In my previous post, I tried to make a case for Fringe being one of the better shows on television that no one watches. I think that this discussion could easily be shifted to Dollhouse, a show that absolutely no one watches and one that is in dire straights. On a week-to-week basis I don't think Dollhouse is as strong as Fringe, it occasionally has a few groan inducing episodes here and there which takes the show down a level. However at its peak Dollhouse is easily the best show on television when LOST isn't airing, which feels like 95% of the year. (I'm not including Mad Men here, which is a different kind of good.)
Because so few people watch this show, likely you included, I think I need to give a little background on what the show is about. The dollhouse in Dollhouse is a place where people can go to get any desire or wish fulfilled. The dollhouse is populated with people who have had their memory wiped, a blank slate if you will, and can hence be programmed with any set of memories or skills that could be imagined. The 'dolls', or 'actives', are people who have volunteered to go through with this for 5 years, at which time they will be released carrying a boatload of money under their arms and their original memories intact.
If all of this sounds sinister, it should. Although not every person comes to the dollhouse for sexual purposes, a fair amount do. In less creepy jobs the dolls take on jobs such as being bodyguards, helping to solve kidnapping cases and being a proxy mother for a motherless child. Although this process is an extremely powerful tool, the company is seemingly only interested in making money and gaining power by helping those at high places.
Dollhouse is a different show, because we have very few 'good guys' to root for. Most of the characters are people who work in the dollhouse, an admittedly morally questionable place. We also get a fair amount of exposure to the dolls, but because they are just empty vessels who are filled with a different personality every week it's hard for the audience to feel a connection with them. The show does have Paul Ballard (played BSG's Tahmoh Penikett) an FBI agent obsessed with shutting down the dollhouse. But he's pretty inept as an agent, and turns out to be not the most upstanding person himself. I think having almost all of the characters able to be considered 'villains' is one of the problems with the show, more of which I will go into below.
Of the original 12 episode season run last year, a little over half involve the main doll, Echo (Eliza Dushku), getting an assignment, which usually turns out to be more difficult than originally intended, and having her clean up the pieces and save the day. Most of these are pretty weak, and after the first 5 episodes, I was not sure if this show lived up to Whedon's previous work. However starting with the 6th episode 'Man on the Street' the show turned from a pleasant but spotty weekly diversion to a fantastic show that delves into deep philosophical questions.
As the dolls start malfunctioning, the question of 'what makes a person who they are' starts to be addressed. Is a person the whole package, body and soul, or are they just a collection of memories that could conceivably be placed in another body? As Echo starts to remember more than she should (none of the dolls should remember anything about their engagements) she starts wondering who she is. Even without her original identity, she has fragments of memories from multiple sources and this is obviously confounding. Then as agent Ballard gets closer to the dollhouse, and a ex-doll who had an infamous and bloody escape a few months prior makes his presence felt the show really kicks into high gear. The last few episodes of the first season are truly spectacular, and the season finale (which was left off the air and only available on DVD) is one of the riskiest, and best, season finales I have ever seen.
As great as Dollhouse is, and the heights do really compare with the best of anything Whedon has ever done, it does have flaws that prevent it from becoming one of the great shows in recent memory. First is to again bring up the weakness in the 'doll-of-the-week' episodes. The second season, which is only 3 episodes young, has had a couple of these kinds of episodes and they have fallen far below the peaks the show can reach. The second problem is the obvious flaw of having Eliza Dushku play the lead. As decent as she is in other roles, she really doesn't have the chops to carry this show. The show's format requires her to be a different person every week, and this would be difficult for even the best actors. Many of the actors on the show blow Dushku out of the water, and all the Echo based episodes are a little weak.
Another problem with the show is that because of the purpose of the dollhouse, everything feels a little dirty and wrong. I have already discussed the fact that the show is chock full of 'bad guys', but I haven't brought up the inherent misogyny and sexism found in much of the show. Many of the episodes at least start out with Echo or one of the other female dolls being in some ridiculous overly sexed up outfit ready to go out and please one of the male clients. Furthermore in many episodes where the doll's 'programming' goes awry, we're stuck with innocent women who are completely helpless and often at the mercy of some big strong man who has less than honorable intentions. I give Whedon a little extra slack here because he did create the great feminist figure of Buffy, but sometimes the sexism still gets a little oppressive in Dollhouse. This is not to say the writers are inherently sexist, it's just that the basis of the show inherently explores the sexism found in our society and the writers just need to try a little harder to make sure that they don't get carried away exploring these themes.
I'm not sure if it's these problems inherent to the show that are causing it to get such terrible ratings, or if it's more on Fox's hands being that the show is aired on Fridays and with terrible shows leading up to it. Fox also doesn't advertise the show very well, and really seems to care less whether or not Dollhouse succeeds. I know that much of the suits at Fox have turned over in the past few years, but I find it hard to believe that Whedon trusted that Fox would do what it could for Dollhouse when it failed so spectacularly with Firefly. It remains to be seen if the second season will pick up where the first one left off, or if they try to change it so much to gain new viewers that the show gets completely gutted. If you have any interest in this show, or have enjoyed Whedon's products in the past, I emplore you go online and watch the first season on Hulu. It's only 13 episodes long and once you get to the unaired episode 'Epitaph One' I think it will be hard for you to say that your breath wasn't taken away. Let's give Whedon support so we can see what he can do with a full run of television like he did with the essential Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Edit: Seems like the show will finish the season with a satisfying ending. Although it doesn't look like it'll be back for a third season.
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