It Looks Like The Attic For Dollhouse

It never fails. A good way to gauge the likelihood of a television show lasting more than a season or two is-do I like it? Thanks to a few notable exceptions, such as House, I can't exactly say it's the mark of death, but it does seem to portend a strike or two against it. This is especially true in the rare instances that somebody comes up with a sci-fi show I actually like enough, and care enough about to make sure I watch it on an on-going basis.

Watch the season one recap, at the end of this post, and you might well understand why I consider Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (Fox, Friday 9pm), starring Eliza Dushku, to be such a show. Admittedly though, in looking over the troubled, all too brief history of this series, which Fox just recently announced will indeed be canceled following the end of it's thirteen episode current season, it's easy to see how it didn't really have too much of a chance. Sometimes I think Fox actually wants it's shows to fail.

That might sound contradictory, and I'm sure it sounds like a crazed conspiracy theory worthy of the most die-hard Joss Whedon fans, but it makes sense when seen in the context of current economic factors. Shows like Dollhouse and Prison Break costs a lot of money to film and produce. That Fox has some of the best shows on the air-while they last-are a testament to the production values the network seems to demand. And while they draw in their target demographic, it doesn't seem to last. Scriptwriting by committee, that fabled studio executive's curse that plagued even Prison Break at the end, causes problems in continuity and even in overall quality.

Ah, but while they are there, watching, the network makes damn sure they know when American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance will be on. And that's the key. I am almost positive that Fox would, if it had it's way, scrap all of it's prime time drama series in a heartbeat in favor of reality television, which costs much less to produce. Even a stinker of a show like Jay Leno's bomb makes money for NBC, so how much more true then that American Idol makes a killing for Fox?

When Fox contracted Joss Whedon to produce Dollhouse, it's hard to believe that it did so with the intention of creating a true contender in the ratings. To begin with, they put it on Friday nights, where all network television series are sent to die, while yet on the life support of the few devoted fans who remain with a series to the end. It's almost a service to those fans, a thank you for your support, as a means of giving them closure by wrapping up all the loose ends.

Yet, Dollhouse started it's run on Friday nights, a night when most people are beginning to enjoy their weekend. They just got paid, they want to go out, to a game, a movie, to dinner. Not many of them want to sit around watching television. So Dollhouse was screwed from the get go. As if to insure that it's fate was sealed, Fox yanked it from it's Friday Night lineup during the all-important November sweeps period, prior to announcing it's cancellation, while promising to show the remainder of the season's thirteen episodes.

Not that the series didn't have it's flaws that contributed to its poor ratings. The first few episodes played more like a procedural, somewhat along the lines of Fantasy Island on cocaine. If you stuck around after the premiere episode, you could almost imagine Adelle DeWitt walking around the Dollhouse, looking down at the Actives, saying "smiles, everyone, smiles", alongside geeky, amoral mad scientist Topher Brink excitedly waving his arms saying "the plane, the plane".

It didn't take too long though to establish that The Dollhouse was so much more than that. Unfortunately, it's potential will probably never be realized, or recognized, or even approached.

It concerns itself with an international corporation by the name of Rossum who has developed a technique for wiping a person's mind, leaving them a blank slate, onto which any personality can be imprinted, in addition to all the prerequisite skills required for the assignments the Dolls, or "Actives" are required to perform for the benefit of wealthy clients. As for the Actives, they are people who, for whatever reason, have signed a five year contract. In the case of Caroline, or Echo as she is called, she was an animal rights activist who, breaking into the laboratory of the Rossum Corporation, along with her boyfriend, discovered that there was something far more sinister afoot than mere animal scientific experimentation. They discovered a human fetus being monitored. They were discovered, Caroline's boyfriend was presumably killed by a guard, and Caroline found herself with the dilemna of how best to extricate herself from a serious legal situation. She reluctantly signed up to be an Active, whereupon she became one of the most successful of the Dolls.

