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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:12:41 GMT 1
from Avclub.com
Avclub.com Review
I have to admit, I was a little worried about this episode going in. The screener that FOX sent out to promote the magical Joss Whedon-penned sixth episode (which actually lived up to billing) also included the eighth episode, but skipped over “Echoes,” which led me to suspect that it was either a placeholder or subpar. Happily, it appears to be more the former than the latter, but it would be inaccurate to say that it’s a standalone in the same spirit as the first five. There are some important revelations and advancements here, and I strongly suspect that from “Man On The Street” on, we’re going to get tangled up pretty thoroughly in master-plot stuff. After last week, the Dollhouse training wheels are officially off, and newcomers to the show will just have to play catch-up from now on.
An imperfect but very satisfying balance between goofy stoner(ish) comedy and shadowy corporate chicanery, tonight’s hour started answering some questions about the origins of Dollhouse and Echo’s involvement with it, while holding many of the characters in the sort of debilitating (though temporary) hocus-pocus that would happen often on Buffy and Angel. The X-Files opening finds a near-naked college lab student behaving erratically before smashing his head repeatedly against the window, all while two of his friends are rendered helpless by their own giddy, punch-drunk behavior. As it turns out, the nefarious Rossum Corporation runs the lab and its evil genius leader, Clive Ambrose (Philip Casnoff), wants every Active engaged in containing a virus that could eradicate the campus quickly. (In a classic bit of sci-fi plotting nonsense, the experimental “memory drug” that needs containment doesn’t affect the Actives because their memories are thoroughly wiped. In theory, anyway.)
The Rossum job sends the Actives to campus sporting pretty advanced job titles, including a CDC higher-up in Sierra and an NSA badge for Victor—which, in a running gag that continually pays dividends, thoroughly outranks poor Dominic, who’s relegated to lowly Rossum security man. (“Now you’re experts. Four hours ago, you were discussing your love for applesauce.”) Meanwhile, Echo is off on an escort job with the motorcycle-loving hotshot from the first episode, but a flash on the Rossum building is enough to trigger her to revisit the past. Through a series of flashbacks from a few years earlier, we discover that she and her boyfriend tried to break into the building to expose Rossum’s cruel animal testing practices. And most importantly, we discover that Rossum and Dollhouse are linked, and that one serves as a pipeline to the other.
I suspect we’ll learn a lot more about the Rossum-Dollhouse connection in the coming weeks and seasons, should Fox choose to renew it, but what I’m liking about the show—and what this episode handles very well—is that it now feels like an updating of the paranoid ‘70s political thrillers that came out after Watergate. Back then, it was the fear of all-powerful government control that pervaded movies like The Parallax View and Three Days Of The Condor, but now that fear has been transferred to the modern all-powerful boogeyman of the faceless, heartless, murderous corporations. Like those films, Dollhouse roots for the little guy, those victims and rebels (or victims turned rebels) who fight against forces that are much larger than they could ever conceive. They may not stand a chance, but people like Echo and Paul are not accepting their assigned roles—Echo constantly deviates from script (and clearly knows more than she lets on) and Paul won’t give up his pursuit of the truth, even if it means putting his adorable new girlfriend Mellie in danger.
As I said earlier, the runaway virus conformed perhaps a little too closely to the needs of the plot. It was initially seen as a danger for the entire campus, especially once it was determined to spread airborne or through touching. But then later, we find out that it’s only deadly in large doses—meaning the student was murdered, and that its effects would eventually dissipate, so finding an antidote wasn’t necessary. It also caused some goofy, erratic behavior and did in fact affect the Actives in unanticipated ways, bringing some repressed memories (like Sierra being raped by her handler) shimmering briefly to the surface. That’s one wacky virus !
But the zaniness did bring out some terrific comic relief from characters who aren’t normally funny. Reed Diamond was particularly funny as Dominic, who went from bitterly resenting the authorities of his doll superiors to babbling helplessly from the virus’ effect. There was also the wonderful Olivia Williams as Adele, who poked fun at her snooty imperiousness (“I’m very British. I don’t say hard R’s”) and even jumped around like a kid on a mini-trampoline. And still another great effort from Harry Lennox’s Boyd, who had a hilarious non-reaction to Echo refusing treatment : “Wow,” he says with a laugh. “Did not maintain control of that situation.” As Myles McNutt observed on his blog, it was as if all the characters turned into Topher. And so long as it’s not Topher being Topher, I’d consider that a good thing.
