Abrams
and Whedon Give FOX a 'Cutting-Edge' Boost
They
created two of the most memorable television series on The WB, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Felicity. They then went on to
develop additional shows for other networks—Firefly for
FOX and Alias for ABC—and while each series was critically
acclaimed, neither drew significant viewer ratings. They even directed
back-to-back episodes of the NBC comedy The Office, prompting
Kristin Dos Santos of E!
to declare them “the two best TV directors alive.” And they
are considered to be amongst the most innovative and groundbreaking
television producers of the Twenty-First Century.
J.J. Abrams
and Joss Whedon now have one additional thing in common as well: both
will return to the small screen with two of the most highly anticipated
new series of the 2008-2009 television season, Fringe
and Dollhouse.
FOX Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, on whose network the shows
will air, told The
Hollywood Reporter that “we
have high expectations” for Fringe, while adding that
he was “confident (Dollhouse) will become the next tent
pole series for FOX.”
Fringe,
which premiers this fall in the ten o’clock Tuesday time slot
following House, was created by Abrams along with Roberto Orci
and Alex Kurtzman. The show centers around FBI Special Agent Olivia
Dunham (Anna Torv), who is brought in to investigate the mysterious
deaths of both passengers and crew on an international air flight. She
eventually seeks the assistance of the brilliant-but-institutionalized
Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson),
which in turn leads her to the edge of “fringe” science
and the cusp of conspiracy.
In Whedon’s
Dollhouse, meanwhile, Eliza Dushku plays Echo, a member of
an underground, illegal group of “actives” who are capable
of having their memories erased while also being “implanted”
with new personalities. These “actives” are then rented
out to the wealthy, privileged and powerful for various role-but-real-playing
scenarios. Echo starts to have certain memories remain after her re-programming,
however, while FBI Agent Paul Smith (Tahmoh Penikett) becomes determined
to find the “dollhouse” that serves as home for the “actives,”
eventually leading to danger for all involved. The show will premier
in January as the Monday night lead-in for 24.
Because
of the recent writers strike and subsequent changes to the “new
show” selection process, the pilot episodes for each were not
shown to advertisers last month during the annual up-front presentations
(when the networks announce their fall schedules). Zap2It
was able to read drafts of the scripts, however, and wrote that Fringe
“has an X-Files meets Altered States meets Alias
vibe that’s immediately familiar and comfortable. The actual plot
of the (two-hour) pilot could probably have fit into a standard hour,
but Abrams and Company are making the effort to give the material a
global scale and the script plants at least a half-dozen potential running
mysteries that will allow Fringe to have both serialized elements
and also freak-of-the-week plots.” In regards to Dollhouse,
the website said, “Whedon’s script builds into a mystery
that’s as much philosophical as science fiction. The introduction
to the show’s universe is immediately disorienting, but also enthralling,
as Whedon mixes elements of the conspiracy thriller with what threatens
to become a profound meditation on identity.”
The Televisionary
weblog also reviewed Whedon’s script, commenting that “in
the gifted hands of Joss Whedon, Dollhouse is a beautiful enigma
wrapped in a riddle, a gripping conspiracy story for the ages filled
with urban legends, memory tampering, and long-buried secrets coming
to the fore. It’s a Shakespearean story of hubris and likely vengeance,
filled with sound and fury and signifying, well, lots.”
The website
also viewed the pilot episode for Fringe, likewise comparing
it to The X-Files. “In this case, the aliens aren’t
from outer space: they’re the mega-corporations that dot the American
landscape, pushing science and technology past their limits and exploiting
that for their own gain,” Televisionary
writes. “It poses several ethical questions: when does the pursuit
of scientific discovery go too far? Who is monitoring the rapid advances
in technology in today’s day and age? And what happens when a
scientist—or a group of scientists—decides that the world
is their laboratory?”
Both Abrams
and Whedon have ventured into philosophical realms before, invoking
a storytelling-style that not only offers enjoyable entertainment but
that invites intellectual discourse as well. Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
for instance, was a metaphor for life from high school through college,
while the spin-off Angel dealt with issues faced when one steps
out on their own and has to survive in the world around them. And Abram’s
Lost, for all of its in-depth characterizations and mysteries,
is in essence a dissertation on such notions as free-will, preordained-destiny
and science-versus-faith. Questions of “identity” and “redemption”
are also key themes in the works of the two auteurs, and both Fringe
and Dollhouse seem ripe to continue such explorations.
Joshua
Jackson, for instance, recently attempted to distance Fringe
from The X-Files, explaining to SciFi.com
that “Fringe takes the world that we all live in and
says, ‘All right, so what you know about this cup you don’t
actually know, because if you look at it from over here, it’s
something entirely different.’ And that will be the thrust of
the show: that the physical world that we live in, without the addition
of any magic or any supernatural, is far more than we all see it as
being.”
As for
Dollhouse, Whedon likewise offered SciFi.com
a deeper understanding of the show’s concept. “It’s
sort of taking the role of a Frankenstein monster and saying, ‘Who
am I? Who created me? Why am I like this? What’s good about me?
What’s bad about me? What’s eternal about me? And what’s
just evanescent?’” he explained. “And everyone in
the show is dealing with that same issue, but for a different reason.
That, to me, is the heart of the thing: ‘Well, who are we?’”
While FOX
continues to market itself as “cutting-edge,” the network
has too often relied on reality shows and weak-scripted series—with
a handful of notable exceptions—every since The X-Files
ended its nine-year run in 2002. Part of this has to do with its tendency
to prematurely cancel potential quality shows like Whedon’s Firefly,
as well as Tim Minear’s Wonderfalls, The Inside
and Drive, based upon initial sub-par ratings. Recent management
changes, however, gives hope that both Fringe and Dollhouse
will have longer staying power, especially since FOX is scheduling both
series in prime time-slots. Fringe and Dollhouse have
also been chosen for the network’s new “Remote-Free TV”
strategy of reducing the number of commercial breaks during broadcasts.
“It’s
a simple concept and potentially revolutionary,” Fox Entertainment
Chairman Peter Liguori told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re
going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason
for viewers to use the remote. We’re going to redefine the viewing
experience.”
J.J. Abrams
and Joss Whedon have already redefined the television experience for
millions of viewers with their previous simple-yet-revolutionary creations,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost. Here’s hoping
that Fringe and Dollhouse continue in those innovative
and groundbreaking footsteps.
June 2,
2008
