Skip to main content

Time to close the door on the Dollhouse


I missed the first half of Friday's episode as I wrote for Blend Television.. Mrs. Channelup caught me up and I got the second half. I saw enough to know it is time to turn out the lights, lock the door, and not look back

I wrote extensively about why I thought Dollhouse was not living up to potential. I decided to give it a couple of more weeks to iron out the kinks. Mission not accomplished. The problems with the show are many, but I feel these are the major ones:

Bad acting - Eliza Dushku is a bad actress plain and simple. I can't root for her. I don't care about her character. She looks like a deer in headlights at all times.

Bad stories - The last episode was such a cop out of an ending that I might break my keyboard out of frustration if try to sum it up. Let's just say that it was a waste.

Bad characters - Each is more boring than the next.

I'm not a production expert but it stands to reason that if the acting, stories and characters are subpar, you have some issues. I wanted it to work out because the premise is top notch. Everything else is a disaster.

Comments

  1. I like Dollhouse. You can view any episode as a "Murder, She Wrote"-like self-contained episode, or as a part of a larger identity. And the questions it raises about identity and wish-fulfillment and how we treat other people in society make for a positively transcendent TV show. AND the secondary characters are fantastic. It doesn't matter how hatable or dull a character seemed at the beginning - at this point, heading into the finale, every character we've come to know offers satisfying revelations and real value. All that, and the dialogue is snappy and fresh. I have major love for this show, and will be sad to see it go.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Office - Cafe Disco

The Office hasn't been the same since Michael came back. At least that's his claim and it precipitates the inception of the "party room." Who wouldn't love this in their job? A room where they played techno music and everyone raved all day? Scratch that, I would hate it. Michael doesn't have the same connection with the larger staff at Dunder Mifflin as he had with his workforce of three at Michael Scott Paper (Pam and Ryan). He yearns for the same connectivity and tries to achieve it through exxpresso (sic) and house music at annoyingly loud decibels. He turns the old Michael Scott Paper into a meet-and-greet disco type place for office workers to kick back and relax. Unfortunately, no one can take it easy with Michael around. Nor do they want to. It isn't until Michael gives up all hope of the space that the two Kelly's (secretary and customer service) take it over and make it into the party atmosphere Michael dreamed off. I loved how th...

Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis

This summer Mrs. Channelup was dying to see "The Nightman Cometh," Its Always Sunny's broadway-esque rendition of the Charlie's season 3 ending play. I balked, but now regret it to some degree. The gang would have probably made a fairly hilarious spectacle. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is like Curb Your Enthusiasm for the young, drunk and stupid crowd. I mean this is the best possible sense. The formula of Ridiculous premise + inane ranting dialogue + actors and actresses that can pull it off = comedy fucking gold. There aren't many funnier shows on television. Consider tonight's season premiere where Dee strives to become a surrogate mother strictly for the cash and residual benefits while the rest of the gang exploits a family foreclosing on their home. Does any other show make so much light of two topics more unfunny? That the gang is too stupid to pull either ploy off makes the show that much better. I always wonder how much of Its Alwa...

Parks and Recreation - The Stakeout

Leslie is such a active member of the the Pawnee landscape that she literally has started a community garden in the vacant pit. Can you blame someone for growing pot in said garden? I cannot. The Stakeout was an interesting episode for Parks and Recreation . I liked it for a couple of reasons. for starters, it featured considerably less Leslie Knope. This is a positive move considering the writer's seeming over reliance on her character. Tonight's episode spread the wealth in such a way that I didn't feel The Stakeout was about any particular character but instead about the cast as a whole. It was about everyone and no one all at once. Mark and Ann's date, Tom's idiocy in the name of racial profiling, Ron's hernia, and Andy's decent into the literal pit of hell. I liked The Stakeout for it uniformity. A couple of other notes on the episode. It isnt easy making a guy just sitting totally still and doing nothing funny. Damned if Ken Tremendous and the...