What Remains Of Dollhouse

Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker in Season 2 of Dollhouse.

I spent this morning with my brother on some personal business and had a bit of breakfast. We had a short argument about Dollhouse. He hated it from the get go, hated the premise (which I told him he had gotten completely wrong, but he's entitled to his opinion), hated the scripts. This didn't surprise me entirely. My brother and I, both science fiction and fantasy geeks, have very different sets of standards. For instance he loved Babylon 5. I myself could not stand that show. The over all storyline was interesting, and philosophically dense, but the writing and acting per episode was so atrociously bad that it rendered the show, for me, entirely unwatchable. So I laughed as he tried to break down Dollhouse as an excuse for an actress to be vapid.

By the way, he concedes the point on writing and acting but is able to go past that for the philosophy. Maybe it's because I am an actor and sometimes writer that I just can't do that.

But Dollhouse, I pointed out to him, was about the exact opposite of being vapid. At the core of the show was the societal pressure to be vapid against the strength of the human spirit (Echo) and Love (Sierra and Victor). This is not THE core of the show, but is certainly a large part of it.

It's been months since the end of Dollhouse, which I've written about here before. I still miss the show though even more, I miss the show's unreached potential. The potential that FOX TV never allowed and indeed undermined.

But this week, the DVD and Blu Ray set of the series' second and final season released. With that release comes an official video of the original song "Remains" which was written as the coda for Season One's unaired episode "Epitaph One".

This episode was written as a contractual obligation to FOX TV and was thrown together by the show's writers and filmed simultaneously with the actual "season finale" of the series.

Epitaph One was meant to give the audience a glimpse into what the show might have been since by then, Joss Whedon had not expected to be renewed for a second season. So they fulfilled the contract and had something for the DVD release as an extra for fans. And what an extra it is.

Here is the final clip of the episode, featuring the song "Remains" written by the show's Mo Tauncheron and Jed Whedon who became the head writers for Dollhouse during the second season. Here we see the basic thrust of Joss Whedon's philosophy of what happens when they keep trying "to make people better" (from Serenity).
Here is the same song, but with it's official video release. This goes back to other core themes of Dollhouse by revisiting the concepts of vapidity and how easily we can disregard our fellow human beings. It revisits the inherent loneliness of human beings and the ways we try to fulfill that loneliness even as we regard eachother with disposability.

My brother still hates the show and doesn't miss it. But he doesn't like Fringe either and he liked Titanic. I love him, but damn that's just crazy talk.

These videos make the sting of missing this show and regular doses of Eliza Dushku easier to tolerate.

Now if Amazon would hurry up and deliver my Season 2 DVDs.

My desktop, or Me In A Nutshell

Did I Fall Asleep? I'm afraid not...it's really over.

Warning: This is fairly spoilery if you haven't seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly/Serenity or the series finale of Dollhouse. 

Dichen Lachman, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Olivia Williams, Harry Lennix, Enver Gjokaj
Eliza Dushku

It can definitely be argued that Joss Whedon tells pretty much the same stories with each of his projects, or at the very least, revisits the same themes while messing with the way he tells the story. This is not a complaint. I love how he does it.

For this blog I'm just going to focus on the main one;  Female empowerment out of victimization. Buffy is strong but only because the first slayer was violated by a group of male high priests with demon energy, Cordelia is also imbued with demon energy, and yes she does so willingly, but later we learn that she was tricked, in the same series Winifred Burkle becomes the embodiment of an ancient and long forgotten god only through being made a sacrifice to that very god, and River Tam is tampered with to the point that all that is done to her by the Alliance Government brings out her genius and super powers and perhaps ultimately the end.

And then of course there is Caroline who through the manipulations of the Rossum Corporation and the Dollhouse becomes Echo, a high powered Matrix like hero but embodying the opposite of Neo's cluelessness.

All of these women rise from the ashes of thinly veiled metaphors for rape.

In the early part of the first season of Dollhouse many women, including fans of Joss Whedon's work complained that the show seemed to glorify the exploitation of women. This was nonsense. If you know anything about Joss Whedon you know that he is more of a feminist than my mother, who was a vice president of a local chapter of NOW for several years.

