Dollhouse
Dollhouse started when Eliza Dushku received a development deal with Fox. She lured Joss Whedon (whom she had worked with on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The network decided that they didn’t want to start the show with a big mythology that people had to follow from the beginning. They wanted to start off with a half dozen episodes that could be easy entry points for new viewers. This forced Whedon and Dushku to reshoot their pilot (which caused other issues at the end of season 1). After negotiations with the network, the new pilot and episodes were started with an order for 13 episodes. The abandoned pilot ended up counting as one of the 13, and necessitated the “Epitaph One” episode.
The initial reviews were mixed. Many critics liked the idea, but not the execution. And the doll rental of the week episodes didn’t focus the show on it’s best assets, the dolls. The weaknesses were brought too much to the forefront. Dushku could play a wonderful Echo. But she didn’t have the ability to play the multiple roles that were called for in these episodes. That caused the star of the show to be a liability and didn’t help the initial ratings. After the initial easy-entry episodes, the show (starting with the Man on The Street episode) quickly found it’s footing and started exploring the dolls, the house and the backstory. These episodes were the best of season 1, which ended on a high note. Since only 12 episodes were shown and the production company wanted 13 episodes for the DVD, a special not-to-be-seen-on-tv episode (Epitaph 1) was made. Whedon set it in the future and was able to film it for a much lower cost.
With the strong end to the season, the DVR ratings and the cost reduction from the special episode, Dollhouse was renewed for season 2, to everyone’s surprise. Many fans expected season 2 to pick up on the strong end to season 1 and were excited for it to return. And when the season 1 DVD was released with Epitaph 1, fans were even more excited. Season 2 premiered in the fall of 2009 to higher expectations and fell flat.
Season 2 started off too much like the beginning of season 1. And again it took a handful of episodes before the story kicked into high gear. But the weak start to the season killed it. The ratings were as low (if not lower) than season 1. Fox made the decision to end the series, but Fox did a surprising thing. They let Dollhouse finish showing their final episodes. The fact that Fox let such as low rated show finish out it’s run was amazing and a nice gesture by Fox. But, with the change in plans forced in Season 1 and the Friday timeslot (and the memory of Firefly), I tend to doubt that Whedon would come back to Fox. So I do have to give Fox credit for giving Whedon’s shows a home, while damning the network for their poor handling of them.
Now, what about the overarching story. The story starts off with one man (Paul Ballard from the FBI) trying to take the Dollhouse down from the outside. He’s hampered in his quest because no one believes it exists. He starts focusing on Caroline, who is the doll Echo (Dushku). As the story progresses, it turns out that he is surrounded by dolls who are stopping him from concluding his task. This brings up one of the weaknesses of the show, too many dolls. Anytime the dollhouse is threatened, the threateners are surrounded by dolls. It almost made it too unbelievable at time. Ballard ends the season unable to bring the dollhouse down, but instead co-opted inside it.
With season 2, the threats stopped being about taking the dollhouse down from the outside, and more about the fighting on the inside. Ballard, Echo and Adelle (aided by Victor, Sierra, Boyd and Topher) end up in political battles for the heart and soul of the company and the LA Dollhouse. As the political battles are resolved, for the most part, the battle moves onto saving the world. The doll technology is matured into a weapon that can let a group control the world. The heroes go to save the world and succeed…and fail.
The biggest problem with the resolution of the battle is the Boyd reveal. In the penultimate episode, Boyd is revealed as the head bad guy. But his reasons for his treatment of the LA Dollhouse and Echo in particular are poorly reasoned. His reasoning for his actions seemed poorly thought out and the whole Boyd reveal felt more like a poor twist for shock value instead of a logical consequence of what we’ve seen before. His exhortation of “I love you guys” seemed more like a high school kid after smoking a bit too much weed, than a mastermind behind an evil corporation.
And the biggest problem I had with the ending of Dollhouse is Alpha. Alpha was brought out as this maniacal genius who knew something about Echo; just as Boyd did. But the lines are never drawn for us. How did Alpha fit into Boyd’s plan? Did Alpha fit into Boyd’s plan or was it just a coincidence that he saw the same thing in her? It’s a mystery that was never addressed.
As for Epitaph 1 & 2. They were the coda to the series. The 10 years that were skipped between the end of the series and the coda didn’t need to be shown to us. And the storyline and characterizations presented made sense from what came before (except for Alpha again). These episodes were a true capstone to the series and it wouldn’t have felt complete without it. The series deserved the happy ending.
Dollhouse is a good show that had the possibility of being a great one. But with the handcuffs placed on it by the network and the poor storylines at the beginning of both seasons, it never had the chance to grow into something more. But it is an interesting and amazing failure.