Review of New Television Shows Part One: Dollhouse

This is the first of a five part series I will be writing reviewing some of the new television shows I have watched this year. Some of the shows are already finishing up for the year while others are just hitting their stride. The shows I am going to review are Dollhouse, Fringe, Life on Mars, United States of Tara and East Bound and Down. As the other posts are activated I will hyperlink the names of the shows in the previous sentence to point to the corresponding post.

See More Dollhouse Publicity Still at IGN.com

Word of the Day

Before moving on to the rest of the post I would like to take a moment to introduce the new word of the day feature. Today’s word is rubenesque. Strangely enough my spell check does not even recognize that word. I use it later on in this post, but what do you think it means. No cheating by searching on dictionary.com or anywhere else on the internet or in an actual dictionary if they still make them.

A) Of similar composition to a reuben sandwich excepting one of the main ingredients whether it be russian dressing, cheese made by the Swiss, Sauer Kraut or Corned Beef. For example Sven ordered a rubenesque sandwich as he ordered his sandwich sans sauer kraut and with cole slaw.

B) Originally a reference to the actor Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, when he was caught in an uncompromising position. Example: That guy had it all what was he thinking. That move couldn’t have been more reubenesque. I don’t think he will be working in show business anymore. Previously the saying was reubensesque but it was later changed to its current form.

C) A reference to the runner up on American Idol Reuben Studdard. Example: Yo dog I don’t know I kind of liked it. I think it was reubenesque. You’re alright. It was a little pitchy though at times, dawg.

D) Plump or fleshy and voluptuous. Used of a woman.

Dollhouse, created by Joss Whedon, was the most highly anticipated new series of the year with the possible exception of Fringe, which was created by J.J. Abrams who was also responsible for the hit show Lost. As with Fringe the anticipation was based almost entirely on the past work of the show’s creator and much of the excitement was from his eternally loyal followers. I used the word followers instead of fan because as much as they are fanatical about Joss Whedon his fans are better described as followers due to their loyal devotion to his work. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is so far his lone success story according to most measures of success, but do not tell that to his followers. They also loved his other work such as the television series Firefly and Angel and the movie Serenity.

Whenever any of his shows were canceled or his movies failed to draw many fans, his followers insisted that this was the fault of the networks, the studios or those who could not be bothered to watch it. Why would no one listen to their incessant pleas to watch this show.

I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I watched Angel a bit. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was occasionally brilliant, but many weeks I found myself wondering why I watched the show at all. Buffy turned Sarah Michelle Gellar into a star and a sex symbol. The interesting things about that is she was probably the fourth sexiest woman on the show. Charisma Carpenter, Julie Benz and Eliza Dushku were all easier on the eyes than SMG, nothing against her and really not my point. My point is that in Dollhouse Whedon created the show around a strong female lead, this time Dushku is the lead character Echo, aka Caroline. A strong selling point of this show is that Echo and the other actives who live in the Dollhouse are extremely attractive, tough females. As in Buffy though I believe that Dushku while still attractive in her own right is only one of a number of women on the show who provide wonderful eye candy. Olivia Williams who runs the Dollhouse is slightly older than the actives, but she is quite beautiful and as her character pointed out in the most recent episode quite British. To go along with the superficial beauty she is also likely the best actress on the show. Perhaps the most surprising beauty on the show belongs to that of Miracle Laurie who plays Millie the neighbor of the FBI agent looking for Echo. Her name is quite appropriate as it is near miraculous that Laurie, who is a little more rubenesque than the other women on the show and most women in Hollywood, actually got a part on the show. Also I think she may actually be the most attractive on the show. She is not heavy by any means, but is in Hollywood standards. Even Dr. Claire Saunders played by Amy Acker is nice looking. In one of the earlier episodes Dr. Saunders was attacked leaving her with a few scars on her face she still looks pretty nice even with those huge scars on her face. Whedon seems to be like Quentin Tarantino in a way. He was a bit of a self-described geek growing up and now he constantly puts attractive women in roles where they are physically dominant and are not afraid to fight with any guy or gal.

I did not mean to get off on to much of a rant about the physical attractiveness of the women on the show, but for the first six episodes that is really all there was to the show - A lot of eye candy, a lot of fighting and violence. Most weeks I found myself bored and unsure if I was going to continue watching it for the rest of the year. I was also wondering if the show had any chance at being successful either critically or in the ratings. Sure it would get the diehard Whedon fans and there were bound to be many people who tuned in to see the great looking women in sometimes skimpy outfits and the action, but was the show ever going to show more than just a pretty flashy surface. I did not hold out much hope. The last few weeks have shown some potential, but really nothing to get too excited about until the seventh episode titled Echoes. The episode reminded me of a cross between Fringe and one of the better episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of course this could just be a blip on the radar in an otherwise mediocre show, but I do have some hope now.

The whole season has been building toward the next episode dubbed the Awakening. If you have watched the show you will know what is being referenced by the Awakening. Whedon has at least piqued my interest and reminded me why I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the day. Sure there were likely to be weeks or months without a really good episode, but occasionally he would surprise you with a truly memorable show. Next week’s show promises to be one of the better ones. If it fails to live up to those expectations or slowly fades back into mediocrity after that episode just get your popcorn ready there is plenty of eye candy to keep you busy. Let’s just hope Whedon can build on this last episode or if the show gets cancelled he will have no one to blame but himself.

Word of the Day Answer:

D) Plump or fleshy and voluptuous. Used of a woman.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Television Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Dickness