As with Torchwood, I’m still watching this show in the hope that it will figure out how good it could be. Torchwood, the spin-off of Doctor Who, stumbled through two seasons of resounding mediocrity in 2006 and 2008. Probably the only reason it survived that long is because it had likeable characters - of course it did, they were created by Russell T. Davies. But the head writer was Chris Chibnall, who clearly has no idea how to run a show. Then, this year, Russell took back his series, and Season 3 was a 5-part miniseries called Children of Earth, which was amazing. The point is that I watched Torchwood for two seasons because I was tantalised by the greatness that was in its grasp, and then finally it did grasp and it was great. Dollhouse got off to a disappointing start, and the third episode was so bad I stopped watching. But some of my friends stuck with it, and things really picked up in the second half of the season, and Dollhouse became a good, entertaining show. But the ultimate proof of how good Dollhouse can be came in the form of the unaired thirteenth episode, "Epitaph One". You must watch this. It is an excellent piece of television, and the fact that it remains unaired shows that Fox really doesn't give a rat's arse about making good television. Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, the episode was written as a possible series finale, if Dollhouse was cancelled at the end of Season 1. It's set in 2019, and casts the whole series in a new light. So if they can do that, why are we this week back in 2009, cutting cake with Jamie Bamber? Air "Epitaph One" and keep going from there, or use the fact that we know what will happen in 2019 to tell a really creative narrative. Above all, "Epitaph One" is well written, and "Vows" just isn't, despite the fact (and this hurts to write) that it's written by Joss Whedon. Someone (I can't remember who) told me a quote by (I think) Margaret Atwood to the effect of: don't hold back your ideas to use them later; make what you're writing now as awesome as you can, and trust that you'll be able to come up with more awesome ideas later. I live in hope.
And just as Torchwood cast James Masters as bi-Spike from the future Captain John Hart in an attempt to attract more "cult TV" fans to its Season 2 opening, this evening's Dollhouse featured Jamie Bamber as its guest star. And yes, it probably added a few extra fangirls to the episode's viewership, but all it's going to do is make the producers look desperate and put a dent in the LAMDA-trained actor's career. Later in the season we're to expect Summer Glau, Michael Hogan, and oh look it's Alexis Denisof. Hooray. Also, whose idea was it to give someone with Jamie Bamber's accent the name Klar? I had no idea he was saying his name.
FOX, Sep 25 2009. Written and directed by Joss Whedon.
Like rock stars, who can either die at 27 or do reunion tours until they're well past their prime, a television series similarly has only two choices: go out with a bang (decide when you're going to end, and end), or an embarrassing whimper. But it's hard to know when to throw in the towel, and a lot of people are involved in that decision. Also, there are series, such as Doctor Who and, from what I hear, Lost, which have gone through a rough patch but come out the other side the better for it. It might not be too late for How I Met Your Mother to save itself, but it's got to be willing to make us cry as well as laugh (as earlier seasons were). Ted needs a new girl, and she has to be more interesting than Stella (which will be a challenge because Stella was awesome). Barney and Robin needs to be dealt with honestly - the premise of two people who are both terrified of relationships but in one isn't that funny, but it could be dramatic, and this series has shown its ability to draw humour from drama in surprising ways. And maybe it's time Lily and Marshall weren't so happily married.
ReplyDelete2005 Doctor Who has set up this interesting version of contemporary Earth which is starting to wake up to the fact that aliens exist and like holidaying in London and Cardiff. Torchwood could have been a great series about a morally ambiguous, non-governmental organization that deals with the fallout of a rapidly changing world, if it had just asked itself some simple questions: what does Torchwood do? Other than chase the occasional sex alien, what are its goals as an organization? How does it interact with UNIT and the British government? Children of Earth dealt with some of this, and the results were spectacular.
ReplyDeleteTess said...
ReplyDeleteI keep getting this feeling that I'll end up watching all of Dollhouse season 2 in one day, a month or so after FOX inevitably announces its cancellation, crying into my ice cream about how the mighty Joss Whedon has fallen. Why doesn't he just move to web video already? He already proved he could do it with Dr. Horrible, and at this point I get more excited about new episodes of The Guild (Felicia Day's endearing but not ingenious web series about WoW gamers - have you seen it?) than about Dollhouse.