In the meantime an FBI agent, Paul Ballard, has been assigned the task of investigating the Dollhouse, which is presumed by most to be an urban legend. Unbeknownst to him, he does so with the aid of Alpha, a roque Active, accidentally imprinted with multiple murderous personalities, who murdered almost all of the then current Actives, while inexplicably sparing Echo. He also killed the original Doctor Saunders, who was replaced by the personality of a second Doctor Saunders in the body of the former Active named Whiskey, who had been at the time the most popular and successful of the Dolls, but whom Alpha had disfigured during the course of his violent onslaught.

Ballard has also been relieved of his duties in the FBI, which means he has nothing to lose. He can bring the Dollhouse down, or he can die trying. Or, he can concentrate his efforts on bringing down the Rossum Corporation, which owns and operates multiple Dollhouses in major cities throughout the world. You just fucking know there has to be one in Abu Dhai, to say nothing of London, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, etc.

The key to the series is the question, what does it all mean? What is the true purpose of the Dollhouse? It doesn't after all merely exist to indulge the whims of a few wealthy clients. This, my friends, is only a test.

So Paul Ballard, after saving Echo from Alpha, who nevertheless manages to escape to cause more trouble on another day that will probably never come, agrees to become Echoes new handler, replacing her old one, who was recently named the new Chief of Security Operations for the LA Dollhouse. That is because Mr. Dominic, the original Head of Security, who viewed the Actives with contempt (more like pets than people) turned out to be a security mole. As such, Mr. Dominic's own mind was wiped, and he was placed in "The Attic", where broken dolls are sent to live out the remainder of their existence in a state of helplessness, the nature of which as of yet has not been disclosed. In return, Adelle DeWitt, the woman who operates the Dollhouse, agrees to release from her contract the Active named November, who had been a "sleeper Doll" assigned to spy on Ballard while Ballard was still with the FBI and actively investigating the Dollhouse. They also had one of their Actives, named Victor, programmed to spy on Ballard while imprinted with the personality of a Russian Mafia member, pretending to be Ballard's informant in a ruse that almost cost Ballard his life.

Nevertheless, Ballard is now officially a member of the Dollhouse staff, albeit viewed with some degree of suspicion, where he now works as Echoes handler, overseeing her assignments, almost all of which turn out to contain great degrees of risk (admittedly, this is one of the major flaws in the series). More importantly than the standard "assignment of the week" format, Echo is slowly but steadily regaining a sense of self, retaining small fragments of memories from all her past assignments-a hostage negotiator here, a rock music background singer there, even one time a murder victim who was brought back to help identify her killer. More importantly, Echo is slowly but surely recovering fragments of her true personality, and is consciously working with Ballard to bring down the Dollhouse, and more importantly, the Rossum Corporation-whoever and whatever they are.

The grave danger to the both of them is that, if they are discovered, they too could end up permanently in "The Attic". This is a very real danger, as there has been some notice of a trend toward grouping and forming cliques within the Dollhouse among the Actives, particularly with Echo, Sierra, and Victor. Topher, the geeky scientist responsible for the Dollhouse technology, noted that they were displaying the survival instincts of a herd mentality.

"They're a little bit bison", he explains.

Following is a recap of season one. Some of the segments here are not exactly the ones I would have included, while some I would have put in are left out, but it will suffice. Before that though, I have just one thing to say to all the Joss Whedon fans who are upset at the latest cancellation news. Take heart, you might yet save this show. I have one pertinent phrase for you that might just catch on-

BOYCOTT AMERICAN IDOL!

Failing that, let's hope they wrap this show up with a bang. Hopefully, they will air the much discussed ending to season one, which was actually filmed as a series finale. It's killer stuff, and a perfect ending, which I won't spoil here. But enough of that.

And now, in lieu of your standard series trailer, here is the aforementioned Dollhouse season one recap, although bear in mind the ending presented here was actually resolved during the season one finale with Echoe's rescue from Alpha by Ballard, and with Ballard's decision to ostensibly work for the Dollhouse as Echoe's handler.