An amazing episode, Fox's treatment of this show makes me sick.
Dollhouse 2x4 Belonging Grade-Discuss-Commentary **SPOILERS**
- Thread starter Captain Craig
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Easily the best show I've ever seen of this series and I thought Dichen Lachman did a nice job. It really moved Topher and Adelle to a new level and reinforced Boyd and Echo.
These "slow burn" series are tough because by the time they get some good stuff brewing the series gets cancelled.
These "slow burn" series are tough because by the time they get some good stuff brewing the series gets cancelled.
You know when rogue poster comes in and votes POOR with no response its obviously a vote with no merit.
firefly felt like a "slow burn" series. It was absolutely incredible. So I don't feel that was justified nor Lost. It is difficult to do a slow burn series right. You have to balance the not revealing too much early on but revealing enough to keep viewers wanting more. An easy step IMO to make it happen seems to be is to create likable characters but with the whole dollhouse premise it is tough to make that happen.
I knew we were in for a treat when I saw the promos two weeks ago.
I didn't expect anything less from the writers who gave us Epitaph One.
So, yeah. Excellent material all around. I especially liked when Boyd and Topher went all Dexter on that dead rapists ass.
Speaking of Dexter. Great to see Keith Carradine again so soon,
I didn't expect anything less from the writers who gave us Epitaph One.
So, yeah. Excellent material all around. I especially liked when Boyd and Topher went all Dexter on that dead rapists ass.
Speaking of Dexter. Great to see Keith Carradine again so soon,
after he was offed last week on Dexter.
Well, given that they are happy to brainwipe some NSA dude or whatever the old security officer was, I don't think these people have any morals about snatching people off the street. Yeah, they say these people want to forget their traumas... but I have to imagine that there are people who are just "caught" by these guys and mindwiped.
Yeah, it's amazing how much these people are like...uh, people.
I like Topher, BTW. Hell, I like everyone on the damned show.
Part of the subtext of this series that makes it so creepy is recognizing that the "morality" of the Dollhouse is a pretty accurate reflection of how the world actually works. Most everyone is far more morally compromised than they'll admit to themselves, and that's the price of participation in our society. If one wants to be moral in the uncomplicated way that "good" characters in most popular fiction are one has to opt out of, for example, the consumer economy; filling up the gas tank makes a person complicit in heinous crimes that are taking place very day.
Oh, except that there are a whole bunch of good reasons that none of us are culpable for that and it's not really true anyway and, you know, you can't put a price on human life and all that reassuring sentimental stuff.
Yeah, it's amazing how much these people are like...uh, people.
I like Topher, BTW. Hell, I like everyone on the damned show.
Part of the subtext of this series that makes it so creepy is recognizing that the "morality" of the Dollhouse is a pretty accurate reflection of how the world actually works. Most everyone is far more morally compromised than they'll admit to themselves, and that's the price of participation in our society. If one wants to be moral in the uncomplicated way that "good" characters in most popular fiction are one has to opt out of, for example, the consumer economy; filling up the gas tank makes a person complicit in heinous crimes that are taking place very day.
Oh, except that there are a whole bunch of good reasons that none of us are culpable for that and it's not really true anyway and, you know, you can't put a price on human life and all that reassuring sentimental stuff.
Very good point. I thought the Rossum guy's speech summed it up nicely. He knew exactly what the group was and how they were all compromised. His line about "taking something home with us from the office" was really telling.
I think there's a bigger line between a dude buying computer parts with coltan in them that were mined in a war torn country than prostitution.
My problem is, they whore these people out every day and turn them into fetish objects for wealthy people. That's fine, because we do that now and have always done that since the dawn of time. I don't really have a problem with that. My only problem is that these people suddenly feeling bad for what they do. It's just ludicrous... and maybe I have the weird sense of morality, but I don't see the shades of gray in this at all.
My problem is, they whore these people out every day and turn them into fetish objects for wealthy people. That's fine, because we do that now and have always done that since the dawn of time. I don't really have a problem with that. My only problem is that these people suddenly feeling bad for what they do. It's just ludicrous... and maybe I have the weird sense of morality, but I don't see the shades of gray in this at all.
^^ Maybe there's not and they just haven't fully accepted that. Maybe there's no difference in using Coltan and actually sending checks to the Congo military factions. Maybe there's no difference between their everyday prostitution and the calculated forcing of Sierra to personal sex slave. But now they have a face to it which makes it harder to swallow and live with. They have been building up in this series that there's a slow and gradual acceptance that what they are doing is wrong and this is part of it.
This is absolutely the most I have ever enjoyed having my psyche brutalized. Genius. This show has a lot of filler in it, but it's episodes like these that make it all worthwhile, and more. I echo (heh) what others have said: I'm gonna miss this mind-trip when it's gone. This is some of, if not the, most hardcore stuff I've seen on television--nuBSG wishes it had been this devastating. Phillip K. Dick in pastels, damn.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the scratchings on the inside of Echo's coffin. That fucked me up. Simultaneous flashbacks to half-a-dozen Poe stories all at once, only worse because it keeps happening again and again...
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the scratchings on the inside of Echo's coffin. That fucked me up. Simultaneous flashbacks to half-a-dozen Poe stories all at once, only worse because it keeps happening again and again...
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I suppose right from the get go I sided with "Helo" (Ballard?) when it came to this whole thing in that I didn't identify with anything the Dollhouse was doing, so I find it hard to be at all sympathetic with these characters and their moral dilemmas.
It's like a cheezy war movie where a Nazi soldier gets a conscience when he shoots a Jewish girl or something and then realizes that maybe anti-Semitism isn't such a good idea. It's great that the Nazi comes to that revelation, but it doesn't excuse the fact that the dude is still a Nazi.
Good episode. Went with above average because a couple of plot things didn't click with me. What's her faces confrontation didn't make a ton of sense with the way she left him get the upper hand. Also, why was she so willing to go back to the Dollhouse? In the end I guess they implied that she wanted the recent memories erased... but I think most people would make a break for it.
But, for the most part, it worked. There wasn't much for Eliza this week, which as others have mentioned helps the acting immensely. Also no Helo making stupid Helo grimaces and saying stupid Helo things. There's some decent acting in this show. I'm kind of curious if it would ever develop into something consistently good, but it won't hit me too hard if the likely cancellation does indeed happen.
But, for the most part, it worked. There wasn't much for Eliza this week, which as others have mentioned helps the acting immensely. Also no Helo making stupid Helo grimaces and saying stupid Helo things. There's some decent acting in this show. I'm kind of curious if it would ever develop into something consistently good, but it won't hit me too hard if the likely cancellation does indeed happen.
Taking a week off last week sucked. I suspect that sitting out November sweeps will only make things worse (if that's even possible).
They aren't scratchings, she's writing what happens to her. From what I could see she had listed every engagement she's been one.
^^^ Yeah, I paused the HD-DVD to read them. They said things like "Victor loves Sierra", and "I was killed by my son", and so forth.