Meant to comment on this Dollhouse-related item a few days ago:
Can Prison Break Save Dollhouse?
Probably not -- but maybe! Certainly Dollhouse's low ratings, Joss Whedon's troubled history with Fox, and the fact that the network is refusing to air the thirteenth episode of the first season all bode poorly for the show's renewal prospects. But now that it's finally rid of the viewership-terminating Sarah Connor Chronicles as a lead-in, can Dollhouse rally? Whedon hopes so!
At Paleyfest yesterday, he acknowledged that the chance of a second season is "not very good" -- but there is, technically, a chance!
"I've gone from a sort of place of 'You don't even care, nobody loves me' [laughs] to a place of God, I can't believe I'm saying this ... hope. We might actually get the chance to do what we're dying to do, which is tell more of these stories with these crazy people because we have so many more yet to come ... Basically it's what happens in the next few weeks; we have a new lead-in, we have a few more episodes coming up -- whether it's 12 or 13 -- they are fierce ... We're going to go out this season with a bang, and hopefully we'll get to come back for Season 2."
Next week's episode of Dollhouse will air after Prison Break, which has already been canceled but is returning for six more episodes following a mid-season break. And its ratings this year are slightly better than The Sarah Connor Chronicles' (5.6 million viewers, on average, compared to SCC's 4.7 million). Still, we can't recall the last time that swapping one canceled show for another canceled show saved a third nearly canceled show from cancellation -- but it's certainly kind of weird to hear Joss Whedon using the word "hope," isn't it?
I can't have been the only one who saw the promos for Dollhouse, heard the words "Friday night" and "Fox," and wondered what the hell Whedon was thinking. I realize it was Dushku's development deal and she brought him on board, but come on. Was he really expecting a square deal from the same network that gave Firefly the shiv and seems to hate any genre show not called The X-Files?
He should be happy Buffy was only on WB, or it would've been shut down after two seasons.
I'm admittedly not as big a fan of the guy as some. I watched Buffy for about four years, never got into Angel, and really enjoyed Firefly. I gave Dollhouse three episodes before deciding I had better things to do with my time (and because Whedon's fetishization of young women masquerading as "empowerment" finally started to wear thin, but that's an entry for another time).
So maybe that's why I'm not feeling the indignation about the show's imminent demise. For starters, Eliza Dushku is not a good enough actress on which to hang a franchise. Second, people need to stop insisting I should "stick with it" because "Episode 9 was really great"...I'm glad these folks have that kind of free time, but I walk out of a 90-minute movie if it doesn't grab me and give a book about 100 pages before moving on. Am I really supposed to devote 8 hours of my life to a TV show before it starts to get good? Aren't the really memorable TV shows the ones that nail it from the get-go?
I don't read all his interviews, but has Whedon ever considered doing something with the SciFi...sorry, SyFy Network? Battlestar Galactica might have succeeded on network TV, but I wouldn't count on it. And if Stargate can become a venerable and respected franchise, it seems like Whedon wouldn't have any problem developing his shows at the pace he seems determined to set.
“…and because Whedon’s fetishization of young women masquerading as ‘empowerment’ finally started to wear thin, but that’s an entry for another time.” — Our Host
What I hate more is his inclination to kill off said women as not only a statement of empowerment—“Hey, I’m so non-sexist, I’m willing to torment and murder my female protagonists, too—no sacred vessels they.”—but also as his go-to for “Drama-with-a-capital-D.”
Whedon’s guilty of it across every medium he touches: Anya’s thankless death on tv, Wash’s (he WAS the wife) on the big screen, both Xander’s new girlfriend and Kitty Pryde in the comics, and finally that gal in the “Dr. Horrible” web-show.
That last one made me swear off Whedon for good. I freely admit it’s my own damned fault—I was so caught up in the musical portion that I idiotically didn’t see the death coming. I should’ve known better.
So I didn’t even give Dollhouse a chance on principle…but I wouldn’t have anyway, given the commercials. “Hey, here’s a show about a completely blank slate, personality-less woman who can be imprinted and molded into a nerd-wank uber-babe week in and week out.” *Shudder*
Pete, you should give Angel a go. I liked it better than Buffy and some of the character arcs (Wesley, for instance) were damn good. Plus there was the episode with the demon who turned people into muppets…
I feel like I’m *supposed* to like Dollhouse. I’ve tried to watch it but usually end up just doing the work I brought home from the office while I sit on the couch, only to realize about 30 minutes in that I haven’t been following anything that’s happened. Dollhouse has picked up lately and seems to be taking a somewhat more interesting course, but frankly I’ve enjoyed ‘Unusuals’ and ‘Fringe’ quite a bit more, as far as “new” shows go.