Britt's On

Some various musings because none of these really deserve a full entry.

Another one bites the dust…
I’m a week behind in my Desperate Housewives because my PVR was replaced this weekend, unceremoniously, and with it, all my PVR’d programs. Regardless I managed to track down the first episode of the winter season that picked up right where the plane crash left off, and need I say more? WTF DH! For one, I’ve lamented on this before, this show has become so ridiculously soapy. It went from being a satire of the television housewife to a show that regularly incurs acts of god – from tornados to plane crashes – and increasingly ridiculous ripped from the daytime soaps plot lines. Beyond that, this episode pissed me off on many levels. Why did you have to kill Carl, and beyond that ruin my hopes for a shiny, happy future for him and Bree by doing that stupid dream sequence? It would have been more interesting to see that relationship play out imo, and him and Bree had crackling, unexpected chemistry. What kind of message are you sending out to show that messed up marriages lead to fatness (or in Susan’s case, a generic chubbiness that’s average by US standards) and skinniness is the only way (or not) to keep a man? I don’t have much to say about Angie’s dream sequence, other than I like her as an actress and I’m sad her storyline on the show seems super lame and detached from the rest of the ‘wives. Eva Longoria’s was also stupid and shows how irrelevant she’s been this season. And Lynette’s…I have mixed feelings. At first I was shocked that DH would tackle such a sensitive topic as a disabled child, and then I was moved nearly to tears by Lynette’s ‘make your own sandwich’ rant, and then I was like “Oh of course. This is la la land where your disabled child can turn out a-ok and graduate law school with practically no problems to be seen.” Frustrating! I’m shocked this show has still dominated the ratings as much as it has in the last couple of seasons as it’s moved increasingly into glib territory. Perhaps it’ll be the next daytime soap and run for decades and decades. At least Mark Cherry will have his pick of housewives to kill off as they get too old for TV.

An Ode To Epitaph 1
So I finally got around to watching last season’s finale on Dollhouse, and I suddenly *got* it. The episode was amazing – it bridged the gap between the creepiness of the first season and the (too) rapid movement of the second season, and showed that the ‘brothel’ known as the Dollhouse really only existed to fund research that would put Rossum in full control of minds around the world. The episode channelled the desperateness of films like Children of Men, but also made you care about the small cast of new characters introduced (including the lovable actress that played Vi on Buffy). You also got glimpses of where the show was going, which put a whole new spin on the progress made this season. If the show was always going to head in this direction – sooner rather than later granted, had Joss introduced this premise even earlier (or at least had the episode broadcast on TV) I think we’d be in a totally different situation. He also failed to fully connect the many personalities of Echo to the ‘person’ that Echo becomes. It’s also weird that Caroline eventually appears and seems to be the conglomerate Echo we’ve hung around with this season. Regardless, this episode made me truly sad the show is ending – but also aware of the flaws (hi, the first three episodes of this season still felt too much like the monster-of-the-week format that plagued S1) – and hopeful that Joss’ next project really takes off. The guy’s got a cult following and if networks give him a chance, he can make magic happen.

X Marks The Spot
I’m pretty sure I called this about three or four years ago, when the X Factor launched this massive winner whose name escapes me now (ha) in the UK when I happened to be doing an internship over there for a month at the BBC. I predicted, as I had stopped watched American Idol after the third season, that eventually Simon would bring the X Factor format over here to freshen up (or replace, as it did in the UK) the American Idol format. Sure enough, it’s recently been stated that Simon has signed on Paula for The X Factor, which he sure enough is bringing over here. Although AI is still a ratings juggernaut, it’s hardly producing megastars anymore – Adam Lambert is the freshest thing to walk off the show in years but I couldn’t name you a single song of his, nor imitate his voice, because he’s not on my radar at all. Carrie and Kelly still continue to dominate (and I still like em both) so that’s two stars out of something like seven seasons – it’s time for a change. For the record, my inbox featured an email from People with the subject line “What Is The X Factor?” In my own words – it’s nearly identical to AI but you can compete in three different categories: groups, older solo artists, and younger solo artists. This is the show that brought us Susan Boyle, one of the older soloists. Will I watch it when the show begins its reign over here? I’m sceptical, but maybe. Regardless, whoever airs this show is a smart cookie because it might bring back lapsed AI viewers (like myself), plus the huge AI fan base, for a fresh new spin on manufactured by the fans talent shows.

Those are my thoughts!

Britt’s On

I’ve been writing in this blog a lot lately. I guess as the year comes to a close I have a lot of reflecting – shallow or not – to do. It’s funny that in my ‘real life’ blog, my entries are pretty short. I would call the entries here more entertainment essays, or manifestos than anything.

