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posts about #mindwiping more → Creating A Mind-Monster Is Harder Than It Looks
San Francisco, 8:21 AM
Tue Dec 22
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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05/10/09
love ya io9 but you guys really s00k at not ruining things for those of us who don't watch everything the second it airs. seriously wth?
Hint: When a PICTURE, HEADLINE or MAINPAGE ARTICLE BLURB reveals a spoiler and then you put the cute little 'spoilers ahead' blurb right before the link? You've already failed.
05/10/09
05/10/09
My biggest problem with Dollhouse is that it wasn't episodic nor was it serialized, it had a weird format, jumped from one approach to the next, none of the characters seemed to have any clear objectives and failed to focus on one main "subject of study", namely, something that we as the audience could care about.
Moreover, there wasn't a lead character, and no matter how many efforts Eliza Dushku did to keep her character interesting, there was no way the audience could ever connect with a character that had no purpose, no story and changed every week... the more I think about it, I can't wrap my mind around what was Dollhouse about, and, admitting that I may be to stupid to figure out this show, I think that that's a big problem for any show.
I have no way of knowing whether or not Dollhouse has any resemblance with whatever Joss Whedon conceived when he created the series, but this show never seemed to take off (for me, at least), and I believe that I just kept watching it because I had faith that it would turn out to be good at some point, something that, sadly, never happened.
There are shows with great stories and there are shows with great characters, and Dollhouse, in my opinion, had neither.
Sorry
05/10/09
All said and done, I pretty much agree.
05/09/09
Wow, now that's commitment! Establishing a character development arc years before a series even begins filming.
05/10/09
05/09/09
"we're more than just the sum of our experiences and beliefs and programmed behavior patterns."
So at this point it appears Whedon has moved on from existentialism to determinism.
We are born a particular way - with a particular 'programming' which we can ultimately 'never completely erase'. We are all "dolls" - we are puppets right from the moment of our birth.
We are neither self-made nor society-made. We are irrevocably pre-made. Thus, far from invalidating itself, by rejecting the notion of free will (no matter what we think, experience, or do, we cannot "erase" - ie change - our core programming), Dollhouse thereby extends its premises to ALL humanity. All humans beings are just automatons performing according to individuated pre-programmed directives.
In other words, we are just simply all reacting according to our pre-conscious programming.
Of course, in the process of making its premise all encompassing, Dollhouse eliminates the very concept of morality - because morality pertains to action in the face of choice. And, if one is ultimately NOT free to choose - ie if one is unable to rewrite one's 'core' programming - then there is no choice faced. One's core programming dictates the actions one takes, eliminating morality by eliminating responsibility for whatever action one takes.
The message of Dollhouse is 'Ultimately, we can't help it.'
05/09/09
Seeing people who've lost their memories IRL due to Alzheimer's and other dementias firmly convinces me that we are our memories. The person(ality) changes too much.
05/09/09
I loved how Caroline's Echo was transformed from an id to a super-ego, and despite her saying "we're not gods", I really do feel like both Alpha and Echo represented what could be considered god-like in any person, namely a self-acknowledgment of what it is to be held accountable to one's self, and to other people. Good gods and bad gods are defined by the way they value other people's lives, and I think both these characters were excellent dichotomous examples of what such gods might look like if they existed.
That being said, I was a little disappointed that Alpha's back-story converted him into a cast-iron "bad guy". That seems to me to be a cop-out, since it jumped all the moral ambiguity and experiential conversion of a man into a bad person by just making him a bad person, period. For a show that has been so good about providing history to characters that confounds the audience's sense of whether or not someone is bad or just does bad things, it's kind of sad that the most pivotal character, Alpha, wasn't given a "why" for his perverseness, and instead just given a "because".
Which is why I wanted to see more of the Dollverse after yesterday's multiple reveals. I wanted to see more of the ambiguity that makes science fiction speculative rather than dogmatic, and now I feel like my brain won't be stretched anymore, at least not by this story.
05/09/09
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05/09/09
I'd love to watch a second season that builds the mythology and focuses on Ballard's conflicting desire to take down the Dollhouse while working within it. Plus, the very concept of the show lends itself to guest stars as clients or even visiting Dolls.
It's too bad we'll never get any more, but I'm not as sad about it as I was when Firefly was FOXed.
05/09/09
05/09/09
05/09/09
What was he supposed to say to Badger? Come on downstairs and check out this bomb? And it's really a dollhouse? Or maybe he did send them away on purpose so he can figure out how to destroy it from the inside while also freeing everyone in it.
I can't wait for Boyd and Ballard to talk about the morality of the situation, Boyd has qualms with things people don't agree to. He has that line with putting the dead lady in Echo. Ballard is Boyd 5 years ago.
05/09/09
I also felt that Ballard may have taken the place of November as a doll, because as she was leaving the office and he stopped her to ask her real name and she asked who he was he replied "I'm nobody" as if he knew he was going to be "loosing" his personality. So if there is a second season I'll be interested to see if he is acting as a handler or a doll.
05/09/09
I agree with the above. Ballard really was trying to convince his friend, but it failed and he just restratemagized to take out the Doll House.
05/10/09
We're supposed to believe:
-- the FBI would be the FIRST RESPONDERS at a bomb threat (and it's clear that they are, based on where Romo Lampkin and his men were standing in relation to the building.
-- the fire department wouldn't respond (there isn't a single fire truck in sight).
-- a lone FBI agent would be able to call off the dogs by yelling "False Alarm!" into a police radio, without the multiple agencies that typically respond to a bomb threat checking the place first.
-- Romo Lampkin could get away with giving Ballard a free pass after sparking that kind of scare. (Take a look at last week's headlines to find out what happens to someone who inadvertently makes people think terrorists have attacked a major metropolitan city.)
It's only one scene in an otherwise excellent episode, but this has been my complaint throughout the series' run. Whedon and company need to realize that if they're going to place the story in the real world they need to do some basic research on how the real world operates. That if you're going to include elements of a police procedural, you have to have a basic understanding of police procure.
I really hope Dollhouse gets picked up for a second season, but he needs to improve on the real-world details if it does. No more wacky horse-training inconsistencies, no more magic college labs where all the sensitive stuff is out in the open, no more stupidity about how law enforcement agencies work.
05/09/09
Second, I think Topher knew Whiskey before Doll-ification since if you look at him he when he asks if she read her file, he looks really tense. When she asks why he programmed her to hate him, that's when he looks like his mom died.
Maybe she's the reason he works for the Dollhouse. My theory is this. Topher's imprint from "Briar Rose" of the girl with emotional issues made better was too complex to be done on the fly. Topher was testing it. I'm betting Whiskey is Topher's girlfriend, and she had some psychological issues. Really bad ones. Ones that might make her try to hurt herself or worse.
Topher probably signed up them both up for the Dollhouse so he could keep her safe and try to work on fixing her broken mind. He probably felt horrible after what Alpha did to her so that's why he programmed her to hate him in the Saunder's imprint; it was out of guilt.
05/09/09