io9 
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San Francisco, 12:15 AM
Thu Dec 10
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/06/09
Oh, and Victor as Topher made my night. He's so good! When they were together at the end, with Victor waiting to get wiped, they kept doing the same mannerisms at the same time. I loved it.
12/06/09
12/07/09
I don't know, what it was, but there was definitely something off about her that can't be explained by super smarts.
12/07/09
12/06/09
And... Freaking Enver Gjokaj. Just amazing.
12/06/09
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12/05/09
Back when they revealed the existence of other Dollhouses, I wondered if the eventual course of the series would be the L.A. Dollhouse going rogue and taking on the other Dollhouses and whatever shadowy powers that be that were controlling the whole thing. It was an appealing thought, because the series at that point was just too bleak for my tastes. Our protagonists were either mind-wiped zombies or amoral pimps -- aside from Ballard, who was, frankly, kind of dull, there wasn't anyone to really root for or sympathize with. Not even Echo, since there really was no there there, as they say.
I thought at the time that the show could really grab me if they could somehow turn Adele and crew into (deeply flawed) heroes, and put the show into a more familiar Whedonesque groove of a quirkily intrepid band of Scoobies going up against a Big Bad. Yeah, just like every Whedon series, but dammit, this is what he does best, and it's why I love the guy. Plus, I just didn't see the series being able to sustain over multiple seasons without evolving out of its initial concept.
So, now it seems like the show is in fact moving in this direction, which is neat. This wasn't just a top-notch pair of episodes -- these were episodes that showed me how this series could actually move forward beyond the current season, and really engage my heart as well as my mind. Unfortunately, any satisfaction I feel is vastly overshadowed by one question for Mr. Joss Whedon: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU DO THIS BACK IN SEASON ONE WHEN IT MIGHT HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE???
12/06/09
12/05/09
12/05/09
(Of course, the other half of the battle is programming slots, so...)
And that commercial is definitely a FOX production. It just reeks of the "Dollhouse=sex and hotness!" angle that's always being pushed around.
12/05/09
I'm disappointed that Topher moved back towards being an asshole. He'd almost grown something resembling a conscience. On the other hand, Victopher was brilliant.
Well-done: choreographing the fight scene to match clips from earlier episodes.
Not well-done: Senator Perrin's penchant for bending Eliza Duskhu over a series of tables. The bathroom scene was particularly gratuitous; and maybe sexist for showing him removing her chip and not vice versa.
Oh, and I hope that now that November is going back to being a doll again they'll get rid of that ridiculous fucking tan.
12/05/09
Second, I originally thought that Madeline was a imprint on November soo that she could kill the senator but him being a doll was great too.
Bennet was great. She reminded me of a evil River/Topher/Adelle lovechild. She had her ticks, moral gray areas but still had kinda a slick headmistress feel about her (when she first popped up).
I'm actually sad that it's getting cancelled but it's better to get cancel with a bang.
12/05/09
I also wished they'd handled the Echo realizing she's a separate person from Caroline better.
12/05/09
On Summer Glau, completely and totally annoying. Why? Because this is just a slight readjustment of Cameron and River. I'm tired of seeing that. It's just played out. On Firefly, that's who she was, on TSCC well, she was a creepy Termmie who stole the personality of a real girl. Did she have to be nearly the same person for Dollhouse? I swear, she was better used in that episode of the big bang theory where she played herself.
Hell I'm actually kinda put off they used any sort of nerd cliche for the DC programmer.
I did give Topher an hand when he punched out Bennet. That was unexpected.
12/05/09
Summer Glau's scenes with everybody were phenomenal. Maybe I just like damaged, crazy characters, but watching her interact with the other crazies was a helluva lot of fun. Her neurosis and Topher-esque immorality added that much more to the character, so I didn't mind much that her vendetta against Echo/Caroline was rather contrived.
Enver Gjokaj stole the show though with his eerie impression of Topher. When an actor can accurately portray another actor's portrayal of a character, that's just...WIN.
12/05/09
However, the writing and dialogue was pretty meh. Topher's little limousine scene, the stuff between the senator and Echo, between Adelle and, er, the Devil, Bennett's assistant, there was a lot of the writing that was incredibly weak to my ears overall.
As one more positive, I actually thought that the actress playing the senator's wife/handler - Stacey Scowley - did a great job with her character, both as the devoted wife and sinister handler.
12/05/09
I usually enjoy Dollhouse's dialogue with no problem, but it seemed off the usual mark for these two episodes. Thankfully the story itself was written very well.
12/05/09
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12/05/09
I think he's done the best job of any cast member to use the show and material he's been given as a serious springboard for his versatility as an actor—more so than say, Dushku. His command of accents, switching seamlessly between serious roles, tender roles, hero/sidekick/villain/character-acting, comic timing. He's managed to make himself pretty untypecastable, which is a feat as well.
It's a real resume-piece for him, which is of course how every actor should view every role.
And for the record, I was convinced he was overdubbed, too!
12/06/09
12/05/09
I think it's a mystery furthering the idea of who we are as seen through other people.
12/06/09
12/05/09
Also, I was under the impression that Bennet basically decided from the moment they brought Echo in to let them both get away, as Perrin's handler would be the one set after him. She'd trigger the assassin mode so he'd kill them both, wake him after, and he'd do exactly what he did - and now they suddenly have this dead body to prove that he was the target of Rossum's enemies, and to fuel his imprinted ambition. Since he'd independently triggered the whole 'realizing he's a doll' thing and broke from the code he had with his handler, forcing him into a situation where he'd come back willingly might have been the better option than forcing it all back onto him. But that might be hitting convoluted. I just did get the impression that the how it turned out was Bennet's plan for it all along. Killing Echo just would've been a bonus.