And how sweet is that to say, as it was on the verge of the abyss, cancellation-wise?
Episode 2.1: Vows Guest star: Jamie Bamber Written and directed by Joss Whedon
It's three months since Echo was rescued from Alpha's murderous clutches. Her first mission back is to become involved with a British businessman who is connected to one of Ballard's open FBI cases. Back home, Dr. Saunders has to deal with her lingering anger towards Topher.
Posts: 4244 | Location: SE Pennsylvania | Registered: May 27, 2005
Glad this show is back. There were for sure problems with season 1, but I hope they can make season 2 great like Weadon did with the second season of Buffy.
FYC-Album of the Year: Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night
A nice BSG reunion tonight; Bamber as the businessman (in his native accent, for once - he really hid it well while playing Apollo on the show) and Tahmoh Penikett (Helo on BSG, here as Agent Ballard).
*cue sarcastic remark from somebody on this board re: me bringing up BSG once more in 3....2....1....*
Posts: 4244 | Location: SE Pennsylvania | Registered: May 27, 2005
Really good premiere. I really enjoyed Eliza Dushku here, but Amy Acker hit it out of the park, showing once again why she would have been a terrific choice for the lead role.
Like last season, I'm going to enjoy this show for as long as I have it, which isn't long if the ratings are any indication. This week's assignment (taking down Jamie Bamber as a weapons dealer) was nothing to write home about, but the way Joss Whedon weaves dialogue about big topics -- humanity, identity, creation, consciousness -- is elegant and beguiling, and the performance of Amy Acker was typically superb. This is as thematically sophisticated a show as exists currently on TV, and it packs an emotional wallop.
Grade: A-
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
Definitely a strong start to the second season of this show, which no one really expected would happen. Clearly it's headed somewhere, and even without "Epitaph One" as an ultimate destination point, I think this episode indicates that this show should have a future.
Episode 2.2: Instinct Written by Michele Fazekas; directed by Tara Butters
When Echo is imprinted as a mother with a new baby, she takes way too strongly to the kid as a result of Topher’s modifications. Adelle pays November a visit, and Senator Perrin cranks up his investigation into the Rossum Corporation.
Posts: 4244 | Location: SE Pennsylvania | Registered: May 27, 2005
Episode 2.3: Belle Chose Guest star: Michael Hogan Written by Tim Minear; directed by David Solomon
Echo and Victor's imprints collide when Echo is sent on an assignment as a fun-loving, seductive college student and Victor is imprinted as the psychotic nephew of a Dollhouse shareholder.
Posts: 4244 | Location: SE Pennsylvania | Registered: May 27, 2005
Sigh. I wish everyone else could see what I'm seeing in this show. Everywhere else on the dial this season are shows everyone is over the moon about that I just can't get behind with real enthusiasm ("Glee," "FlashForward"), while this mostly ignored show is doing things that open up my imagination like no other show on TV right now. This week, the juxtaposition of scenes between the serial killer's prisoners and Echo on assignment as a professor's sex doll was a bold and thoughtful expression of how thin the line of exploitation really is. Was the professor's manipulation of the doll -- telling her she had control when he was the one secretly tugging the leash -- that much different than the killer's kidnapping and posing of his victims? Is either party really giving consent? Is the Dollhouse -- though it is prettier, cleaner, better organized, and self-policing -- any less criminal?
Extra points for the hilarity of Victor turning into a bimbo at a nightclub after a programming glitch.
And how quickly this show will die, while infinitely shallower dramas continue to take up residence across the dial. "Dollhouse" is in the same timeslot "Southland" was supposed to be in over on NBC. Quality TV is a dying breed on the major networks.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
Episode 2.4: Belonging Guest star: Keith Carradine Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; directed by Jonathan Frakes
Sierra, this is your (more recent) life. We learn more about her connection to the Rossum Corporation and the twisted trail of deception, obsession, and murder that led her to the Dollhouse.
After tonight, the series will go dark for the next month and return with double episodes beginning December 4th.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: PaulHan,
Posts: 4244 | Location: SE Pennsylvania | Registered: May 27, 2005
It's a real shame that the show is off the air until December, cause last nights episode is one of their best ever. I might even go as far as to say its the best episode of television I have seen so far this year, for a drama anyway.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Captain Obvious,
I am with you Captain, this was a terrific episode, up there with Broken and the Ring Finger as one of the best episodes of the season . Easily the darkest plot the show has ventured into and I loved how it tied with Saunders' exercise from the previous season. Lachman and particularly Williams and Kranz were terrific, Kranz benefiting the most in terms of character development.
Fox is really ****ing up with this airing of multiple episodes on Fridays in December. Disappointing indeed!
"Deadwood was defiantly and noisily unlike anything else on television.", Tom Shales "It’s very rare to see a television show that revolves around three generations of strong, smart, opinionated women, let alone one that was so well written and acted...Gilmore Girls! TV is going to be a lot less witty without you", Roxanne Connolly
That episode ranks among the series' very best (alongside "Epitaph One" and "Man on the Street"), and is easily the best episode of any series in this underwhelming television season so far. It hurts my heart and my head -- and all my other sensory organs -- that this show is a goner while lazy procedurals and poor pretenders like "FlashForward" thrive. That was a great piece of television storytelling.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
Originally posted by 742: That episode ranks among the series' very best (alongside "Epitaph One" and "Man on the Street"), and is easily the best episode of any series in this underwhelming television season so far. It hurts my heart and my head -- and all my other sensory organs -- that this show is a goner while lazy procedurals and poor pretenders like "FlashForward" thrive. That was a great piece of television storytelling.
After watching "Epitaph," I just wasn't sure where they were gonna go, how they were going to get back to where they were, after doing such exciting stuff ahead.
But wow, was "Vows," amazing. I loved the Topher/Whiskey stuff.
And Echo taking down an arms dealer! WOW. Awesome stuff. Second season starts off with a bang.
Just watched Instinct. I have to say, it's one of the worst episodes of Dollhouse since the early part of Season 1. I pretty much hated this ep.
I hated the unnecessary interaction between Eliza Dushku's character and her colleague from the Dollouse. Apparently, someone hired her to sit around and chat with Echo! (WHAT?) And they have a LONG extended scene together.
Also, Echo suddenly becomes a killer (almost) because she's a mother. (Say HUH?) Hated it. It felt very far outside the Dollhouse universe. She threatens the guy who hired her as a doll because of her baby. (WHAT?)
Just didn't like it at all.
However, there were two key moments which make this episode worth watching for. Fran Kranz, always watchable. And Miracle Laurie has a very nice interchange with Tahmoh Penikett. That was truly the highlight.
And in the next ep, Victor becomes a serial killer. (HUH?) By ACCIDENT? Who programmed this in? Don't like this new trend. Not one bit.
The Victor-killer episode is a very good one (the payoff for Enver Gjokaj is a hoot). I admired it a lot.
I don't understand why people are so down on "Instinct," or so confused. The concept was fairly plain to me, and I found it quite moving: Echo was programmed with more than the memories of a mother, she was programmed with the physiology of one, and the power of motherhood in a person is so strong that wiping her memory wasn't enough to eliminate her essential need to protect her baby. It's perfectly in line with the themes and storylines of "Dollhouse," because it continues to show that human beings are more than just memories, and the cruelty inflicted upon mother-Echo, who was created for a purpose and then tortured by it, goes to the heart of the moral quandary of the Dollhouse organization.
So yeah, I thought "Instinct" was terrific.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
