mrsronweasley | Dollhouse 1x01

Dollhouse 1x01

I know some of you have watched it already, and I've got a question:

Was it just me, or was it really, really BAD? O.o

Like. Eliza Dushku is really hot and all, but she is not a very good actress! I found her WHOLLY unconvincing, both as a memory-less tool of the organization, and as the negotiator lady. Like, visually and acting-wise, she was out of the place and WRONG.

And the "plot"? What plot? The whole "engagement" was horribly clunky and felt like it was written by a twelve-year old with no idea how these things are supposed to go. The entire time we were watching it, we were just going, "What? WHAT?" to each other.

Also, I know it's the pilot, so there's bound to be some exposition and clunkiness, but that was - wow, REALLY BAD.

(Also, the technician dude really, really wanted to be Nathan Fillion. Like. a LOT. Also, keep squinting, Subtle Dude. Keep squinting.)

It was just filled with cliche on top of another cliche and on top of ANOTHER cliche, and I kept waiting for it get better? And it - didn't? At ALL.

In conclusion: JOSS WHEDON, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. O.O

(I might watch the next episode for Matt Keeslar (and his arms zomg) only, but I'm pretty sure I'm done beyond that. 'Cause, wow. WOW.)

...uhm, hi.

What did YOU guys think? :D

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I had no idea that he was making a new show. But then again, I don't watch much TV. But to hear it blows makes me sad, because I am a huge huge fan of Firefly.

Ummmm... pretty much all of that, yeah. Not to mention the skeevy, which was plastered on awfully thick, and left me feeling like I needed a shower. Or maybe bleach. Gah.

Joss has asked that people give him three episodes before we make up our minds about the show. I'll try, just because of his track record... but I'm afraid it won't be easy to tough it out, and I suspect I'll bail (with considerable relief) at that point. We shall see. He could surprise me... but it's not the way to bet.

Also: Joss needs to quit getting ridiculous crushes on tiny young actresses. It warps his judgment about their acting chops (or lack thereof) and after a while it starts to seem kind of squicky. Get over it, Joss.

I find the whole premise of the show so revolting that I am not willing to even watch it unless, like, my entire friendslist is willing to vouch for it...but so far everyone seems to agree with you about it.

I have always felt Eliza Dushku was a lousy actress, ever since Buffy. My friends' adoration of her always mystified me, although she is certainly attractive.

I think she's like Keanu Reeves. There is pretty much one character she can play that she doesn't suck at; tough, kickass, kinda dumb, no social graces. Faith was it. Anything more than that and no. Just no.

I watched it, but coming from LFN fandom, I spent most of the time thinking "wow, Peta Wilson did this much better ten years ago." I didn't like it, although I'm probably also going to watch the next one because of Keeslar. After that, I'm going back to my happy hot explosion-laden zen fannishness.

I spent most of the time thinking "wow, Peta Wilson did this much better ten years ago."

I missed Dollhouse this week - only partially on purpose - and after reading that, I might just be giving it a miss altogether. *still holds a special place for Nikita* Plus, none of the Dollhouse reactions I've seen have exactly been good...

There are people who liked it, but when it opened with Echo and some older, refined-looking woman talking to her about how she had to do this thing that she didn't want to do because everything has consequences...well. By the time they got to the scary memory-downloading machine, I was already shouting for Birkoff and counting down the time left before I could go dig out my dvds and watch the original. I wasn't impressed, any more than I was impressed when Alias started out with a pretty girl in a wig and a short skirt kicking ass. There's derivative and brilliant, and then there's just derivative. Unless I'm really, really missing something, Dollhouse is the second one. I'll be sticking to Life, which is certainly closely reminiscent of dS but manages to be completely different at the same time. *shrugs*

Hmm ... I liked it. Now I'm wondering if it's just ME. lol

Agreed. It completely sucked. Much worse than I thought it would be and my expectations were actually quite low going in. Will probably watch one more episode but if it isn't a LOT better I'm giving up.

Yeah, I was almost like....did I just watch an episode written and directed by the same people who did the "Knight Rider" remake? It was that bad. And it made me sad.

But then I remembered the articles in July 2008 (http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Whedon+dollhouse+pilot+fox+firefly&scoring=n&hl=en&um=1&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2008/07&as_hdate=2008/07&lnav=hist6) where Fox was basically making him reshoot the pilot and all us Browncoats (http://www.browncoats.com/index.php?ContentID=42e7e88e69ab5) were flashing back to the original airing of "The Train Job" (http://www.tv.com/firefly/the-train-job/episode/180234/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;1) in September 2002 when we were going OMGWTFBBQSEGFAFAULT and shutting off our TVs.

*sigh*

I hope that didn't happen again and we get to see the original footage.

