"Like “Measure for Measure,” “Dollhouse” is a calculated venture into “dark comedy” – if we mean very, very dark comedy indeed, like Dante’s “Comedy” in the deepest reaches of Hell, where the betrayers of trust are situated. Or it’s Whedon’s venture into “problem comedy” or “tragicomedy.” All of these are labels applied so uneasily to “Measure For Measure,” of course, because in it Shakespeare chooses to give us a noble brother in prison, facing execution for a sexual misdemeanor, who begs his devout little sister to leave her convent and give her body to the magistrate (a man obsessed with her virginity) in exchange for his own life. To put it in the modern vernacular, “you only have to do it once and then you can forget it ever happened/act like it never happened.” This is the dollhouse protocol too, only it’s for a five-year contract and you do it over and over…."Having not seen the series yet, I'll admit to only having glanced through much of the post so as not to spoil anything, but the reaction to the series has been much the same to the general opinion of Measure which is rarely produced and hasn't seen a proper film version. People don't tend to know what they think of it because though it asks a great many questions about the human condition it's also extremely bawdy in places and all of the characters have shades of grey. Other than Hamlet it's my favourite of his plays. So will that mean Dollhouse will be my favourite of the Whedons?
shades of grey
TV I've been mulling over whether to buy the Region One release of Dollhouse but this piece which compares the series to Shakespeare's Measure for Measure might just convince me:
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To celebrate the renewal I'd planned to watching the first season again and it'll be even more interesting to do it with this context in mind. At first glance, it does fit well.
It's a good parallel, but not a good series. That's the best way of putting it I think - I seriously doubt it'll be your favourite Whedon show, assuming you manage even to make it to episode six, the acknowledged point at which Fox stopped interfering and left Whedon to his own devices. After which point it became precisely "not bad" and "maybe a bit intriguing if there's some decent answers to some not totally exciting questions".
How does it compare to Tru Calling which I watched on the stength of Dushku being in and lost patience with?
Tru Calling probably got interesting as soon as you lost patience with it - after a few mix 'em ups with multiple deaths, Jason Priestley turns up as the anti-Tru, a guy who can roll time back a day as well, but he does it to ensure that people end up dying the way they were supposed to.
At first you think he's just an evil sod, but it becomes quite an interesting discussion about fate and whether people really should die or not - Tru saves her boyfriend from death, even though he doesn't ask for it, and he becomes this morbid, soulless husk of a man. There's also one where JP has to ensure his girlfriend dies, which is quite moving.
It's also revealed that Tru's dad is the previous generation's JP to Tru's mum Tru and that her dad had her killed to stop her from rolling back time. IIRC correctly, the back story was that there are two universal powers, the basic one who's in charge and this upstart one who wants to change the order of things by giving people the option at the point of death to have another go. The series would have gone on to have a look at that, without necessarily taking sides - potentially even arguing that JP was on the right side, not Tru.
Dollhouse doesn't yet have that level of cool. It feels like an intellectual exercise and a series of artificial questions that aren't really worth answering and the show doesn't really answer either. The characters aren't really involving - which is mainly the fault of having a show in which people have implanted personalities. The "spy of the week" stories the show starts with and occasionally drops into later episodes are just awful and poor old Eliza is a little out of her depth and one-note at times.
The set-up by the end of the second season is a damn sight more interesting than at the start of the first, albeit less plausible, and there are some interesting things being raised - but given all the interesting points raised in the first season that did get answered were answered badly (eg, without spoiling, the identity and plans of Alpha), I'm not expecting great things of the second season, but I live in hope.
The fights are cool though - Tahmoh Penikett's a very good martial artist and there's almost a tribute fight of sorts (modern MMA/Muay Thai versus Faith-style Buffy martial arts of the late 90s) in the sixth episode.
I'd actually say Dollhouse is better written than Tru Calling but not as well plotted and doesn't look at as interesting questions.
Wow. thanks for that answer.
On the basis of that, it's worth noting that the first seasons of both Buffy and Angel weren't that great either. Buffy in particular had a fair few duff moments and then look what happened. Firefly hit the ground running, but sometimes great ideas write themselves.
On the balance of odds I think that I will end up buying on the basis of:
(a) It's a Joss show.
(b) Avoiding spoilers is a continued torture. I already sort of know what happens at the end of BSG which is a pain in the derrière and I'd for that to happen here
(c) I'd quite like to be up to speed.
(d) It's only £23 and bound to be more expensive in the UK. Amazon'll probably reduce it to a tenner in six months, but I'll be buying the time I guess.
(e) Isn't Bruckner's 7th a maritime whirlwind? Was it composed before of after Debussey's La Mer?
(f) I'm going off topic.
I might just give Tru Calling another go. I did stop watching in the middle of the first episode when it looked like I'd already worked out the formula and couldn't arsed with watching it weekly, which is a bit unfair.
I would never have stopped during the first episode, if only because Hudson Leick was in it. And, weirdly, in between pilot episode and the actual episode, they managed to drop an entire character: a computer games designer with a thing for Tru who had her in one of his games.
Think I slightly mangled the plot of Tru Calling, since now I think about JP couldn't roll back time - and neither could Tru, it was the people who asked her – but he remembered everything when time did roll back, just as she did. And when she saved people, he'd kill someone else to ensure the universal balance was maintained. Think she managed to save dead boyfriend because someone else asked for a rollback. It was still interesting though.
There were some other twists, some involving her morgue boss who I think knew her mum, and her brother ends up helping her, too, so there was a fair bit of development in season one. Season two is by far the more interesting though. But I don't think season one hotted up until a good few episodes in, so it really took way too long to find its groove.
Think SciFi has started airing Dollhouse in the UK or will begin airing this week.
Well, I know, I'm usually a bit more tolerant. I gave both Desperate Housewives and Gre(a)y's Anatomy a whole season before I dropped them.
I suppose if TC hadn't been cancelled I would have stuck with it sooner. But then, I saw the whole of Odyssey 5 and I knew that was going nowhere. I rarely make any sense sometimes.
But Tru will be returning to my Lovefilm list and I'll be giving it another go.
Yes, Dollhouse is on sci-fi this week but I'm Skyless so...
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