Anticipating DOLLHOUSE

Loved how the "previously on 'Dollhouse'" stuff was from an episode that never actually aired. If that's not fanservice, I don't know what is.

Okay wait is there a way to watch that previously unaired ep on teh internets??? It's got to be somewhere...

It's on torrent sites that have the first season dvds... I think that's it.

That's where I got it from. Try here.

It's on iTunes for $2.99, throw a Joss some cash!

It is! You used to only get it if you bought the full season.

just saw the episode last night and did a countdown of characters in joss shows who have died and left major characters bereft and feeling guilty for their inadequacies and faults. we came up with nine - 4 from dollhouse, 2 from buffy, 1 from firefly, 1 from dr. horrible, and...can't remember the other one, but probably from buffy as well, 2 seems awfully small.

Doyle / Angel
Cordeila / Angel
Darla /Angel

Though I don't know if all 3 fit the qualifiers.

yeah, i think we determined darla from angel but not the other two, that must be it. i haven't actually been able to sit through angel though, so this was based on another friend's judgment.

don't forget
Fred /Angel

I think I liked this better than any of the other JW finales, I am surprised at how much I ended up loving this show because so many parts of the first season really annoyed me.

Really enjoyed the last half of S2. Shame this show couldn't get away from the trick-of-the-week formula.RIP

Always hated the opening credits. HAI AND WELCOME TO THE HOOKER SHOW.

i was actually pretty disappointed by the ending - thought it was sort of an easy way out, would've preferred a less hopeful building-up-from-dystopia type finish. not sure if there are any other jw finales i prefer though....

Yeah, I actually thought it was totally clear that the end would come down to Tophercide but I imagined this would take place in 2010 w Topher recognizing that, even if Rossum is destroyed, the tech means it will inevitably get out as long as someone's alive who knows how to make it. I think this version of "Topher sacrifices himself to save the world" is less of an easy way out because he saves the world PROPHYLACTICALLY.

BTW: Would totally watch spinoff series set in mostly-depopulated 2021 US in which Adele & Zone, aided by the surviving slayers, try to rebuild society, in competition with an interim government set up by Wolfram and Hart. Matters complicated by the fact that Angel was reverted to Angelus by the action of Topher's imprint-eraser, and has his own ideas about the shape of society to come. Not to mention the Chinese dissident faction that spent the wipe years protected by its own in-house vaccine and now has troops occupying part of California. In case you wondered why the crew of Firefly speaks Chinese in the future.

Would watch that spinoff if you took out the "Angel" part, he is the worst part of any show. (Also, I think Dollhouse's focus on the mind + brain would not quite map onto Buffy's even less sophisticated vampires with vs. without souls dichotomy...which is probably for the best anyway, that was pretty stupid.)

i don't know guys, this thing pretty much fell to pieces over the course of the 2nd season. the **spoiler** boyd-as-head-of-rossum reversal was such a transparently desperate attempt to wrap up the plot -- i realize there weren't a lot of options but ugh.

Oh yeah, I didn't really get this either. Why would Boyd have had the same body he had when Caroline was first captured? Are we supposed to think he was backed up or not? If not, why would he be using his only body to be a handler in the LA Dollhouse? Wouldn't he need to, you know, run Rossum during the day?

Yeah, there are probably too many holes with the Boyd thing to fanwank away - they really didn't decide this twist until writing the beginning of S2. Even shoehorning scenes from Epitaph One into the last few episodes, trying to make sense. My only plausible explanation is that Boyd was insane, and so dedicated to the vaccine plan that he never considered putting himself in multiple bodies (and was not necessarily down with the body switching of other execs). But yeah it's still totally possible he did back himself up at some point. Though I will posit he didn't need to run Rossum during the day since Clyde version X could do that.

not even looking at it from a continuity angle, but just seeing so many characters jumping back & forth over the "good guy" / "bad guy" divide -- adele, boyd, bennett, whiskey, and "caroline". i dunno, it's like the delicately shaded ethical grayness of the first season was pushed into sharp contrast in the second and all of sudden everyone is a double agent? man, fuck that.

