Dollhouse cancelled after 13!

[Lindley]

Geez, it's like people don't even read the continually repeated refrain about how the network tooled the shit out of the first four or so episodes.

 

[Awesome Possum]

io9 had a great article on the cancellation.

Dollhouse has had a troubled run and some uneven episodes, but I persist in believing that one day we'll realize what we had here. When you sit down and watch the DVD box sets of seasons one and two, a year or a decade from now, things will fall into place and you'll suddenly realize quite how daring and mind-expanding this show was.


You'll find yourself waking up at three in the morning, your mind stuck on one of the show's candy-coated images of glamorous slavery. You'll be daydreaming at work, fantasizing about being someone else, or having the perfect person love you just the perfect way — and then you'll flash on one of Dollhouse's many episodes about how your fantasies can become a prison for other people who get trapped in them. Other shows offered escapism — Dollhouse gave us a commentary on how escapism can help create prisons for other people.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Here's a question: If the Dolls are slaves because they are sexually exploited by others, what was Inara?

 

[Awesome Possum]

I thought the first two episodes were cheap sexual exploitation and as such I didn't bother continuing. If it's true that the show actually managed to explore the morality of its premise, then that is good news (again, if true). But why wait that long? There's little doubt that the first two episodes preyed heavily on the sexualization of Eliza Dushku as a sex slave as a means to draw in audiences. It was, at best, a juvenile approach.

If the show really grew up afterwards, then kudos to it. But really, given its missteps to begin the series, there's little surprise or remorse for this news.

The show actually showed that these people were sex slaves. One of which was dragged kicking and screaming into it. The things that happen to the actives is meant to been as horrific. It is the complete death of what you are as a human being, while your body is used by people to do whatever they want. Sure they get to leave after five years, but most of them seem to have blackmailed into joining or forced into it.

One of the things I found fascinating about it was the rationalization of the people who work there. They give the actives assignments that help people, possibly so they can live with themselves. They know it is wrong, but they avoid thinking about it and it has been hinted at they have little choice in the matter as well.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Geez, it's like people don't even read the continually repeated refrain about how the network tooled the shit out of the first four or so episodes.

Hows and whys matter little when the result is a product that is the target of legitimate criticism. Like I said, if the show really did rise above its beginnings and provide a mature perspective on its very immature beginnings, then that's a good thing. But when you start a show using pure exploitation ... don't be surprised when people choose not to give it third, fourth, or fifth chances. Dollhouse initially sold itself through glamorizing an unwitting sex slave.

It's not like Dushku's character had the power of choice in those episodes. If she had, that would, at the very least, have presented a fascinating exploration. But at the end of each "mission" they just made her a blank slate, removing all memories (more or less ... and, yes, I get that remnant memory was a point for the series). Far more interesting would be to have her choose to be programmed each time, return with those memories intact, be returned to her natural self, and then given the choice, once again, whether or not to continue.

That didn't happen in the first two episodes. And the result was contemptible exploitation. And those episodes, which are meant to establish the premise of the series, did nothing to counterbalance the concept.

EDIT:

Here's a question: If the Dolls are slaves because they are sexually exploited by others, what was Inara?

Inara had the power of choice each time. Every time. In the first two episodes, at least, of Dollhouse that wasn't the case. Like I said, the premise would have been far more interesting, and mature, had Dushku's character been given the power of choice right from the start. Yes, I know she willingly went into the program. But once that choice was made, she had no other power of choice in how she was being used.

 

[Christopher]

You know... if everyone agreed about the worth of this show, it wouldn't be so special. It's a daring, difficult concept. It's a topic that inspires controversy and strong emotion, and the show embraced that fact by refusing to offer easy answers and black-and-white moral situations. Naturally some people are going to react badly to it, no matter how it's executed. But that's what makes it so admirable for any producer of mainstream commercial entertainment to attempt anything so edgy and risky, and so admirable of FOX to be willing to put it on their network at all, let alone air a full 25 episodes of it.


And yes, the first episodes were exploitative, but that was the point. First the series showed off the fantasy of the Dollhouse and made it seem alluring, and then it began to expose the dark side and strip away the romance, forcing the audience to question their initial perception of it as alluring. It's a fundamental mistake to assume that depicting an attitude in fiction is the same as endorsing it. Sometimes a story deliberately seems to take one position only to reveal that it's actually satirizing or critiquing that position.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Here's a question: If the Dolls are slaves because they are sexually exploited by others, what was Inara?

Inara was at least in control. She chose her clients and was in charge of what happened. The Dolls are sold to any client who passes their screening process, which has been shown to be less than perfect.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

One of the things I found fascinating about it was the rationalization of the people who work there. They give the actives assignments that help people, possibly so they can live with themselves. They know it is wrong, but they avoid thinking about it and it has been hinted at they have little choice in the matter as well.

An exploration of those who use the ends to justify the means is a fantastic idea. But I think the series, at least in the first two episodes, was a victim of using the ends to justify its own means. In other words, the series may have wanted the end result of exploring important concepts, but to do so it resorted to the questionable means of sexual exploitation.

