The old saying goes: “The question is not am I paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?” And nowhere is this more obvious then in science fiction series Dollhouse whose two-season run just ended last Friday. It’s not that Dollhouse is particularly well-crafted science fiction series, but somewhere between its formulaic plot lines and rushed ending forced on by the FOX network’s decision to cancel it, it nevertheless managed to tackle big questions about nature of human identity and free will, posing some uncomfortable questions in the process.
That’s no small wonder considering that Dollhouse is another brainchild of Joss Whedon, a writer who gained a cult following with his TV shows, no matter if were they successful – like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel – or failures such as Firefly. Some see Whedon as over-hyped producer who is mostly concerned with mixing fast thrills and fashionable truisms, while others point towards surprising wit, insight and cynicism in his writing.
Dollhouse is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, with its intriguing premise and uneven development. Series posits an invention of a technology that allows human mind to be erased and then imprinted with whatever personality its creator desires. With a human mind thus turned into a glorified hard drive, the inventors start the Dollhouse – facility whose employees fulfill a five year contract by being regularly imprinted with various personas while their original one is safely stored on a computer. Essentially, we’re getting an inside view into Manchurian Candidate but, instead of people being brainwashed into assassins, they are – maybe even more disturbingly – being mostly used as expensive playthings.
The key difference between the Dollhouse and an escort service, or even sexual slavery, is that Dolls honestly feel and know whatever they are programmed to. But even this is just the tip of an iceberg. Over time, we witness Dolls programmed to behave like fully realized human beings displaying skepticism, sympathy, hate, rebellion and a whole gamut of human emotions. They’re indistinguishable from regular humans… except their personalities are about as natural as plastic.
We focus on one of these Dolls named Echo (Eliza Dushku) and, over the first half dozen episodes we see her play variety of roles from a high-class prostitute to a hostage negotiator. Parallel to that, we follow FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) who searches for disappeared girl named Caroline, also played by Dushku. At first, plot spins in formulaic circles with Ballard hitting dead ends one after another while Caroline/Echo goes through all sorts of heroics only to be turned into a blank slate by the end of each episode, ready for new assignments.
But then, in the second half of its first season, Dollhouse suddenly becomes much more engaging show. In one eerie episode we see Dolls rebel and try to escape the Dollhouse… only to turn back when they reach an exit. Their behavior was merely a pre-programmed security check. In other, a person aghast with the mere concept of Dollhouse is revealed to be a Doll itself, merely fulfilling its programming to manipulate other characters. We see Dolls committing murder and villains imprinted with benevolent personas, all posing complicated questions about the true extent of individual responsibility.
What does this all say about the rest of us? Are we merely a deterministic amalgam of our previous experiences? What is free will anyway? Are we truly slaves if we’re unable to even perceive our slavery? How much of our thoughts are genuine and how much are they shaped by our environment and the roles society imposed on us? These are some surprisingly heavy questions for seemingly formulaic action series.
But besides posing such quandaries in front of his audience, Dollhouse creates the ultimate conspiracy, one hidden not in lofty skyscrapers or shady offices – although there is a fair share of those too in the series – but within our own minds. Others shape our thoughts without us even noticing it. We spy ourselves but don’t know that. Are minds are programmed but we cannot comprehend it. Government agents and alien invaders of the “X Files” seem quaint in comparison: clumsy external forces that skulk in shadows. Compared to that, Dollhouse programming is an elegant way to make its target regulate and control itself.
Dollhouse tried to combine typical action series with a more cerebral kind of science fiction – the one that often takes seemingly implausible premise and runs it to its logical conclusions. Results were mixed. Its formulaic and repetitive first episodes bored a more serious audience while its morally ambiguous characters and situations probably turned off viewers looking for light entertainment. Its ratings sunk and FOX executives got nervous.
Great deal of problem lies within the main character herself: in theory, Caroline/Echo is a fascinating character, being repeatedly purged of all her experiences at the end of every episode and yet slowly developing a personality of her own. In practice, this repeated deletion made developments in every episode seem insubstantial and the main character unsympathetic.