I won’t expound on the joys of a PVR too much other than to say, once you have one, you’ll never go back. Ever. It enables you to do things like keep several episodes of Dollhouse on your PVR at once to skip over Fox’s ultra-annoying giant gap for the MLB playoffs. Also sadly for the dearly departed (soon to be anyway) Dollhouse, it’s not really a show that warrants immediate watching, so you can kind of cruise through them whenever you want. Namely, I finished catching up as of this weekend, and I’m quite enjoying the two-packs the episodes have been coming in as we ramp up to the final three or four.

But alas, where have we gone wrong? Joss Whedon has groupies like few other TV producers – he’s kind of the quirky answer to JJ Abrams more polished, super-budget pedigree. I myself am a massive Buffy fan (I think the show has more tags than anything in this blog), and have been curious to watch Angel, and Firefly. Despite being hailed / being a name brand producer, Joss hasn’t really had a major hit since Buffy, and arguably Angel following on its coattails. I could argue for quite awhile that Buffy in itself is a singularly wonderful show that is quite unlike anything Joss or any producer has done in the way it mixed reality, fantasy, horror, humour, and heart.

With that in mind, what’s up with Dollhouse? Well Season 1 maybe would have worked a decade ago, much as Buffy’s Season 1 ‘Monster of the Week’ managed to hook audiences long enough to keep the show growing, but these days there was no motivation to continue onwards, no end game in sight.

Another major problem was the complicated feelings I still have towards the Dollhouse. The concept of the house is incredibly disturbing and perverse, and although the people in the LA house the show focuses on seem to have more of a moral compass / family-like care for the key dolls, you still can’t shake the feeling that you don’t really want to be on their side. Nor did I particularly want to be on Paul Ballard’s side last season – he wasn’t a sympathetic protagonist, and just seemed like a reckless vigilante. I still don’t know why he was so hell bent on finding Caroline.

On that note, Caroline / Echo is another big flaw of the show. A lot of people have argued Eliza Dushku is a one note actress and this show highlights that with the demanding number of roles they ask her to take on. I would disagree – I think Eliza has the potential to play other types of roles other than Faith redux, but on a more consistent basis. Playing a bunch of different party girl types and transforming into Echo, a mere shell of a person, does not a great actress make.

Which brings me to another problem – the lack of cast camaraderie which emerges from these previous two points. Because everyone has this deep layer of sinister motivation, it fails to make the core non-Doll cast connect (Dewitt, Boyd, and Topher – plus Dr. Saunders and Topher’s assistant). Beyond that you’ve also got these walking shells that are supposed to have this strong yet vacant friendship. The Victor / Sierra romance grew nicely in the last season but it was choppily done before that. Echo’s sudden “I need to find my friends” diatribe in the last couple of episodes felt unrealistic as the ‘grouping’ dolls seemed so much less aware of what they meant to her versus Echo’s fully realized persona.

And moving on from there – the unrealisticness of the show’s concept. The whole government taking down the Dollhouse scenario kind of brought up the “why didn’t this happen before?”. Or more obviously on two different levels – it seems pretty easy for all these Richie riches to find the Dollhouse, why couldn’t the government? And realistically, given the exorbitant cost we’re led to believe an engagement costs, how many of these scenarios are realistic on a continual basis to make the house so successful? Also the huge lack of moral relativity is pretty disturbing if it has any shred of accuracy to it.

Finally we’ve got the muddled mythology of the show. So many new elements are introduced all the time that it’s hard to keep them straight. I still have so many questions that will never be answered…or maybe they have been and I just forgot. Why is Ballard so determined to find (and eventually free) Caroline / Echo? Why did Echo end up in the Dollhouse in the first place? What happened to Dr. Saunders? What’s up with Echo and that crazy doctor (but well acted by Summer Glau) that made an appearance? What’s going on with Mellie? What happened to the government subplot? How did Boyd dispose of that crazy Sierra-rapist’s body? Why wasn’t Victor simply freed after his army chip was disengaged? How did Alpha evolve on his own? Where did Alpha disappear to after his last little Dollhouse excursion? Do the admin staff basically live at the Dollhouse? Do they have lives on the outside? Oh and I could go on…

That was a blast of negativity there, but necessary to examine why the show has failed. That being said, I’ve enjoyed the progression this season, even if it seems dramatic compared to last season’s lack of forward movement. Echo becoming an Alpha-esque person was a neat twist and smart way to evolve the character, although I still don’t quite get who she is or how she exists. Topher and Dewitt continue to bring solid, complex performances although it’s more likely the scripts favour their development over the more robotic Boyd and Ballard. There’s been more humour, more intrigue, more twists, more action the last few episodes than the entire series to date – although not every twist has worked (I still don’t get why Dewitt was so blatantly evil only to be developing a team to take down Rossum).

