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Dollhouse 1x03 "Stage Fright" Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

Grade "Stage Fright"


  • Total voters
    58

nx1701g

Admiral
Admiral
FOX:
Echo provides protection to a pop star by becoming her backup singer. Ballard's investigation, meanwhile, takes a wrong turn that may prove dangerous; and Lubov has a secret.

New episode tonight.
 
Better than the promos made it look, that's for sure. Seems that Echo is beginning to understand something odd is going on....
 
A kind "below average".

After gaining some of my interest last week, it's plummeted now.

I may be tuning out unless Amy Acker and Olivia Williams start making out...:)
 
Have people seen the casting spoiler for the "mystery bad guy"?

...the mysterious active known only as Alpha. And guess who'll be playing him? Alan Tudyk (aka Wash from Firefly).

Assuming the show doesn't get cancelled first, I'll tune back in for that actor's appearances. Any idea what episode it might start with?
 
Third average in a row for me, although I slowly get the feeling there's something in this show. But it's not coming out just yet.

I must say that I'm really disappointed in Dushku's acting. She plays every persona in basically the same way. Okay, she got to sing this week, but apart from that, same girl as last week ---only then she got to run around some more and climb mountains--- or the perfect date from episode one ---only without the motor cycles. So, superficially she does something else each week, motor cycles, mountain, singing, but she feels like the same character each week (Faith, basically). Now usually that would be a good thing in a tv show, but not here.

What exactly was the role of Sierra this week? I thought she was also sent to protect Rayna, but she was meek and defenseless during the whole episode. I was waiting for her uber fighting doll skills to kick in, but nothing like that. What was her point, except for showing that Echo is breaking through her programming?

The reveal that the Russian guy was a doll was interesting. Although it made me wonder if it wouldn't have been more interesting if the FBI guy whose name I keep forgetting himself was a doll. Planted by the Dollhouse to discredit the investigation into the Dollhouse by continuously coming up empty handed.

To end on a high: I liked the nod in the final scene.
 
Average - Better than the previews made it look. Next week looks better.

What exactly was the role of Sierra this week? I thought she was also sent to protect Rayna, but she was meek and defenseless during the whole episode. I was waiting for her uber fighting doll skills to kick in, but nothing like that. What was her point, except for showing that Echo is breaking through her programming?

Her point was as was said in the episode - to protect the singer by making the stalker kidnap Sierra out of jealousy. The Dollhouse team busted in to take him down, only to find that Echo had already contacted him. I guess she needed no fighting skills this episode.
 
What exactly was the role of Sierra this week? I thought she was also sent to protect Rayna, but she was meek and defenseless during the whole episode. I was waiting for her uber fighting doll skills to kick in, but nothing like that. What was her point, except for showing that Echo is breaking through her programming?

Her point was as was said in the episode - to protect the singer by making him kidnap Sierra out of jealousy. The Dollhouse team busted in to take him down, only to find that Echo had already contacted him. I guess she needed no fighting skills this episode.

Was that said in the episode? I must have missed that.
 
Yeah, they did during one of the "this is what's going on" moments with the bosses.

My problem with the episode was that it was so heavy handed. The singer is a doll too! In her own dollhouse! Yick. Also, Dushku trying to be all gangster and tough was kind of painful to watch.

It was also strange how the singer's dialog was written. She almost sounded like a character from Firefly at certain points during her diatribe.
 
Better than the pilot, worse than last week's. Much better than the promo made it look. But, god, the dialogue was actually dreadful this week. And this is the first time Dushku was just plain unconvincing.
 
So far, I think the episodes have improved from week to week - it's starting to gel somewhat. I'm still not sure that Eliza was the best choice, but since it's apparently a vehicle for her, there's not much armchairing one can do about that.

On a personal note, Dichen Lachman is one of the oddest-looking women I've ever seen; it wasn't until she put the glasses on that I thought her face didn't resemble that of a horse. Not sure about "Sierra," yet, though.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the point of the Dollhouse, though. Most of the stuff they seem to do doesn't seem, to me, to require 'installing' a personality and training into a tabula rasa - they could get by simply hiring a person with good training in whatever skills they require. I suppose the chief advantage of the dolls is to keep down overhead for the Dollhouse itself - they don't need a large number of trained personnel if they can just swap the trained personalities in and out of the bodies they have. And mind-wiping them is possibly good for some clients, but again, that shouldn't require a complete personality implant and extraction. I mean, of what good is something that arcane to someone who needs a backup singer/bodyguard for a pop princess? So far, the whole concept of the Dollhouse is massive overkill for the clients' needs. And that makes it hard to empathize with any character in these scenarios, whether 'good' or 'bad'; I don't mind a bit of moral ambiguity, but this is editorial ambiguity, which is much harder to accept.

And I hope, at some point, we find out what it is about the Dollhouse that would make it a criminal priority for the FBI. Other than possible prostitution, it seems like something that most folks, esp. potential clients, would find more ridiculous than dangerous or criminal. I hate to say it, but I think this is one time where Joss took an interesting concept - the personality implantation - and executed it wrongly. It would have been better, IMHO, if the dolls were implanted with others' personalities to function as surrogates, so the clients themselves could experience their wildest or weirdest desires with no personal danger or responsibility. To then have the dolls start remembering and consolidating their presumably erased experiences - that would be a much more interesting tale, to me.

Or maybe we'll find out that that's exactly what's going on ... ;)

I thought it was above average, but I'm still not fully committed to the show.
 
Yeah, they did during one of the "this is what's going on" moments with the bosses.

Thanks. Strange how you can watch the whole show, not miss a scene, and still miss such a key ingredient to the story, without even realising that you missed it.


On a personal note, Dichen Lachman is one of the oddest-looking women I've ever seen; it wasn't until she put the glasses on that I thought her face didn't resemble that of a horse.

I actually thought she is quite a beautiful woman, also here face. Perhaps because it is a little different than what normally passes for 'beautiful'. I definitely wouldn't say her face resembles a horse's.
 
Have people seen the casting spoiler for the "mystery bad guy"?

...the mysterious active known only as Alpha. And guess who'll be playing him? Alan Tudyk (aka Wash from Firefly).

Assuming the show doesn't get cancelled first, I'll tune back in for that actor's appearances. Any idea what episode it might start with?


i don't know - it seems a little bit of an overkill. i mean they already have one geek (and quite a decent geek at that).

i may be biased (ok, i am biased), but i think nathan fillion would be a much better pick for that role.

then again, Dushku is awful for her role, so whatever :rolleyes:
 
Since someone mentioned the plot of this episode upthread, was I the only person who thought it was an unbelievably convoluted plan to get at Rayna's stalker? I had serious issues with suspension of disbelief in this episode.
 
Like someone else said, It was much, much better than the previews made it look. I gave it an above average. I thought hanging the bitchy diva from the rafters was a nice touch!:devil:
 
This show is going to get cancelled and now I just can't muster the interst to watch another episode -- it's been that bad.
 
After a good second episode, I found myself struggling to care at all about this episode. Pop singer and stalker/killer fan? Ugh. Interesting that Helo's "source" was a Dollguy, though. BTW who is the girl who's in love with Helo? She looks so familiar!
 
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