 

[Lindley]

I think any attempt to explore the consequences of the ability to write personalities at will that didn't include a sexual aspect would be dishonest, though. If the tech existed, you know it would be used that way. Best to get it out in the open immediately so you can move on to the more interesting angles.

Echo actually did choose to be imprinted at least once. At the time she hadn't yet developed enough to really understand the situation fully, but she knew Topher could change her and that if he did, she'd be able to help with the current crisis.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Here's a question: If the Dolls are slaves because they are sexually exploited by others, what was Inara?

Inara was at least in control. She chose her clients and was in charge of what happened. The Dolls are sold to any client who passes their screening process, which has been shown to be less than perfect.

And I would argue that, in principle, those who chose to become Actives are in control insofar as nothing has yet happened to them that they haven't consented to have happen to them, at least in principle. True, the original personalities are not around to vet each specific engagement. However, I would assume that they were informed of the general kinds of missions they would be sent on when they first signed up.

It's like an actor signing on to a long-running TV series. He doesn't know exactly what the episodes are going to be like because the scripts haven't been written yet. However, when he signed the contract, he & the producers did discuss the role and determine generally what would happen to the character and what kind of scenes he would be required to do, like if he had to do his own stunts or if there was any nudity.

Now, episodes like "Epitaph One" have shown that the nature of this technology can have dire consequences. Due to their helpless state in Doll form, they have left themselves vulnerable to abuses that they did not consent to, as in "Man on the Street" & "Epitaph One." In principle, I simply do not see anything inherently wrong with the stated mission of the Dollhouse, at least as far as its original volunteers are concerned.

If anyone's rights are being violated, it's those of the new personalities that the Dolls form once their original personalities have been removed. Caroline is not a slave but Echo may be.

 

[Saul]

So can we put Terminator back on the screens now?

 

[Guy Gardener]

[Soup-Nazi]NO! No Terminator for you![/Soup-Nazi]

Seriously, did you see the cartoon they made with the game engine?

Clearly 7 times more superior than the movie.

 

[Trent Roman]

It's like an actor signing on to a long-running TV series. He doesn't know exactly what the episodes are going to be like because the scripts haven't been written yet. However, when he signed the contract, he & the producers did discuss the role and determine generally what would happen to the character and what kind of scenes he would be required to do, like if he had to do his own stunts or if there was any nudity.

I would suggest there is a lot of truth in this analogy; that the situation of the Actives in the Dollhouse is basically the nightmarish version of what many of us do every day, selling our time to one corporate entity or another, suppressing who we are in order to fit into the narrow, and yes programmed, confines of corporate culture, doing things we probably don't want to do, made into proprietary objects with no other function than to produce what our masters want. One reason I loved the Saunders/Whiskey reveal is because, when you get right down to it, there isn't that much difference between a Dollhouse employee and an Active made to think she's one; free will does not necessarily translate into freedom of action, and working in this environment is not about who has agency, but about degrees of powerlessness.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Jimmy Bob]

I love Dollhouse, but I'm not completely sad. Dollhouse is much better with season 2 than it would have been with season 1. I just watched Ghost recently again and I was amazed how it all was there in the beginning. I'm happy that december 2009 is still going to be awesome.

I'm sad, but for me I have at least other Whedon shows to go through (well I've finished Firefly and Buffy 4-7 already, still have Angel and Buffy 1-3). Dollhouse was my first Whedon. It will always be dear to me because it opened my eyes to what I had missed.

Anyway, I think I love Christopher. It's the first time I've seen someone writing this thoughtful peace on Dollhouse on the internetz and for that I just love you... I've been avoiding Dollhouse threads because all I ever saw was "it's such a mediocre show with bad writing" but no one would ever give examples of what they thought was better writing or something.

Anyway, feeling inspired I want to share how I understand the show.

It's about identity. About what you really are and what is a lie given to you by your society - ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion, political orientation, etc. Dollhouse itself is just a peak of the iceberg of what happens in everyday world too. All identities are a lie. Even Caroline was a lie. But Echo is real. In that state when they are stripped of their identity, they are being taken out of this world system(s). And it's outside from the world where their true being has the chance to emerge. And Echo took control already in Ghost, just she herself become more aware of herself after Target and that art-theft episode (because Alpha forced the awakening process to go quicker). After the first 5 episodes we see Echo playing inside the Dollhouse system, but not as a doll but as an awakened person eliminating threats, helping friends, comforting her "prison guards" when they are broken...

And this brings us to the other side of Dollhouse. It would be very simple show if it was Echo the Buddha freeing the imprisoned minds from this world system and fighting the bad guys. Because in the end, in Dollhouse they are all human beings who are hurt and just want to be loved - the slave masters, identity creators, the dolls, the rich who use other humans as their pleasure, the cops and Echo - they are all human. And underneath the "Echo Awakens to the Lie that is Society" plot are the small scenes of human connection. Of Topher waking up in his underwear in that corner where he sleeps, of Topher having to create himself a friend for his birthday, of Adelle forgetting herself while touching Victor's face, of Victor waiting for Sierra faithfully when Sierra goes face-to-face with her imprisoner, of Echo giving out motherly care to all the people in Dollhouse... and that's what makes it beautiful. The "good guys" and the "bad guys" all need a hug, but Echo is still going to bring the system down.