When it comes to Joss, you have to stick around for the long view. I learned this in Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Joss had Buffy meet the infamous Dracula in the season premier. That episode ended with the sudden and seemingly shark jumping introduction of Buffy's younger sister. When I saw this I was furious, not only was the actor who played Dracula abysmally bad, but the introduction of a sister out of nowhere?!!!

What.The.Fuck. (a)


BUT, I learned quickly, there's always a longer story, and a few episodes later we learn that the sister's existence has a purpose and that while badly acted, the character of Dracula introduces aspects of Buffy's being that we do not fully understand until the Seventh Season and that echo the warnings that came to us in the finale of Season Four. Further, a few years later as I introduced my daughter through the series on DVD, I saw how the coming of Dawn was foretold in the end of the Third Season, by none other than Faith (played by the ever hot, Eliza Dushku) in a shared dream with Buffy.

I am being wordy here because it brings up how the Fox Network has now twice failed the fans by their nearly militant refusal to appreciate good storytelling. Even if it happens to be a similar story to the last time.

They did it with Firefly, and they did it again with Dollhouse. And in the same way that Warner Brothers screwed Angel at the last minute, Fox left the Dollhouse crew precious little time to wrap up their story in a completely emotionally satisfying way.

And yet, like the ending of Angel, the Whedon crew managed to pretty much pull a small rabbit out of their hat. A small one, but a rabbit nonetheless. A lesser crew would have had Sierra waking up, walking to the bathroom seemingly disoriented only to find her loving husband Victor in the shower..it was all just a bad dream....except Victor is a Replicant....and isn't that Bob Newhart's wife in the bed? (ok, that last one was an awesome finale actually).

I just finished watching the Dollhouse finale, "Epitaph Two" and I am indeed sad and a bit teary eyed. To be sure, the impact of E2 is best appreciated if you've seen "Epitaph One", and if Fox were worth half a dog turd they might have screened that episode last week before showing this one. But that's asking the impossible.

Earlier today I was chatting with @2MuchPerfection who had seen the Dollhouse finale already. She is also a fan of Buffy though never liked Angel (I still think she's cool though) Her words "Joss is so predictable. Someone sacrifices, someone you don't want to die is killed and the world is alright again....not that I didn't like it. I can just see it coming"

She was right, but because Fox gave Dollhouse 5 episodes to wrap things up, I find it easy to forgive that certain parts of Whedon's formula are repeated so blatantly. And the unwanted death happens so fast and so without closure, that it still has impact.

As I watched tonight's episode I mourned for the stories we will never see. Alpha's struggle and eventual redemption (not unlike Spike's at the end of Buffy. Topher's sacrifice as well had echoes of Spike and even a touch of Wesley), the continual attempts that Paul makes to reach Echo/Caroline. The adventures that Meg, the girl Caroline and Zone as they make their way from Los Angeles to "Neuropolis" (Tucson, where I was born, by the way, just for the fun of knowing it), what does Dominic do and what is his journey after he is set free from The Attic, how long does Echo suffer through headaches before she makes peace. So many journeys so many variations on the story that could have been explored if the Powers That Be just let Joss be Joss and just.let.him.tell.the.fucking.story.

Parts of this finale were disappointing, but only because so much had to be covered in so little time. For me it was emotional and sad and the very last moment broke my heart. How even more heartbreaking if we had had time to learn more about Caroline/Echo's loneliness and isolation (again, themes embodied by Buffy, Angel and Malcolm Reynolds before her).

I loved this show from the start. I didn't need time to warm up. There were dips here and there, but I knew Joss was leading us somewhere somewhat new. (I will blog in detail soon, episode by episode.)

But his messages are the same. We can be stronger for our suffering, we should stop tampering with ourselves unnaturally to make ourselves better, and saving the world always, ALWAYS requires sacrifice.

Also...we like love adore lust after hot chicks with super powers.

