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[eumelia]

I just finished watching the first episode of Joss Whedon's new show Dollehouse.
It's available via streaming (thanks nurint!) and the Pilot episode is titled Ghost.

The rest of this entry is placed under a cut for spoilers, I'm generally very bad with that sort of thing because I tend to watch things after they've been "out" for a while and thus don't bother. However, seeing as this is a brand spanking new show that only began this week, I'll be considerate.

The concept of this show isn't new. Take people, wipe their past, brain wash them into new identities and they will do your bidding.
The Bourne movies are examples of this, as is to a certain extent The Manchurian Candidate.

The main character, Doll, is Echo.
When I first heard of the show, I had this really elaborate theory of them naming her after the figure in Greek mythology who had her voice taken from her and had no words of her own.
It's not a theory totally removed from what I could tell, as these Dolls have their personalities stripped away and have new ones implanted to serve whatever purpose is needed at hand. Once their mission/engagements are finished, the memories of those events (along with the implanted personality) are removed.

No voice of their own.

Of course Echo is also US American Army code for the alphabetical letter "E".
There is another Doll by the name of Sierra - which is what tipped me off to the use of the Military code - and of course by the end of the episode there is a mysterious - dun-dun-dun - file which is about Alpha very likely the first Doll.

It begs the question - are there only 26 Dolls at any given time?
I suppose we shall see.

The moral ambiguity... isn't so ambiguous.
As a viewer, what I am seeing is just wrong.
On more than one level.

We are given the impression that all the Dolls chose to be there - in the very fist scene we see The-Girl-Before-She-Was-Echo (Eliza Dushku - worships briefly) sign away her life for five years instead of go to prison.
She is offered a life in which her actions have no consequences, neither good or bad.
Right there is the first ethical hiccup.
What meaning does any action have if there are no consequences. And in any event, it's not as though all the parties involved forget what went on... only the party not regarded as human.

The dehumanizing aspect disturbed me.
The women and men who have been wiped are called Dolls, they have Handlers, like zoo animals and as such are treated like expensive pets.
All of the Dolls live in the lap of luxury, but they are not self-aware, they don't know why they are there and they don't ask questions.
Except Echo.
Who is special and precocious.
I'm definitely rooting for her.

This is, of course, all done for the Greater Good.
I suppose the only way doctors, technophiles and ex-cops get to sleep well at night is to believe that.
Plus dehumanizing the Dolls, I should think.
The Greater Good of catering to the needs of the excessively wealthy.
Methinks for the Greater Good of the Head Authorities of the Dollhouse.
Another ethical hiccup.

The parallel plot is that of a Federal Agent who is sure that some kind of secret human trafficking is occurring, not to do with bringing women illegally across the border in order to enter them into the sex trade, but something else - which has to do with the personality wipes.
Another interesting aspect.

I'm not an automatic Joss-Fan. I didn't particularly enjoy Firefly, nor did I think Buffy Season 8 was a particularly well crafted comic book.
Teevee is where Joss belongs and I hope this show grows into its huge amount of potential.
Here's to a new show we can obsess about!

Comments

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

I missed the show due to another discussion group meeting, but I am watching it on Hulu right now. Thanks for heads-up.

Also, Firefly had the possibility of being better than Buffy had it managed to live beyond its measly half-season and rushed movie.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It looks quite good, though it made me cringe in a few places, for the pure ick factor and OMG! This is such a fucked up concept.

We shall have to differ on Firefly - I'm a Farscape kind of girl :D

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

I just finished the episode. Not bad, but it hasn't automatically hooked me, either. I'll continue watching to see if it gets better, but only because it's a Joss show.

[nurint.livejournal.com]

No problem, I owed you one for showing my the Doctor Christmas special ;)

I really liked the episode, and not just because of the slight gay moment between Echo and Fred (yes, I know the character has a different name in this show, but Amy Acker will always be "Fred" for me. Or at least until I actually remember her character's name here :P). It was disturbing and interesting and had a good pacing. I also really liked how the ghost of the monster hunted the victim all her life, and then her "ghost" got him killed - it's the kind of symbolism you'd find in Joss's work and not in many other places (and many of the other places will not be able to pull it off without giving the story of the movie an unnaturally "directed" feeling). The thing I was missing was the Joss humour (being a Buffy / Dr. Horrible fan), though I'm not sure it can be incorporated into this show without weakening it.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I think the pilot wasn't great, but it was very much aware of the creepiness inherent in its premise, and that's a good start. I really loved Firefly, but the "companion" part of the premise was extraordinarily badly handled, so it made me rather cautious about this one. I'll watch another episode, though.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

I think Dollhouse has potential - under the clunkiness of what I presume is network interference, they've managed to set up a lot of character arcs. I love the skeevy tech-guy, and the conflicted doctor, and the boss with her on-again/off-again philanthropy.

It begs the question - are there only 26 Dolls at any given time?

I wait with interest to meet others in the NATO alphabet - Golf? Hotel? Uniform? Alpha makes for a great hook, though. He/she could be anyone.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yes yes! Faith and Fred FTW!!!!!!!!

I agree on the humour bit as well. The only place I felt the Joss turn of phrase was with the creepy tech-geek who reminded me far too much of Warren for comfort.
He is by far the most disturbing character on the show.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I agree, the Pilot wasn't great.
But Pilots are rarely that great to begin with.
I may sound like a demented fangrrl by saying this, but the olny Pilot that ever hooked me was "Welcome to the Hellmouth", mainly because it was a double header!
Who does that?!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Definitely opened up a lot of plots.

Skeevy tech-guy reminded me too much of Warren *shudder* - did not enjoy the scenes with him.
I hope they make Doctor Fred the love interest! Now that would be great!

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I watched the Buffy pilot, hated it, and didn't get back into the show for three years! Then again, I may be one of the few people who loved "Encounter at Farpoint", also a double-episode, so who knows?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, because I know other fans who had the same reaction!
Mainly my sister.
It's been a while (11 years!) since the pilot was on, but I remember watching it falling in love and my older sister (there's 12 years between us) didn't watch it until season 3.

Could really be an age thing - I was 12 when BtVS fist appeared on teevee.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I was 24 when it started in Australia, so I'm about the same age as your sister. Actually, a lot of my flist who got into fandom via Buffy would be the same age as you, so I think you're right about the age gap.

[kaetien.livejournal.com]

I actually fell asleep in the last ten minutes of the show. I've been very sick lately, so this tends to happen a lot. I realized that when I wasn't all that upset about missing the end (my better half told me how it so predictably resolved) that this had better get good fast or I only give it 4 airing episodes.

Considering my original bet was 2 episodes aired, I'm giving it a LITTLE more credit ;) I want to see Joss do well, I want to enjoy his productions, but I really don't know if this one is going to do it for me. If anything I'll watch just for our luscious Eliza :D

[tamara-russo.livejournal.com]

Seems interesting enough, I'll give a few more eps to decide...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yes yes, Eliza... mmmm.

I too want to see Joss do well, his best medium is teevee and I want to glorify his genius.
So far... eh... but it's the pilot, so I'm waiting for next week for it to actually become interesting.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Ditto.