Dollhouse Ep 2 (no spoilers)

Intriguing second ep. The A-story goes into full-on suspense-thriller mode, with plenty of shocks and reversals, some of them easy to see coming (indeed, some as homages to filmic jump-scares), others not. The B-story throws out a whole heap of plot background and arc development into the mix. The balance between the ongoing plot and the episode-of-the-week stuff is signalled – the ongoing elements are already stronger than I expected them to be. The moral/ethical issues to do with the Dollhouse are squarely in the foreground but aren’t interrogated at all, I think because they don’t need to be – the viewer can be expected to be interrogating them anyway, so the show doesn’t need to spend time on it.
I really liked this episode, even with its cheesy moments. The show is demonstrating that it can sustain its initial premise, but that it is going someplace else anyway. I stand by my initial call of a five-episode intro and then things start to switch up; word on the nets this week has been that episode 6, written by Joss, is the turning point, so I might be right on the money there.
This show has potential. Worth sticking with to the turn, anywise. I’m digging it.

3 thoughts on “Dollhouse Ep 2 (no spoilers)”

  2. Vaguely spoilerish comment follows:
    @ suraya: As soon as Sierra was introduced in ep1, I realised they were using the phonetic alphabet. I then thought to myself, man, I bet when they introduce Alpha, he’ll be a total badass. I was right, but I was also so not expecting what they actually did.
    @ Morgue: I’m really glad that they’re using the B-stories to tie into the A-stories so well. I was worried that the connections would be tangential at best, along the lines of moralising. Anyway, I had also heard that ep6 is a biggy, so I’m looking forward to that too! 🙂

  3. I also really enjoyed episode 2. I’m liking devlopment of the ongoing plot stuff a lot. I also like that while there is the predictable element using Actives as fantasy girl prostitues of wealthy guys in the show, they find more interesting assignments for the A-stories.
    About ten minutes into episode 2 I was remarking how it seemed that every guy’s fantasy seemed to involve having a really hot girl to do extreme sports with them (motorcycle race in ep 1, rock climbing in ep 2) but then the storyline spun in a completely different direction. Very tense and cool.

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