» Dollhouse: The Sound Of A Million Squees Options

[Eegah]

Can anyone who watched Quantum Leap during its initial run recall what the advertising was like? It had a similar hook of being able to fit into any genre the writer of the week wanted, and managed to get five years out of it. Seems they could learn from success there

[Dym]

Was Quantum leap that successful? It was a bit before my time, but according to Wikipedia it was nearly cancelled in Season 3 with low ratings, and was saved by a letter writing campaign.

[furrylump]

The thing about Joss Whedon shows is the central concept is always the weakest part from a marketing point of view. It totally works when you watch the show itself, but a show called called "Buffy the Vampire slayer" or the pitch of "It's a western... In space!" don't work so well when you're trying to explain to somebody why they should watch a show.

I think Dollhouse has a better sounding premise than the other two, although it's also more complicated. And the name sounds like what you'd get if you mixed Big Brother and that show about finding the next Pussycat Doll.

[Tolteca]

Quantum Leap had constant lead characters in the form of Sam and Al. Sam might look like and be a range of characters to the story of the week folk but he was still the same recognisable and relatable to the audience lead to the Nielson audience.

Unlike the dolls.

And I do get the vote of confidence in the manager of the football team ahead of him being fired fro mall the Fox etc statements.

[silverangelaunt]

Could this be stunt casting? Dunno, but this is for episode 1-4, Britney sounds like who they're looking for.

[SVNBob]

Except for the African-American part. And the excellent singer part.

[stillshimpy]

EW: Fox still committed to Dollhouse, although the frequent need of reassurance worries me.

I appreciate the reassurance, Zengar because it isn't anything having to do with Dollhouse that the show needs to overcome with me. It is that I'm pretty darned leery of Fox. It isn't just their history with Whedon, either. For me it has to do with Firefly, Wonderfalls and shows I never bothered watching because I figured Fox would axe them at the speed of light; and they did. For a while there I was convinced that the entire network must be some kind of tax shelter because of the rapidity with which they yanked things they had invested in. I'm only half joking.

Admittedly, I'm only semi-comforted by Fox's reassurances. I swear I can remember the same sort of "We are behind this project completely." statements being issued around Firefly and it wasn't until the DVDs were released that I began to comprehend how much Fox had screwed with that show.

However, in this case, I think it is appropriate for Fox to come forward with a message of support. Usually when a shutdown in production is announced, it is a death knell for a series. I'm glad that several entities have gone out of their way to make certain that it isn't being viewed as such.

This post has been edited by stillshimpy: Sep 27, 2008 @ 2:34 pm.

[furrylump]

stillshrimpy, this might cheer you up. It's funny, and sure it's only fiction, but the redhead is an admitted author avatar...

[twine4max]

Joss says he's been having a much better time working with Fox because the people there are different ones than the people he had to deal with while working on Firefly.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/master_...joss_whedon.php

[Dallas Fan]

And the name sounds like what you'd get if you mixed Big Brother and that show about finding the next Pussycat Doll.

That, or the world-famous, classic play by Ibsen. One or the other.

[tvjunkie23]

I'm 39 pages late but can I say - I just discovered this forum and am still smacking myself for not realising TWOP forums have practically everything. Tsk. TSK.

Count me in as a Joss Whedon fan who cannot wait for Dollhouse to start. I've been missing his wit and humour.

[Lady Agnew]

An interview with the co-chairmen of 20th Cent FOX discusses, among other topics, Joss and their faith in Dollhouse.

Relevant quotes:

Trying to tell stories that involve a genre mythology, while also telling close-ended episodic stories, while also developing characters that people are going to want to come back to week in and week out—it’s an enormous, Herculean effort. [But] there’s no one we have more faith in than Joss Whedon.

That's the m.o. of his work: genre mythology, episodic eps working in an over-arching season plotline. It's cool that the people in charge of production have faith, but it's the network execs I'm worried about.

This is the gimme quote, though:

Ms. Walden: Absolutely. The first two episodes … are quite good. The third episode is as compelling a script as I’ve ever read. You just fly through it. It’s engaging, it’s exciting. It was the script where everyone said, “You know what, Joss is on to something. We need to give him some breathing room. Let’s take a couple weeks down so the scripts can catch up to this direction.”

Now I am looking forward to the third episode already. I know Joss was responsible for both writing and directing the first two eps, but I wonder if he wrote the third one too.

[MBenzN]

Isn't the third one the human predator/prey episode? Where Echo gets chased by some killer for hijinks?

[Huntley]

You guys! I've seen the pilot! I was at a TV-conference/market in Cannes and FOX just so happened to have a screening room goin' and... yeah.

The episode worked very well as a stand-alone and you could clearly see how the ongoing storyline was going to play second fiddle to the Personality Of the Week strands.

Dushku shows more range than I expected although I predict many people will be irked by the way she plays the blank Doll state.

That being said it was a hard Pilot to follow. There is a lot of stuff going on and while the balance amongst elements is good, the sheer volume of information is staggering.

Another quibble: a heavy-handed scene about identity when blank-Echo sees a cubist painting of a woman and deems her "broken". Her heist-partner gets all deep on her ass (while also having a gut wound) and it was the only time in the episode where I wasn't on the edge of my seat with sheer glee.

Still, more good stuff. Stellar cast - it's Whedon after all. Olivia Williams is pefect in her part. Enver Gjokaj is indeed a phenomenal actor as it's been rumored. Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett and Harry Lennix are perfectly cast, although the latter could use getting some more material.

In Dichen Lachman's case I think she may be having some initial trouble wrapping her head around the Whedon dialogue. There's a plot point where Echo's installed personality is remotely wiped while she's locked in a bank vault and the Company gives it to Sierra (Lachman's character) so that she can save the day.

Watching Dushku and Lachman play what was esentially the same character should've been absolutely awesome but instead was only quite so 'cause it seemed that Dushku was waaaay more comfortable with it. Maybe 'cause Taffy -the character in question- turns out to be very Faith-like. Not to worry though that's not all they have her do.

Extra good stuff:
-the wiping effect. A rewind of scenes from the episode. Not original but done very prettily
-fantastic act-outs, and
-there is an Alpha and he's gone rogue.

Oh! Also, the episode closes under Sia's version of The Pretenders' 'I Go To Sleep'!

Squees x 1.000.000

I'm at work and have already spent too much time writing this but I'll try to get back soon and write a proper synopsis of the episode in case anyone's interested.

[dixyland]

I surely can't be the only one who thinks the whole premise sounds crap. I have faith in Whedon, but come up with a good idea guy. Buffy was his only great show and we need more of his wit and brilliant dialogue back on tv. But please come up with something that sounds even remotely good. I'll watch and hope that it works, after all, the premise of Buffy sounded pretty dodgy too!