Beetle Movie now!!!!!
3) Schrammie’s a tool who likes to couch his own biases and prejudices in half-truths, fabrications and mis-attributions (case in point- Batwoman replacing Batman, when anyone who actually reads the books knows that isn’t the premise)… I’m betting half the letters he “quotes” he wrote himself. And J.H. Williams III’s art alone is going to be reason enough to collect that run in Detective.
Neal K
February 20, 2009 at 10:41 am
Nice to see some love for Leverage. It has quickly become a can’t-miss show for me, with consistently smart capers each week. But what really sells it for me is that they also manage to do some really good character work in the midst of it all. Leverage is hands down better than almost anything on the networks right now (except maybe Life on Mars, which I also love).
Ian A.
February 20, 2009 at 11:13 am
Dollhouse does have a ton of flaws. And, it is a lot to swallow. And, I don’t think Dushku has the range to pull off what’s going to be asked of her. And, I can’t stand Topher, the guy who programs the actives, at all.
But, I’m curious to see what the various writers will do with the premise. The options for what the show could be, week-to-week, are virtually limitless. What will Steven DeKnight cook up? Or Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft? Or Tim Minear? Or Jane Espenson? The series has the potential to be, more than anything else, a showcase for writers. Here’s a wide open set-up; run with it. The only limit, really, is imagination.
Of course, there’s also such a thing as too much freedom. Some people can’t function without rigid guidelines. Others lose their minds.
So, I’ll stick with it a while to see what gets conjured up, good or bad.
And, yeah, Leverage turned out to be pretty fantastic. I can’t believe the first season ends next week. Twelve weeks flew by.
Michael Rawdon
February 20, 2009 at 11:14 am
The other weird thing about the first episode of Dollhouse was that the story was structured to make it very exposition-heavy and routine. I think it could have been a much better episode had it been structured differently.
I’m not sure that would have helped the series, since the premise does have the flaws that have been pointed out. This is probably a good premise for some series, but I don’t think this is it.
Perry Holley
February 20, 2009 at 11:14 am
I’m willing to stick with Dollhouse for a few more episodes, just because I think Whedon is the sort of writer who needs some time to get everything in play. Buffy benefited tremendously by having a two-hour plot, and the two-hour pilot for Firefly that Fox didn’t bother airing until the show was cancelled was much better than the one-hour pilot that we did wind up getting (Angel is the exception to this theory, as much of the background for that character was already in place thanks to Buffy). Mind you, I’m not saying there aren’t problems with the show, I’m just hoping that Whedon can move past them once he has a few more episodes to play things out.
Thok
February 20, 2009 at 11:14 am
An obvious way to fix the problem with the hiring issues is to make a lot of the workers at the Dollhouse have Dollhouse installed personalities also (with the necessary skills and loyalty.)
Of course, that just makes the idea behind the show Prisoner-lite.
(Caveat: I haven’t watched the show, so my comments could be complete nonsense.)
Perry Holley
February 20, 2009 at 11:28 am
Actually, it occured to me during the pilot that the ‘handlers’ might also have implanted personalitites. Of course, it looks like a recurring theme for the show will be just how much an implanted personality will ‘take’ with some people, and how much who you were before the dollhouse got their hands on you can survive, so even the handlers might not be as obediant as the Dollhouse would like.
Another problem that just occured to me is that Whedon is at his best when he has a large ensemble cast that plays off of each other. While Dollhouse has a decent-sized supporting cast, many of them haven’t had a chance to interact with each other yet, and we haven’t had the rich interplay between supporting characters that we did on Buffy and Firefly. I realize that this was set up to be the Eliza Dushku show, but the format would be better served if she didn’t have to try carry the show by herself.
sackett
February 20, 2009 at 11:31 am
Mr. Hatcher wrote:
Just looking at the book as a book, my reaction wasn’t so much, “wow, these cartoons are awesome,” though the average level of craft in play is a hell of a lot higher than what you see on newspaper comics pages today. No, it was more, “wow, what a fascinating time machine.”
I was reading some early Silver Age comics I bought…thought the EXACT same thing. Wifey would disagree about giving Dollhouse a chance, but I agree with what you said about it and Leverage both. Good article!