I was extremely disappointed with the bad. I watched all of 20 mins and then had to shut it off. Between the skeezy premise and ED's poor acting=made of FAIL. :(

I am going to hang in there because I did NOT hang in there for Firefly and have been regretting it ever since. I am also cutting him some slack because this episode had FOX MADE ME REWRITE HALF OF THIS all over it. Joss doesn't do dialogue like that EVER. It felt really forced but like bkdelong said - Fox tampered heavily with the first three eps. So this time around I am sticking with it for awhile. I think ED has an incredible challenge in trying to display a persona that is essentially devoid of personality. It's kind of like River's character - at first I was all "what in the hell is she trying to portray" but then what I got what Joss was trying to do - I 'got' it.
And now I sound like a completely deranged and rabid browncoat. Great. Just great.
:::headdesk::
I am actually not one but again - I still feel bad about not jumping on Firefly when it was on.
Also - I just finished the Middle Man last night. OH MY GOD HOW I LOVE THAT SHOW. We HAVE to watch it at MJ. I luff luff luff it!
*jumps on the Matt Keeslar bandwagon with you*
Also - Hi Liz!

MIDDLEMAN!

*flails at you*

Now if I can just get you watching the six degrees of Damian Lewis collection....

(I owe you an email. Haven't forgotten, just got a little distracted by events.)

Not to worry! The amusedone sent me a disc of this season of Life and I watched all of season one in like three days. It was DELICIOUS. I am not too keen on BoB cuz I have no love for war epics. I hate entrails ect. I've watched the Baker. I watched ALL of the Forsyte Saga years ago. He was incredible in that. Unbelievable in fact. I've never seen anyone do emotionally repressed quite so well. Although I wasn't a fan of the pursed mouth he wore in that so much. I was quite pleased to see that he actually has a very nice mouth in other things!
No worries on the email - the offer still stands. In fact - if you want to squeeze in all four days - I got you covered. There's room.

See, and that's the difference between building your series around Damian Lewis, and building it around Eliza Dushku. When the writing gets a little week, Lewis can still absolutely carry the scene by relying entirely on his acting chops. Dushku really, really can't. If it isn't on the page, she flounders. Life is a great show, even when it's not perfect. And from the very first moments of "Merit Badge" it was obviously something worth watching. Dollhouse is just meh, and sort of squicky to boot.

(Middleman was the same way--within minutes, I was bouncing around and gleeful because it's different, and quirky, and smart. And again, the cast takes what it gets and just runs with it. It's fantastic to watch that happen.)

BoB is so much more than a war epic, in part because of the cast. And the cinematography of it just gives me chills. As does Keane, which is disturbing and weird and absolutely riveting. I really need to put together a post that explains why I think he's an absolute genius, rather than just stuff about his pants. Although the pants stuff is fun.

There are some things I watch for the fun of it, even though they're a little bit crap, but Dollhouse wasn't even entertaining crap. It was just crap. I'm a little irritated that I wasted time I could have spent watching something else, and that's not a good sign for my liking the show.

(I think I'm good, because of the raise and all. But someone else was looking for more roommates--maybe Bella and her roommate? I don't know if they're still looking, but I think I got a note last week from one of them.)

mmm - I think I disagree for all the reasons I stated above. I am giving it a chance mostly because I worship Joss. I wish I didn't but the years of Buffy and Angel were the most emotionally stimulating television I've ever seen. I felt like this episode catered to every one but Joss's vision. If he hadn't changed it - they would just cancel him or something. I am still so pissed about Firefly. So the weaknesses of this first ep get a free pass from me. Of course if it doesn't continue to get my attention I won't watch it but so far so good for me. Or rather, so far, so not switching it off quite yet.

I think john and I will be okay room wise - I already reserved one. Again - if you have need - I am THERE baby!
As a side note - I had brunch yesterday with the person that came up with that Jonas bro's/BoB crossover idea. She is evil that way. Evil to her VERY CORE. Not really - but now we know where people come up with these INSANE ideas. From my friends brain. There's a factory in her head that churns out insane fic ideas.
*nods*
It's true! What?

I must have missed where he said FOX had basically tampered heavily with the first 3 eps. So does Joss want us to wait through 3 of 4?

OK. Someone needs to help me on Middle Man. I don't get it. I saw two episodes - 1 and 3 and...just couldn't go on.

Convince me otherwise.

I think that Joss was told to completely re shoot at least the first couple of eps. Fox didn't like the direction he was going in. From what I can tell - he did that, and by maybe, ep three or four he says the shows are more of what he had in mind.
As for the Middle man - baby - you like it or you don't. There's no need to convince you. If you don't like it - you don't like it and that's okay.

Oh....boy are you loving (or going to love whose the main guy in tonight's episode.

I am TRAUMATIZED! Well not really but hooboyo! This one was a bit stressful. To say the least.

Yeah.....not done yet.

Sorry? Not done watching it? My bad. I misunderstood. But it was stressful. I don't think that was a spoiler was it?

No - not at all...no worries.

I didn't watch it, I felt sort of guilty for not when I realized it the other day, but now I don't feel so bad for not catching it.

If it gets better in another 3 to 4 eps, let us know! :)

I haven't watched it yet - waiting for ep 2 - but I've heard some verying reports. One was that it was the best hour of TV in two years, so I don't know yet.

I saw about 10 minutes, Eliza Dushku seemed very wooden to me, and the plot seemed fairly derivative - kidnapped child (a girl, of course). I probably won't watch unless a LOT of people I trust tell me it's getting better.

(I love Firefly, but have never watched Buffy/Angel.)

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Dollhouse 1x01

Joss Whedon made a new show?

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