(a) just a side not in the form of a footnote, Garry Marshall, producer of the show Happy Days, from whence the phrase "jumped the shark" was created, likes to boast about how high the ratings were for the episode where Fonzie, in a bathing suit and leather jacket, does the water ski jump over the shark, earned that show the highest ratings ever. But what he fails to understand, and I admire Mr. Marshall, is that even though it got high ratings, it was still the beginning of that show's spiral into utter stupidity

Sent to the Attic (without any supper)

So, as I suspected it would, Fox canceled Dollhouse this past week. So, as a result, I will be canceling Fox from my viewing activities.

Whining Fanboy you say? Over reacting? Well, maybe. But losing Dollhouse is really the final among many straws.

Dollhouse was not a perfect show. It took a few episodes to find its voice. Get its leggings. But this is true for every other Joss Whedon show, with the possible exception of Firefly, which I will get to in a minute.

Here's what Fox has/has not done, that has me deciding to tell them to go fuck themselves.

1-They put Dollhouse in exactly the same time slot where they put Firefly a few years ago. Friday nights...WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING TV!

2-They barely promoted the show themselves. This year alone on Twitter we counted hundreds of official Fox tweets for Glee, a show that was already a hit, and about 20 for Dollhouse which was strugging ON FRIDAYS.

3-They then blamed poor ratings.

4-They promoted upcoming episodes coming in November, but only as coming soons, very rarely on other time-slots, then within days they pulled the show OFF November for sweeps, thus playing a sort of game with fans. They assured us that this was a way to keep the show safe and help their numbers (the replacement, re runs of House, garnered a tiny tiny teeny weency improvement for that slot. Why? BECAUSE NO ONE WATCHES TV ON FRIDAY NIGHTS for network broadcast numbers to be worth anything.

5-Then after a week they cancel the show, demonstrating that EVERYthing they said previously was flat out, in your face, bald faced bullshit.

They treated Dollhouse marginally better than they treated Firefly, which is to say that they treated it like less stinky shit, holding it 3 feet away from their noses instead of 4. And they spoke to fans in condescending and again, lieing tones.

What they should have done, if they really wanted the show to hit, if they really wanted to give it its best opportunity like they said they did, was keep Fringe on Tuesdays (I'll get to that in a minute too) and have Dollhouse follow, giving the show a significant and popular lead in. If Dollhouse failed to garner an audience then, the network would have had a legitimate case on its hands and would actually be able to honestly say they tried.

I've written about this before. Gone are the days that network executives gave shows time to find their audience. Time for their audience to find them. No more. Everything has to be Lost now. Everything has to be Desperate Housewives (I just vomited a little into my mouth). Everything has to be Glee.

BTW, I have nothing against Glee, it doesn't interest me, but it sounds like a good show IN A GOOD TIME SLOT.

Firefly was probably Whedon's greatest creation for television. It was mature, featured the strongest cast that's ever been on one of his shows and it had a great premise. Sales of its DVDs continue to sell brilliantly. Fox claimed to learn a lesson from that. Their actions proved that to be bullshit. They did absolutely nothing for this show.

The pulled this same kind of half hearted nonsense on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles too. I wasn't a fan of the show for a number of reasons. But it clearly had a loyal base and its ratings on say FX (which Fox owns) or SyFy (Which Fox doesn't, and God I hate writing "SyFy", so fucking stupid)would have made it a smash. Given that Dollhouse's ratings were even better, that same action would have been even more successful

And finally.

I love Fringe too. It's on Fox so my giving up on Fox means I am giving up on Fringe (yes there are ways to watch it under the radar, I'm not going to advocate that). But they are doing it to Fringe too.

It was a hit on Tuesdays last year. It started slow and built really well. So what did Fox do? They moved it to Thursdays...OPPOSITE CSI AND GRAY'S ANATOMY. Two huge ratings giants. What the fuck did they think was going to happen?!!!

And now they are saying that they are unsure of the ratings and we will see about renewal.

And then of course there's Arrested Development. A brilliant show that yes, they stuck with but never did a single thing to improve its ratings. They played the martyr with it and also fucked with its fans.

Well guess what? FUCK YOU FOX. FUCK YOUR DISDAIN FOR GENRE TELEVISION and FUCK YOU FOR TELLING ME FUCK YOU. The Simpsons is boring now and you have nothing on that interests me. Much as I like Seth MacFarlane I have yet to get a single good laugh out of Family Guy (I know, I know....I just don't think its that good). I'll watch the remaining 7 episodes and then I'm done with you. Oh, and if I haven't said it enough already, FUCK YOU.

