Dollhouse: RIP

Well, that's all dearies. Joss Whedon's best (yes, I know, let the Buffy folks complain) show has officially been canceled by Fox during its second season. Fox announced the news yesterday. The show is currently producing its 11th episode. Fox plans on running the remaining episodes back to back throughout December, giving it a full two season run. After the announcement Whedon said:

"Hmm. Apparently my news is not news.
I don’t have a lot to say. I’m extremely proud of the people I’ve worked with: my star, my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you’ll agree in the coming months. I’m grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again.
I’m off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking. Possibly that relaxation thing I’ve read so much about. By the time the last episode airs, you’ll know what my next project is. But for now there’s a lot of work still to be done, and disappointment to bear.
Thank you all for your support, your patience, your excellent adverts. See you again. -j.”

 The show's 'star' Dushku also took to her twitter to post the following:

"Hear it here. Hey, that's really why I started twitter, the rumors/news IS true: Dollhouse will not cont. past these 13 eps :("

 I mean the news was obviously impending, but it's a sad day here in Aaron town. I shall watch them all fondly and think of what could have been. For those of you who haven't watched it, shame on you you monkey sniffers.

PS. Fox is now the devil. No dollhouse and an entire news network of bloated republicans. Kudos.

'Dollhouse' Gets More Whedon-y

It has been confirmed that Summer Glau (of Firefly and Terminator fame) will officially join the cast of Whedon's Dollhouse for it's second season. Glau will have a recurring role that is mostly shrouded in secrecy aside from the fact that she has past relations to Echo.

Also joining for a recurring role is Alexis Denisof (Wesly Wyndham-Price) who will be a US Senator trying to bring the house down.

If that wasn't awesome enough, also listed to appear are Jamie Bamber (hottie mchotterson from Battlestar Galactica) as well as Michael Hogan from Battlestar. Probably the largest casting announcement is Oscar winner Keith Carradine (Deadwood, Dexter) joining as a nemesis of DeWitt's.

Gah, I'm so excited for it to start.

Dollhouse: Think Of Them As Pets

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to writing this review up. This was another great episode (Lost, are you taking notes?). Let's jump right in shall we?

Let's Have A Pow-wow
The episode starts off with all the head honchos of our Dollhouse gathered for a meeting to discuss the actives. They are going to have all the handlers on watch for any "abnormal" behavior. The handlers are instructed to report any infraction to DeWitt immediately so the active can be handled.

5 Star Floor Coffins
Echo, Sierra, November, Victor and "Mike" all wake up in the middle of the night, with their personalities in tact. There's much talk about what is going on (millionaire perverts, aliens, lab research, the like...) The actives decide to try to assimilate themselves into the non-effected people in the dollhouse. This, of course, doesn't pan out fantastically. "Mike" is captured and sent off for a treatment. The remaining four end up escaping to the garage and are about to leave for good. Echo then realizes that she can't leave the others behind and insists that she goes back inside.

Here is where we find out that the entire escape plan is all a ruse by DeWitt to test the actives and her personnel.

A Little Closure
November, Victor and Sierra are driving away and November mentions that she has a daughter and she knows where to find her. They stop and she exits the car. Sierra and Victor head to find the man that put Sierra in the dollhouse. She remembers now that her name is Priya and the man who put her away is Noland.

November wanders into a graveyard and rests at her daughters gravesite. She collapses into tears. Sierra and Victor confront Noland and punch him (thankfully, 'cause he was a douche).
While they are running from his security, our two actives embrace and kiss.

When Barbies Get Upset
During this time, Caroline goes on a rampage through the dollhouse. She has a rather kick-ass fight with a handler. (am I the only one that went uuughhh when she whacked the hell out of her with that fire extinguisher?) Then she grabs a gun and heads up to Topher's office. Their confrontation was rather informative as we find out that Caroline doesn't have her memories but she still can access one about the mountains (that wasn't the first time we've seen that shot btw).

