Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

Although the FOX drama Dollhouse had a rocky twenty-six episode run—including network interference, a Friday night “death slot,” low viewership and eventual cancellation—the fourth television endeavor of creator Joss Whedon still managed to rise above those obstacles to become a genre-breaking classic in its own right. With a very non-network television premise—the Dollhouse is an underground organization that programs people to become anyone (while likewise erasing their original personalities) and the selling its services to the rich and powerful—Whedon was able to explore the nature of fantasy, produce an dissertation on identity, create a first-class conspiracy thriller and provide a cautionary tale of the dangers of unchecked technological advances.

—alterna-tv.com

Dollhouse Season One Review

In Joss Whedon’s fourth foray into network television—the FOX drama Dollhouse—actress Eliza Dushku portrays Echo, an “active” employed by an illicit underground organization that deals in human fantasy. The Dollhouse, as the organization is known, has perfected mind-replacement technology which enables it to “program” people to be anyone, without any memories of who they were before. During the course of season one, however, the technology is revealed to be not as clear-cut as advertised, for remnants of past imprints (as they are called) linger in Echo, while another active—the murderous Alpha—has been able to retain all previous personas and escape the Dollhouse. Add an FBI agent intent on finding both Echo and the Dollhouse into the mix, and one has a combination of adventure, drama and intrigue, with a fair share of kick-ass fights and requisite sex thrown in for good measure.

In a sense, Dollhouse is about high-end prostitution taken to the next level—not only are “bodies” sold, but minds as well. Fantasies can be acted out not simply through the use of role-playing or pretend, but for real. Human beings literally become whoever one wants them to be. While such a premise opens up many moral issues about society, as well as philosophical questions of identity, Whedon clouds these issues through the numerous characters that populate the Dollhouse landscape. Rather than having a clear-cut “good guy” outsider battling the “bad guy” insiders, these characters instead wage the central issues themselves, internally, through their own individual and complex natures.

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Dollhouse Season Two Review

“At those hearings you will hear a most innocent word, a word that will take on a new and grim meaning,” a United States Senator announces in season two of the FOX drama Dollhouse. “A word that will become synonymous with human trafficking, prostitution and unconscionable abuses of neurotechnology. That word is Dollhouse, an urban myth that has become all too real. Where people have their memories erased and are brainwashed to do things that would appall the most cynical among us.”

Creator Joss Whedon initially intended Dollhouse to serve as an exploration of the underbelly of society as described above, including the psychological need for fantasy, as well as a critique on identity and what it means to be human. The television series thus follows an elicit organization that is capable of removing a person’s memories and persona while replacing them with the “made to order” characteristics specified by high-paying clients. The characters on the show are morally grey, including the former FBI agent intent on bringing the Dollhouse—as the organization is known—down. The main protagonist of the series, meanwhile, is an “active” named Echo (Eliza Dushku) whose services are routinely sold and is often a brand new, slate-wiped-clean personality each episode.

With such subject matter and a lead character that changes personas each week, it is not hard to understand why Dollhouse struggled in the ratings. A tug of war developed between FOX and Joss Whedon during the show’s first season, effectively turning that inaugural effort into an initial handful of standalone episodes that failed to live up to the potential of Dollhouse and a much more effective second half that balanced the network’s needs with Whedon’s original intent of philosophical dissertation on the nature of humanity.

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ADDITIONAL ALTERNA-TV.COM ARTICLES:

Dollhouse and Rossum's Universal Robots Exploration of the Joss Whedon drama Dollhouse and the 1920 Czech play Rossum’s Universal Robots, from which the Rossum Corporation took its name.

Dollhouse and Science Fiction Films of the 1980s Comparisons of the short-lived FOX drama Dollhouse to quintessential sci-fi films of the 1980s, including Blade Runner, RoboCop, Total Recall and The Terminator.

Dollhouse: The Man on the Street Interviews Exploration of the criticisms and storylines of the Joss Whedon drama Dollhouse using the episode “The Man on the Street” as catalyst.

The Philosophy of Joss Whedon: In His Own Words An examination of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and Dollhouse through the words of their creator, as collected in the book Joss Whedon: Conversations.

Whedonistas Offers Female Reflection on Joss Whedon Review of the book Whedonistas! A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them which offers personal reflections on Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse.

 

ALTERNA-TV.COM SEASON ONE EPISODE RECAPS:

Dollhouse Episode One: Ghost The pilot episode of the Joss Whedon drama, which introduces the main characters and basic premise of the series.

Dollhouse Episode Two: The Target Echo is literally hunted during an engagement while flashbacks more fully introduce Dollhouse handler Boyd Langton and rogue active Alpha.

Dollhouse Episode Three: Stage Fright While on an assignment to protect a pop singer, Echo displays traits that are outside of her imprint programming.

Dollhouse Episode Four: Grey Hour Echo is somehow remotely-wiped during an engagement, forcing the Dollhouse to struggle with how to handle the situation.

Dollhouse Episode Five: True Believer Echo infiltrates a radical religious cult, whose similarities to the Dollhouse are more than one might think.

Dollhouse Episode Six: Man on the Street The episode in which the series finally finds its creative footing and FBI Agent Paul Ballard comes face-to-face with the object of his obsession.

Dollhouse Episode Seven: Echoes The unleashing of a developmental memory drug on a local college provides the setting to explore Echo’s pre-Dollhouse identity Caroline.

Dollhouse Episode Eight: Needs The Dollhouse takes steps to provide closure to its actives in the hopes of bringing order to the organization.

Dollhouse Episode Nine: A Spy in the House of Love The Dollhouse discovers that there is a mole within the organization and scrambles to catch the spy.

Dollhouse Episode Ten: Haunted Echo is imprinted with a dead friend of Adelle DeWitt so that the deceased woman can solve her own murder.

Dollhouse Episode Eleven: Briar Rose Paul Ballard’s quest to find the Dollhouse finally comes to fruition, but so do the plans of rogue-active Alpha.

Dollhouse Episode Twelve: Omega The Dollhouse, with Paul Ballard’s assistance, attempt to rescue Echo from the rogue-active Alpha, who has plans for her.