Dollhouse: Season 2

Introduction

Did I fall asleep?

Despite writer Joss Whedon's success in the TV genre with long-standing shows like Buffy and Angel, Joss's recent track record is not so great. The most high-profile of cases is the Nathan Fillion-fronted show Firefly, although this was temporarily negated by the follow-up film Serenity, and next to come along is Dollhouse, fronted by Buffy regular Eliza Dushku.

The premise of Dollhouse is a simple one really. A giant corporation takes in people with something to hide or forget (or something slightly more controversial) and takes over their lives for about 5 years. During this time their core memory is erased and they become 'dolls', pliant and gentle beings who live within the Dollhouse in a trance-like state until such time as they are hired out by rich corporate clients. Dependent on the assignments, new memories and skills are implanted to enable the 'dolls' (or 'actives' as they are also known) to fulfill the terms of their contracts. These contracts could be as diverse as romantic weekends or hostage negotiation, the necessary skills uploaded by scientific genius and all-round kook Topher (Fran Kranz) and overseen by Dollhouse head Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams). No doll is allowed out by themselves though and Echo's security handler is ex-cop Boyd (Harry Lennix). Rumours of the Dollhouse abound in the outside world, and although not taken too seriously by many people, FBI Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) is on their trail, or more specifically on his own personal mission to track down the missing Caroline/Echo.

Season 2 starts after the devasting attack by rogue doll Alpha (Alan Tudyk) and brings Ballard from the outside to becoming part of the Dollhouse security team, his reasoning is that he will bring it down from the inside. Meanwhile, it appears that Echo is not the same as all the other dolls, whose memories are simply erased at the end of each assignment. Echo finds that she has retained every memory implanted within her, which initially leads to some conflict but then allows her to become another person with requisite skills for the occasion, tapping into each memory at will. Whilst DeWitt believes this initially to be a direct threat to the Rossum corporation that owns the Dollhouse franchise, she eventually sees Echo as a saviour as the Rossum corporation look to use the implant technology in rather gruesome ways.

Now the close knit group with the LA Dollhouse must join forces in order to defeat the Rossum corporation and attempt to save mankind...

Extras

The first extra that is noticeable is a small pamphlet sized comic called Epitaphs. Licenced from Dark Horse Comics, it's a short effort that seems to introduce the backdrop to the Epitaph 2: Return final episode. Sadly that's all it does, not really being long enough to go anywhere, so personally I'm not too convinced of its overall value.

There are a couple of commentaries for episodes Vows, Belonging, and Getting Closer.

Outtakes - some quite funny, the most memorable being faux Senatoral addresses by Alexis Denisof

Defining Moments: A Retrospective is a behind the scenes effort hosted by Joss Whedon and includes interviews with the cast, including their reactions to the cancellation of the series.

Looking Back is a roundtable discussion in a restaurant with Joss Whedon and most of his cast (two of which appear after the meal is finished), discussing their time on the show and their favourite bits.

Overall

I initially approached Dollhouse with some scepticism but willing to give it a chance. After all, it was the brainchild of Joss Whedon and starred Eliza Dushku, it also helped that the trailers showed Dushku in various outfits that left nothing to the imagination. I never really saw much of Dushku in Buffy (or Angel, not sure if she ever appeared in that series...), but was quite impressed with the series Tru Calling. The initial premise that I'd read was that Whedon wanted to explore the soul and what was lost or found as various identities were worn or shed - a bit like acting as a profession really.

Series One was a bit of a letdown in that regard, albeit due to a lot of meddling from the Fox studio again. The season moved too slowly to be effective and was for the most part just a mission of the week with the same person playing different characters, some of the episodes seeming particularly weak. It was almost cancelled but clearly showed enough to Fox that a second season was justified - I'm not convinced that Fox saw quite the same thing as the viewers however. It was clear that Whedon was itching to let loose and explore the human condition a bit more fully, sexuality especially. There was also the star-crossed lovers angle between actives Sierra (Dichen Lachman) and Victor (Enver Gjokaj), a pair who seem to have feelings for each other within their doll-like states despite all memories being erased. The potential cancellation of season one led to the final episode Epitaph One being set some ten years in the future where the dollhouse tech has been unleashed on the world and a small band of stragglers are trying to survive. It was a great end to the series but also could potentially have messed up the returning series.

As it was, Whedon and co. decided to build on it, albeit in small stages. Initially it appeared to be business as usual, but Whedon was sneaking extra bits in to try and explore the human condition and go back to his original premise. This led mid way through the season to the addition of Whedon collaborator Alexis Denisof as Senator Perrin, a man on a mission to expose the Dollhouse but with a bizarre twist to it. After this minor diversion, it would appear that Whedon was told that the series was cancelled as it appears that he and his writers were trying to cram in as much as possible within his story arc to get them to a satisfactory finish so as not to leave anything hanging. This then leads to several twists within one episode that had me reeling at the time, and if I'm honest, still not sure why all of them were made. The season then leaves as per the previous season with a second futuristic episode Epitaph: Return that is linked to Epitaph One and does actually give a rather satisfactory end to the whole proceedings.

I've seen a couple of people refer to Dollhouse as the best Whedon series, even citing this above Firefly. Sorry, whilst I did like this a lot, there was no way this was better than Firefly. Aside from the bar of Firefly being set so high, Dollhouse suffered from being a rather schizophrenic show and a lot of the blame for this must be laid at teh feet of Fox TV execs again. When Whedon moves beyond the mission of the week and into exploring a long-term arc, things get interesting with relationships developing properly and giving the viewer a better understanding of the characters. A case in point being Sierra and Echo, I never really understood the point of either Dichen Lachman or Enver Gjokaj as they seemed too lightweight as characters in Season 1, but really come alive and standout characters in Season 2.

Apparently Whedon initially pitched this as a 6 season series, but I suspect that this one is best left here, a particularly satisfying ending to a promising but flawed series...