But even so, one has to give Whedon credit for trying. Dollhouse presented an interesting and chilling concept. The fact that such series actually came to exist and that network hold on to it long enough to give it conclusion, how ever rushed it might have been, gives hope for other above-the-mill TV shows and its not-so-numerous audience.
More Posts by Danijel Striga:
Dollhouse: An Excerize In Paranoia
Danijel is a part-time writer from the city of Zagreb, Croatia
- a small country hidden deep within Europe. He studied Political
Sciences, volunteered in Transparency International and freelanced as a
journalist and a movie reviewer. He's a long-time Science Fiction fan
enjoying (and sometimes dreading) the fact that we finally live in the
future. Aside of books, movies, TV and role-playing games his main
pastime is kayaking in the chaotic waters of the Internet where he
occasionally writes on http://www.couchslobs.com/.
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Dear Mr. Whedon:
I have some thoughts on bringing back Buffy, her kids, Angel, Xander, etc. Look at a web site Baen Books and read 1632. Buffy meets Buffy?
I believe the time is right. The actors are there. I think that you are also into the aspects of science fiction – including time travel. But more so, I see the revival (after a long rerun period for both Buffy and Angel, then a 2 year hiatus, and now a revival again of Buffy.
a
It doesn’t have to be the same Buffy scenario. Look at “1632. ” And hang on to most of your original cast. There’s middle class angst, too.
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I am trying to save Dollhouse. Please sign petitions and send emails.
http://toresimonsen.wordpress.com
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Caroline/Echo may have been a potentially fascinating character, but Dushku just didn’t have the chops. Pity, I loved her “Faith”.
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Joss’ ill-thought concept (How do you make a profit from such a tiny niche market, when your overhead is so high? How do you avoid detection, when your ‘dolls’ are not just meeting rich guys in sequestered getaways, but are appearing with them at gala events–or in some cases, joining the entourages of major celebrities? How can a FBI agent, even one as dumb as Ballard, not find the place when all these rich people manage it? ), implausible engagements ($ 1,000,000 a night hookers, blind secret agents, do the rich not know about nannies? etc, etc), and creating a lead char that at the very least starts off as an animal rights activist screwed up the show from the start.
Oh and why bother with contracts that were completley unenforcable. If Echo is the Dollhouse’s top earner, but after the agreed five years we’re supposed to believe they’ll tamely let her go? What if an Active agrees to join the Dollhouse but not do personal engagements, we’re supposed to believe the Dollhouse will abide by these terms? We’re supposed to believe they’ll pay Actives any money they earn? We’re supposed to BELIEVE this ruthless organisation will hold to its contract?
Then you throw usual Whedon contrivances like the first season being built on Echo ‘glitching’. Surely, such a ruthless organisation would send her to the Attic (as Dominic suggested?).
Show didn’t hold up not because of Eliza, but because of Whedon’s usual half-assed world-building and many plot holes.
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Do you pay much attention to the people you don’t know at premiere parties or any kind of celebrity party at all? And of course it doesn’t seem plausible that someone would pay so much for that because you think it doesn’t exist. Take a look around at what people with money are buying. They buy expensive bags because they can, they buy huge houses and are the only ones living in it. People spend a ridiculous amount of money on things that they can live without. It’s about what they think they need, but really about what they can do, which is a point of the show. Manipulation of power and money. If it exists, people will use it, simple as that.
And yes, the organizations do honor contracts, what’s so unbelievable about that? But then again, it’s a good point. Again, the abuse of power and money, it’s a major point that’s brought up throughout the series, and especially in season 2. These places could honestly keep people against their wills if they wanted to, but we don’t focus on the other houses, we focus on the LA one and Adelle Dewitt. And she honors the contracts and almost acts like a den mother to the Actives. Also, Paul Ballard does eventually find the LA Dollhouse. And a corporation that has the ability to manipulate the mind and create technology that can erase personalities and memories, well, you’d think they’d be able to keep a good secret and know what the hell they are doing.
