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Dollhouse 1x04 Gray Hour - Poll & Discuss

Grade "Gray Hour"

  • Excellent

    Votes: 4 7.1%
  • Above average

    Votes: 24 42.9%
  • Average

    Votes: 20 35.7%
  • Below average

    Votes: 5 8.9%
  • Poor

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • Total voters
    56
Missed this one, out watching the Watchmen.

Ah, but who watches you while you're watching them? It's a fucking conspiracy. man! There's a Nerd Killer on the loose!

But yeah, if you've been following this you should catch it on iTunes cause if you like Dollhouse there's a decent story here. I can feel it ramping up to something bigger I just don't know what it is and I'm not 100% sure it'll be satisfying yet. But we'll see.
 
I like the actress who plays Sierra. She seems to make the transition between her doll state and her characters much better than Eliza.

I can't decide if she's hideous or hot, but either way, after watching this episode, I think they should have made her the star of the show. She nailed it in a way that Dushku just can't seem to do.
 
I liked this episode. It's my favorite up to this point. Like DeafPoet, I can feel that they've got something great here, it's just not quite gelling together. I rated it "Above Average".

J.
 
I like the actress who plays Sierra. She seems to make the transition between her doll state and her characters much better than Eliza.

I can't decide if she's hideous or hot, but either way, after watching this episode, I think they should have made her the star of the show. She nailed it in a way that Dushku just can't seem to do.


I was thinking along these exact same lines as I was watching. The best way I can describe it is like this...with echo, I feel like it's the same person trying to act like a different person. With Sierra, I actually felt like this was in fact a totally different person.(BTW, I'm on the hot side, not hideous)
 
Ratings have slipped to 3.5 million.

For what it's worth I read an interview with Dushku where she stated that episodes 1 - 5 suffer from fox meddling, and that they backed off after that and the rest of the show is all Whedon.
 
I thought this was a better episode. I'd rank them 2-4-3-1 from best to worst. At least there was an action/suspense premise this time. And her being blanked on a mission was a neat twist, as was their half-assed response to it. ... At first I thought the "Doll Midwife" was another hilarious idea for an assignment, but it just occurred to me. It was a forbidden love and unplanned pregnancy from a super rich couple, so they had to retreat to a winter mountain cabin for the pregnancy so nobody ever found out he knocked her up. They couldn't hire a normal midwife because she could be bribed to talk, whereas the Doll would be mind-wiped after the fact.

That would be nice, but the price for hiring a doll is way, way too much. It would be cheper to simply buy a gun, hire a hit man, have the hit man kill the midwife, then kill the hit man.

If you are going to use your gun to kill the hit man, why not just forget hiring the hit man and kill the midwife?
 
I actually quite like the episode. The plotting was well done, and it was interesting to seem them struggle with getting her out.

That would be nice, but the price for hiring a doll is way, way too much. It would be cheper to simply buy a gun, hire a hit man, have the hit man kill the midwife, then kill the hit man.

If you are going to use your gun to kill the hit man, why not just forget hiring the hit man and kill the midwife?
I thought the same thing. It'd also probably be easier to off a midwife than a trained hitman.

I like the actress who plays Sierra. She seems to make the transition between her doll state and her characters much better than Eliza.

I can't decide if she's hideous or hot, but either way, after watching this episode, I think they should have made her the star of the show. She nailed it in a way that Dushku just can't seem to do.


I was thinking along these exact same lines as I was watching. The best way I can describe it is like this...with echo, I feel like it's the same person trying to act like a different person. With Sierra, I actually felt like this was in fact a totally different person.(BTW, I'm on the hot side, not hideous)

Big Red X. Having Dushku and Lachman play the exact same character gave every single person who has criticized Dushku's casting plenty of ammunition. I can't imagine anyone would actually argue that Dushku played the Taffy character better than Lachman. Next week's episode will probably only emphasize this - it looks to me like her next role is going to be a somewhat softer personality, and I can't imagine she will pull that off. I know Dushku is an Exec Producer, and IIRC she came up with the idea over lunch with Whedon, but she was simply the wrong actress for the role and she's a big reason the show is falling flat for a lot of people.
 
One problem, I think, is that Eliza's last series didn't exactly give her the chance to act either. In Tru Calling, every other character was given a lot of depth and development, EXCEPT Tru, whose only job was to go back in time and solve the problem of the week. The writers ignored her for the sake of plot advancement. She didn't get squat in terms of development.

Now in this series her character is a blank, staring cypher.

I'd love to see her in a show where she gets to be a single, developing, well-written character.
 
Well, Pingfah is comment about the Dushku interview is making me change my mind. In stead of the next episode being my last viewing, I may tune in for one or two more after that to see what a non-FOX-fucked-with "Dollhouse" is like.


"Futurama" has it right: The new morons at FOX."
 
One problem, I think, is that Eliza's last series didn't exactly give her the chance to act either. In Tru Calling, every other character was given a lot of depth and development, EXCEPT Tru, whose only job was to go back in time and solve the problem of the week. The writers ignored her for the sake of plot advancement. She didn't get squat in terms of development.

Now in this series her character is a blank, staring cypher.

I'd love to see her in a show where she gets to be a single, developing, well-written character.

Are you kidding? This premise is an actor's dream! A different character every week? That's actor heaven. Hell, this last episode, she played three different characters in one hour!

The problem is not the premise. The problem is Dushku's inability to rise to the occasion.

And I love Eliza Dushku. Well, looking at her, anyway.
 
I've not been watching this show but I do like to keep up with what's going in the sci-fi community. I have to say that FOX kind of dropped the ball with this one. I can't speak for quality but I can speak for advertising. There was none.

I am curious to know how involved FOX was with the restructuring of the show.
 
So far the show is living off Whedon credit in my corner.

It is mildly intriguing, has an interesting premise and arch storytelling (a big one for me).

On the other other side of the coin it has mediocre acting (sorry Dushku.. you are pretty and my type but i guess there's a reason why you aren't a big movie or TV star outside of Whedon shows), some dumb premises (really.. why hire a negotiator, bodyguard or midwife for 1 million $ or more when you can get a real professional for a fraction of the cost) and overall mediocre stories.

I'm pinning my hope that it picks up soon and switches into high gear and if this doesn't happen within the next 5 episodes or so i think i'm done.
 
Is it true that they cast Alan Tudik as "Alpha" for the next several episodes?
 
Above average, despite the double nonsense of the week - the midwife scene and Echo being able to hold a guy much larger than her against a locker with one arm.

Note to writers: Memory replacement does not give you superhuman strength.
 
Above average, despite the double nonsense of the week - the midwife scene and Echo being able to hold a guy much larger than her against a locker with one arm.

Plus the fact that a few smoke bombs are apparently enough to escape from a highly guarded, on the brink of being impenetrable, safe. Carrying someone on your neck, iirc. Only to meet your handler just outside the door.
 
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