Tom Fitzpatrick
February 20, 2009 at 11:32 am
Sadly, I fell asleep halfway through the first episode of the Dollhouse.
I’m a fan of Whedon, so I’ll stick to the series until the end of the season (in hopes that it’ll improve) or it gets axed by FOX. Whichever comes first.
Like Dushku, tho’.
Hopefully, I’ll get the Leverage dvd set and check that one out.
Dalarsco
February 20, 2009 at 11:39 am
As much as Dollhouse might not be good now, I can’t help but notice the comparison to early TNG you made. TNG developed into something fantastic. Dollhouse can, too.
Wesley
February 20, 2009 at 11:40 am
I’ll echo what others have said about Leverage: It’s what the A-Team should have been.
RE: Schram:
“The folks at DC Comics tout her as a “lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night.” Wasn’t it firmly established that NOBODY at DC said anything like this, and that the quote is actually from some other blog?
SwanShadow
February 20, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Dollhouse sucks.
Leverage rocks.
This is all you know in life, and all you need to know.
Nitz the Bloody
February 20, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Whedon fans who criticize Dollhouse for having too slow a start should remember how dumb Buffy’s first season was. The premise for Buffy was much more obvious, but the first season stuck to its ” monster of the week= teen problem ” formula and didn’t even do it that well. The cheerleading tryouts are sabotaged by an evil witch using her daughter’s body? The substitute teacher Xander has a crush on turns out to be a giant mantis looking for virgin sacrifices? Willow’s online boyfriend turns out to be a demon in digital form?
We all know it got a lot better, but that was only in season two, when the monster of the week formula started working towards larger, more complex and emotionally brutal plots. That Dollhouse has started that way is good news for its storytelling ( if, unfortunately, not necessarily its ratings ).
DED
February 20, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Based on interviews with Whedon, it seems there was a lot of studio interference on Dollhouse, especially early on. Seems he even called out the first few episodes as not very good. Which gives me hope that it will improve as the season moves on.
joshschr
February 20, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Dollhouse aired already? I thought House and Terminator were the only shows on Fox.
My roundabout way of saying that either I don’t watch enough Fox, or Fox didn’t promote Dollhouse enough.
Stephen
February 20, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Dollhouse’s premise is just so… skeevy. I think my girlfiend put it best: we’re supposed to be cheering for an organization that pimps out its operatives for the pleasure of rich clients. How the hell is that supposed to be heroic? Admittedly, both of us aren’t big Whedon fans to begin with – when you meet someone over a shared ability to quote from West Wing, that’s normal – but I couldn’t possibly top her best insult toward the show: “… so does the brainwashing also clear out the STDs they get?”
Me, I just hated the heavy-handed juxtaposition of the endless FBI meeting with an “edgy” kickboxing match. You’d think they could at least have it be of-the-moment enough to have the guy fighting MMA. That scene easily could’ve been dropped to speed the episode up, and it boggles the mind that the episode was apparently shot twice and that stayed in.
‘Sides, I liked the idea a lot more when it was made with puppets and called Joe 90.
Bright-Raven
February 20, 2009 at 4:34 pm
RE: Dollhouse –
“So we are expected to believe that the valued client, instead of calling the cops, or even a real expert from a high-priced K&R firm, instead calls his high-tech pimp and tells him to program one of the girls to be a negotiator. There’s even a throwaway line of dialogue about this illogical turn of events, as though Whedon is acknowledging how dumb it is but begging us to just go with it anyway. If you have to beg for us to buy the premise, doesn’t that imply the premise itself is deeply flawed?”
Why would I call an expert from some firm who will want credit for getting the kid back if they succeed, and possibly blackmail me into hush money to not expose this, when I can pay this underground firm a one time fee, and the person who did the job will have their memory wiped and have no recollection of the occurrence, and (presumably) the organization will have erased their records as well?
