Dollhouse: A Dystopian Drama

Hot chicks, complicated mythology, futuristic technology—everything a genre-junkie could want can be found in Joss Whedon’s newest show, Dollhouse, which airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on FOX.

Eliza Dushku, who also starred in Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, stars as Echo, an “active” in the Dollhouse, a highly illegal organization that offers programmable people to their wealthy clients. For each “engagement,” an active is programmed to be whoever the client wants or needs, be that an adventurous girlfriend or a Czech-speaking assassin. Later, the light-hearted, morally ambiguous science geek, Topher (Fran Kranz) wipes away their memories. The actives should remember nothing and stay in a child-like, unaware state until their next engagement. But Echo starts to remember flashes from her past—her real past.

Instead of making a traditional pilot, Joss Whedon chose to make the first episode an example of what to normally expect from the series. The main arc of each episode is a client conflict—the rest is Echo slowly becoming self-aware and, although it was barely introduced, FBI agent Paul Ballard’s (Tahmoh Penikett) investigation into the Dollhouse.

A pilot would have spent a fairly equal amount of time on all the cast, setting up relationships, points of interest, and series arcs. But Whedon chose to forgo exposition for action. The first episode is almost entirely devoted to Echo and a client conflict she must resolve. The only context for the show the audience gets is a brief meeting between Caroline (who will become Echo) and the Dollhouse’s director, Adele DeWitt (Olivia Williams). Apparently Caroline has gotten herself into such a hairy situation that she agrees to enter into a five-year program at the Dollhouse in exchange for assistance with something in her mysterious past.

The first episode also seems to be one big ad campaign for how awesome Eliza Dushku is. It is obvious why Whedon would have wanted to build a show for her, and she will certainly have the opportunity to prove him right. In just the first episode she was a sweetly competitive girlfriend, child-like doll, and sexually abused ransom negotiator. The only problem is that none of those acting scenes came from one, real character—they came from a program.

Overall, the cast has chemistry (and stellar good looks), the set is beautiful, and the series is promising. Dollhouse has the potential for character-driven drama, heightened by a slightly dystopian mythology and ass-kicking action sequences. Yet like Whedon’s other shows, it is a slow starter in the sense that its mythology and depth are built over a season, not just an episode. If you invest the time in watching the show, the pay off will be well worth it. After all, Whedon’s never toyed with us before.