Grade : B+
Stray Observations :
• A lean episode for Paul, who lost his girlfriend for a while. (Looks like Dollhouse’s efforts to scare him off didn’t take, in that respect. He’s still more interested in tracking his obsession with them than protecting a potential love.)
• The framing scene gives us an idea of how dolls become dolls : Put in a compromising spot, Caroline/Echo and newcomer Sam are persuaded firmly by Adele to sign away five years of their lives. With both, she begins by saying, “My offer is this,” which immediately calls to mind Michael Corleone in The Godfather, though she’s offering them more than nothing at least.
• Hooray for Rilo Kiley’s awesome song “Portions For Foxes” in the background during a flashback scene. “Bad news, baby I’m bad news,” is a pretty appropriate theme for where Caroline is taking that relationship.
• Great to see such a massive influx of thoughtful comments after last week’s episode. Lots of theories floating around that hadn’t occurred to me at all.
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:14:29 GMT 1
Cliqueclack.com Review
Dollhouse and the ‘Drawer of Inappropriate Starches’
That seems an appropriate title, as one of the early complaints about the show was that it lacked the Whedon funny. That was remedied this week as the various members of Dollhouse HQ suffered the effects of a designer drug. The funny was just a small slice of what we saw on the screen though. Picking up where “Man On The Street” left off, “Echoes” paints a much better picture of what the show can be. And, again, calls into question the decision to do the ‘five pilots.’ Someone is still owed a kick to the crotch for that idea.
Update : Ratings are in. 3.87 million viewers with a 1.3 in the demo. Yikes.
Because really, after seeing the last two episodes, those first five pale in comparison. They had their moments, some more than others, but when compared to all the progress made on the story in these last two episodes, they end up in the marking time category. There are probably four hours of those first five that could be completely thrown out without missing a beat. That’s unfortunate, for two reasons. Selfishly, we could have another four hours on the back end of what we’re watching now. And pragmatically, those five episodes didn’t do the show any favors where the ratings are concerned.
All that aside, what a week, huh ? We finally started getting a little more back story on the actives. And I stress the ‘little’ when talking about Sierra and Victor. On the other hand, there was quite a bit to learn about Echo/Caroline. When we got that first peek at Caroline being brought in to the Dollhouse in the pilot, I never would have guessed that she was a member of the Coalition for the Liberation of Itinerant Tree-Dwellers (NSFW), or something like that. It works for the character, but leaves me thinking that we’re still not seeing part of the recruitment process.
It made more sense with Sam. Clearly, outside of the Dollhouse, he’s facing a laundry list of charges that ends with murder. Not a lot of options. But based on what we saw in Caroline’s flashback, what is she looking at ? Trespassing ? Breaking and entering ? In the pilot, Caroline says that she doesn’t really have a choice. So, there must be more to it. Trumped up charges ? Given what we know about the connections the Dollhouse has, that’s not a big stretch. Or maybe a simple ‘do it or else’ threat. Also, perfectly reasonable considering the information we have. Whatever it is, there is more to that story, to be sure.
Of course, looking at the recruitment process again also raises the question, “Does anyone actually believe that actives actually complete their contract and get out ?” My best guess is that it’s both too big a security risk, and much more profitable to blow right past the expiration date, because who is going to protest ? Although, wouldn’t it be a fun twist to learn that Ballard’s obsession with the Dollhouse is a product of his subconscious remembering being an active ?
Ballard’s refusal to actually drop the case after being suspended wasn’t a surprise, but did lead to some interesting revelations for Mellie, who is now confirmed as November. I suppose the fact that she is an active means we have to assume that all of her actions are being pre-determined by the Dollhouse. Not a hard leap to make as she tries to convince Ballard that dropping the case is the right thing to do. Her exit at the end of the episode seems an odd choice though. She had the perfect cover, so why is she being recalled ? They can’t think that Ballard is no longer a threat. Mellie may have offered a clue in that last scene by mentioning her friend Debbie. What do you suppose the chances are that Debbie shows, and looks a whole lot like Sierra ?
The Rossum Corporation sheds a little light on the the corporate structure surrounding the Dollhouse. The fact that Adelle admits to aspiring to Clive’s job tells us that he is above her. So, does that make Rossum the ‘Senior Partners,’ or just another cog in a much bigger machine ? Rossum also reaffirms just how heinous these people are. Just in case assassinations and prostitution hadn’t driven the point home, now they experiment on babies. d**n. It’s also a clever reference. R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is a Czech play that “begins in a factory that makes ‘artificial people’.”