Your bashing of the show seems to only be based off the first episodes of the series in which Fox is to blame for. Joss wanted the series to start much like season 2 did. If you’ve seen the unaired pilot, you’d know what I’m saying. The series didn’t find it’s footing because Fox wanted simplistic story telling so they could make a better profit on it. It didn’t work and it drove people away because the shows were pretty stupid and implausible, like you said. But they eventually got better and it became an immensely entertaining and disturbing piece of television art. To me, it just seems like you’re basing it on the first few episodes without knowing a single thing about the rest of the show’s run.
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Tom,
By then end of your post your were just bashing Whedon, not “Dollhouse,” which kind of makes it suspect. And I agree, it sounds like you only watched the first few episodes. Fox demanded that the first five shows be stand-alone eps, and I can see the wisdom in that, but it didn’t work for this show, for reasons already mentioned. Whedon wanted the show to start more like “Man on the Street,” episode six. The original unaired pilot was deemed too confusing and dark by test audiences, which makes me wonder about the test audience and how “Lost” ever got picked up.
The larger point here that I want to make is about “plot holes.” Plot holes are part and parcel of episodic television. I can’t think of a show (a real show, not formula shows like “Law and Order”) that doesn’t have them. “X-Files?” You could drive a truck through those plot holes. “Battlestar Galactica?” Same. “West Wing?” Oh yeah, in fact that whole thing about Bartlett stepping down was just insanity. Really bad storytelling right there. Yet I still like all these shows.
Looking back, the biggest flaw in “Dollhouse” at the beginning wasn’t just that Dushku isn’t quite strong enough to carry a show, it wasn’t that we couldn’t care about characters who get wiped clean every week, it was that there was no one to latch onto in the premiere. Watching it again, it seems like Boyd is our entry point into the show, but it probably should have been Ballard. That was handled badly, no doubt.
All I know is that when a network isn’t in Joss’ way, we get something like “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” which, at around 42 minutes, could have been an hour on TV, probably the most entertaining hour of the season, but it would never have been greenlighted. More’s the pity.
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You may want to have someone copyedit your pieces from now on, as your English is attrocious.
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It’s charming that you made a typo in your comment criticizing someone else’s English.
Atrocious only has one t.
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Hm, going by his profile English is not his first language – what’s your excuse mochizuki-senpai? His reasoning is sound, although I never found that the character wipes wiped my own interest given the set up and mystery of Caroline.
Eliza Dushku was perfect as Echo – she’s a good actress with a strong personality that keeps trying to shine through.
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Wish I had active architecture so I could wipe the last 15 minutes or so. Dollhouse was formulaic because FOX insisted it be so. At least to begin with. Not well crafted? Are you ill or something? Could someone who knows about stuff please write some stuff about stuff from now on please. Thanks.
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Joss’ ill-thought concept (How do you make a profit from such a tiny niche market, when your overhead is so high? How do you avoid detection, when your ‘dolls’ are not just meeting rich guys in sequestered getaways, but are appearing with them at gala events–or in some cases, joining the entourages of major celebrities? How can a FBI agent, even one as dumb as Ballard, not find the place when all these rich people manage it? ), implausible engagements ($ 1,000,000 a night hookers, blind secret agents, do the rich not know about nannies? etc, etc), and creating a lead char that at the very least starts off as an animal rights activist screwed up the show from the start.
Oh and why bother with contracts that were completley unenforcable. If Echo is the Dollhouse’s top earner, but after the agreed five years we’re supposed to believe they’ll tamely let her go? What if an Active agrees to join the Dollhouse but not do personal engagements, we’re supposed to believe the Dollhouse will abide by these terms? We’re supposed to believe they’ll pay Actives any money they earn? We’re supposed to BELIEVE this ruthless organisation will hold to its contract?
Then you throw usual Whedon contrivances like the first season being built on Echo ‘glitching’. Surely, such a ruthless organisation would send her to the Attic (as Dominic suggested?).
Ballard gets tazered in ‘Man On The Street’, but still pummels four trained operatives? Then, this superman gets taken down by a little girl half his size? This isn’t sexism, it’s biology, boxing doesn’t allow 110 lb male flyweights no matter how good to get in a ring with 215lb male heavyweights for very good reasons.
