'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
THEY'RE ALL COMING BACK
Review: Dollhouse - The Public Eye
by Brad Trechak, posted Dec 5th 2009 12:45AM
(S02E05) This was truly an excellent episode of Dollhouse. The show has improved leaps and bounds, and I can't wait to see the developments Joss has waiting for us next season ... oh. Oh yeah. Forgot about that.Despite the imminent cancellation, this was an excellent episode with so many twists and turns you'd think it was the SR1 in California. Okay, Daniel Perrin is a Doll (sort of) and his wife is his handler (making her more of a fake than him). The mysterious Bennett in the D.C. Dollhouse has a past with Caroline, Echo's original personality. And it all ends in a cliffhanger making this the perfect night for a two-parter.
When Echo (as Bree) and Perrin had their scenes together, I couldn't help but flash back to several scenes from the Buffy and Angel series which had Wesley together with Faith. Faith tortured Wesley in one of those, I recall. Fortunately, no grudges were held between series.
Did anybody else notice that Kilo was played by Maurissa Tancharoen, who is engaged to Jed Whedon (Joss' brother) and was one of the co-writers of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog? If you didn't, then you should have. She's also a writer for this series and co-wrote the last episode.
I see that the D.C. Dolls (which would be an interesting name for a band) are given the names of Greek Gods and Goddesses rather than the NATO phonetic alphabet. Kind of ironic considering that they're actually slaves. I couldn't tell clearly, but was Perrin's code name Hades?
Judging by the number of girlfights in the episode, you can tell it's a Joss Whedon series. Favorite line: "You just woke up a lot of people and they all think you're a bitch."
Admittedly, I figured out somewhat early that Cindy Perrin wasn't an Active. It was too obvious, and Whedon and company never go for obvious.
A moment on Summer Glau's character of Bennett Halverson ... I think Glau is channeling a little Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper in her portrayal (and she did guest star on The Big Bang Theory last season). If Sheldon were evil, he'd totally be Bennett. The ending was a twist, as well. I'm on pins and needles to learn the history between Bennett and Caroline. I'm convinced that the character is an Active, which means she probably isn't.
It was interesting to see the real Madeline (as opposed to the fake Mellie a.k.a. November) interact with Ballard. She's pretty unappreciative of being freed.
Technically, this is only the 18th episode of the series but I can't help but think that if the creators served episodes of this quality sooner ... the show would have probably still been canceled. It is Fox, you know. However, showing episodes in sequential order like this gives a greater appreciate to the sort of tapestry Joss and company can weave.
Did Dollhouse deserve better treatment from the network? If you're a fan of the show, the best thing you can do is buy the season DVDs (possibly in mass quantity) so they make the inevitable spin-off movie in the vein of Serenity.
[Watch clips and episodes of Dollhouse at SlashControl.]
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