“Except for the ex-cop running their security, who’s shown to be somewhat wavering in his convictions, everyone else seems to be fine with working illegally as support for high-priced brainwashed prostitutes. That doesn’t make sense to me on any level to begin with — you’re a brilliant neurological support technician, or a crack security squad leader, and an illegal pimp job is the best you can do? ”
As I understood it the ex-cop doesn’t run their security, he’s just Echo’s handler. But that’s neither here nor there. Go back to the start of the episode when Echo is interviewed by the CEO of the Organization. Echo committed to this because she (seemingly) has done something so heinous or against the law or whatever that she signed on for this deal with the Organization.
So why would all these OTHER people sign on? Logic suggests that ALL of them have done something that got them in such hot water with someones somewhere that they signed their lives over to this organization, essentially. They may not like what they’re doing, but they’ve committed to it, and if they don’t do it, they’re either dead or as good as, because they know the organization can simply wipe their memory of the Dollhouse entirely, put them back to where they were when they “escaped” to this life, implant false memories of what they’ve been doing while “on the run” from the law or whomever / whatever, and turn them over to the authorities or the mafia or the evil corporation that’s been hunting them for years because they stole secret scientific data or whatnot to face whatever fate they have to deal with.
Sorry if Joss didn’t hit you over the head with it in the dialogue, Greg, but it sure was obvious to me.
That being said, I agree with you that DOLLHOUSE is a major dud, but I think it has more to do with the whole premise of imprinting personalities and abilties onto the person in the first place. I mean, why the hell would you imprint bad vision and asthmatic conditions on a healthy body? What would the psychological and physical effects be? What’s next – Sierra thinks she has a bum knee because the Marine they implanted her weapons knowledge from tore their knee up in combat (which is why they offered their memories / training to be on disc – to pay them after the military gave them their inevitable medical discharge)? Or better yet, what happens when the person whose memories / abilities are implanted on you are of the opposite sex? Do the Actives think they are of the opposite sex until they see themselves in the mirror and go “WTF?”
The whole concept is stupid right out of the gate. I’m still amazed they ever made it to air. Maybe Fox feels bad about screwing both Joss and Eliza out of perfectly reasonable shows in FIREFLY and TRU CALLING respectively and are trying to make it up to them, but geez, if you’re gonna take a bath, Fox, try not to do so in the sewer. Because this show – like most everything Joss has produced anywhere since FIREFLY / SERENITY – is dross. But it’s Joss Dross, which means it’s marketable and will sell, regardless.
Sijo
February 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm
The problem I have with the concept of Dollhouse is that it effectively wants us to care for a NON-character. If her personalities and memories are wiped clean each episode, then she’s never “real” and will never grow as a character. Plus, when you introduce technology such as rewriting minds, you introduce an incredible potential for abuse to the story… I wouldn’t be surprised if the FBI agent himself turns out to be a former Dollhouse operative, or can’t punish the people behind the Dollhouse because they’re victims too, or ends up with his memories removed by the end. Any of which would be very anticlimatic.
Grico
February 20, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Well I guess I am an opposite wavelength with you here as I liked Dollhouse quite a bit and thought the 2 episodes of Leverage I saw (episodes 2 and 3) were pretty terrible. The race horse episode was too unbelievable (we’ll sell a guy a fake horse by showing a real up and coming horse that raced at the track yesterday that he won’t recognize and he’ll trust us with a big money deal despite no connections of any sort to any one in the local racing community) and none of the performances connected with me. Dollhouse was interesting with a lot of ongoing plot problems set up but I do think the premise is going to be a turnoff for people. It’s more of an excuse for a new genre action every week with some conspiracy thrown in for good measure but it does sounds just like a prostitution ring. The FBI agent looking for it also seems pretty annoying with no real means for good pay off (He doesn’t find it- wast of time, he does find it- he has to be killed or co-opted immediately or no show). The idea Fox will be patient with the show seems like a pretty hollow hope though (although i guess Terminator has gotten a season and 3/4ths with truly terrible ratings)
Greg Hatcher
February 20, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Shucks, next time I won’t be so conscientious about trying to have comics-related content. I should have just gone with the Dollhouse review and saved the rest for another week.
