Dollhouse: y/n?

I give it a solid m. For maybe.

Don't get me wrong; I think Joss Whedon is (nearly) infallible and Eliza Dushku’s Faith was my favorite character on Buffy (and one of the best characters in TV, imo), but the pilot for Dollhouse hasn’t got me jumping out of my seat.

There are a few things I can’t get behind. Partly it’s the FBI angle. Whenever you bring FBI into anything Sci-Fi it’s just automatical fail (I wasn’t a huge fan of Roswell but anyone can tell you things went sour when the FBI started looking for aliens). And on a more superficial note, Tahmoh Penikett just doesn’t do it for me. But I’m willing to give him another shot.

The biggest thing wrong with Dollhouse, though, was that there wasn’t a single character I could latch on to.

The doctor (played by Angel alum Amy Acker) was mysterious and interesting but there wasn’t enough of her to really like or dislike. Fran Kranz’s mad scientist was fun in his very obviously Joss-like way, but also a little flat. He’s like the Xander character only minus the goofy heart. And then there’s Echo. The hints of her past are the most intriguing bits of character we’ve gotten out of anyone. And I even like the between-the-missions Echo’s simple innocence. But with her changing characters every week, I don’t know if I’ll be able to really care about her at all.

But some of the good things that got me very excited about the show were the little snippets of classic Joss dialogue. Mostly all of Topher’s dialogue, but especially “She hurts.” For some reason, when Echo said that, I was reminded of the simpleness and the poignance of what Joss is capable using just words.

It all comes down to Joss, though. He is, essentially, the only reason anyone is watching this show. And really, the only reason I’ll give it a second shot. If Joss’s name wasn’t attached I’m ashamed to say I’d write this show off completely. But I have faith in Joss, and when he and Eliza say that the last few episodes of this season are some incredible, mind-blowing stuff, I believe them. So I’m sticking around for the long haul.... til it gets canceled. (Cuz judging by the ratings we all know that’s coming.)