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Dollhouse: Ghost (series premiere)
by Brad Trechak, posted Feb 13th 2009 10:01PM
(S01E01) Joss Whedon returns to television not with a bang, but not with a whimper either. The first episode of his new show Dollhouse was kind of "meh" for me, but Whedon's strength has been the ability to build characters over a few episodes, so I suspect the best of this series is yet to come. As the episode stands, it was a good introduction to the characters and general situation.Despite the sci-fi trappings, the first episode of the show was more reminiscent of 24 than any of Whedon's previous shows. It's a shame that Fox can't market it as such.
It's pretty clear in the first scene that the Actives are willingly recruited and paid to essentially give up their lives for a period of time. I'm both relieved and disappointed about this. While it would be interesting commentary about slavery (and truthfully it is anyway), I think audiences would find such blatancy too disturbing.
Comparisons to slavery are evident, however subtle. The fact that the process of preparing someone as a Doll is painful to the person (such as when Echo walked into the processing of Sierra) is one example.
The trick with casting Eliza Dushku as Echo (and granted, the role was created for her) is that her gravelly voice still makes me think of a classic tough chick (such as Faith from Buffy). It would be tough for me to be convinced that she's a different type of character. Scott Bakula was excellent at this when he did Quantum Leap. Hopefully, further episodes will change my mind.
I did like how the Actives are portrayed as child-like when they don't have a personality programmed into them. Since they get a new personality with each episode, every week is a pilot.
It's difficult to give commentary on the supporting characters. For the pilot, they seem one-note. Topher Brink is amoral. Adelle DeWitt is cold. Paul Ballard is obsessed. Boyd Langton is protective. Since characterization is Whedon's strong suit, I doubt they'll each stay that way for long.
For those who didn't catch it in the opening scene, Echo's former name is Caroline. I don't know if this is significant but I think it would have deepened the mystery behind the character if we didn't know her real name (it works for the Doctor in Doctor Who).
Try as much as you want, Mr. Whedon. No amount of artificial scarring will ever make Amy Acker ugly.
The Dollhouse set reminded me a little of the Wolfram and Hart offices from the Angel series. Coincidence?
On a personal note, I once saw Harry Lennix do a staged reading of the play Pushkin in New York City. He's a very good actor and given the situation his character is in (a man with a conscience in an illegal operation), I'm sure he'll get the chance to prove it in later episodes.
I'm looking forward to future episodes. Call me a pessimist, but given the relative lack of publicity for the show combined with the choice of timeslot, I'm looking forward to eventually picking up my DVD of the Dollhouse 13-episode mini-series. I'm hoping Fox will prove me wrong about this.
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