Joss Whedon wins again.

I just managed to see it last night, I wasn't blown away to be honest. Watchable, but nothing special. As pilots go, it fell a little flat for me. The characters who actually have memories seem very hollow or one-dimensional to me, except the guy who does all the wiping/imprinting.

I didn't really care for Eliza Dushku's "I remember nothing" expression at various points, and I was surprised at the lack of wit and charming character moments you normally find in a Joss Whedon script.

Tahmoh Penikett put in a pretty good performance, I thought. So on the strength of that and the whole Alpha thing in the final scene, I'll keep watching to see how it pans out. I'm not really keen on a "memory of the week" style show though so I hope the main arc of the show starts coming to the forefront.

Then again, it's probably been cancelled while I was typing this. Damn you Fox!

 

With movement (you likely need Neutral Zone access).

 

there is one shot in there, that looks like it might get FOX in trouble, if the superbowl incident is anything to go by

 

Man, does she have beautiful legs...

 

That dress was ridiculously short.

Awwww, I certainly don't mean to hurt the feelings of either Eliza or my dear, delicate co-mod. It's just that when I compare Eliza to Sarah Michelle Gellar or Alyson Hannigan or Emma Caulfield or Charisma Carpenter or Amy Acker, she kind of falls short. She's not bad by any means, but the others are just awesome.

Same here. I wasn't totally sold on Firefly's premise at first, but I was pulled in by the characters and the witty dialogue right off the bat. The fact that most of the dialogue in this show could have been written by anybody was a little disappointing. Joss is special--Joss is a damn good writer. I expected more.

 

I'll be in my bunk.

 

Finally watched the pilot ep on my DVR last night. Watchable, but not spectacular. I wasn't drawn in. I wasn't thrilled. I wasn't giddy with excitement. I missed the humor that Joss usually brings to his shows. Dollhouse doesn't take off running.

Then I thought about Joss's other series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. All of these shows start off okay - but not spectacular. Angel, as a series, evolved so much that watching the first episode feels odd sometimes. The interviews and articles I've read about Dollhouse indicate that there was some trouble getting the show going, but by the end of the 13-episode run, the writers claim to have really found a rhythm. It's possible that as the season progresses, things will get much more interesting.

I'm not ready to write the show off as a failure or a success. But I'll give it a chance.

 

^Good point about Whedon starting slow. That's my take on Dollhouse--not blown away, but it's Whedon, so I'm going to stick with it.

 

Whedon may start off slow, but his characters are always interesting from day one. Both Buffy and Angel had pilots that were boring, but also felt unique and had potential to grow. Dollhouse felt like generic FOX crap aimed at the 18-35 year old male demographic. The most interesting character in the show was a poor man's Knox. Dollhouse never should have seen the light of day.

 

Heaven forbid us young men might have something to watch on TV. Never mind, though, I'm sure Joss will add some five foot nothing girls beating up marines just to make us all feel at home.

 

With the right imprint....er....."training", I'm sure an Active could do that.

The question is why one would be trained that way.

 

As I said, I'm sure it's only an episode or two away. I just hope Joss doesn't waste an interesting concept by behaving like his show is on The CW.

 

That wasn't a dress. It was a shirt.

 

That's not what I meant. Dollhouse throws everything that a stereotypical young male likes into the mix in a pathetic attempt to increase ratings. Throw some hot chicks (lots of pointless fan service mandatory), a pointless motorcycle race, a shower scene, and the mandatory crime story (everyone loves those, right) into the episode to build an audience -- who needs good writing? Enterprise tried doing the same thing and it nearly killed the franchise.

 

BTW what's up with that TNZ? I know very few who 'have access and those who do don't want to talk about it
is it a place where perverted Freemasons hideout or something?

 

Come... join us - it's like a gentleman's club, full of lovely conversation and warm companionship.

 

I don't see that they're doing anything there that many other shows don't already do. It's a mistake to believe that that's all men are looking for in a TV show.

As I said, hopefully this show will realise that it's not on The CW and the usual cliches won't even get a chance to make it in to the show.

 

Hear, hear. Since skills and memories can be injected into anyone, what is the point of injecting kick-ass brainwaves/muscle memory/whatever into the body of some scrawny girl (like the weird looking Tibetan chick?) Why not pick the biggest, beefiest, stupidest body builder you can find, and give him the same mad skillz?

The sole reason to do that with the weird looking Tibetan chick or skinny little Echo or any other skinny little girl is to provide Dominatrix services. And even then, it's largely theater (from what I've gathered), so you don't actually have to turn them into killers, just girls who can fake it real well. And presumably better than the ones who fake it for a living...but how much better would they be able to fake it, really? Enough to justify charging a hundred times as much, considering the expense of keeping the Dollhouse and its fancy HQ going?

Maybe, but not well enough to survive...1.7/5 demo, ouch. Not as bad a drop as I expected, but given the anemic premiere, the show isn't in a position to weather any drop, and I doubt the drop is over. Even for Friday, that's not going to hack it. And DVR ratings won't save it, advertisers know people don't watch DVR ads.