Dollhouse 1x04 Gray Hour - Poll & Discuss

[Plain Simple]

There doesn't seem to be a thread about the new episode yet, so let me start one. Is the lack of thread a sign of lack of interest...

I kinda like the episode. Nothing earth shattering yet, but there's improvement visible. Enough to keep me with the show for the moment (which may be about as long as it lasts).

Still a lot of the question marks surrounding the demand for dolls remains. Why would anyone want a doll as midwife??? What good would that do?

The actual situation in the vault was interesting, but I feel they missed a chance here to do more, since not much came of it.

But I think what I liked best about this episode was that most of the main cast members actually got to interact a little bit, so that we got to know them a little bit better. Up until now the whole cast, dolls and non-dolls alike, felt like blank sheets to me. They seem to be getting more comfortable in their roles.

Last week someone quoted Whedon saying that after half a dozen episodes or so, they found their stride. Perhaps I'm blinded by hope, but I feel something starts clicking, but it's still all in a very early stage and coming along very slowly.

On an absolute scale this episode was average I'd say, but on the Dollhouse scale I'll give it an above average.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Above Average - Best episode yet. (granted, that's not saying much)

The midwife stuff was just idiotic. The less written about it the better.

But the heist stuff was fun. And I would have liked to have seen Taffy 2.0 run into Echo. But promising stuff overall.

 

[Lindley]

The first-draft pilot script that was posted in the previous thread continues to dribble its way into actual episodes in small chunks.

What this says to me is that Fox thought the original pilot was moving the "awakening" along too quickly, and demanded more "doll reset button" episodes before that actually happened. So what we're getting is the original pilot, sliced up and supported by B-plots, for weeks in a row.

Perhaps episode 6 is when they finally get past that.

 

[Warp Coil]

I'm really getting ready to drop this show and just watch "Friday Night Lights" instead (as opposed to watching "Dollhouse" and recording FNL on my DVR). This show is just... underwhelming. The most difficult bit for me is that I do not relate to, or care about, any of the main characters. It's difficult to relate to Echo when she's someone else every week. And the rest of the characters don't have many redeeming qualities or interesting personalities that make me want to invest in their development. Joss Whedon, the genius who has given us so many wonderful, complex characters in his past series, doesn't seem to have much going on in the character department. WTF?

 

[Forbin]

At least we got some Whedonesque humor between the bank robbers this time out.

 

[witchie]

Better. I wasn't snarking as much during this episode. Eliza still has little to no range, but this felt more evenly paced when she wasn't annoying me with her blank doll routine. If they can rid themselves of that idiotic "did I fall asleep?" line, I would rate these episodes higher.

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

 

[Bishbot]

I voted "Average" but feel kind of bad about it.

It was very much a mixture of hit and miss for me though. I really like the overarching plot developing and I'm intrigued by the whole Alpha scenario. I was also very keen on the concept of Echo being wiped while on mission.

The problem is that I am totally sick of bank vault robbery plots. They're all basically the same and I can't take it anymore.

That said, that's probably not totally fair on the episode, which was good television.

(Eliza Dushku in kinky boots is also good television)

 

[cb31]

I gave this one an average, seemed a little boring to me.

 

[Caligula]

I don't want to seem overly enthusiastic.... well, no actually I do.... The show keeps getting better every week. This really felt like a Joss Whedon TV episode. Excellent. I can't wait to see where they take us next Friday night.

 

[CobraCommander]

I gave this episode an average. There wasn't much more explanation on who Alpha is, why the FBI guy is so obsessed with Dollhouse, Echo discovering herself, etc... Why would someone pay that sum of money for a pre-programed midwife when they could get a real mid-wife for far less (or better yet, go to a hospital!). Why did Alpha do a remote wipe of Echo? After sitting through 4 episodes, I am pretty much burned out. I feel that the show is a waste of time. There is a serious lack of storytelling and the acting is below average. I feel that FOX should have left the original pilot intact instead of putting bits of it with filler throughout Season 1. I don't know why Whedon would come back to FOX after what they did to kill Firefly. At least Firefly got a full motion picture afterwards. I doubt Dollhouse ever will be a film. This show is a sci-fi lemon. Cobra

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It's difficult to relate to Echo when she's someone else every week.