(Monday update) I forgot to mention that I think web shows are the future anyway. Like Dr. Horrible or The Guild. I don't think it's a bad idea to begin making clear to networks, both broadcast and cable that they are moving into irrelevancy as far as we are concerned.

I encourage you to join me in my boycott if you've had enough.

UnCivil DisUnion

This entry is filled with links. So be ready to do much reading or save til later when you have time and patience. Also its about 10 hours later than I intended it since I lost track of time and had to run to work...here we go:

Yesterday I started writing again after weeks of writer's block..

Well, that's not entirely accurate. Writer's Block suggests having no thoughts to write. What I had were plenty of thoughts and no desire to sit down and write. The problem with writing is you have to write.

Getting wind of James Coleman's blog by way of his stepdaughter's tweets seem to have roused me out of my stupor.

It helps that is stepdaughter is someone I'm a big fan of, but in the end it was a good clear statement of what isn't pleasing about the new President and the direction this country does not seem to be going in that made me feel like scribbling again.

So....here goes.

Another great disappointment so far in the Obama administration is his near silence and then confusing statements about Don't Ask Don't Tell. I've already blogged on this so I won't elaborate further on it except to say we have lost over 15,000 soldiers in the past few years because of who they love and not how well they serve their country. This is treasonous as far as I'm concerned. And if the policy is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", why is the military establishment investigating to find out who among them is gay and who isn't. Oh I get it, that's not asking, that's prying...so...I guess that's ok then.

Now on to the bit I have to say on "Gay Marriage"

This will likely piss a few people off, but the fact is I think we ought to take marriage off the books for everyone. Period.

Civil Unions are only available in a few states but it ought to be in every state. This entry explains why for now, Marriage is preferable, which makes sense, but were this country in my benevolent dictatorship (as it should be) here's how it would work;

Marriage is none of the governments motherfucking business. Marriage itself was originally only a contract about property that involved mating and dowry. Its only in the last couple of hundred years that marriage has become more about love than property and that's been an evolution of sorts. And since the state has no business declaring love, it simply ought to stay out of the complications of love.

Civil Unions are simple legal contracts between 2 (or more as far as I am concerned, why are we limiting adults from the number of people they choose to love and commit to?) consenting adults regarding property, financial and life and death decisions etc. The business end. Who has a right to be claimed on insurance policies, who has visitation and informational rights in case of hospitalizations etc. All this would be covered in a civil union.

Like marriages are currently, each state would have its own peculiarities, but each state would recognize any civil union. In the world we live in, this is not the case. For instance Georgia has specifically stated it will not recognize civil unions from Vermont (What was that about small government not intruding on people's lives?). That would not be the case under the United States of John.

Alright, so basically what I'm saying is simply replace the word Marriage with the two words Civil Union and leave Marriage to the church, synagogue, mosque, healing circle, yellow brick road or whatever form you choose to make a ritualistic commitment with.

It's your life, its your heart, not theirs.

Prop 8 is a travesty. How a group gets to vote out the rights of another group in this country, with this constitution, not to mention California's constitution.

In our Declaration of Independence, it is stated that our most unalienable right is the Right of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. So while that phrase is not in the Constitution, it is certainly implied in the Founder's Intent...since you know....they SAID IT.

Anyway, Obama has stated that he supports civil unions and not gay marriage...sooo...here's a thing he can think about while he is backing away from campaigning against Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Its a shame and an outrage and I hope Rachel Maddow continues to bring it up on her show.

Some people have asked me why I, a straight man in my 40s, unmarried, is so pissed the hell off about this.

Well, first of all, it always starts off with a minority, and then definitions shift...Gays on day one...blacks on day two, Jews next, then Catholics and oh yes..Muslims, etc etc.

When I was a kid in some parts of this country you couldn't vote if you were black and if GOD FORBID you want to marry someone of another race.

We just started expanding rights in relatively recent history. Its a little soon for restricting them again.