Related question: Do you think Dollhouse could have been saved if Joss had cast really excellent, like Firefly-caliber, actors? All other things being equal? I'd argue that that alone may have been enough, because then we'd actually give a shit about what happens to them. I mean, one of the most exciting moments in Epitaph One came when I realized that Joss had effectively killed off Eliza without killing Echo. And that irritating little girl was still more interesting to watch than sexy-post-Faith Eliza Dushku.
Anyway, to move away from this rant, it looks like you're really recommending Flash Forward here. I'll have to check it out - also planning on looking into Stargate Universe. But hey, on the subject of TV, I just started watching the silly High School Musical-esque cheesefest Glee and it's pretty damn good. Fun and funny, and look, they're singing a sassy little a cappella version of "Don't Stop Believing"! I know I just lost all my geek cred, but seriously, it'll put a smile on your face. Which you'll need after watching Dollhouse.
Doug Eacho said...
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Tess, especially after having seen the most recent Sierra- centered Dollhouse ep, "Belonging." Set Eliza Dushku to the sidelines, and the show works.
The problem's not just that Eliza Dushku's a bad actor; though she really is- or, at least, she's not a versatile enough one to handle Dollhouse's premise. (Just look at the last real episode of season 1, when Alpha and Echo both are jittering around with 40+ people in their heads. Alan Tudyk was riviting, Eliza looked like she had a migrane maybe. It was painfully imbalanced: the show COULD be such a display of amazing acting, were it not for Dushku! Also, look at the Victor guy in Epitaph One. Incredible.)
The larger problem, though, is that Dushku is an executive producer on the show, and thus has real power over the show's focus and story arcs. So, even IF Whedon realized that he should just start at Epitaph one and keep going in 2019 (he must have), he can't do anything about it, because Dushku wants to stay on screen. Why does the Dollhouse always send her to romantic engagements? Because Dushku wants the show to be about how attractive she is. Why is Echo suddenly becoming self-conscious, Adam/Eve style? Because Dushku clearly realized that the show would work better for her if her major character actually was a character (though dramatically, I think, this is a ridiculous plot choice.) I knew this season of Dollhouse was in bad shape when the credits rolled in the premiere; all the ghostly shots of LA and the Dollhouse had been replaced by more Eliza Boob Shots. GRARGH.
And don't get me started on Flashforward. Give it up, Michael, and just catch up with Lost.
Don't give up on Dollhouse yet. I totally agree that Eliza's producer status seems to be one of the biggest problems with the series, and that the title sequence is representative of the idea that the series simply exists as a vehicle for her. But of late we've had some Echo-lite episodes, and the most recent one, which was by Jed and Maurissa of "Epitaph One" fame, was pretty good. Don't forget: by episode 4 of Season 1, Dollhouse was still the worst show I had willingly sat down and watched since Power Rangers. But towards the middle of the season it started to get better, and by the end of the season it was a darn good show. The fact that this season had a mediocre rather than shithouse beginning could signal that a similar mid-season game-lift is impending, and the end of this season will be even better. Because of Dollhouse I too have questioned my faith in Joss, but it is also very possible that he is trying to make a great show, and there are just a lot of people trying to stop him.
ReplyDeleteAnd Flashforward's pilot was good, okay? I know I didn't post it until this week (yes, I'm behind, but I'm catching up), but I was just writing about the pilot, which was very promising. Since then the series has wobbled a bit, suggesting that they came up with a great premise, but aren't really sure what to do now. Also, they fired Marc Guggenheim (though none of his comics that I've read have impressed me, so he's not that great a loss - I'm also biased against anyone who writes for post-BrandNewDay Amazing Spider-Man, but that's another story) and Brannon Braga is doing something else, which leaves David Goyer. Perhaps this meandering is due to internal strife, and now that there is one showrunner it will get back to business, or maybe he is the one who doesn't know what to do, and they'll have to either hire Brian K. Vaughan or cancel the series after all. I could make a joke about seeing the future six months from now, but I'm not going to.
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