Dollhouse - “The Target”
By JimK
(3 votes)
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1 
chuQue wrote:
The entire concept was tossed out the window. There was no discussion about what drove this personality to be an excellent rock climber, etc. Instead we learned she had four brothers, so she’s a bit of a tomboy.
I too felt that this should have been fleshed out this week; as it was such a plot point last week.
It could have been as easy as tossing in an un-natural fear of deer, or something. Because now I fear that the any future “weakness” are just easy plot devices to move the story in a specific direction.
PS, is twitter the appropriate format for a “live review”? 15 updates in an hour is a lot IMO
2 
buzzion wrote:
Felicia Day has mentioned that she will be in an episode of Dollhouse at some point as well.
And I think you might be right about Whedon maybe not being the best at writing, possibly with very early episodes. Once the universe is fully established he may be better suited. Get Minear to write more episodes.
It was ok, there were a few things that bugged me, but yeah a bit better than last week because there was no real need for additional logic beyond what the episode gives. The handler needs to be imprinted on the active? Yeah ok makes sense. That makes it better.
3 
Joe R. wrote:
It’s my understanding that Whedon has a pretty heavily involved writing hand, even when he’s not the credited writer—especially with dialogue.
This one was better than last week, but I’m still not sold on the show. I’m going to lay off it for a while and catch up later to avoid being driven again.
It feels like the programming is going to have to “break” sooner or later, probably leading to Echo and Langdon being on the run from the Dollhouse. Fuck it, no need for filler between now and then. Just skip to that episode.
4 chuQue wrote:
Fuck it, no need for filler between now and then. Just skip to that episode.
Please no, don’t say that. I don’t want to see the cliff notes of the story.
The change was set in place, she was drugged and nobody knows it so that may have long lasting effects. that may lead to the “break” but I don’t want them jumping anywhere I want to see the story unfold.
5 
JimK wrote:
Yeah I gotta go w/chuque on this one…I’d like to see it unfold as the B story to each week’s mission or encounter or appointment with a hooker or whatever the Dollhouse calls them
6 chuQue wrote:
It seems that Whedon is one of those great show runners who can’t,
There was a quote from Marti Noxon that I can’t find currently. The jist of which is ” all the memorable quotes are from Joss, he trusts us to make a great script then he goes back and tweaks the dialogue”
I get the feeling that he is going 90 to nothing all the time, with upteen projects in the fire and tons of lunches a day, there simply isn’t enough time to pen a whole season, and it is far more efficient to trust others and re-write as needed.
7 Joe R. wrote:
Guess I’m the odd man out. I’m just having a hard time giving a shit about watching Buffy and her Watcher slowly break from the Watcher’s Council, when Buffy has no personality of her own. This is different than a character with amnesia; at least a character with amnesia has motivation and character development. I can’t see how this can drag out indefinitely. Makes more sense to me to have Echo and Langdon on the run, and have the Dollhouse programming different peeps to come after them. I guess we’re just in disagreement over how long the first act can last. For me that was…two episodes. I’ll be back for act two, though.
Am I also the only one who thinks Harry Lennix is the breakout star of the show? More of him, please.
JimK: I decided to tweet my reactions to Dollhouse and compile them again. More after the tweetlog.
For those of you wondering about the words with the # symbol, that is what Twitter calls a hash tag and it’s used to search and track keywords, etc. Often they get turned into part of the comment.
As you can see, I came around. The writing and 95% of the performances dragged me around. In fairness I wanted to be dragged…the idea of disliking a Whedon-created venture was not a pleasant one. I are a fanboy, after all.
My complaints now mainly center around the fact that 1. Fox TV executives are total dickmonkeys and I hope they all metaphorically die tragically and painfully in a metaphorical fire and 2. That whoever is in charge of saying “We got it. Moving on.” needs to make sure that they get Eliza Dushku to emote. She can. She’s not actually the wet piece of cardboard the first episode made her seem.
SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers after this.
Things I loved:
- Seeing how Boyd came to feel responsible for Echo…the act of imprinting him on Echo also made him realize that he had a level of responsibility to earn the trust, regardless of how it came about. THIS is patented Joss Whedon…motivation and character, good people stepping up and fulfilling their potential. Heroes are not made in Whedon’s worlds…they discover they were always heroes. Warts and flaws and all.
- Loved the drugs making Echo see various parts of herself, imprinted personalities, etc. It makes sense in the science of this world. They likely developed this technique and started using it without fully understanding the long term effects. Plus, certain brain types are likely to react differently…hence Alpha and Echo
- Love the mystery behind Alpha. That’s more patented Whedon. Enough of a puzzle to keep you interested but not so much that you get pissed. I liked how we got to see how Dr. Saunders (AMy Acker) got her scars. And why didn’t he kill Echo?
- Eliza running and gunning is really the best thing this show could do. When Echo flipped the script on that dude and the show shifted into action mode, it got good.
Things I could take or leave:
- Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard. Not really connecting with him at all. The actor is afflicted with a severe case of SeriousFace, and not every moment the character is on screen needs to be Serious Business™. I wonder if the whole “someone is investigating the Dollhouse” couldn’t have been left for later episodes, something to bring in after we get settled with the Dollhouse itself and the idea that one of the Actives is a sociopathic murderer.
- I could also take or leave the fact that Topher the computer guy is 100% Wash from Firefly and also looks like Topher Grace so naming him Topher is too cute by half.
I really wish that last week’s episode never happened. If this was the first one, and a *tiny* amount of exposition was added to the script as intro, this would have been a far superior series premiere.
Going back to last week, I still say the whole concept that Echo was both nearsighted AND asthmatic AND had panic attacks over seeing her former kidnapper was a huge, stupid mistake. I get that in order to preserve the strength of a personality, one must include the flaw that drove them to excel. In last week’s episode it was the kidnapping that drove the hostage negotiator to be the best, in order to save other little girls from similar fates. The nearsightedness and asthma were 100% extraneous. All they did was make me question the “rules.” And this week? The entire concept was tossed out the window. There was no discussion about what drove this personality to be an excellent rock climber, etc. Instead we learned she had four brothers, so she’s a bit of a tomboy. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. No need for complicated stupid rules you end up wanting or needing to break later.
Anyway…I’m in. I’m ready to love the show if it can build on the improvements I saw this week. I want to love you, Joss! Just give me a chance. Just let me love you! #mancrush
*UPDATE*
JimK: Chuque let me know that Joss didn’t write this one…that got me started on an IMDB search and I discovered something: All my favorite Whedon episodes were written wholly or substantially by someone else (with Our Mrs. Reynolds being the exception). It seems that Whedon is one of those great show runners who can’t, to steal a phrase from his bad guy this week, put his shoulder to the wheel. He needs someone else to make his ideas work. Nothing wrong with that, and I’m not complaining about it at all. I just found it…interesting. I see next week’s episode is written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, who you may know from crazy & awesome Youtube videos and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. My hope, she is raised further.
02/21/2009 10:26 PM
Categories: TV
Tags: tv