Whedon's
Dollhouse begins production
Five years
after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, and four years since
Angel, Joss Whedon “returned” to television last
week as production began on his latest series, Dollhouse, staring
former slayer-gone-bad Eliza Dushku. With the exception of directing
two episodes of NBC’s The Office the last few years,
Whedon has been absent from the television landscape since his landmark
shows ended. He did, however, write and direct the big-screen Serenity,
based on his short-lived FOX drama Firefly, and develop two
additional films, a Wonder Woman adaptation (he eventually
left that project due to creative differences) and an original script
called Goners (current status of which is unknown). Whedon
also spent time in the world of comic books, creating and writing Astonishing
X-Men, briefly taking over Runaways from creator Brian
K. Vaughn, and revisiting the Buffyverse with official comic
continuations of both Buffy and Angel.
It is television,
however, where Whedon plays to his strengths. In many ways, a two-hour
major motion picture is too confining for his talents when compared
to the longer television format, and while his ability to create great
storylines and write great dialogue are still evident in comic book
form, the medium doesn’t offer him the opportunity to showcase
his directing skills. Television, meanwhile, fits Joss Whedon like a
glove, and it is good to see him back.
One of
his many fans, who goes by the online name Gossi, posted this message
last week on the Dollhouse fansite:
“He (Whedon) once asked me—you know, jokingly—to invent
something which lets him talk to all the world at once. There’s
no way of doing that, but as I said at the time, there is something
better: television. People watch it, and not all of them to purely pass
the time to their graves. It makes people think. It infests their dreams,
and their lives. It can be silly, stupid, amazing and heartbreaking.
Or it can be Fear Factor. It’s a powerful medium which
has shaped my life, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only
person in that position. Welcome back to television, Joss. We missed
you.”
To which
I would add: well said, Gossi.
—Anthony
Letizia (April 28, 2008)