I could envision an actor good enough that he or she could have invested even a reset-button character with a consistent undercurrent of personality that we would have something to latch onto and keep us interested in his/her plight long enough to get to the awakening part of the story. This is a prime example of a show that really needed an unusually talented and sympathetic lead actor to carry it, and Dushku doesn't even come close.

Someone like Christian Slater (who was the best thing about the similarly-themed but rather crappy My Own Worst Enemy) would have been better. A true chameleon like Ben Browder would have been best.

Another possibility, Zachary Levi from Chuck - my theory about actors who excel at comedy is that they also excel at drama, when they try it. Drama is all about controlling the audience's emotions and eliciting a specific reaction. Laughter is the hardest to elicit; everything else (tears, anger, lust, joy, satisfaction, etc) are easier.

 

[firehawk12]

Better. I wasn't snarking as much during this episode. Eliza still has little to no range, but this felt more evenly paced when she wasn't annoying me with her blank doll routine. If they can rid themselves of that idiotic "did I fall asleep?" line, I would rate these episodes higher.

I swear, she's always some bad ass sassy girl. Blugh.

Of course, having the two actresses play the same character... it just reinforced how generic that character really was. It bordered on the male fantasy "strong girl" that people seem to like nowadays.

 

[Brikar99]

Average. Interesting twist with the remote wipe, but otherwise I felt the same way I did about all the previous episodes: "Meh". The guy playing Topher is a terrible actor. He's the character on the show that's the most... "Whedon-y" I guess, but he blows it nearly every time. His scene talking about Alpha with the boss lady was just bad, bad, bad.

And why in the hell would anyone pay to have one of these actives deliver their baby? There are real people, highly qualified and readily available who do that FOR A LIVING. I can't imagine how retarded(...ly rich) you'd have to be to decide to pay that kind of premium for a midwife.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Average

Episode was borning, and just barely at Whedon standards. And sadly, this once again proves Dushku can't act at all. She couldn't act on BTVS, pulled the same shtick on "Angel", and now comes here basically peddling her Faith "acting" skills; it worked for the character Faith, but anywhere else it just shows her inability to do what she was cast to do. And I'm sick & tired of every episode being used to show off her clevege and legs -- how about showing off of a weel-written episode for once?

There is nothing here to make me want to keep watching, and while earlier I had said I'd stick around for a few more episode, I am now down to giving the show one more episode -- next week's, which I think is Tim Minear writting.


And once again I got to voice that they show needs a composer change. Rob simonsen & Mychael Danna just aren't doing it. There has been nothing remarkable or special about any of the scoring thus far, in fact it's been so bad I don't even recall hearing any score in last night's episode. It goes without saying it had score, I just dont' even remember hearing it. BTVS has a lot of great work and it even won Beck an Emmy, and even when he left and they went threw three more composers, there was still some good scoring to take note of. Also on "Angel" too, though to a lesser exstent.


And once again the guy playing Topher shows he can't act and that the character is boring. I nfact, he moved it up to now his character is a walking cliche and who seemingly only has one mode. This character and actor are terrible.

 

[Guy Gardener]

he can't help it.

Too much sugar.

the new little lab girl underscored that.

I loved her on NCIS.

 

[tharpdevenport]

The lab girl was boring as hell too. There was nothing to like about her. Her personallity was like cardboard.


And watching this I got a feeling Whedon is going to try to pull something on us, a twist on the Who Watched the Watchers thing. I'm betting everybody in charge at the "Dollhouse", except maybe one person, is actually a doll themselves so in the event they are found out, then can be wiped and the true people behind it are not caught. Eventually we are going to see Oliva Williams say, "Did I wake up?".

 

[Mr Light]

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.

 

[tharpdevenport]

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.

 

[DeafPoet]

Average. Not as good as episode Two but better than the Pilot and Three.

This show is frustrating as hell. I can see how it would be good. And it's Joss Whedon. I know he could make it good. The pieces are all there, it's just not coalescing.

I've said before that I hated the premise. I don't anymore. I just hate what they're doing with it. The whole idea that Echo was clearly this Caroline person before and may become a whole person again (if not the same one) is kind of cool. They're just stalling. Episode Six better knock everyone's fucking socks off after all this build-up because if it doesn't I think we've got another cancellation on our hands.

I'll stick with it for the 13 episodes they've shot already and make my judgment then. For now though, I'm underwhelmed.

 

[YLu]

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.

Hard as it is to believe, not all filthy rich people are okay with murder.