Altered Prose at Pif’s Corner

Three episodes into the new series Dollhouse and I have to admit I’m mildly pleased. I’m a Joss Whedon “casual” fan (I’ll re-watch any of his shows but you won’t find me at a convention and I would fail at a trivia match), but the previews Fox aired before the series started did not entice me to watch the show. However, I got into Hulu, watched the first two shows online and then caught the last episode in primetime.

I’m not particularly enamored by Eliza Dushku, and my fear going into the series was that Dollhouse would be an eye-candy fest with no real substance. In fact, I thought this might be another Charmed in the making. Not my style.

However, Joss Whedon does wonders for his female leads, and Echo is no different. For all the memory and personalty wiping that Echo (Dushku’s character) goes through, she has this suppressed heroine quality that very slowly rises to the surface with each new conflict she faces. She strikes me as a cross between Buffy (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and River (of Firefly) – unaware of her own strength while being the super hero. Dushku does a good job pulling the character off; she’s believable in the different personalities her character has to take on, and although I do get a little of the “bratty bitch” syndrome from her it’s not nearly as bad as Jessica Alba (from Dark Angel). In fact I can see this brattiness transforming into one of her character’s strengths if it doesn’t overshadow her interactions with other characters.

Three episodes in to the series and we’ve already seen a rebirth in Echo who seems to be starting to realize that there is more to her employers, and to herself. The FBI agent Paul Ballard (played by Tahmoh Penikett of Battlestar Galactica fame) hides his own dark history, albeit seemingly cliche at this point of the series, while striving to uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse. And with the mystery Alpha running around as both hunter and hunted there’s a lot of plot to be uncovered.

Although I started as a skeptic, I am now intrigued by the show and am willing to call myself a supporter. I can see that as the show evolves the characters will become deeper and the plot will remain entertaining as Joss Whedon has a knack of doing.