The Dollhouse.

So, I wanted to talk about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. I know it's been a while since Season 1 ended, and much has been said about it. I did, however, just rewatch much of Season 1 on loverly Blu-Ray, and I want to talk about it... but I don't just want to talk about the show. I want to talk about reactions to the show. So, here we go:

The Show.

I watched Dollhouse first run, week after week. I didn't always get to watch it as it aired (such is the curse of a retail job--blogpost coming about my dissatisfaction with that aspect of life, but I always got to see the episode soon after airing. I must admit that I found it slow at first. It was interesting, and I liked it... but I didn't love it. I did, however, trust Joss Whedon as a storyteller. I felt he was going somewhere with it. My trust paid off in dividends, for around week 3 it started surprising me, and getting my interest. Just a little at first, but the interest was there. By week 6 I was hooked.

You see, it so gradually built the mystery of what lies beneath the Dollhouse's "programmable people" TV high concept, a creepy undercurrent of mystery and intrigue, that I didn't notice how invested I was getting in it. We know what the Dollhouse does right from the start. But we don't know why the Dollhouse does it. We don't know what it's all for. The more we learn about the Rossum corporation and its purposes for running the Dollhouse the more we peel the onion of the show, and the more I became anxious to see the next episode.

The infamous "missing" episode "Epitaph One" holds some clues for where it's going, but I can't help but think that it's at least partially a mislead, showing us a little and trusting we'll make some predictable assumptions... assumptions that can be subverted in time.

Wherever it goes, I'm along for the ride. I trusted Joss Whedon, and Tim Minear, and Steven DeKnight, and Jane Espenson, and everyone involved in that first season once and got something great. So, I'm gonna trust them again. I doubt I'll be burned.

The Reaction:

I've noticed a sort of internet "to cool for the room" attitude developing around Dollhouse in particular and Joss Whedon in general. The more Joss made some popular genre shows like Buffy and Angel, and with the zeal of the Browncoat fans of Firefly/Serenity (if I ever win the lotttery, I will contact Joss Whedon and personally offer to fund a sequel, for thus is the amount I am a Browncoat) some of the net community, those who make a point of going against anything a large amount of people go with, have lashed out against Joss and Dollhouse.

Well, maybe "lashed out" is wrong. It hasn't been so much of a "lashing" as a sort of general "I am so over Joss Whedon" malaise. Which is just strange, frankly. It seems to start with a few of the more vocal "cool person who doesn't follow the common masses" netizens, then it became joined by others who wanted to be just like them (and for whom irony is a vitamin supplement), and then it formed a narrative. The narrative was that Dollhouse was poor, or just ok at best, and that Joss was overrated anyway, and I never knew anyone ever saw in him, and Buffy wasn't that good to start with, and Firefly couldn't have been all that since it was canceled. That narrative then became the opinion of the "in crowd" of the those who didn't follow the crowd.

It's like there was an Alpha "cool person" (no pun intended) and the other "cool person" wannabes followed along to be part of the pack, and simultaneously prove themselves individuals. It's a paradox.

Of course, I could be talking crap. It has been known. I am a strange and sometimes shallow and simple person. So, it could be that I only see a simple view of things, and that I am simply a mindless, brainwashed sheep who has been fooled into enjoying Joss Whedon and crew's work...

...funnily enough, I'm good with that. I think I've got the better bargain.

Well, It's surely been a while.

I started this blog with the greatest intentions: to make a daily journal of my thoughts and feelings. Of course, I posted in it for a bit, then quietly forgot it. And looking back on the things I did post doesn't exactly make me go "Man, I had my finger on the pulse of the Zeitgeist!"

So, I have gone back and wiped all but three of my posts, and maybe... just maybe, I'll keep posting. I really must stop holding crap in... and Twitter's 140 character limit sometimes stifles.

We'll see. I'm pretty lazy by nature. Oh, hey... read that there Coupling entry. What you don't see is that Moffat responded to it! I originally posted that on a Doctor Who fan board that no longer exists, Outpost Gallifrey. Moffat was a member there prior to becoming The Guy of Doctor Who, and he saw my post and responded. He gave me this: Closure. Below is Moffat's response to my post.

Oh, all right.

Sally said yes to Patrick, they got married and are very happy. Especially as Sally beat Susan to the altar, and finally did something first. Patrick is now a completely devoted husband, who lives in total denial that he was anything other an upstanding member of the community. Or possibly he's actually forgotten. He doesn't like remembering things because it's a bit like thinking.

Jane and Oliver never actually did have sex, but they did become very good friends. They often rejoice together that their friendship is uncomplicated by any kind of sexual attraction - but they both get murderously jealous when the other is dating. Jane has a job at Oliver's science fiction book shop now - and since Oliver has that one moment of Naked Jane burnt on the inside of his eyelids, he now loses the place in one in every three sentences. People who know them well think something's gotta give - and they're right. Especially as Jane comes to work in a metal bikini.

Steve and Susan have two children now, and have recently completed work on a sitcom about their early lives together. They're developing a new television project, but it keeps getting delayed as he insists on writing episodes of some old kids show they recently pulled out of mothballs. She gets very cross about this, and if he says "Yeah but check out the season poll!" one more time, he will not live to write another word.

Jeff is still abroad. He lives a life of complete peace and serenity now, having taken the precaution of not learning a word of the local language and therefore protecting himself from the consequences of his own special brand of communication. If any English speakers turn up, he pretends he only speaks Hebrew. He is, at this very moment, staring out to sea, and sighing happily every thirty-eight seconds.

What he doesn't know, of course, is that even now a beautiful Israeli girl he once met in a bar, is heading towards his apartment, having been directed to the only Hebrew speaker on the island. What he also doesn't know is that she is being driven by a young ex-pat English woman, who is still grieving the loss of a charming, one-legged Welshman she once met on a train. And he cannot possible suspect that (owing to a laundry mix-up, and a stag party the previous night in the same block) he is wearing heat-dissolving trunks.

As the doorbell rings, it is best that we draw a veil.



Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat spoke to me... he created Coupling and gave me a proper ending because I whined about it... and he's the Savior of Doctor Who*! I still can't get over that.

*For some folks, Steven Moffat is going to wipe the stain of Russel T. Davies' era from Doctor Who. No more romance, or treating the Doctor like a god! He'll bring back darkness to Doctor Who, and cut out the lame humor! Of course, this neatly ignores that Moffat has had the most overt romance in his episodes, has had the Doctor defeat an undefeatable enemy by basically telling it to stop ("I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest Library in the Universe... look me up."), had the Doctor playing drunk, and has never killed anyone in his stories by any means but old age.

Don't get me wrong, I *Love* Moffat's stories, but I love RTD's stories too. I personally think RTD is brilliant. I've never met the guy, never spoken to him, but basing off his work, his interviews, and his really enlightening book "The Writer's Tale" have made me think he's one of the most brilliant Producer/Writers in showbiz today.

And yet, he has been derided for doing the same things Moffat gets praised for.

Personally, I think they should both be praised.