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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.

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