It’s been a while since Joss Whedon’s had a show on TV, since Firefly was cancelled, in fact. OK, he made Serenity and has been writing Season 8 of Buffy, which has been coming out as a comic, but there hasn’t been any of that Whedon magic in what he does best – TV series. When Dollhouse was announced it certainly got the fans excited, even before they saw it. There was Joss writing and a lot of his old gang were back together, in front of the camera and behind it. When the show first hit the airwaves, the reception was a bit lukewarm. The word was that maybe Joss was off his game. The idea behind the show was definitely different to what he’d done before, moving into a more mature type of sci-fi, moving away from the pop-culture and cross-genres we were used to. The basic concept is the Dollhouse contains young, beautiful people who have their personalities and memories completely removed so they can be replaced with new ones that allows them to service very rich clients. At its most basic it is a glorified whorehouse, but it is also a fix-it agency for said rich people should they need anything “handled”. The main character in the show is Echo, played by Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy/Angel), who also happens to be the show’s producer.
In the first few episodes of the show, we see Echo go on a variety of missions, in a caper-of-the-week style, which seemed more like a way for Dushku to show off her acting skills by portraying characters. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t lose the Faith. However, come episode six, the show moves up a gear or two and starts getting interesting, with all sorts of twists and turns leading up to an amazing season finale, but there was a further episode that wasn’t aired in the US that takes the series to a whole different level that will make the second season something to really look forward to.
If you didn’t see the show on the SciFi channel in the UK, and it was one if its highest rating shows ever, then you should catch it on DVD. Although the first episodes are a bit average they do help set up the show’s premise and give plenty of character background and development, so don’t skip them but persevere because once it kicks off properly you won’t be disappointed and the previous episodes will make more sense.
The DVD contains the unaired 13th episode, plus the original pilot that was scrapped, although some of it was salvaged for other episodes. There are plenty of behind the scenes stuff too with the ever-genial Whedon and his band of merry men (and women of course).
Dollhouse Season 1 is out now from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and is available from Play and all good retailers.
Season 2 starts on October 20 on the SciFi Channel in the UK.