TV: Dollhouse

[Munsu]

I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity) fans in here; so here's his newest tv series project: Dollhouse. It should come out next fall, so you guys might want to keep an eye on it. I think it's airing on FOX.

The drama, stars Dushku as Echo, a member of a group of men and women who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments. In between tasks they are mind-wiped, living like children in Dollhouse, a futuristic dorm/lab. A group of people, known as "Actives" (or "Dolls"), have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas and hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies and occasional good deeds. When not imprinted, the Actives live, childlike and unremembering, in a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal, and under constant threat from a determined federal agent on one end and an insane rogue Active on the other. The story hinges around a greater and more subtle threat: Echo, a female Active, begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Some articles of interest:
http://www.tv.com/story/10957.html
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainm...ry/510146.html

[Sapphire]

This idea sounds so awesome. If TV ruins this idea like it ruined Bionic Woman I'm gunna be pissed.

[saman]

i'm really excited about this series. the plot sounds really intriguing. FOX had better not screw this up like they did firefly. i don't know why whedon keeps going with them.

[Munsu]

I myself hope they've learned their lesson... that it's a Joss Whedon project almost guarantees that it'll at the least have cult success.

Anyways, here's some casting news:
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-en...dons/800036353

[saman]

project's previous winnage + helo = super winnage

I myself hope they've learned their lesson...

lol i wouldn't bet on that. although stranger things have happened.

[Munsu]

Well considering that Joss had vowed not to do another show for FOX, and now he is... I'm have a feeling that Joss and them had a good talk about expectations, etc.

[Munsu]

Here's a picture of the cast:

[saman]

i did a double take after i realized that the head actives lady played mrs darling in the most recent peter pan movie. it's such a different role.

show premieres jan 2009! there are a couple of videos uploaded on the dollhouse page on facebook too.

[Munsu]

Seems like they're pairing it up with 24. So through fall we'll have Mondays with Prison Break and Terminator, and January we'll have 24 and Dollhouse together...

Wonder how they'll work that out, especially with Terminator and PB come January, unless they're making short seasons... or they're thinking of bringing them back come April or some shit.

Edit: And another thing I forgot to mention... FOX is running with a new format with it's two new shows, Fringe and Dollhouse. They'll have less advertising spots, so instead of approximately 40 minutes per episode, we'll get about 50 minutes. Less ad breaks, longer scenes, and overall a longer episode. Good stuff. They're calling it "Remote-Free TV"

[Munsu]

Here's a new trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHSuuQkFXjk

The show will be airing on Fridays, after Terminator, at 9:00 pm EST. It begins February 13.

[rockmanj]

Sounds interesting...and fyi, its the same name as this "bar" I went to before; also an interesting place...

[Assassin]

rockmanj visited a tranny stripclub in korea

[rockmanj]

Not so, sir! Korea has no strip clubs.

[Munsu]

Exclusive clip of a scene for those interested:
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2008/12/...ive-dollh.html

[rockmanj]

Seems more and more intriguing.

[Abdula]

Dollhouse is tonight at 9 on Fox, after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

[Penner]

Wooo, hope this is good, but mr Whedon rarely dissapoints.

Also, Dushku is hawtness.

[Penner]

Just watched the first episode, and i liked it alot.

Another good show i'll have to follow, and good lord Dushku has a rockin' ass :P

[Ryllharu]

good lord Dushku has a rockin' ass :P

I give heartfelt concurrence to this point.

I definitely enjoyed the pilot. It's neat to see a series again where you're not really sure if the "good guys" are good guys. Echo's handler seems legit enough, and pretty cool with a rifle I might add. Maybe even the boss lady has good intentions, but I can't help but think the tech guy (doing the brain wipes) is a total sleazebag. He's a little arrogant and way too into fucking around in their heads.

I wasn't surprised to see her Total Recall brainwipe start to have issues, where her impressed personality caught (excuse the obvious pun) echoes of her life as a doll. That's standard fare for this kind of material.

I wonder if the scarred doctor was a former doll who got cut up on a mission so they gave her a permament personality.

I also got the impression that the boss lady was a part of the negotiator personality that Echo adopted. I had thought she was the one who was raped by the 'ghost' but with the admission that the girl had committed suicide I guess that was out of the question. She was definitely making an exception for this case though.

[Munsu]

Good start to the series, though from the beginning they had a bit of trouble introducing us to the world (though things started to fall into place later on in the episode), which made me see why they were having some problems with the opening of the series and why they needed to do a different pilot episode than the one that was originally intended (I think it's the 2nd episode now).

How hot was Eliza on the white dress dancing? I mean, wow.

The handler was good, Helo (from Battlestar Galactica) was good too, though I wasn't feeling his character when he was first introduced. The other handler, the blonde guy will surely betray someone at some point... I can feel it.

The good vs. bad discussions are good, there seems to be a gray area here and some interesting set of priorities. There are many subplots that seem interesting that will work outside from the episodic nature of the show, the mysterious people with power looking for Dollhouse, the detective looking for them, and the dude that has a trail of dead bodies looking for who Echo originally was (Catherine was it?). And with that, what made her want to "clean her slate" in the first place.

Ratings weren't good, but workable. Hopefully it'll do better. It at least did better than Terminator.