 

[Awesome Possum]

It's like an actor signing on to a long-running TV series. He doesn't know exactly what the episodes are going to be like because the scripts haven't been written yet. However, when he signed the contract, he & the producers did discuss the role and determine generally what would happen to the character and what kind of scenes he would be required to do, like if he had to do his own stunts or if there was any nudity.

I would suggest there is a lot of truth in this analogy; that the situation of the Actives in the Dollhouse is basically the nightmarish version of what many of us do every day, selling our time to one corporate entity or another, suppressing who we are in order to fit into the narrow, and yes programmed, confines of corporate culture, doing things we probably don't want to do, made into proprietary objects with no other function than to produce what our masters want. One reason I loved the Saunders/Whiskey reveal is because, when you get right down to it, there isn't that much difference between a Dollhouse employee and an Active made to think she's one; free will does not necessarily translate into freedom of action, and working in this environment is not about who has agency, but about degrees of powerlessness.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Based on what has been seen on the show, both the Actives and the employees get the same treatment if they go out of line, no matter what it is. That Rossum exec hinted that Dewitt would wind up in the Attic if she didn't obey their orders.

 

[WillsBabe]

It's a fundamental mistake to assume that depicting an attitude in fiction is the same as endorsing it.

Thank God. Finally. I've lost count of the number of times over the years I've been arguing this, here, and elsewhere. I was beginning to feel I'd lost my critical faculties!

Sometimes a story deliberately seems to take one position only to reveal that it's actually satirizing or critiquing that position.

A favourite kind of narrative technique for me, actually. Particularly on the screen. I love Whedon because he does things I haven't thought of. It's always good when someone can surprise me.

 

[Captain Craig]

I have to keep skipping over the posts where the person admits to only having seen some 2-3 episodes and then give a long exposition on why its cancellation was justified. About how IF the show really did rise above what they didn't like about the 2-3 episodes they saw its a shame...maybe.

Totally uninformed people should just stop commententing seeing as how their own biased nature led them to stop watching the evolution of Dollhouse. The great morality that it challenges you to think about. This show will find a larger audience on DVD in the years ahead. Mark my words.

 

[Kegg]

Oh well.

Totally uninformed people should just stop commententing seeing as how their own biased nature led them to stop watching the evolution of Dollhouse. The great morality that it challenges you to think about. This show will find a larger audience on DVD in the years ahead. Mark my words.

I don't know. While Firefly even brought around non-Whedon fans to liking the series, Dollhouse seems to have been mostly an affair for those who liked Whedon's shows in the past (and even then, more than a few didn't).

Then again, maybe you're right. When Firefly aired and then got cancelled I was certain the Whedon inspired hoopla wouldn't last and it'd fade into obscurity outside of his fannish circles. I was, of course, dead wrong. Maybe this will be Joss Whedon's Jeremiah, if I may allude to the two-season JMS series nobody talks about anymore (outside of, I have no doubt, a small cadre of devoted fans), but then again maybe not.

However, it's disengenuous to say people who watched the first few episodes are totally uninformed. A series does intend to hook people from the first episode on, so while maybe Dollhouse is one of those innumerable shows fans insist got better later on, they can fairly say that didn't start out at all well.

Now I didn't watch it at all (Joss Whedon, screw 'at, what else is on), so I've never offered an opinion beyond rather liking the premise, which I did. Dollhouse may well have been something I would have watched if it hadn't been a Whedon show or if people whose opinions I generally trust in these matters endorsed it, but neither was the case so I couldn't be bothered.

 

[Kaijima]

It struck me early on that Dollhouse represented a watershed moment for mainstream science fiction (because that's what it is, SF) - that the sci-fi concept of the "mind state" was finally being used in a major way, and even better, it was being used in a way that was morally ambiguous and challenging. There are some hard SF novels that have people recording, transfering, and booting mind state intelligences all over the place that do not go to the dark places Dollhouse does regularly.

One of the most critical moments of the series was when Topher listens to Saunders/Whiskey tell him that she doesn't want to die if DeWitt agrees to /help her/ by returning her original personality and cutting her free of her contract. There's a look of revelation on Topher's face for an instant; he's just entered a new philosophical world, and it's not a pretty one.

 

[Lindley]

I don't know. While Firefly even brought around non-Whedon fans to liking the series, Dollhouse seems to have been mostly an affair for those who liked Whedon's shows in the past (and even then, more than a few didn't).

I'm not really sure I can agree with that. One of the reasons so many people were ambivalent about the show was that it was very different from what he's done before.

In the end I think it's proven to be just as thought-provoking as his previous work (if not moreso, as Christopher says), but it puts a lot less energy into being pure fun and more into developing its ideas.

If you take just a few minutes looking through Wikiquote, you can see the distinct differences between the quotes called out on this show versus some of his previous ones. Most of the Angel or Firefly quotes are there because they're funny. The Dollhouse quotes tend to be more.....heavy, for lack of a better term.