Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By Sam Christopher

Rating (after 6 Episodes): 4 out of 5 Stars (with a lot of upside)

I had never heard of this series until just a few months ago. I don’t tend to read a lot about what’s coming up. I don’t spend much time watching new television anyway, and, frankly, after all the infighting and stupidity which destroyed Sliders, inside stories on these things only serve to depress me. I knew Joss Whedon was the creative force behind the show, and Eliza Dushku would star, that was all I needed to know to see that this could be a great show. It was also on Fox, which had somehow figured out a way to crush Whedon’s Firefly, and that they were planning on putting on Friday nights—the same move that NBC made with the third season of Star Trek, and everyone connected with that show would tell you they knew they were slated for failure the moment they saw that. So, while I felt I had every reason to believe the series would be great, I also felt I had reason to believe the series wouldn’t last long. So, while I planned to watch it, I didn’t spend any time beforehand reading about it, and really didn’t know much about the basic storyline going in.

The Dollhouse is set in Los Angeles and is ostensibly about a secret organization that uses a “super-brainwashing” technology to completely wipe the memories and personality from “volunteers”. These “volunteers”, called “dolls” or “actives”, can then be implanted with the memories and experiences of anyone for any purpose, at the behest of very wealthy and/or powerful clients. Or they can be used by the Dollhouse itself to protect the operation. That’s the basic gist of a much more complicated story thus far.

I make notes on episodes when I watch them, sometimes detailed, sometimes less so. I share them here, by episode:

“Ghost” – Interesting. Looks like they may have found a cinematic “Total Recall” that works. Great first story, although I don’t know how bright it was for them to steal the guy’s money at the end—I’m sure he paid quite a bit up front for Echo. Not thrilled with “the reporter following the Hulk”—er, I mean, Agent Mulder—er, I mean, Agent Ballard but we’ll see.

“The Target” – This “Alpha” thing reminds me of something, something pretty recent but I can’t put my finger on it. Yet. It is interesting that he killed everyone but Echo. Wonder if “he” is Echo. Should have seen the camper guy coming. Why didn’t they program Echo to be tougher, Rambo or something? Unless they really didn’t know what he was going to do—and that’s dumb. Still, nice to see them make Wrong Turn. Okay, the end explained it all, at least them not knowing makes sense. This woman who lives across the hall from Ballard? Bet she’s from Dollhouse.

“Stage Fright” – I finally got it—“Alpha” reminds me of that first bionic chick on The Bionic Woman from last year, “The First” that goes crazy and decides to avenge whatever wrongs have been done to him/her. Although it could still be Echo. Now I’m wondering if anyone is who they appear to be (after Victor turned out to be from Dollhouse; didn’t see that coming at all). Someone could easily have imprinted the psychiatrist, Amy Ackerman’s character, Echo’s handler, even the snotty lab guy (which also reminds me of The Bionic Woman). Rayna’s hot but her music sucks and she’s a loon. This whole thing about Echo being special is kind of a given—she is Eliza Dushku. Wish the mob guys had whacked Ballard.

“Gray Hour” – Not too sure about the whole “no one knows the details of your engagement” thing; just seems like a good way to get actives wiped out. Is pretty cool how the whole safe-cracking thing was brought into the ep—with the security guard and all. Love the Cell riff (why haven’t they made that into a movie yet?) wiping Echo’s imprint. But these two dorks she’s locked in with… you have one—ONE—way of reaching the outside world and you throw it on the floor?!? Love the imprint Sierra with taffy thing but I thought they only had thirty minutes from the time Echo was wiped. It would have had to take them that long to figure out what happened to her, much less talk about it, then imprint Sierra as Taffy, then talk that Taffy into helping, then…; Tofer hints that only Alpha could have come up with the method of wiping Echo but how could Alpha know that doing that wouldn’t get her killed? And after all the trouble he went to leave her alive.

“True Believer” – Worst ep so far, I think. Just not thrilled with the making her eyes cameras thing. Victor’s “man-reaction” is interesting, though. Wonder if the “big revelation” next week is going to be that the dolls—or maybe just some of them—are either becoming self-aware, or have been infiltrated. Maybe there’s a rival organization… and maybe it’s a secret organization within the Church… and, and… anyway. I don’t understand Dominic’s whole deal with Echo; was very surprised by that. Wish I could say I was surprised that the government agent turned out to be a lying, conniving murderer.

“Man on the Street” – Victor and Sierra? I don’t think Victor’s any kind of infiltrator; he’d have to be smarter than that. Didn’t know that every good fairly tale gets more divisive as it’s told, but… Is Ballard a Terminator? Or is this billionaire just scraping the bottom of the barrel for security? The billionaire’s story is sad—I think it even touched the emotionally dead Ballard, no matter what he acted like. The thing about the handler having sex with a doll—I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before. I’m really even more surprised that the handlers aren’t wiped and imprinted before they start in the field. Mellie and Ballard—I knew that story got to him! I never liked Hearn anyway. I can’t believe DeWitt has sent Hearn to kill Mellie; I can’t believe Hearn will go through with it without trying something. What the—there are 20 DHs? Why do I think the “someone distracted the programmer” story is bs? I wonder if maybe someone in the DH is really Alpha, or working for him, with or without his knowledge. HAH-HA! I knew Mellie was one of them!!! Still, not exactly the “OMG!” moment I was expecting.

All right, that was a glimpse into my twisted thought process. And this was actually a more coherent version than usual. Most thought-strings I spin would make no sense in the “real world”.

Dollhouse is an excellent show with an episodic storyline that combines great stand-alone stories with an intricately woven overall storyline that has enough action and mystery to keep the viewer coming back for more. The beauty of the central idea is that anyone on the show can be anything at any time, making it easy for them to manipulate the viewer and provide a nearly unlimited amount of twists and turns, no matter what they’ve shown in the past. The danger of this, of course, is if we become invested in a character and they outguess themselves by going to the “nothing is how you think” well too often. I trust in Whedon, though, to do the right thing and not let that happen. He has a nearly infallible sense of what he as a fan wants to see and how to go just beyond that, often taking us somewhere we really didn’t think we wanted to go and making us love the journey. My four star rating here is indicative of the fact that this is a series that hasn’t reached its potential, but also (totally unlike Medium) because this story has no real hook into the real world and has a much higher bar to reach story-wise for a five star rating. I have no doubt Whedon can get us there—he certainly did with Buffy, and Angel, and… well, everything he’s ever done, really—but it will take a bit of time.

Watch Dollhouse Online at Hulu.com