All things considered, a very good episode. The funny stuff was welcome, and well done. My favorite bits came from Adelle — “Sarcastic ? Unfeeling ? British ?” — and Dominic — “Again, so sorry for trying to burn you alive.” More importantly, this is the show that everyone thought Dollhouse could be. And, based on the previews for next week, it appears we have more of that to come.
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:15:06 GMT 1
Ifmagazine.com Review
TV Review : DOLLHOUSE - SEASON 1 - ’Echoes’
Thank goodness last week’s unofficial reboot of the Joss Whedon series wasn’t a fluke as a contagion on a college campus reveals more about all the characters on the show
The biggest relief of this week’s episode of DOLLHOUSE, appropriately dubbed “Echoes,” is that last week’s unofficial reboot of the series wasn’t a fluke.
Joss Whedon single-handedly got the series back on its feet and in the right direction with “Man on the Street” and this week, the continual evolution of the mythology continues to broaden and expand – finally giving viewers a reason to want to tune in for the rest of Season 1.
Whether the network is happy with the mythology driven storytelling that’s now happening with the show (and the possibility that the entire series is going to evolve into something completely different if all the changes and modifications stick) is a whole other question. But let’s hope they leave well enough alone and see where it’s all going.
“Echoes” finally taps into the nagging question of the series of how do people get sucked into the “Dollhouse” organization and why would anyone allow their minds to be wiped clean.
So yes, answers to questions are finally offered. We see Caroline aka Echo (Eliza Dushku) in the past being interrogated by Adelle (Olivia Williams) and setting up why she would join. Then we see in flashbacks and “glitches” how she ended up there. Apparently Caroline was an animal rights activist and she had some issues with a corporation called Rossum (which apparently is one of the investors in the Dollhouse itself). She felt there were bad things going on in a lab at the college campus funded by them, so she went to and decided to take matters into her own hands with her boyfriend. Well, she got caught, her boyfriend died (or did he — could he be Alpha) and the Dollhouse offered her a choice : her life or join up for the Dollhouse for five years to work things off.
The entry point into this story, is a bio-chemical compound is inadvertently released on a college campus lab which takes away all inhibitions. It’s up to the Dollhouse to send in actives who won’t be affected by the contagion while also trying to find an antidote.
Echo isn’t initially is on a different assignment and not called into action, but because she is having memory glitches, she sees the Rossum Building on the news and goes there.
One thing leads to another, and every character on the show from Adelle, Topher and handler Boyd (and even the actives) start acting goofy and break totally out of character.
There’s even a menacing moment with Mellie (Miracle Laurie), who is used as a test subject with the contagion, starts having a major glitch. d**n, I love this character.
We even learn that Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) is still going to pursue the Dollhouse, despite being suspended from the F.B.I.
All in all — a pretty solid episode. It’s refreshing to see the lighter side of Adelle and her moments with Topher are quite good. It’s those moments that also display some of that old Whedon character magic that’s slowly starting to come out now that the characters are actually developing somewhat.
In a weird way, now that we’ve learned more about Echo, I’m sad to stay I’m not 100% bowled over by the revelation. It works, but after all this build-up, you almost felt like there needed to be more bad girl than good girl in the incident that landed her at the Dollhouse. That said, her memories could have been a plant by Topher too – so you never know.
As for the characters – many of them are actually growing on me more. This is the first episode I’ve actually liked Adelle and had a chance to see beyond her usually stuffy veneer. Head of Security Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond) continues to be an intriguing character and one of continual mystery to his motivations. Topher is likable for the second week in a row. Plus, I’m really digging Mellie – want to see more of her. She seems more dangerous than Echo and the other dolls combined. And Enver Gjokaj as Victor also had a great chance to show off his acting chops as a faux F.B.I. agent.
DOLLHOUSE has thankfully found its way. Let’s hope it wasn’t too late. The ratings have been pretty good and creatively it’s hitting its stride, so let’s hope by finally getting invested in the show, Fox doesn’t pull the plug just as its getting pretty d**n good. Boy would that make so many of us REALLY angry !
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:15:47 GMT 1
Ign.com Review
US, March 28, 2009 - After last week’s well done and involving episode, it would be nice to say Dollhouse followed up with another strong installment, keeping the momentum going. Yes, it would be nice to say that, but unfortunately, that wasn’t case.
