I know you’ve heard it before, but when Dollhouse was renewed I think even the person that made the decision was surprised by it. Put nicely, the ratings didn’t support a renewal. More directly, they sucked. Last week’s premiere’s ratings were down from last season’s average, so things aren’t looking good. What’s the problem then? Has Joss Whedon forgotten how to write good television (quick answer: probably not)? Are these episodes actually good, and we just can’t appreciate it (quick answer: again, probably not)?
The second half of last season was pretty darn good. The “unaired” episode, “Epitaph One,” was pretty damn close to amazing. The problem with what we’ve seen so far this season, however, is the same thing that drove people away from a decent premiere ratings number last season: It’s the Characters, Stupid.
Ratings Update: Yikes. 2.1 million viewers and 0.8 in the demo.
I know I’ve gone on ad nauseum about how great characters are, so I won’t hammer that point home again, other than to say this: television is a great medium for developing characters, letting them grow, and thus letting the viewer connect to them. In the case of this show, we’ve got very few characters that are “the same” each week, and frankly, most of them are kind of boring (Ballard, I’m looking square at you). Topher is the exception to that rule, but, frankly, that’s not enough.
Echo, Sierra, and Victor (remember him?) change personalities each week. They are different people, with different background and histories and experiences; they are different characters. Eliza Dushku gave a hell of a performance in the police station in tonight’s episode, but at the end of the day, I wasn’t connected enough to her “mother” persona to truly care about what was happening. I knew it was all fake, not just for the audience, but it was fake for Echo.
Granted, Echo is beginning to bank all of these experiences, and to become aware of all of them. Instead of making her a distinguishable, developed character, we’re getting what is quickly becoming a schizophrenic mess. This really isn’t an improvement, because while she might be becoming a more sympathetic character, it’s not one that’s necessarily more likable. Whedon needs to find a way to get us involved and connected with these blank slates.
Last season saw a interesting thread with Sierra and Victor that has only been hinted at once this season. The most interesting developments this season have come from non-regular cast members (Amy Acker’s Whiskey and Miracle Laurie’s November). If the audience cannot connect to the characters that are on-screen week after week after week, then they are going to (continue to) stop watching.
(I almost feel the need to add this: I am a Whedon fan. I gave up on Buffy too early, I gave up on Angel too early, and I never watched Firefly when it aired, but found them all again after the fact, and became a fan. I won’t give up on Dollhouse for those reasons, but I do want this show to live up to the potential we saw in episodes like “Man on the Street,” “Omega,” and “Epitaph One.”)
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Oct 03, 2009 @ 01:05 EST5EDT
I thought from episode one that the show’s main premise — people changing who they are week in and week out — would cause us to have an impossible time identifying with the characters. By making the unchanging ones unrelatable and uninteresting (Ballard, for example), they’re going to keep digging that grave.
I liked Eliza Dushku on buffy, but I did not think she could carry her own show. It does not help that her character has no memory of the past to relate to the present. Tonights episode I think she did a marvelous job. There may be hope.
I miss Amy Acker (Whiskey) already.
when are we going to see Summer Glau? I do not even see dollhouse on her IMDB page.
I miss Amy Acker too, and was surprised at Dushku’s pretty good performance last night. I’m soon to be one of the viewers that gives up, though. There is no Joss magic in this show for me, and I’m a big fan. I’ll give it maybe 2 more episodes, but then I’m done if it continues to suck. I just don’t get it — it feels like Joss wants the show to fail, which I know is a stupid thing to say, but he is not doing himself any favors by making a show that not only won’t attract new viewers, but can’t even keep his loyal fans wanting to watch.
All the complaints have merit, and still I’m enjoying the show quite a bit.
This episode was really twisted. The whole thing gave me anxiety. First, the friend (Sierra) tells the nursing mother to booze, then 2 scenes where the baby is precariously perched on desks (he’s gonna fall!), then swinging around of the car seat, topped off by a knife near the baby’s face. I spent the episode clutching my heart.
At the end, I did half way wish Echo would have stabbed that fella in the leg so she could go live happily ever after with that adorable baby.
No more of that kind of episode, it was way too hard on this moms nerves!
‘ I knew it was all fake, not just for the audience, but it was fake for Echo.’
But, as this episode showed, these events are real to Echo. As she told Ballard at the end, she feels all of them, and for me that is what makes me feel sypathy for each of the actives. What is so interesting about these characters is the strange and twisted ways they are made to truely live the situations they are put in, something a ‘wipe’ isn’t able to get rid of.