Even worse is the revelation is Hearne has been raping his Active. How does Adelle deal with this? A simple but messy bullet to the head? Wiping? No, he’s sent out on a mission to kill November. What happens if he simply runs? Kills her anyway? There’s so much that could have gone wrong with the plan, it was just so contrived.
What character are you supposed to like? the blank slates? The pimps? The dumb as dirt FBI agent with a twisted obession? It’s fine to watch a show for the quality of the story, but the story has to be GOOD and PUT-TOGETHER, when it’s a string of implausible occurrences, not so much.
That sound like well-crafted to you? Or are you one of these Whedonites who unthinkingly worship the ground he walks on and sneer at anyone who doesn’t buy into the cult as ‘stupid’?
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We’re not supposed to believe that the ruthless organization just lets people go: we’re even shown that they don’t, when you see November/Mellie still a Doll after having been ‘released’. Harding tells DeWitt that the contract doesn’t matter, and that they are above the law. You’re just supposed to believe that the people working at this particular dollhouse are unique in the way that they are morally right.
Right now, you can pay for a $70,000 car wash. I suppose rich people have never heard of a drive-thru, either. It’s services like these that exist today that make the idea of the marketability of Dolls a bit more believable.
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@Tom – Do you trawl the internet looking for articles about things you don’t like? What strange behaviour. I’m betting that the majority of the people reading this article either read the blog regularly or were directed here from Whedonesque, as I was.
If you are a regular reader of this blog and just happen to disagree with the subject matter, why bother to read it at all? Just note that it’s about Dollhouse and move on.
By reading the article and then posting your diatribe, you have revealed yourself as a troll. And by reposting the *entire* rant with additional moaning, you have shown that you are an attention seeking troll.
If you hated the show so much, you shouldn’t have watched it. If you watched it and hated it, but carried on watching, any anger is your own fault. If you hated it but carried on watching just so that you could post rants on other people’s blogs…too sad.
I would understand if it was a film that you had paid £10 to go and see at the cinema and you hated. You’d have wasted £10 and 2 hrs of your life sitting through a load of rubbish. But if you sat through Dollhouse week after week hating it, what is wrong with you? Change the channel, pick up a book, go for a walk or to a bar, switch your computer on and play a game or surf the net! Don’t torture yourself by watching something you hate, and then come online and torture us with your repeated rantings.
On topic: I loved the discussions I have had based on the issues raised in this show, I have loved the dialogue and acting (especially Fran Kranz and Enver Gjokaj) and I personally enjoyed the majority of the episodes, even the silly Fox imposed formulaic ones at the start. The only thing that really didn’t work for me was Boyd as head of Rossum and I put that down to needing to wrap up the story and wanting to have a known face as the big bad. I think if it had played out over it’s intended run, the head of Rossum would be someone who would have been introduced later as a new character. I would have loved to have had a lot more post-brainpocalypse world as well. To see the character developments that were implied in Epitaph 2.
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Hello my name is Mamie Baker and I am a 20 year old Black Woman who lives in Calgary, Alberta in Canada and I have a severe problem with paranoia and I think I need to be put in a Nuthouse to have this issue dealt with. I also have problems with being disrespectful, manners of a pig, ignorant and dumber than a sack of hammers as I have done a lot of dumb things. I should definitely be put in the Nuthouse in a padded cell and have a straight jacket put on and as well a muzzle over my mouth so nobody has to listen to me talk as I am totally nuts.
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[...] Dollhouse: An Excerize In Paranoia [...]
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[...] Dollhouse: An Excerize In Paranoia [...]
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[...] Dollhouse: An Excerize In Paranoia [...]
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Firefly is one of the TV Series that was created by Joss Whedon. I love Firefly so much but it does not have Season 2.`:~
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Joss Whedon is a great director, most of the science fiction series that i love are created by him..’*
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Spät aber gut.. Mailand oder Madrid – Hauptsache Italien!
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joss whedon should have continued the Firefly series on TV, it was a nice sci-fi series“,
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salut, j’ai découvert un nouvel annuaire pour votre site internet !
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Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is magnificent blog. An excellent read. I’ll definitely be back.
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