also, the way they totally dissolved the paul / echo storyline ("i wiped away his feelings for you to save his brane lol") was laaaame.

i actually preferred dewitt as the evil corporate queen she turned into for a couple episodes tbh. when they revealed that "our secret plan is working and i was just pretending to be an fabulously ruthless bitch " i just had to roll my goddamn eyes.

in closing i just want to say that the adele character had the best costumes possibly ever, and that if i were a slight, prim, mature woman i would rock every single outfit she wore.

ok, shutting up now.

btw, while I have given Fox credit for giving Dollhouse even this many episodes and airing all but one despite the terrible ratings, fuck them for pushing the final episode back an hour early so they could air a kitchen reality show at 9 instead

had no idea there were people watching this not on hulu

in closing i just want to say that the adele character had the best costumes possibly ever, and that if i were a slight, prim, mature woman i would rock every single outfit she wore.

^^^ this

had no idea there were people watching this not on hulu

hulu's not hd, nor is it my dvr

this ended up awesome. enjoyed it less than i would have, knowing it was going to end, though.

ok i gave this another shot and was disappointed, again

The best parts of the series are spread out over way too many episodes and they really only get into the meat of it at the end.

i enjoyed this enough iirc but would not rescreen

olivia williams and the funny guy are p funny

"we call it the tabula rasa, the ... blank slate"

patton oswalt

so you're into that phase, huh

i avoided watching this at the time but i'm actually quite surprised, impressed by it

it's kind of perfect that Obsessed Lawman looks like the exact mean of the same character in heroes and boardwalk empire

who, Helo? he always looks like that

does the wherever follow the network airing order or is it rejiggered?

well i didn't think they'd made him look like a character from a show that wouldn't air for two years deliberately, you know

the whatever is the regular order, i think, with the addition of the unaired pilot and 'epitaph'. weird how in two goes they couldn't come up with a good introduction episode.

the unaired pilot felt really rushed in comparison to the the official one. the victor reveal, for instance

the show didn't really pick up until Epitaph One in my memory... also damn, this thread started four years ago

was not surprised to see the cut opening for the avengers on the other thread - 'so there was a disaster, you want me to explain it to you' - you would think whedon would be wincing now every time he feels like using it.

firefly has a pretty crappy first five minutes too. and the movie is worse! i mean, you can see what he was going for, but i have seen people who haven't watched the show first try and watch that and just go 'fuck this' around the second 'this isn't the narrative we're doing yet' reveal. before you even get to the main cast.

epitaph is a pretty bravura leap in a lot of ways but seems somewhat irrelevant to the 'moral' 'issue' the show addresses itself to somehow

can't decide if the show is really smart or really dumb, like when dominic tells dewitt "you're a piece of work" is that a cliché chosen because it marvellously encapsulates one line of what the show is about or is it a cliché chosen because the writers couldn't think of much better

actually i think he works the post-dated-open-which-prompts-a-narrative-retrogression well, it's just not so great to lean on it. maybe it has something to do with the mode of characterization or dramatization he works, i dunno.

i haven't been able to return to this yet despite having 0 problem at all rewatching the same tv shows over and over. it was such a disappointment that i've been afraid of really confirming it.

can't decide if the show is really smart or really dumb

I really enjoyed this show while it was on, but I still can't decide whether it was any good or not.

also in dramatic fallbacks there was a point in the last episode where i found myself going 'unsentimental surprise death definitely happens in the next minute'

this show is good and also not-good

the second season (from like episode five anyway) is way more compelling in terms of week by week drama (i.e. i spent most of today watching it) (go funemployment) but kind of less fun to think about

also while the last few episodes' train-of-revelations stuff was pretty fun it made absolutely no fucking sense, i don't think it's possible to assemble any coherent set of motives for boyd at all, the chronology of what happens before the epitaph episodes is v weird, i don't know how much this is just an artifact of jury-rigging though, apparently it was meant to be five series (!)

"it was meant to be five series/seasons" makes perfect sense, every show gets at least five seasons, might as well make your plot last that long