Dollhouse Ep 5 (No spoilers)

[Stupid cold. Didn’t even feel up to blogging. Bleah. I’m going back into work today at least.]
This was an interesting episode in lotsa ways. The A-plot took advantage of the sci-fi premise for once, and it provided a heck of a ride with great reversals coming in to mark every ad break cliffhanger, but by the end it just felt too shallow – like in the writers’ room they’d satisfied themselves with coming up with all the plot twists and forgot to layer in some actual plot underneath it. Lots of sound and fury. But not to be too harsh – the plot they indicated (if not explored) was fairly interesting. (Best thing about this storyline wasn’t even in the storyline, it was the reaction from Dollhouse staffer Detective Kellerman, and how Ms. Williams responded to that reaction.)
The B-plot, back in the Dollhouse with Topher and the Doctor, fell completely flat. It was entirely exposition; there was, throughout the whole episode, not a single moment where the B-plot characters had to make any decision whatsoever. Very weird; presumably more pipe-laying for the future. The C-plot, with the FBI agent, was much the same- nothing much going on there.
Next week is the much-ballyhooed switch-up episode. I’m ready for some payoff now plzkthx.
Aside: I’ve noticed a bit of backlash at the actor playing Topher, along the lines of “he’s playing this guy like he’s a nice friendly Xander, but he’s an abusive douche! He should be a better actor so that comes across!” These critics are in the Do Not Get It camp as far as I can see. The character is indeed an abusive douche, and yes he is being played precisely as a nice friendly Xander or a nice friendly Wash. That is the whole point of his character, and it’s obviously intended as a signal to the viewer about how to read the whole show. (Whether the rest of the show follows through on this remains to be seen. Next week!)

8 thoughts on “Dollhouse Ep 5 (No spoilers)”

  1. Sadly too true, though I think I was more underwhelmed with the a-plot than you were. It just seemed to me to be a really shallow and under-written take on the David Koresh situation.
    Agreed about Topher – he just gets creepier and creepier.
    Also ***SPOILERS***
    This is now a show where a woman being slapped around allows her to see things more clearly and results in a “miracle”. WTF?!?

  2. I don’t see Topher as an abusive douche actually. He is amoral and detached even in his interactions with other humans. He tries to make friends, but is way to much of a nerd. The most interesting elements of the show so far have been the conversations between Boyd and Topher with their very different world views.
    But to sum up Topher, he is a boy with some very expensive GI Joe dolls that he can program and play with. He actually has to do this for someone else, but the programs are all his. That is his baby. Echo and the others are just toys. Things like the Man-reaction upset Topher’s world view because then the toys are acting more human, which *they are not supposed to be*.
    The Doctor sees them as human, Boyd as potential, Lawrence (aka Kellerman) as weakness, De Witt as tools and Ballard as victims.
    While I liked the episode I thought the main problem with it was that they used the same cliches applicable to the premise. I would have liked if they had done something different with the reformed cult leader and the closed cult.
    Essentially Dollhouse has nice generic solid episodes, but nothing that stretches the boundaries of the stories they are trying to tell. Not one of the first 5 stories has made me sit up and go, this isn’t how this story is supposed to go. So even though the show has explored 5 different styles of story, it hasn’t explored them in a new way.
    In essence I think this is what Firefly did really well and so far Dollhouse doesn’t.

  3. Pearce – I think “slaps women around” was the only shorthand they could think of for “cult leader actually is a sonofabidge”. I don’t have a problem with that being the miraclemaker, though; it can be read as “holy crap I understand now that this guy is a sonofabidge” I think.
    Jarratt – on the Topher thing, I think we agree on what his attitude to the Dolls is (they’re toys) but I have a really strong negative reaction to that, I think it’s very much an abusive role he’s in. I think this episode’s “sneeze-ure” joke can only be read as being a sign that the writers think the same way. Seriously, that’s not a laughing matter if you care at all about the wellbeing of the humans inside the Dolls.
    Both of y’all – have separately said stuff like Jarratt says here: “Not one of the first 5 stories has made me sit up and go, this isn’t how this story is supposed to go” and I think that is the best and fairest criticism of this opening run of eps.
    I read an interview with tim minear somewhere about this ep, he said Joss’s sole instruction was “give the cult a legitimate point of view”. This was completely lost, I reckon.

  4. *spoiler*
    Yeah I totally think the cult’s point of view was lost. I think America has a negative reaction to cults in the same way that you have a negative reaction to Topher. But given that Jesus is supposed to be forgiving (god is forgiving and not depending so you can read that either way), it actually seemed insane that the leader was collecting guns. His past is bad stuff, we get that, but why does his present have to be bad stuff too? Why the attempt to commit suicide. It is all because that is what Cult’s are. And in the end, even though the ATF guy instigated it all, it turned out how he expected it to go anyway, so it he really the bad guy. I mean, what would Batman do?
    I really thought the ATF guy needed to be wrong here, that the twist and the investigation was who the inside man was? Not that the cult was doomed from the start.
    I don’t know I thought the whole first half of the episode was pretty interesting, and I thought Faith did blind quite well, but the 2nd half seemed more about action and plot than subtle story which is the treatment this episode needed. But then the same is true of every episode so far. They have all devolved into action, and it only really worked in episode 1 and 2. 3 needed to be far creepier, 4 Echo needed to get caught, and 5 needed to be more subtle.
    But I expect Fox wants more action, less talking, and while that is fine, I don’t think the writers and creators have quite managed to join the vision of the show with the studios vision of the show.
    I’m not sure episode 6 is going to be a change-up as much as it is going to be the first time when the 2 visions meet successfully and the show finds itself.
    But if you are looking for something really good, check out Kings. It was awesome.

  6. It’s a better name than Eliza, though one assumes she is really an Elizabeth which is actually a nice name.

  8. I think the problem is more that *everyone* was slapping Echo around that episode. It wasn’t just the cult leader (because I don’t really have a problem with the ‘miracle’, it made sense) but the security leader whacked her one (randomly, instead of more efficient means) and someone else….I forget who…
    Anyway, it was marked enough that Lee, Fraser and I were joking that if you want to find something out, you should just hit echo.

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