Dollhouse "Briar Rose"
May. 4th, 2009 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulQuick thoughts on last week's episode of "Dollhouse"
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faeriesfolly, don't worry, I managed to un-spoil myself because after the first introduction of Alan Tudyk, I got all confused and somehow convinced myself that he wasn't Alpha. haha.
On the other hand, HOLY CRAP I don't think I realized how scary Alan Tudyk can be if he wants to. That loveable Wash grin can turn into the sneer of a mass murderer with just the right head-tilt. Yikes!
I really liked the whole "princess in the castle" parallel story going on there (much love for Jane Espenson), gave the show an extra layer it had been missing. Also nice to see the Dollhouse being used for good. I think we needed more of that fuzzy-gray-area stuff earlier in the series. I was a bit confused over how the job was taken...Topher appears to be claiming the whole thing as his idea but did he pay for it? Was it charity work that DeWitt wanted done? Was it all just an experiment to see if Topher could pull the brain-aging-process off?
More and more I feel like Boyd is in the Dollhouse to bring it down. Maybe he was Paul in another life, but he realized before getting in as deep as Paul, that storming the castle (so to speak) would not solve anything. I think Echo's transformation will hit him the hardest since he has grown attached for her (very Giles & Buffy) and his feelings for her are more than that of a caretaker. He might be the one that has to take Alpha out (or Alpha is going to get him immediately)
Poor Victor. I guess that is the end of him. No one will want a scarred up Doll. also, I wonder what the whole "did you always want to be a doctor" question was about? I have a bad feeling that next week's episode will open with a very dead Claire. :(
Next week looks very Bonnie & Clyde. Sort of wished I hadn't watched the preview because I feel like I saw a LOT of next week's show in there...blah, need to practice more self restraint!
Speaking of, I feel like this is what the entire season has been leading up to and that has been the problem with Dollhouse. FOX says they will take 13 episodes. Joss & Co. figure out how they want to season to start and what will go down in the finale, but I think it was episodes 2-9 that through them for a loop. Perhaps they had other things they wanted to do and the rumored "dumb-it-down-love-FOX" notes caused us to tread water with Echo-of-the-week stories. Or maybe we hadn't experienced a "Season 1" of Whedon in awhile. I mean, if you go back and rewatch Buffy (and somehow wipe your brain of the rest of the series) Season 1 is a pretty slow starter too - the first episode is great, and the finale is OMG, but there are a lot of in-betweeners that are just okay. It was more solid than Dollhouse, but it wasn't golden from day 1. Firefly might have been the most fully formed show that Joss has ever done, maybe because he was immersed in Buffy and Angel and already had his head in series that were running at full speed and didn't feel like slowing down so he starts Firefly off that way too...
but I digress. I would really like to see Dollhouse get a second season because that is where these shows usually shine. We're finally getting into the meat of the show, of where it is all going. Everything they set up has been turned on its head, so far as Boyd being Echo's handler forever, Paul searching for the Dollhouse etc.. - those things are over. Whatever the writers had in mind for season 2, it is very different from season 1.
faeriesfolly, don't worry, I managed to un-spoil myself because after the first introduction of Alan Tudyk, I got all confused and somehow convinced myself that he wasn't Alpha. haha. On the other hand, HOLY CRAP I don't think I realized how scary Alan Tudyk can be if he wants to. That loveable Wash grin can turn into the sneer of a mass murderer with just the right head-tilt. Yikes!
I really liked the whole "princess in the castle" parallel story going on there (much love for Jane Espenson), gave the show an extra layer it had been missing. Also nice to see the Dollhouse being used for good. I think we needed more of that fuzzy-gray-area stuff earlier in the series. I was a bit confused over how the job was taken...Topher appears to be claiming the whole thing as his idea but did he pay for it? Was it charity work that DeWitt wanted done? Was it all just an experiment to see if Topher could pull the brain-aging-process off?
More and more I feel like Boyd is in the Dollhouse to bring it down. Maybe he was Paul in another life, but he realized before getting in as deep as Paul, that storming the castle (so to speak) would not solve anything. I think Echo's transformation will hit him the hardest since he has grown attached for her (very Giles & Buffy) and his feelings for her are more than that of a caretaker. He might be the one that has to take Alpha out (or Alpha is going to get him immediately)
Poor Victor. I guess that is the end of him. No one will want a scarred up Doll. also, I wonder what the whole "did you always want to be a doctor" question was about? I have a bad feeling that next week's episode will open with a very dead Claire. :(
Next week looks very Bonnie & Clyde. Sort of wished I hadn't watched the preview because I feel like I saw a LOT of next week's show in there...blah, need to practice more self restraint!
Speaking of, I feel like this is what the entire season has been leading up to and that has been the problem with Dollhouse. FOX says they will take 13 episodes. Joss & Co. figure out how they want to season to start and what will go down in the finale, but I think it was episodes 2-9 that through them for a loop. Perhaps they had other things they wanted to do and the rumored "dumb-it-down-love-FOX" notes caused us to tread water with Echo-of-the-week stories. Or maybe we hadn't experienced a "Season 1" of Whedon in awhile. I mean, if you go back and rewatch Buffy (and somehow wipe your brain of the rest of the series) Season 1 is a pretty slow starter too - the first episode is great, and the finale is OMG, but there are a lot of in-betweeners that are just okay. It was more solid than Dollhouse, but it wasn't golden from day 1. Firefly might have been the most fully formed show that Joss has ever done, maybe because he was immersed in Buffy and Angel and already had his head in series that were running at full speed and didn't feel like slowing down so he starts Firefly off that way too...
but I digress. I would really like to see Dollhouse get a second season because that is where these shows usually shine. We're finally getting into the meat of the show, of where it is all going. Everything they set up has been turned on its head, so far as Boyd being Echo's handler forever, Paul searching for the Dollhouse etc.. - those things are over. Whatever the writers had in mind for season 2, it is very different from season 1.
