A week ago news broke that Dollhouse was cancelled. This was greeted with much wailing (and also some dancing on its grave) but creator Joss Whedon didn’t seem too stunned.
And rightly so. Dollhouse is incredibly strange television. It’s an ensemble series populated with characters who are defined either by their blankness or their overwhelming moral flaws – you don’t see that too much. It has a fitful mission-of-the-week structure that conceals its deeply troubling premise, except when it takes a 90-degree turn right into horrific territory. Sometimes it seems to really want you to feel dirty for watching it.
It’s easily the most unusual piece of television I’ve ever seen, and it’s incredible that it got made at all. I am still dumbfounded that a second season was approved, but I’m thankful, because Dollhouse as a whole is challenging and fascinating TV, even if (and sometimes because) it fails at some core broadcast-TV responsibilities.
So there’s no wailing from me. Fox did right by Dollhouse, renewing it against all odds. They showed unusual faith.
The series will play better on DVD than on TV. It’ll make it much easier getting through the opening five episodes, which were heavily messed with by the studio and feel like a completely different show to what came after. The subtle character beats will be a lot stronger in a watching binge than strung out over months. Even the weird and claustrophobic setting should feel a lot homelier when you adjust to it in one hit. So that’s good.
And also: Dollhouse revealed the genius that is Enver Gjokaj. Guy can do anything. Someone give him his own TV show already!
4 thoughts on “Dollhouse Closed”
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Yes Victor is amazing.
Dollhouse was best when exploring the high sci-fi concepts that it’s premise generates. Episodes like Epitaph One and the story about a dead woman who is imprinted on Echo both really shone for me, as did the side story with Whiskey to kick off season 2.
It was also much stronger when developing it’s own mythology and pursuing a more serialized story.
It’s weakness and major flaw is that it was presented as a procedural show. In SF even the most procedural shows really need an overarching drive to push them forward. Fringe only barely works as a procedural is would be much better if it was more serialized. Dollhouse has the same if not better acting chops than Fringe but the mystery of the Dollhouse was revealed immediately and the vision was never portrayed properly.
I personally never found the subject material in Dollhouse icky and disagree that network television has any moral responsibility. In many ways Dollhouse is a cautionary tale, a somewhat haunting and poignant one, and in that regard it should be applauded.
It reminds of much of the outcry regarding Carl and I including Slavery in our boardgame. People want to forget about the past for some reason instead of understanding and exploring it.
But then perhaps what Topher says is right, just because you can do something should you? Is it arrogance to create something just because you can. An obviously analogy being the atom bomb and all the nuclear weapons that followed. But you have to wonder if the people that created those things, if they were more aware of the moral implications of their actions, if they were presented with a show that explores moral dilemma would they continue to act.
I would almost have to say that there is a moral obligation to explore the dangers and pitfalls of both our past and our future and Dollhouse attempts to do so. This is a good thing.
Sadly it doesn’t make the world better, because all the mostly crap people in the world are too busy not watching, not thinking, not caring, and burning us all to hell.
I’m not sure I agree that (network) TV has no moral responsibility – but I see where you’re coming from, and certainly think Dollhouse was a great example of why diving into murky moral waters can be worthwhile. I *like* the broken moralities of Dollhouse more than anything else about it. It’s a view of the world where individual morality is subjugated by technology; the driver for the show’s reality was always the possibilities of the tech, and the character moralities are ultimately just attempts to cope with it. That’s a remarkably sophisticated and challenging view of how human society works, and it is refreshing to see it depicted.
And I love how slavery is in your game. It seems to be in the same ballpark as Brenda Brathwaite’s Train, which I recently read about on Gamasutra – have you seen?
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4064/persuasive_games_gestures_as_.php?page=2
Does it make you feel dirtier than watching “Curb your enthusiasm?”
That’s pretty dirty…..
Is Braithewaite’s Train the one that was made as a lesson for her daughter?
I have heard about this.