Looking strictly at the ongoing plot, yes, "Echoes" added to the storyline of the series by giving us our first fleshed out look at who Caroline was before she became Echo, and some hints (though there are still missing pieces) of what led her to sign up with the Dollhouse. While out in an engagement with the motorcycle loving client from the first episode, Echo sees Freemont College on the news and is suddenly driven to drop everything – including her handcuffed client/sex buddy – and go there, because she recalls it from the past.
And as it happens, she’s not the only Active at Freemont at the moment – An experimental memory drug has been causing bizarre and fatal acts on campus. The lab where the drug was created was inside the Rossum building, and it seems that whatever Rossum is, they’re the company behind the Dollhouse.
The big element of this episode was that pretty much every character got exposed to the drug, causing those who are not Dolls to lose their inhibitions and making them act in outlandish, uncharacteristic ways. This type of episode is a tried but true one for genre shows, and indeed Joss Whedon did it on both Buffy ("Band Candy") and Angel ("Spin the Bottle"), though in those cases it was in the guise of everyone acting younger. Of course, the difference there was that we’d known the characters longer before this occurred – and that they were interesting characters. I’ve been watching both the original Star Trek and The Next Generation recently on DVD, and it struck me that both shows also did a "everyone acts crazy" episode very early on in their runs too – And just as it was here, that was a mistake, because we need to know and care about these people in their normal identities first before you can show their flip side.
If nothing else, the Dollhouse action figures will have all sorts of fun fetish outfits Here, the show is already struggling with how bland (DeWitt, Laurence) or off-putting (Topher) most of these characters have been so far. So seeing them act wacky and crazy wasn’t fun so much as annoying. This was another episode where the energy and timing was just off. There were a lot of moments where the characters were saying nonsensical things to one another, and it was meant to be funny. Instead, it came off as bad avant-garde theater. During several of the scenes in this episode, I felt like I was in that episode of Spaced where Tim and Daisy are watching that horrible play Brian’s ex-partner performed. Yes, I get it – DeWitt and Topher are acting like they’re high. And sure, it’s mildly amusing to see DeWitt act all silly, but that got old really fast, since I don’t care about DeWitt enough to enjoy her lighter side. I don’t love her. I don’t hate her. She’s just there, acting stern and giving orders. Only here she’s giving orders and bouncing on a trampoline. And Topher’s already annoying enough that having him babble like an idiot was just groan inducing.
Meanwhile, Echo (in the guise of "Alice") was accompanied by a student, Sam, in her goal of getting into the lab – which we saw via flashbacks was something she did as Caroline. It was very obvious Sam wasn’t to be trusted, and there were also some unnecasarily silly moments along their journey. I loved when Echo and Sam basically just got up and ran out of the quarantine room they were being held in, then walked in plain sight across the campus, and she tells him, "Wow, that worked ! Thank you !" Yes Alice/Echo, getting up and walking away while someone’s back was turned worked ! It was a pretty cool plan indeed.
I know, I know. Early on, I observed this show didn’t have as much humor as we’re used to from Whedon, and I’ve said that an ongoing problem is not being invested in who Caroline/Echo is as a person. And here we have an episode with a lot more humor, which also shows us who Caroline is, and I’m not happy. But if you’re going to include humor (and Dollhouse doesn’t need to be funny, just good), it should be natural and amusing, not forced and mannered. And Caroline so far seems pretty lame – yeah, she’s an animal activist. Okay. Otherwise, there was nothing particularly engaging about her. Some of her dialogue was just stilted and bad, such as her proclaiming, "I told you Rossum was evil" when she and her ill-fated boyfriend Leo broke into the lab, or her big, "I’m your girl !" exclamation as Leo lay bleeding to death. Angel and The Shield veterans Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain wrote this episode, which was directed by frequent Buffy and Angel director James Contner. What is it about this show that manages to turn out such weak output from such talented people ?
The screener FOX sent out a couple of weeks ago contained last week’s "Man on the Street" and next week’s episode, "Needs", but was conspicuously missing "Echoes" – the same thing that occurred with the initial screener sent to journalists, which had the first, second and fourth episodes, but was missing "Stage Fright", another notably poor installment. I haven’t watched "Needs" yet, wishing to see the episodes in the correct order, but I am hearing a lot of positive buzz about it and it certainly looks like it could be very cool. After "Man on the Street" helped elevate this show, I’m certainly hoping "Echoes" was a brief hiccup, heading into an otherwise strong second half of the season. The ratings for "Echoes" were a series low, with less than four million people watching for the first time, meaning a second season looks even less likely. But if these 13 episodes are all we get of Dollhouse, it would be nice if this troubled show at least went out on a high note.
