continuing dollhouse

[kaydeefalls]

Oddly enough, this show is kinda growing on me. I say oddly because it seems like everyone else on my flist hates it, which, y'know, I see where there are major issues. Starting with the very skeevy premise, and continuing with the part where I'm still not Eliza Dushku's number one fan. Also, please to be giving Helo Agent Ballard some characterization soon; I like Tahmoh Penikett a lot, it'd be nice for him to have something to work with. But I really like Boyd, and Topher is growing on me (though he hasn't quite mastered the delivery of Whedon's dialogue yet; he's the Wash character prototype without the humanity or Alan Tudyk's natural charm, but he's improving with each episode). And the Dolls are starting to develop vague but consistent personalities, which makes it easier to start, y'know, giving a shit about them.

Obviously we are rooting to overthrow the entire organization. That's a bit too black-and-white for my tastes, though, but while Whedon has a tendency to rock the moral ambiguity of his heroes, he still likes keeping his good vs. evil very clearly defined, which is a pity. I'd like to explore shades of gray with the baddies a bit, but given that the premise of what they're doing is SO FUCKING SKEEVY, that's unlikely to happen.

The dialogue is getting increasingly Whedonesque with each successive episode, thank fucking god. The pilot was utterly devoid of humor, which sucked. There are more flashes of cleverness in the second episode, though, and the third has its moments.

I thought at first that Ballard was going to be revealed as a Doll, actually -- that would be nicely Blade Runner-ish. But Victor! That was a nice little twist. On the other hand, I'm starting to wonder if Alpha might be building his own Dolls, and if maybe Ballard is one of his. That would be kind of awesome.

Okay, and basically I am absurdly excited about Tudyk as Alpha. SO MUCH. I have a bit of a kink for very personable and friendly actors playing against type, or pretty boys as villains. See: Heath Ledger as Joker, Elijah Wood in Sin City, etc. I loved the moments in Firefly when Wash got a bit dark ("War Stories", mostly), so dark!creepy!Tudyk is likely to rock my world.

Anyway. So yeah. Mostly, I enjoy this show once I've checked my reservations at the door and suspended my disbelief with the sketchiness of the premise. It's not brilliant, but it's decent entertainment, and hopefully it will continue improving as it goes along. Most shows take a while to find their groove, anyway.

Also, starting to ship Echo/Sierra just a bit.

Comments

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I agree that the writing has improved a bit each week, although I'm still waiting for it to feel more Whedon-esque. The major issue is the lack of characterization. I don't have a strong feel for any of the characters, really, except for possibly Topher. And part of that is the blank-slate Dolls that we start off with, which, as you point out, makes it difficult to root for them when you feel no connection with them. But yeah, they seem to be developing flashes of personality slowly, which will hopefully make it easier.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the characterization is still badly lacking, which is weird -- Whedon characters tend to have very strong personalities right off the bat. But we'll see...

[msilverstar]

Once Our Alan is on the show, I will give it another try.

You like the personable guys playing villains, did you ever see the play "Nuts"? We saw it off-Broadway on our honeymoon, and it was nicely twisty. It may not be as much of a surprise now, and I don't know how well the Barbra Streisand movie holds up, but as a future director, you might want to look at the original script (not the screenplay, I don't think).

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Nope, I'm not familiar with that one. I'll look up the script.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

*CLAPS* SO excited to be able to *squee* over Alan-as-Alpha (so many people are still spoiler-free about this one so I can't mention it that much). LOVE Alan and Alan-as-a-bad!ass = *squee* overload.

I LOVE the idea of Paul as Alpha's creation and I actually think that'd be an AWESOME addition to the show. Especially if another one of Alpha's dolls becomes his love interest and just happened to be played by the lovely Gina Torres!!! I think I'd DIE of *SQUEE*:)