I am a little sad to see Dollhouse go, but at the same time I recognize that were Joss not forced to show his hand this season, we wouldn’t have gotten the rapid progression we’ve gotten over the last few weeks. Truthfully, the fact I could leave episodes on my PVR for so long probably speaks to the fact this is one show that was headed for the attic no matter what.

Till next time,

Britt’s On

Not every show a major name in the TV biz creates is gold. In fact, most TV production stars get their name from their first hit show, and carry it through several less awesome shows, until they are (hopefully) redeemed with an awesome show again.

Consider - Josh Schwartz rocked the world with the OC, which ended on a sour note, and landed a plum job at the helm of the TV adaptation of Gossip Girl, which truly pales in comparison to dear ol' Orange County.

JJ Abrams has built up a following over the years - first through Felicity, then through Alias, and finally through Lost - but he's also built up resentment by abandoning his projects towards the end and letting them suffer (as Lost currently is, and Alias did for S4 & S5). Don't forget, he's also had a couple of failed projects - What About Brian & Six Degrees, and Fringe isn't exactly storming the nation.

Then of course, we have Joss Whedon, best known for one of the best shows of all time - Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I'm not afraid to say I'm a fan of this show, I've watched the entire series several times over and love every second of it. As most fans will tell you, the show was an amazing mix of humour, introspectiveness, psychology, character development, passion, action, spookiness, and reality.

Things have not entirely fared well for Joss beyond Buffy (and its spin-off, Angel). His pet project Firefly (and movie Serenity) died out after one season - although I've heard it was a *great* season, and one I must watch. He's also laid pretty low on the radar since Buffy ended in 2003, and Angel in 2004, with his first major television project being launched this year on Fox - Dollhouse.

I decided to give Dollhouse a shot, mostly because my friend was rewatching Buffy at the time promotions started coming up, and I was craving a return to Buffyverse without actually rewatching the series. Well Dollhouse ain't no Buffy. If you don't know the show, essentially it's about a secret organization that signs people on for five years to have their minds reprogrammed to be whatever their multi-million dollar clients want them to. Although a fair number of the engagements are of the romantic (yuck) nature, they're also called upon for high-end thriller missions - from acting as security to helping to rob a secret vault to taking down a cult. When the 'dolls' aren't programmed, they are in a childlike state and simply exist in a very peaceful, zenlike, spa retreat.

Let me count the ways the show lacks in Buffy quality:
- There is no protagonist. In theory it would be Eliza Dushku's character, but Eliza doesn't have the acting chops, nor the character development required to make this work. She's either forced into some hokey role (with horrible costumes) each week, or she's a vacant doll, hanging around the compound. The alternative would be Paul Ballard, but the actor is wooden and the character can be downright annoying.

- The secondary characters fit neatly into Buffy-created roles, but they pale in comparison. Topher is a diet Xander (god, even their names are both short for another name), Sierra is a bizarre choice for proxy Willow (and equally as boring as Echo), Boyd is a boring version of Giles, and the other characters are wholly one-dimensional.

- There doesn't appear to be a solid direction for the show. While the same could be said of lots of shows, I've always at least felt like there was a purpose. I suppose on Dollhouse it would be for the dolls to realize what's happening to them and vive la revolution! but if that's the solution, the show would no longer exist - unless the dolls chose to continue on by choice, and be themselves instead of doll-like when not on engagements (unlikely).

- The show is rooted in science, rather than fantasy as Buffy/Angel were, which doesn't give it as much legs. Everything continues to be brought down to earth - but it's hard to envision anything on the show actually being plausible.

- It's just not as funny. The last episode this week did a decent job of being amusing, and Topher usually gets the show's rare funny parts, but as a 'forget who you are' episode, I could name 3 episodes off the top of my head on Buffy that did a much better job of being amusing in this same scenario (Halloween, Something Blue, Tabula Rasa).

That being said, I - like most other Whedon fans out there - am still holding out the show will manage to capture me once and for all.

I still feel like the characters are being underused, perhaps with too wide of a cast and not one unified location for them all to be in (like Lost), Whedon is struggling to make the time balance work. I also feel like Eliza Dushku was the wrong choice for this role - she's relatively one note, and having been in a previous Whedon vehicle in that very note, it's hard to seperate her into the myriad of roles she's asked to play each week. Finally, the blatant sexuality of the show is a put-off. The sexual aspect of the Dollhouse is creepy and hard to look past, and Eliza Dushku's wardrobe in general is horrible. This is definitely not appealing to all ages as Buffy once was.

Regardless, like I said, I am hoping for the show to go somewhere good and take me with it.

Till then,

Britt's On