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:16:38 GMT 1
Pajiba.com Review
Most television reviews are based, largely, on the pilot episode. Even when the pilot episodes aren’t particularly decent, you can often tell if the ingredients are there for a decent show (see, e.g., “Better Off Ted”). And while I’ve never received a complaint for basing a review on a pilot episode alone in the past, I got an unrelenting amount of crap for not giving “Dollhouse” a chance, even if I did wait until two episodes had aired, out of respect for Joss Whedon’s past work (and the folks over on Whedonesque said nasty things about me ; and not the good, dirty kind of nasty, either). Readers complained that I had not given the show a proper chance, and that “Dollhouse,” by Whedon’s own admission, wouldn’t find its way until the first episode he wrote, which was episode six (not exactly a sage marketing decision).
I’ve now seen seven episodes — more than half of the first season — and I stand by my initial assessment. “Dollhouse” isn’t a very good show.
Lookit : I understand where the Whedonites are coming from. I’ve been there, and I truly appreciate their blind loyalty to Whedon. It took me months to admit that the new Ben Folds album is a pale comparison to his former work. I watched “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” until the bitter end, hopeful that it’d eventually find its legs (it had its moments, but never approached anything close to Aaron Sorkin’s previous forays into television). It took me almost a year to fully admit to myself that Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown was a terrible movie. Hell : I was one of the few people in America who convinced himself, out of dumb devotion, that Bill Clinton had not had an affair with Monica Lewinsky up until hard evidence proved otherwise. I know what it means to completely blind yourself to a show’s many, many flaws because you want so badly to believe that someone you admire and respect would never let you down.
But “Dollhouse” is a tremendous letdown, and I think in years to come, even Whedon will come around to that acknowledgment. I realize that I’m preaching to a hostile choir, one that’s very likely screeching at me from in front of their computer screen. But I just hate the idea that, in a few weeks, when FOX announces that “Dollhouse” won’t be coming back for a second season (it finished fourth, behind the incredibly low-rated “Friday Night Lights” this past week) that so much energy and passion will go into a campaign to save a show that doesn’t deserve saving. But it doesn’t mean that Joss Whedon’s a failure, of course — he’s still one of the most creative, brilliant voices out there (you need only see “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog” to remind you of that). He just botched a show that he was more or less persuaded to do out of his own loyalty to Eliza Dushku.
It’s OK to pick your battles. This is just not one worth fighting.
*Spoilers Below*
Granted, it has gotten better, if only by a little, although even some of the more faithful viewers must have lost some of that faith after episode three (“Stage Fright”), one of the worst episodes of television I’ve seen in months. That one, where Echo was imprinted with the personality of a back-up dancer in order to save a pop-singer who wanted a stalker fan to kill her, was the embarrassing low-point of “Dollhouse.” It was cheesy, poorly acted, poorly scripted, and did nothing to advance the show’s mythology. Episode four (“Gray Hour”) was a poor attempt at a heist episode that wasted the talents of Anson Mount and completely crumbled, limping toward an unsatisfying, illogical and too-easy conclusion. Episode five (“True Believer”), where Echo was programmed to go undercover as a blind woman in a Waco-like religious cult, was silly and tedious, an entire episode written, seemingly, only to further demonstrate what we already knew : Laurence Dominic doesn’t like Echo and was willing to try to kill her to make that point.
Episode six (“Man on the Street”) has been the best episode so far, but for an episode where we all expected the show to turn the corner, it was immensely disappointing. Yes : The focus turned more toward Paul Ballard’s (Tahmoh Penikett) investigation of the Dollhouse, and we did learn that there was someone on the inside of the Dollhouse trying to surreptitiously uncover its existence by programming Echo to offer Ballard some strategic advice. But, the big kicker — that Ballard’s neighbor/girlfriend, Mellie (Miracle Laurie) was a doll — seemed kind of obvious given Mellie’s series’ long awkward demeanor (but then again, given Penikett’s performances so far on the show, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he, himself, is a Doll). Moreover, the documentary wrap-arounds were lame and gimmicky, and below Whedon, and the whole Doll erection subplot was kind of weird and pointless, except to ultimately reveal that one of the handlers wasn’t handling his Doll properly.