Every right that is taken away from a group is taken away from all of us, whether we realize it or not.

Life, Liberty and the Purfuit of Happineff. It's for everyone, not just us straight white guys.

As a side note; Thanks Eliza, for posting about your stepdad, your mom, Uganda, Prop 8 and all the fun projects you are doing. You've even got me rethinking my rejection of Major League Baseball. I've learned you are an even more interesting and layered woman than I ever suspected. You rock, and I'm proud to be a fan.

I guess its up to us.

I've been watching and experiencing the last few months with a certain mix of pleasure and pain.

On the pleasure front, it's great to have a President who speaks in complete sentences and has cogent thoughts. (I know the right wing meme is to go after him for using a teleprompter, but since they have so little to go on of substance from their perspective, its fun to watch that and I guess the never paid attention to Ronald Reagan.)

I also think he's been spot on with International relations. His speech this last week to the "Muslim world' was enough to send the likes of bin Laden and his ilk panicking for the first time in years. Finally a president who actually threatens their ability to recruit by crossing the divide and expressing an appreciation for Muslim history. Very smart.

I like that he's not forging personal friendships with any foreign leaders as well. I certainly don't need him looking into Angela Merkle's soul to know whether she's a good leader who can be trusted or not. I need policy and a plan.

Yes on these subjects I feel like we are indeed getting the change I voted for.

On other subjects I am not so certain.

Yesterday I read a terrific blog that happens to be by Eliza Dusku's stepfather. It covers the things that are barely different from what we went through with Bush and points out the very real stronghold that corporations still hold over our politics even after they so royally fucked everything up for everyone.

I'm a liberal, for the most part, not a socialist. And for those rightwingers that can't decide whether Obama is a socialist or fascist, I invite you to google them both so you can learn the definition.

Anyway, he seems further to the left than I am for the most part but his observations are spot on about what hasn't changed and what is really up to us as a people.

Teabaggers, corporate led or not, have one thing right...get out and be heard.

I hope you enjoy Mr. Coleman's blog and appreciate the central theme. I have to go to work, so I will continue tomorrow.

Reminder

Be sure to go to Fox on Demand and watch an ep of Dollhouse. Or at least run it in the background.

Ways To Save Dollhouse

Above photo from Allure Magazine

Ok, first a couple of things to know:

Eliza Dushku will be on Bonnie Hunt this Tuesday talking up the show. WATCH IT. Can't watch it? DVR it. Don't have a DVR? ask a friend to DVR it for you. There's even a little something extra if, like me, you are also a LOST fan.

Second, FOX was supposed to release its lineup for Fall yesterday, but they didn't. I am hoping this means that they are holding off on a few decisions...like maybe....DOLLHOUSE.


So...here's what I think we can do.

First. The obvious. Watch the show and tell your friends to watch the show. If you happen to own a DVR and watch the show as it airs, DVR it anyway if you don't already. Fox is really paying attention to DVR numbers now and not just relying on lame Neilson reports.

Ask your friends who own DVRs to DVR the show. They don't have to watch it, though I obviously recommend they do, just so long as they DVR it.

Maybe you've already seen the show, but did you know you can watch full episodes on HULU? And Fox pays attention to those numbers too. So play the eps on Hulu...ALL of them. Tell your friends to do it too. Too busy? So what...play them anyway in the background.

I am saying to do this in addition to getting people to watch the show. Let them see what potential the show has...Have them start with Episode Six: Man on The Street. It's written by Joss, really sets everything up well for people who haven't seen the previous episodes and is a damned good story. Plus the following episodes in many ways are even better.

If you haven't already, sign here!!!!

As well, Amazon is already set up for pre-orders of Season 1 DVDs. Order yours now. Let Fox see the potential for more seasons. They are still seeing how DVDs of Firefly continue to sell.

If you have more ideas or resources, post them in the comments below.

Lastly, we can take up a collection to hire Echo and Sierra to go to Fox and kick some executives' asses. We can hire Victor to shrug and be the nice guy and make them a counter offer to avoid further damage.

Seriously, lets hope this works. Tomorrow morning it might all be too late. I hope not.

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