Anyway, with the single exception of Grico, I think those of you defending the show all are proving my point. These are pretty weak-assed defenses and they all pretty much boil down to “I am willing to bet on Mr. Whedon pulling it out.” But no one seemed to actually LIKE it. I know the premise is just an excuse to get Eliza Dushku doing different things, but this is a lame way to get there. My feeling is that the flaws are endemic in the show’s DNA, they’re going to show up every week, so waiting for it to get better isn’t going to help. It’s not like Buffy, where the first movie with Kristy Swanson was a terrific premise buried under shitty execution. I think Dollhouse just has a shitty premise to start with.
This is really going to show my age, but you already all know I’m old. It occurs to me that the same idea was actually tried before in another pilot thirty years ago, believe it or not. It was a back-door pilot on The Six Million Dollar Man called “The Ultimate Impostor.” Stephen Macht was the lead. That setup was easier to buy into than this one. I’d have rather seen a revamp of that idea.
Cei-U!
February 20, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hey, Greg, is the Boltinoff mentioned on the cover of your Best Cartoons book our old pal Henry Boltinoff, whose filler strips (Super-Turtle, Homer, Ollie, Bebe, Varsity Vic, Moolah the Mystic, etc, etc, etc) were ubiquitous in ’50s and ’60s DC Comics?
Greg Hatcher
February 20, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Yes it is, Kurt; I was actually going to ask you if it was that same guy since I couldn’t lay my hand on a DC sample anywhere at the moment, but the style really jumps out at you.
Perry Holley
February 20, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Although by no means perfect, I liked the second episode of Dollhouse more than I did the first. We’re getting a bit more characterization, and the pacing seemed better. The ‘most dangerous game’ storyline was admittedly cliche, but they at least pulled it off reasonably well. I hope the Alpha subplot doesn’t drag on too long, but I am curious as to where they’re going to go with it.
I’m pretty certain we’re not supposed to root for the Dollhouse, but rather we’re supposed to root for Echo escaping from under their thumb (and perhaps for her handler to do so, as well). At the very least, it looks like fragments of her original personality are starting to bleed through.
John
February 21, 2009 at 6:01 am
Well episode two was a huge improvement over the pilot, the exposition is out of the way and now we get to see how creepy Wheedon and Dushku can make us, next episode also looks pretty good.
Stephen
February 21, 2009 at 8:51 am
“This is really going to show my age, but you already all know I’m old. It occurs to me that the same idea was actually tried before in another pilot thirty years ago, believe it or not.”
As I joked earlier, it was also used in the old Gerry Anderson supermarinonation series, Ben 90 (in that case, a kid who gets “imprinted” with special skills every episode – it aired on a local station up here one summer when they ran out of Thunderbirds eps). Not sure which one specifically triggered the idea in Whedon’s head, but it’s pretty obvious he didn’t create it whole cloth.\
“I’m pretty certain we’re not supposed to root for the Dollhouse, but rather we’re supposed to root for Echo escaping from under their thumb (and perhaps for her handler to do so, as well).”
That’s barely a plot vector that’ll fill a season, let alone a full series. It reminds me of Alias, where you knew they’d have to reset the status quo after a while due to the sheer unsustainability of it and therefore there wasn’t a real reason to get invested in anyone.
Greg Hatcher
February 21, 2009 at 10:47 am
Well, I was the only one up and I was bored so I went over to Hulu and checked out the second episode of Dollhouse. Fair enough: it was a little better, and it was fun to see the Middleman being so scary, but I think all the problems are still there. This just isn’t a series idea. It’s — at most — a mini-series idea. It’s not open-ended enough, it’s what John Seavey calls a phony status quo (or something like that.) Solve the problem and the show is over, so the problem can never be solved, so then the show becomes about stringing viewers along, which eventually pisses them off.
Although if this episode had been the pilot I think I’d have been somewhat less hostile to it. They should have just junked last week’s episode and opened with this one.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
February 22, 2009 at 4:44 pm
‘Schram On The Street’…. jaysis.
Who signed off on that title, and that title photo?
They really think that makes it look like a guy with his finger on the pulse?
universaladdress
February 23, 2009 at 12:41 am
If people want to freak out about Batwoman again, fine, let them. DC really covered their ass with the last shitstorm; it’s now an old story.