What worked ? Eliza Dushku wasn’t in the episode that much, and Patton Oswalt ever-so-briefly breathed some life into the show by, at the very least, providing a small dose of humor that mixed well with pathos. Oswalt was outstanding, and his screen time has been the best part of the show so far. Episode six also dug a little deeper into the mythology, providing a nice segue into episode seven.
Episode seven (“Echoes”) could’ve been the best episode of the season, were it not marred by several huge flaws that have been plaguing the show from the outset. First of all, Whedon attempted, finally, to bring out some full-fledged humor by introducing an airborne drug that screwed with people’s inhibitions. It might’ve worked, too, but for the fact that it was so out of character for the show. It felt stilted, awkward, and cheap ; it only really worked with Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams), who finally got to reveal something beneath her icy exterior, with humorous results. It didn’t work as well with the other characters (particularly Echo’s handler, Boyd (Harry Lennix) and Dominic, who were both laughably bad, like something out of a Dan Schneider Nickelodeon show). The episode also repeated the mistake of some of the earlier episodes, drifting toward an easy end (in this case, the effects of the drug simply wore off).
But what was really telling about the episode is that, the further it dug into Echo’s backstory, the less I cared. Eliza Dushku not only plays the show’s lead character, but the least exciting one. We got a fairly strong hint as to why she entered the Dollhouse program, and how long her contractual commitment is (five years), but there is absolutely nothing compelling about her former life. She was an animal rights activist / college student whose boyfriend was killed by the very organization that funds the Dollhouse ? That’s it ? Where’s the grand conspiracy ? The layered, philosophical backstory were so accustomed to from Whedon ?
What was even more dispiriting, however, was that episode seven revealed more of Echo’s former life than any other episode, and it was still difficult to tell Echo and her true identity (Caroline) apart. They both have that vacant, icy glaze about them, and they are both being played by Dushku, so what we’re getting is the same character. Thankfully, James Contner (who directed episode seven) used different filmstock for the flashbacks, otherwise I’d have never known.
Oh, and another thing : They’ve been threatening to put Echo in the attic since episode three. How long can that threat carry weight when 1) Echo is the show’s main character, and 2) they threaten it in every freakin’ episode ?
In sum : Unfortunately, “Dollhouse” is a lousy show that’s managed to become slightly less lousy over the last few episodes. However, it’s got very little room left to maneuver. These imprint-of-the-week episodes are clearly not working, and the show’s empty mythology has backed Whedon into a corner. Presumably, Echo will turn double agent in subsequent episodes, feeding Ballard more clues, until Echo eventually snaps out of it and goes rogue, but that will belie the show’s central premise. However, given the almost certainty that Whedon only has five more episodes to work with (all of which have already been filmed), I hope that he at least has a satisfying conclusion to wrap up the series. And yes : I’m enough of a sucker for Whedon to stick out the entire season/series in the hopes that there’s a little of that Whedon magic at the end of the run. I’m stupidly optimistic that way.
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:17:17 GMT 1
from Tvbythenumbers.com
DVR Ratings
I’m doing different cuts of the DVR data this week (actually, the data is for the week of 3/23-3/29, I didn’t see it until Thursday afternoon, sorry for the delays). We probably won’t move to this sort of reporting on a regular basis. This takes some time, there isn’t huge interest in it, and I’m not sure it’s what people really want to see.
However, I’m slicing this data in the ways I think it actually does mean anything, rather than the stuff people seem to want to see which while not meaningful, sometimes makes people happy. So, we’ll probably go back to happy next week.
We normally look at the shows with the most absolute DVR viewing, and the shows with the biggest viewing increases due to DVR viewing. That latter table isn’t particularly meaningful to anything, and while we don’t believe DVR viewing in general is terribly meaningful to show’s renewal prospects, we can say with great certainty that a high percentage viewing increase due to DVR viewing isn’t meaningful at all to most shows because typically the shows with the greatest increases have low overall viewing. There are exceptions, but they are for The Office which had 34% of its viewing on DVR and wound up with over 10 million viewers, and not Dollhouse, which had 29% of its viewing, but only wound up with 4.8 million total viewers.
DVR viewing is really only meaningful to the degree it changes the relative ranks of shows. The truth is, it still doesn’t change the relative ranks very much because with most shows, most people are watching LIVE. What I did in the first table below is list the shows with the highest LIVE+7 viewing totals. In other words, the regular weekly top 20, but when the full week of DVR viewing is factored in, rather than only the DVR viewing that happened on the same night.
