Dollhouse: Season One on DVD
Sep. 7th, 2009 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceySince we don't have pay TV I hadn't seen any episodes of this and I'd tried (and largely succeeded) to avoid spoilers. So the DVD box set arrived from Amazon on Saturday morning and of course I had to watch it immediately. OK, maybe watching 13 episodes in two evenings isn't the most sensible way to watch it as I have serious mental indigestion, but maybe I'll go back and watch it at leisure now and see some of the extras.
What did I think?
Well, Joss Whedon's work is always worth watching and he's very faithful to his favourite actors, so having Eliza Dushku (Faith in Buffy) headlining was good. Amy Acker (Angel) was a bonus, as was having familiar names from Buffy and Angel on the production credits (Tim Minear, Jane Espenson) but it was particularly great to see Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly) making a repeat character appearance as Alpha. (Is he really a bad guy or not and is it his fault?) There's also an extra bonus in the shape of Tahmoh Penikett, Helo from Battlestar Galactica, who makes a very convincing obsessive FBI agent
I didn't engage with Dollhouse immediately as I did with both Buffy and the very excellent Firefly, but there are certainly strong possibilities and despite a rather flat start it got better as the season progressed and the true story arc began to draw me in. Joss is particularly good at wisecracking dialogue and Dollhouse lacks that (so far) but the story is intriguing and the real question is developing: You may be able to wipe a memory and even a personality, but can you really extinguish a human soul?
The final episode in the boxed set - Epitaph One - was apparently not broadcast on TV, but was included on the DVD release. It's apparently disconnected from Episodes 1 - 12. Set in 2019 in a post-apocalyptic world where the personality imprint technology has run wild. It gives some interesting ideas about where Season Two of Dollhouse might lead. Thankfully, despite being broadcast by the evil Fox network, destroyers of Firefly before its time, Dollhouse has been picked up for a second season.
I'll certainly watch Season Two.
What did I think?
Well, Joss Whedon's work is always worth watching and he's very faithful to his favourite actors, so having Eliza Dushku (Faith in Buffy) headlining was good. Amy Acker (Angel) was a bonus, as was having familiar names from Buffy and Angel on the production credits (Tim Minear, Jane Espenson) but it was particularly great to see Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly) making a repeat character appearance as Alpha. (Is he really a bad guy or not and is it his fault?) There's also an extra bonus in the shape of Tahmoh Penikett, Helo from Battlestar Galactica, who makes a very convincing obsessive FBI agent
I didn't engage with Dollhouse immediately as I did with both Buffy and the very excellent Firefly, but there are certainly strong possibilities and despite a rather flat start it got better as the season progressed and the true story arc began to draw me in. Joss is particularly good at wisecracking dialogue and Dollhouse lacks that (so far) but the story is intriguing and the real question is developing: You may be able to wipe a memory and even a personality, but can you really extinguish a human soul?
The final episode in the boxed set - Epitaph One - was apparently not broadcast on TV, but was included on the DVD release. It's apparently disconnected from Episodes 1 - 12. Set in 2019 in a post-apocalyptic world where the personality imprint technology has run wild. It gives some interesting ideas about where Season Two of Dollhouse might lead. Thankfully, despite being broadcast by the evil Fox network, destroyers of Firefly before its time, Dollhouse has been picked up for a second season.
I'll certainly watch Season Two.
