Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel - First Time Viewer

[ialfan]

Dollhouse definitely gets better and starts getting much better by episode 7 or 8. These early episodes help slowly build things up. By the end of season 1 it's almost a non-stop run of excellent episodes for the rest of the show.

Count me among those interested in "reliving" the show through your thoughts. I doubt anyone would mind reviews of the 26 episodes being added to this thread.

 

[tomalak301]

Watched the next two episodes tonight (Stage Fright and Grey Hour). The first one was decent, but again, I love the personality Dushku has as the backup singer, but it's fake because they all get reset in the end. I'm watching Echo actually think outside the box in terms of actually putting Rayna in danger to show her life is worth living, and then they wipe that memory and I wish we could get Echo to be like this always.

Grey Hour is actually the best episode of the four I've seen so far. We learn more about Alpha, and his ability to do a remote wipe, and we actually spend time with the "Real" Echo. Yeah she gets wiped again at the end, but it felt different this time around. Still need to warm up to the characters, even though it's starting slowly with Topher. Also, in the three episodes Amy Acker has been in, I can't help but think she's basically playing Fred. She's a doctor who is pretty smart. Fred was a scientist who was very smart. Other than field of study, it's pretty similar.

 

[SAndrews10]

Yes the thread is back, for a bit anyway. I was actually thinking about you potentially watching Dollhouse while putting waiting for my daughter to fall asleep last night. And it being a short enough show that I might give it a rewatch after I'd done with DEAD TO ME on Netflix.

 

[JD]

Also, in the three episodes Amy Acker has been in, I can't help but think she's basically playing Fred. She's a doctor who is pretty smart. Fred was a scientist who was very smart. Other than field of study, it's pretty similar.

Have you seen Person of Interest? She plays a very different type of character there.

 

[tomalak301]

Have you seen Person of Interest? She plays a very different type of character there.

No but I just found out Amy Acker was in that, as well as Gifted. Makes me feel a little sad I didn't jump on the Gifted Train when it was on.

 

[Turtletrekker]

She is also in Mutant Enemy's Cabin in the Woods, where she plays, uh, a smart person.

 

[tomalak301]

She is also in Mutant Enemy's Cabin in the Woods, where she plays, uh, a smart person.

I'm not a fan of horror movies so I probably won't watch it.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm not a fan of horror movies so I probably won't watch it.

It's a mistake to consider Cabin in the Woods strictly a horror movie. It is, in fact, filled with many subversions of the horror movie tropes.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

It's a mistake to consider Cabin in the Woods strictly a horror movie. It is, in fact, filled with many subversions of the horror movie tropes.

I mean, yes, but...

I'm in the same boat. I don't like horror movies much at all, except the primarily atmospheric/philosphical ones. But I gave it a chance (we even bought it, since it was a good deal and there was no streaming back then), and it was incredibly entertaining in many ways and a delightful deconstruction of the genre. But it was also so. damn. brutal. I really had difficulty watching it the first time and just actively felt myself resisting the thought of seeing it again literally every time we considered rewatching it. I think we might have rewatched it once and then we just got rid of it because we never really wanted to rewatch it, even when we did kind of want to rewatch it.

I don't regret having seen it once, so I guess I'd say maybe consider it, but if you really don't like horror movies and especially if your dislike of the genre stems from gore and brutality, I really would not expect CitW to be up your alley at all.

 

[JD]

Yeah, it does get pretty gory once thing really get going, so if you don't like gore I'd steer clear. My tolerance for gore is pretty reliant on how much I like the rest of the movie, and I loved everything else about Cabin in The Woods, so I was willing to put up with it.
I hope it's not to spoilery to say that the way it plays with the horror tropes was brilliant.

 

[tomalak301]

Episode 6, Man on the Street, just upped the ante on this series for the better. Who is the informant on the inside that gave Echo the information and Millie is a sleeper agent who is activated by Adele.

I have a feeling this series will become more than just sending Echo on assignments to religious cults. This series needed a plot twist in the worst possible way and they got one.

And I think this is the second episode Joss wrote this season. I’m not surprised.

 

[tomalak301]

Episode 7 had Machad Brooks (James in Supergirl) and Octavia Spencer and we got to see Caroline’s origin story on how she ended up in the Dollhouse. This series finally has the intrigue to keep me interested. Those first 5 episodes really were a rough start.

 

[tomalak301]

Tonight is the first night I've been excited to watch this series. Episode 8 finally got into the philosophical, showing us Echo, Victor, Mellie, and Sierra's past lives and how that trauma actually did make them volunteer for the Dollhouse. This episode reshaped all the other episodes for me, mainly because now we're getting into the bigger (And real) world of why the Dollhouse operates. The question of free will and is the Dollhouse really saving these people is a very interesting one, giving them closure for that trauma and then resetting them. Of course ethically this organization is wrong on all levels, but this show is finally having the balls to ask these questions and it's making the series much more interesting. It also gave Saunders (Fred) much more substance considering it was her plan.

I'm still probably not going to talk about every episode, but I feel like the worst of the series is past and what the original intent of the series was is finally being realized. Also, the urgency has been raised and we are getting much more development for these characters that is just building episode to episode. I do think, however, those first 5 episodes really hurt the series though, so I can understand why Fox cancelled it when they did.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The first five episodes are the way they are because that‘s what Fox demanded from Joss.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Dollhouse now? Yet another series I should check out again, my binging is off at the moment, maybe once the weather turns and I get some things I'm working on more settled. I'd like to contribute more thought to this but it's been too long since I've watched to offer anything very cogent. Still, it's fun "watching along" again, this thread has gotten me to consider putting some older shows I haven't seen a while into my already bursting backlog lol.

 

[SAndrews10]

You'd think FOX would have learned their Joss lesson to just let him run and do the show when their tinkering brought down Firefly. At least we got 2 seasons of Dollhouse though.

 

[tomalak301]

You'd think FOX would have learned their Joss lesson to just let him run and do the show when their tinkering brought down Firefly. At least we got 2 seasons of Dollhouse though.

I was thinking the same thing reading the new posts this morning. Either that or Joss would have gone to another network, like The CW (Or UPN, since I don't know when UPN became CW and this is 2009-2010) or even The Syfy Channel.

 

[JD]

So how much have you known about Dollhouse going into this?
I just like to ask, so I know what I can and can't say in terms of spoilers.

 

[tomalak301]

So how much have you known about Dollhouse going into this?
I just like to ask, so I know what I can and can't say in terms of spoilers.

Pretty much nothing other than Eliza Dushku was the lead and it was short lived. Also, when Orphan Black was on, there were a few comparisons to both series but they were tangential at best.

 

[JD]

Wow, so you're really going into this blind.