I’ve included the live, live plus same day and live plus seven viewing numbers, as well as totaled the DVR viewing, but the first table is sorted by total viewing with DVR viewers factored in rather than the typical sorting that is sorted by the number of DVR viewers. Remember, nowhere else besides the DVR data do we ever post the Live viewing numbers. The overnight and regular weekly information is all Live+SD which includes a lot of the total DVR viewing. The same day DVR viewing ranges from about 30%-70% of the Live+7 DVR viewing depending on the show and the time slot.
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:17:47 GMT 1
from Pifeedback.com
Ratings
Friday 3/27/09
Total Viewers :
CBS : 10.31 million, ABC : 6.70, NBC : 4.32, Fox : 3.85, CW : 1.81
Adults 18-49 :
CBS : 3.6 rating/11 share, ABC : 2.0/ 6, Fox : 1.3/ 4, NBC : 1.2/ 4, CW : 0.7/ 2
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:18:26 GMT 1
Tvsquad.com Review
(S01E07) This was a terrific episode. While it borrowed elements from other science fiction franchises (most notably the episode "The Naked Time" from Star Trek), it served as a perfect vehicle to explain how Caroline (last name : Farrell. Forgive any misspelling of names) got involved with the Dollhouse.
Whedon and company go to an anti-corporate message. It turns out the Dollhouse is a product of the Rossum Corporation, the biggest drug company in America (if not the world), and Caroline was doing some animal activist activities to earn their ire. Those activities even cost the life of her then-boyfriend Leo.
We also know that Caroline used to be a student at Freema University and had Professor Janik as a teacher (once again, forgive any spelling errors). We knew she was a college student (or probably graduate when she was recruited). Now we know where. Which college campus did they use for filming, I wonder.
Whatever was in that teapot when Adelle was saying "nothing is as it seems", it wasn’t tea.
The good thing about "Naked Time" style episodes is you get a lot of character background for each character (making this more an ensemble show than about Echo, which I think improves it tremendously). Boyd can play piano. Dominic is legitimately sorry that he tried to kill Echo while she was in that cult (and it wouldn’t surprise me if his character became more sympathetic in upcoming episodes).
Topher’s character change was the most interesting. He still remained in control, despite being affected by the drug. He admitted to doing heroin for twenty years (which means he started at what age ? Six ?). He’s a computer genius that is also a master chemist ? By all that, I’m guessing that he’s an Active as well and was imprinted with the person or people that originally developed the process. How else would a corporation retain such loyalty for such talent that many corporations would happily pay top dollar ?
Hell, Sam the college student was ready to sell out at a moment’s notice. At first I thought he was an Active because he seemed unaffected by the drug. However, we may be seeing more of Sam (or whatever his handle will be) in the future. I wonder if we’ll see more of billionaire Clive Ambrose.
I’m also guessing that Mellie’s mission was to get Ballard to drop the case. When she failed (plus when she went nuts with flashbacks), she was pulled.
Echo’s behavior in this episode prompted a big question from me : if an Active breaks an engagement with a client like that, does the client get a full refund ? Okay, I’m kidding. Mostly.
Favorite line from the episode. When Adelle is trying to describe what Topher thinks of her behavior : "Sarcastic ? Unfeeling ? British ?"
From this episode, we know that Echo is very close to breaking her programming. I’m not sure if she didn’t listen to Boyd from her own decision-making (an ability which she should not have) or he screwed up the code phrase. Topher is certainly making more mistakes. If he is an Active, then he needs a wipe as well.
Whedon has kept his promise. The series has improved tremendously and is starting to be a terrific piece of science fiction. Here’s hoping it’s enough to break the Fox Friday Night Death Slot. One last question : if Echo breaks her programming by the end of the season, what will be the show’s premise for future seasons ?
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Post by Gin on Apr 18, 2009 14:19:00 GMT 1
Zap2it.com Review
For everyone out there complaining that “Dollhouse” doesn’t bring the funny the way Whedon shows of old did, this one was for you. This was its “Band Candy.” This was its “Spin the Bottle.” This was the episode in which everyone was allowed to act supremely silly while under the effects of something inherently diabolical. Amidst the (literal) insanity, Echo functioned as the straight man, burrowing deeper not only into the source of everyone’s big bag of crazy but into the reason she ended up a doll in the first place.