DeWitt enters the room and tells Caroline that she would not give her memories back. She says that she has been easing Caroline's pain at her request. Caroline shoots the chair and a computer in the room. She takes the gun and tells DeWitt that everyone has to leave the dollhouse and all the actives need to be set free. When they get outside, Caroline collapses and security returns all the actives back inside.

They then cut to November and the other actives and see that they have all fallen asleep.
Back to the meeting at the beginning of the show. We see that the doctor has recommended that the four actives be given a chance to go on a self-guided journey to "close the gap" that some form of longing has created and is causing their programming to glitch. Sierra needed to reclaim her freedom, November needed to deal with the loss of her daughter, Victor needed to 'get the girl' and Echo needed to free them. When the actives found closure, a sedative was released in their systems.


What's A Boy To Do?
During this episode, Ballard is having dreams of sleeping with Echo, Mellie finding them and Echo becoming a corpse. Creepy. He also tears his house apart and finds the dollhouse bug. He takes it to an analyst who tells him it's an amazing piece of technology and that "however big you think you are, they're bigger".

During Caroline's rampage through the dollhouse, when the cameras went down, she found Ballard's file. She calls him and tells him the dollhouse is closer than he thinks and that she needs his help.

The Big Questions
1. How exactly did Noland get Priya into the dollhouse?
2. Do they actually let the actives go at the end of their contracts?
3. What is important about the mountains?
4. Will Ballard get into the dollhouse?
5. What happened to Katie?
6. Will we find out exactly how Caroline got there?

In other news, it's not looking good for the future of Dollhouse. The ratings haven't improved any over the course of the season. It's looking dim. Just prepare for the worst sadly. GO WATCH THE SHOW!

Dollhouse: There Are Three Flowers In A Vase

Absolutely. Brilliant.

So much happened in this marvelous episode entitled "The Man on the Street" that I'm probably going to have a hard time trying to actually put this together.
Where to begin, where to begin?

1. There are over 20 Dollhouses around the world with connections to the highest ranks of government. As hijacked Echo says "fulfilling fantasies is their business, it is not their purpose". This, of course is right after her and Ballard have a knock-down drag-out brawl trough the kitchen of their nearest Chinese restaurant. Which leads us straight into number two...

2. Alpha appears to have moved onto some other organization. Echo ensures Ballard that the people who added this directive into her programming are not the same as the person who sent him his initial photos of Caroline. This implies that there is a somewhat more large scale operation going on. It also changes the entire way that we have to look at the Alpha situation. (hell, that is if Alpha is even actually involved in this)

3. Hearn was raping Sierra when she was in her blank state. Langton catches onto this and exposes him. DeWitt handled him with flair by sending him to kill Mellie. Read on.

4. The most dropped jaw moment of any show recently. Mellie (our sweet, adorable, unassuming neighbor) is a fu*$ing active!! The scene with her being attacked by Hearn was wrenching to begin with, since she's so flipping cute. Then DeWitt comes on the phone and things starting going crazy. "There are three flowers in the vase. The third flower is green." Then...just wow.

The Big Questions:
1. What is the Dollhouse's purpose?
2. Who imprinted the sub directive into Echo?
3. What will Ballard do now that he's off the force?
4. Are there other long term actives aside from Mellie?
5. Who's the "man on the inside"? (actually my theory about this may be that it's Dominic. He is worried about them grouping and about how Echo seems to be retaining info from engagements. What if it's because he is concerned that he'll be found out?) Cue "ooooooooos".

I'm sorry that this post was mostly rambling. I should have taken time to compose my thoughts. Joss Whedon is the new Jesus. Sans the cross and sin thing.

In order to get you to watch Dollhouse...

I designed some posters!

The show is my new televised obsession. I'm not a huge Eliza Dushku fan ("It's 5 by 5 B" anyone?) but this program has proven to be something akin to crack. Thankfully, I haven't sold any small children to watch it. The show isn't doing super in the ratings game, so I command you all to catch up with them here and then start watching Fridays at 9pm.


So browse these, comment and let me know which you like!