Welcome To Dollhouse (Post 100 Bitches)

Dollhouse starts off painfully mediocre. Hampered by a flimsy presence, a lead actress whose a little less then charismatic, and network tampering which is about as subtle as a boot to the face, the first five or so episodes are kind of sort of terrible. And then all of a sudden it becomes something close to a masterpiece.

I’m a Joss Whedon fan. That’s it. Not a raving fanboy brown coat who worships the ground on which he walks, but someone who thinks he creates a quality product, with a strong voice I respond to, and is an engaging an intelligent speaker to boot. He has a Tarantino like preternatural understanding of genre and also the ways that genre can be subverted without breaking what people love about it in the first place. As well as an innate understanding about the engines that drive it. He’s created, four distinct worlds, think about that for a moment and despite Job like setbacks he’s never gotten lazy or self satisfied (well maybe a little self satisfied). He’s a writer of uniquely clear voice and vision.

Which is what’s so startling about the beginning of Dollhouse is how hazy that vision seems. For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows Echo a young woman who works for The Dollhouse. A shadowy organization, led by the insanely great Olivia Williams, that makes custom people for whoever is rich enough to afford them.

It’s like Whedon came up with this concept and had no idea what to do with it. He runs through all the old tricks, mentally disturbed female protagonist (Firefly), slightly sinister British mentor (Buffy), shadowy organizations in the control of young women (Buffy and Firefly), questions of free will, fate (Etc.), the aw shucks nice girl pining for the guy. It all comes out of the playbook. Stuff that Whedon can do in his sleep, and for along time that seems to be exactly what he’s doing.

And then the bombs start to fall. No one can bring the hammer down like Whedon. He’s the master of the exquisitely timed, hinted at just enough to not be a cheat revelation that, that’s just crushing. He does it a couple of times in Dollhouse and each time the affect is simply remarkable.

I hesitate to hype the series sixth episode man on the street anymore then it already has been. But it really is that good. Not just for the way it finally makes the dolls make sense, thanks to a soulful performance by Patton Oswalt, but for the way that it finally brings into focus what the series is about.

Joss Whedon has been writing about the end of the world for along time. That’s kind of his thing. Hell he brought all of existence to the breaking point about seven or eight times on his first show. But this time he’s really writing about the Apocalypse (even before the chilling finale Epitaph 1). Dollhouse is about the day we finally get too clever for our own good, the day our reach exceeds our grasp for the last time and our whole species goes down in flames not even realizing it before it’s too late. It might not be the technology Whedon’s talking about here, but it’ll be something equally impossible. With a writer as smart as Whedon behind this stuff, scary doesn’t really begin to cover it.

Simply put Dollhouse is a great show, and if you’re a sci fi fan and you’re missing it, you’re only cheating yourself. This is Sci Fi of ideas that I’d put on the level of Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson, real solid stuff that your mind can chew on.

Dollhouse might not be as entertaining as Firefly. And it’ll probably never become the phenomenon that Buffy and Angel did. But all the same it just might be Whedon’s masterpiece.