To say Dollhouse is on par with Buffy/Angel season 2 is laughable. I just watched Passions the other day (not the soap opera), and nothing on Dollhouse has come close. Dollhouse has the potential, but it has not been fulfilled. I love Joss and have given Dollhouse every opportunity. It ended pretty strongly, but this season, as others have mentioned, has been a joke.

The lead actors for Buffy and Angel lived their roles. Eliza is awful. I'm sorry, but she has nowhere near the talent needed for a role like this, and it is readily apparent every week. It's unfortunate she brought this idea to Joss because this show could have been something special with a more talented lead. It's nice that she looks hot as a schoolgirl, dominatrix, bimbo, and whatever other outfit they throw her in, but this isn't porn, it's a tv show. You need something more than looks.

I thought the last episode was fantastic. IMHO, it finally has reached its potential.

This show is not awful but certainly not starting this season off where the first season left off. That one major character is leaving the series shortly is not going to help rating matters much either.

That said, I think FOX realizes that Friday is really a death slot for any programming. I would not be surprised if come January that Friday is going to be entirely programmed with repeats. If they were smart they're re-air that week's 24 as it is highly serialized and has no real online availability if you somehow miss one (even if it did they could delay the release to Hulu to get people to tune in to the rebroadcast for the commercial $$$).

Still, good news!

Well, I'm glad we get to finish the season, though I think the thread title is somewhat subjective in nature.

I agree that this show suffers more from having lackluster eps. opposed to a lousy timeslot. The nature of the Fox exec's statement almost seems like he's giving Whedon the heads up to finish out whatever he wants because there is no way the show will be invited back again. I would say fans could try a "Firefly" approach where they buy so many DVDs a movie gets made, but "Dollhouse" is nowhere near as good as that series (yet strangely that one did get the axe) and the movie would most likey be done as a standalone to be despised by both fans and critics alike.

I haven't watched Dollhouse but Terminator had a really solid first season. Did it had better numbers than Dollhouse first season?

Terminator's second season had some really bad episode, but it had some of the better sci-fi episodes in TV in a long long time too. And the season finale was one of the best season finales that spring in any network.

They can always bring the series back in Fall 2010

Warner gave Fox the show for pennies to try and pump up Salvation. Fox should have canceled the show after the first season given the ratings and how expensive it was.

Because a show that costs 1-2mil an episode (plus a license fee since it's Terminator) vs 500-650k and gets the same ratings makes sense.

Since Whedon's post-Firefly career has been incredibly lackluster (the failure of Serenity, getting thrown off the Wonder Woman movie, the awful joke that was Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and now the aggravatingly uneven Dollhouse) I think that the complete failure of Firefly broke him. That was the show that he was building towards his entire career (and it's definitely his best work to date) and it was dismissed and killed without ever getting a real chance.

It's sad, really.

I have yet to see it, but I thought this was very well received and highly regarded?

Serenity may not have raked in the box-office dollars but to call the film itself a failure is just plain wrong.
Dr. Horrible, though not my idea of fun since it's a musical and I HATE musicals, especially the Buffy musical which I have never sat all the way through, was a big success.

That's not accurate. How this all started is that Eliza Dushku had a development deal with FOX, and she remained close to Whedon all these years. Whedon HIMSELF believed that Dushku could play any character she wanted and thought it would be good to showcase that. That's how Dollhouse was born. He had no intention of returning to TV but it gave her something to develop at Fox (which is why she is credited as a producer) and it gave him a chance to write for her roles that could show her incredible range....obviously Whedon wasn't prepared for reality to sink in.

Passions was Episode 17 of Season 2. Dollhouse hasn't even had that many episodes TOTAL yet.

SMG was never that great of an actress, Charisma Carpenter was downright terrible and Nicholas Brendon was still pretty one-note.

I think people are remembering the first few seasons of Buffy and Angel with rose-colored glasses. Those shows really didn't get going until a little later.

I think that Dollhouse is definitely lagging, but I've seen the glimmers of greatness that I saw in early Buffy and Angel episodes.

"PASSION". Not plural like that crap soap.

Gellar, Carpenter and Brendon are the only actors on either show worth noting in this thread, huh?

Considering who these characters were, the actors were perfect in their roles. Dushku's Dollhouse character is an entirely different thing. If Enver Gjokai (spelling? ) was the lead, we'd all be heaping even more praise than we already do for the great Victor.

Agreed, though I'm so glad they at least let it play out to the end of the season. That was such a great show even if people didn't watch it. Dollhouse, on the other hand, just doesn't do it for me. Still, I respect them for at least playing it out for the fans.

Whedon had only seen her play Faith, and if you look at movies for which she is popular (Bring It On, Jay and Silent Bob), she pretty much plays a variation on Faith. They tried to give her some stuff with Dollhouse's earlier eps., but they eventually had to settle for eps. in which she plays variations on Faith!

Every time I see an ad touting "Echo takes her most challenging implant ever!" , I get mental images of Tugg Speedman from Tropic Thunder trying to be taken seriously as an actor.

Yes by the Whedon worshippers. The rest of us found it stupid

Then don't make the Buffy season 2 comparison in the first place.

Tugg Speedman doesn't know what dude he is, just like Echo! In both, the dudes emerged.

To us it makes no sense but all Whedon would say every time he was promoting the show, was that Eliza could do anything and wanted everyone to see that.

I never got the Whedon love myself (Buffy was okay as was Angel but nothing spectacular, Firefly was alright for what it was, Serenity was derivative, predictable and dull.) but at least he tries to break out of the norm, sucks they're doing such a poor job of it this time around.

To the poster who said Dr. Horrible came across as stupid to non-Whedon fans, I don't think it was made with them in mind.


I wonder if the "anything" that amazed him so much was her acting ability, or some physical act (she has quite a flexible body) that isn't appropriate for TV? If he meant her acting ability and wanted everyone to see what a joke it is, he succeeded!

While it would only be something to do if you want the series to go down in flames, I would find it real amusing if they accidentally imprint Echo with the persona of an African-American woman and see if Eliza tries to pull a Kirk Lazarus.

Echo as a Niecy Nash / Monique personality-type.....eww.

cosign ^

dollhouse is the dumbest piece of shit on broadcast tele in recent history

somebody must have pictures of someone

i understand why they cancelled TSCC; purely a business decision

i have both season blurays, and the show is excellent

i get a good laugh reading dollhouse threads when people say how good it is and how they can't wait for the next eps... WTF??? LMAO

I absolutely love Dr. Horrible. It's perfectly silly.

I barely made it through the Dollhouse pilot. I'm sure it's well written, but it's the fucking stupidest premise for a show I can think of from recent television history.

they need to hold one or two back, to generate interest in the eventual DVD/BD box set.

I imagine they will. The commitment by Reilly is pretty clearly that they'll be able to make 13, not that they'll absolutely air every one of them.

And I could say the same for people who watch drivel like Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Law and Order, CSI etc. Just because I don't like it doesnt make the show(s) shit.