Dollhouse 1x12 - Omega
May. 9th, 2009 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficTV seasons are just getting shorter and shorter, aren't they? What are we, British?
Echo finally experiences a convergence event and... she turns into Eliza Dushku. Shocker.
The thing is, Alpha's ranting about Caroline abandoning Caroline didn't make much sense. I know he's a psycho, but psychoes should generally have a cogent philosophy, like the Joker in TDK. Otherwise they're just a hodgepodge of cliches that end up quoting the Bible while they cut people up, and I've seen enough of that, thank you very much.
Alright, Paul, you managed to save the Dollhouse (I guess so you can save Echo). Don't look so smug about it. And you got Mellie out. That puts you up a notch in my book. Welcome to notch one.
I don't know what trope it's replacing, but apparently it's canon that some people, like Echo, have good souls that make them want to have healing-vagina sex with Patton Oswalt and others, like Alpha, have mean serial-killer souls that make them want to cut up Amy Acker (although judging by my f-list, that may just come from watching Angel). Sorry, Alpha, you have an evil soul.
Then in the final five minutes we have Boyd, Ballard, and Omega!Echo standing around. That's a professional FBI agent dedicated to bringing the Dollhouse down, a Dollhouse employee with serious reservations about his work, and Batgirl. So what do you think they do? They walk back into the Dollhouse and say "Hey, Echo needs another memory wipe so she can keep getting raped, ya mind?" I once said that Joss Whedon valued ironic symmetry over characters; that was an off-the-cuff remark, but damn if he didn't prove it.
I guess in season two they would've revealed that Ballard and Echo (and Whiskey) have decided to bring down the Dollhouse from the inside, but I would've liked some on-screen acknowledgment of that in what could be the FINAL EPISODE EVAH! You know, "it's time we take the fight to the Dollhouse," something to get us pumped for season two. Anything except "Caroline." After all, usually repeating a line like that is an ironic echo, showing how far the characters have come since then. But these characters have regressed.
I can't help but thinking that the old, cool Joss Whedon would've had Caroline's wedge be destroyed and then have the series carry on with Echo on the run, trying to destroy the Dollhouse. And, plus, while Eliza Dushku is playing Not!Fath, Sierra and Victor get to do the Doll storylines. Yeah, fuck the status quo! This feels more like a Whedon that is burnt-out and out of ideas and he just doesn't want the Fox network to publish those pictures of him doing litigation-worthy things to sheep.
I think, in the final estimation, Dollhouse is going to be a case of an intriguing but flawed premise that's then executed poorly. And stuff like Paul Ballard being a rapist... I expect better from Whedon. Especially the part where Echo... forgives Topher for being a mind-raping ass? Seriously, what the fuck was going on there?
Echo finally experiences a convergence event and... she turns into Eliza Dushku. Shocker.
The thing is, Alpha's ranting about Caroline abandoning Caroline didn't make much sense. I know he's a psycho, but psychoes should generally have a cogent philosophy, like the Joker in TDK. Otherwise they're just a hodgepodge of cliches that end up quoting the Bible while they cut people up, and I've seen enough of that, thank you very much.
Alright, Paul, you managed to save the Dollhouse (I guess so you can save Echo). Don't look so smug about it. And you got Mellie out. That puts you up a notch in my book. Welcome to notch one.
I don't know what trope it's replacing, but apparently it's canon that some people, like Echo, have good souls that make them want to have healing-vagina sex with Patton Oswalt and others, like Alpha, have mean serial-killer souls that make them want to cut up Amy Acker (although judging by my f-list, that may just come from watching Angel). Sorry, Alpha, you have an evil soul.
Then in the final five minutes we have Boyd, Ballard, and Omega!Echo standing around. That's a professional FBI agent dedicated to bringing the Dollhouse down, a Dollhouse employee with serious reservations about his work, and Batgirl. So what do you think they do? They walk back into the Dollhouse and say "Hey, Echo needs another memory wipe so she can keep getting raped, ya mind?" I once said that Joss Whedon valued ironic symmetry over characters; that was an off-the-cuff remark, but damn if he didn't prove it.
I guess in season two they would've revealed that Ballard and Echo (and Whiskey) have decided to bring down the Dollhouse from the inside, but I would've liked some on-screen acknowledgment of that in what could be the FINAL EPISODE EVAH! You know, "it's time we take the fight to the Dollhouse," something to get us pumped for season two. Anything except "Caroline." After all, usually repeating a line like that is an ironic echo, showing how far the characters have come since then. But these characters have regressed.
I can't help but thinking that the old, cool Joss Whedon would've had Caroline's wedge be destroyed and then have the series carry on with Echo on the run, trying to destroy the Dollhouse. And, plus, while Eliza Dushku is playing Not!Fath, Sierra and Victor get to do the Doll storylines. Yeah, fuck the status quo! This feels more like a Whedon that is burnt-out and out of ideas and he just doesn't want the Fox network to publish those pictures of him doing litigation-worthy things to sheep.
I think, in the final estimation, Dollhouse is going to be a case of an intriguing but flawed premise that's then executed poorly. And stuff like Paul Ballard being a rapist... I expect better from Whedon. Especially the part where Echo... forgives Topher for being a mind-raping ass? Seriously, what the fuck was going on there?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 03:57 pm (UTC)I'm never going to forgive Joss Whedon for that particular bit of fuckery.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 06:18 pm (UTC)I'm also pouty about this contract voluunteered bull, it's so laaaaame. I mean blackmail and memory wipe keep I get, taking saaaay psych patients out of a psych ward I get. Hey, even taking them as children from orphanages, wiping them and having them at a different dollhouse doing different fantasies and as they grow older moving them to different houses associated with what they do. Actually that one may still be executable like discovering heeeeeeeeey the dollhouse we are watching is the violent/brothel equivalent there is another across the country designed for more mundane fantasy or extravagant scenarios requiring more preparation like a era piece.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 08:42 am (UTC)Once imprinted, they aren't the person they were, they're a new person - a new person who might really, really want to have sex with the person in question.
That was the central theme of Dollhouse for me - the mutability of the human spirit.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-12 11:37 pm (UTC)As to Ballard's joining the Dollhouse: it made sense in context, if you think about it. We know Ballard felt guilty about what he did to Mellie, and it's a safe bet he also felt guilty about what he unknowingly helped Alpha do. By helping the Dollhouse in exchange for November's freedom, Ballard can assuage his guilt on both fronts. Even then, note that Adelle refers to him as a "contractor" - meaning he's there for one specific reason. Namely, to help hunt down Alpha. After that's done, he no doubt intends to bring them down, probably using whatever information he's learned in the interim. This offers him a great opportunity to find out more about the Dollhouse, their clients, their operations... just about everything he needs to know. Of course, Adelle must have realized this as well, and no doubt has contingency plans in place. This would be a very interesting dynamic, if there is a second season.