telaryn. Early morning Dollhouse reactions... (Reply)

I loved it. Concept, characters, execution...it drew me in from the first scene, and I was sorry when it was over. I thought Eliza did great moving from character to character - the blankness of Echo is startling and quite deliciously creepy.

And I never once saw Faith. Your mileage may vary, but Faith Lehane is a character I've studied more than any other in any fandom I've ever been connected to. Her gestures, her speech patterns - her physical expressions - I saw none of it last night. Oh sure she got close in the opening sequence, but nothing Eliza did ever tipped me over into "that's Faith" territory. Not once.

I thought the opening sequence was a perfect way to connect to the character. It gave a grounding to the whole situation as she moves from persona to persona. I also like that Ballard (okay, Tamoh looked a whole lot scrawnier in that fight fantasy than I would have assumed he was from watching BSG) is apparently looking for proto-Echo. I don't think that was originally the plan?

The slavery angle didn't bother me at all. Yes proto-Echo clearly felt like her only choice was to sign her life away, but it's for a set period of time, and from what deWitt said, she's going to be free and "happy" at the end of that service. One presumes her original personality is restored at that time - the Doll personas are compiled from real people, so it's an easy leap to assume that they can store the original personalities as well.

Do I think this whole setup will get perverted and end really, really badly? I've watched every show Joss Whedon has ever produced...the answer to that is clearly "duh!"

I can't wait. That's what makes the kind of drama that I will come back for. Draw me in, make me care, and then mess with my expectations. Turn my worldview upside down before I even realize you're doing it.

Finally, I also love that this is a very different tone to Joss' previous shows. With Angel and Buffy you always had to have that "people are just really good at not seeing what's right in front of them" angle. No matter how much either show connected with real life and real human emotions, you could never escape the fact that they were metaphors.

Firefly was more subtle (and I think time has proven better crafted), but it was set in space. Alternate worlds, impossible situations. Good drama - damn good drama - but not our lives or our worlds except on the broad "human condition" level.

Dollhouse comes across as something I could see happening right here and now. There's a deeper subtlety to it than I think Joss has really ever shown before in any of his concepts, and I'm excited to see if he can sustain that and where he's planning on taking it.

Which apparently *glances at flist* puts me entirely out of step with 100% of the reactions I've read so far. I think that's a first.

I think I need a Dollhouse/Echo icon, because after last night's BSG, I am no longer excited by my Starbuck/Athena icon.