lettered | Dollhouse 1.01

The main trouble with this show is that it takes place in The Real World.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer supposedly took place in The Real World, but very rarely. I mean, that series started by telling you it was not Real, but rather a spoof of both horror movies and highschool. I still think it had the best pre-credit bit for a pilot ever. And then there was this girl with superpowers, and vampires. And while the vampires and superpowers were already there because of the movie, that was actually a great way to start the series, rather than trying to convince us first that Buffy was a Real Girl. What happened in that show was that we slowly realized despite the show not occurring in the Real World, these were Real People.

Sunnydale was never meant to be a Real Town, and the stupidest parts of the show were when there were explanations for how Sunnydale fit in the real world, or how Sunnydale might be Real (i.e., why wasn't everyone aware that there were vampires, or that their town was on a Hellmouth). Or anything to do with the Initiative, as if national government had any place in that show whatsoever (whereas municipal government--i.e. the Mayor--made perfect sense).

Firefly, of course, was even more simply Unreal, and by its very premise had license to pick and choose Real World elements and weave it into a new world fantasy.

Dollhouse has a premise that suggests unreality, mindwipes, memory adjustment, yada yada, but it's definitely supposed to be the Real World. Now, you say, Torchwood has mindwipes yada yada, and it's not as fantastic as say, BtVS, but it works. Let me clarify by saying TW does not work for me at almost anything; I don't like the show very much. But in this respect--and I think the respect I'm talking about might be genre?--TW does fine. It does not bring Real Government into it. The government on TW is fake government; it's a fantasy government constructed by both TW and DW, and we barely ever see it (if at all. In DW we see the PM, that's it. In TW I don't think we even see that, we just see UNIT which is apparently a branch of the government [wait, is TW a branch of the government?], but anyway it's not government either). And hostage situations, child abuse, and Secret Agents on TW all have aliens. So it's all unreal, and makes it's own kind of sense. TW isn't the best example; I've had some trouble with the ideas of just how real and unreal they're meant to be, but it was the first example that came to mind. Besides, despite it's screwy logic and very wrong unadmitted date rape sequences, it does a lot better at what I'm talking about than Dollhouse has so far.

I felt like Dollhouse had these real elements it was trying to bring in. Businessmen (real businessmen, not the fake businessmen who make no sense, like David Nabbit on Angel), and kidnappings, and Helo in what appears to be some government agency or something--is he meant to be police/FBI/CIA/Secret Service/whatever (am a little confused)? Not to mention slave trade and child abuse. But then you've got this sci fi premise--which is okay to have in the real world! It is okay to have a Real World show with sci/fi fantasy elements going on, like those ones about prescient crime-solvers who see crimes happen or whatever, all those shows that aren't very good anyway.

But the thing is--it's Joss. I never went to Whedon for anything this real, and I'm not sure I trust him to pull it off, and I'm not sure I want him to, or anyway that I want to watch it. It's not that Buffy didn't have real, as I said. It was so real, it did talk about things like child abuse, and it talked about grief, and apathy, and sexuality both healthy and unhealthy, it talked about family both ugly and beautiful, it talked about all those real things. But it never expected me to take the actual premise and put it in a world that couldn't hold it.

I still don't know whether the world Whedon has created can hold his Dollhouse, but something didn't feel right, felt off to me. I have more to say about the show in general, but I think I will wait until the next ep to pass more judgment.

All that said, *chin in hands*, what did you think?

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Your post reminds me of something Tim Minear said a while ago about how The Inside was not any darker (or even less dark) than Angel, and yet, because it was set in the Real World, without the buffer of fantasy, it was harder to look at. It also didn't make it past a handful of episodes.

I don't know. If it weren't for Whedon's name attached to Dollhouse, I wouldn't be watching it. I'm not drawn to the premise, but I generally like the stories he tells (even/especially when he tells them over and over again), so I'm giving it a shot. I don't think the pilot was stellar, but I don't think Whedon pilots usually are, and I think there was some network interference with this one. I'll watch a few more episodes.

something Tim Minear said a while ago about how The Inside

Yeah! That sounds like part of what I'm talking about.

I really like the premise, and I'm excited to see what happens. I'm definitely sticking with it for a while--but I would even if I didn't like the premise, because of what you say re: Whedon.

even/especially when he tells them over and over again

EXACTLY. Omg I love the things he gets stuck on. His characters get stuck on them too, which makes them very real people.

Dollhouse 1.01

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