Because no genre show is complete without EVIL INDUSTRY at its core, “Dollhouse” broke out its own version of Company Gone Wild : The Rossum Corporation. Their motto ? “Because Minds Matter,” a phrase that might give a hint into the “purpose” of the Dollhouses as mentioned by a corrupted Echo last week. Turns out that in her pre-Doll days, Caroline was an animal rights’ activist along with boyfriend Leo. Some people limit their activism to “rallies” held in someone’s studio apartment accompanied by wine cheese, and Jeff Buckley records. Caroline went above an beyond all that, bribing her way into some blueprints that showed a secret room in which she theorized Rossum was doing some shady business.
Well, Caroline was right, as in said room she found dozens of animals in cages, as well as a row of fetuses in jars. (What is this, “Fringe” all of a sudden ? Is Peter Bishop a doll ?) She and Leo attempt to videotape proof of Rossum’s doings, but Leo loses both the camera and his life in the ensuing escape from the building. It’s at this point that Adele first learns of Caroline (through what appears to be a handler), and the fact that the future Echo manages to escape from the hospital only fuels Adele’s desire to add her to the Dollhouse ranks. After finally catching up with Caroline some time later, Adele kept her holed up for days, employing psychological means to break down Caroline’s defenses until she agreed to become a doll.
Flash to today, where a drug in the very same building in which Caroline videotaped pickled babies gets unleashed. This drug loosens up one’s inhibitions in an attempt to awaken dormant parts of the brain. (Again, “Fringe” recently did this exactly same plot. Not complaining, just noting.) Unfortunately, it also leads to things like people slamming their heads into glass walls repeatedly until dead if unchecked.
We know about the drug’s affects thanks to a visit from Rossum’s co-chairman, Clive Ambrose, to the Dollhouse. Even his very name screams “eeeeeevil.” From his brief visit with Adele, one got the impression that this was the (doll)house Ambrose built. Guess he wanted a new kind of lab, one with koi ponds and people who walk around nipples first. (Props to my friend Kristen for pointing that out to me. Also ? d**n her.) Apparently, the evidence glimpsed by Caroline eventually found its way past puppies and into people, which Topher theorized gave the dolls a natural immunity to the drug affecting Freemont College. Thus, they were perfect operatives within an infected enviroment.
Well, Topher was only partially correct : rather than giving them immunity, the work done to create the doll’s blank slate just gave them a slight reprieve. While humans almost instantly started showing signs of exposure, the dolls much later started, and rather than startle to cackle, they started to glitch. Sierra flashed to being raped by her handler, Victor flashed to his time in what looked like the Gulf War, and Mellie (in-house as a live incubator for a cure) likewise broke down due to memories of her pre-doll life. Quite conveniently, Echo’s breakdown led her directly to the source of the missing vial of silly serum.
Fortunately for her, her second partner in crime didn’t get a bullet in the gut. Unfortunately, her second partner in crime was the man who caused the initial infection. He and his former lab partner (he of the glass-shattering noggin) planned to sell the drug to Rossum’s rival corporation. His reward ? Getting knocked out by a conveniently cured Boyd and a super spot next to Echo in the Dollhouse. I’m choosing to ignore how overly complicated Sam’s scheme was, as it makes those concocted by Bond villains seem straightforward by comparison. What’s clear is that Ambrose’s primary concern in employing the dolls was not human life but Rossum’s bottom line. Keeping that drug away from rival hands was the mission.
While Echo and Sam snuck into Rossum’s lab, the rest of the cast was allowed to shake off their normally stodgy selves and let loose for one week. I especially appreciated Dominic’s transformation, as he’s been so one-note that hearing a second one brought me joy. Props to Olivia Williams as well for mocking her stuffy British persona with great aplomb. A few great quotes from the infected :
Boyd : “Eh. Wow. Did not maintain control of THAT situation !”
Dominic : “Sure, now you’re experts…four hours ago you were discussing your love of apple sauce.”
Adele : “Indomitable. I could eat that word. Or a crisp. Do you have a crisp ?”
Topher : “You haven’t seen my drawer of inappropriate starches ?”
Now, these are fun and delicious lines, but what this is NOT is a permanent return to a “Buffy”-esque style of dialogue. Last week’s ep proved such language is not needed for a Whedon show to be successful. In fact, I hope this is the ONLY episode that features lines such as these. As much as I love his past work, I don’t need a mere repeat of it. I respect that he and his writing staff and attempting something different, and in these last two weeks, the show’s found some footage upon which to build something unique unto itself. Using old lingual tics to make diehard fans feel more comfortable would be untrue to this universe. Luckily, this week’s high-concept seems unlike to pop up again, so I think we’re safe.
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