Dollhouse: Season One DVD: Review By DVDExaminerTyson

The latest TV venture from Joss Whedon, Dollhouse, hit DVD and Blu-ray on July 28.

If you aren't familiar with the basic premise of Dollhouse, here is an extremely high level overview:

"From Joss Whedon, the creative mastermind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, comes the provocative Dollhouse, a sexy, suspenseful thriller starring the stunningly talented Eliza Dushku. As an “Active,” the mysterious Echo (Dushku) serves as an unwitting agent of Dollhouse, an illegal underground organization that provides its elite clientele with programmable human beings. Actives receive personality imprints, allowing them to temporarily become anyone or anything—the perfect burglar, lover, spy, or assassin. Now, with the FBI and her own shadowy past closing in, Echo must face a rogue Active who will stop at nothing to bring Dollhouse down—forever."

Essentially, as the series goes on, Echo begins to have flashes from former jobs and her real past that affects her performance, guiding the main plot-stream through the first season. I honestly didn't expect to enjoy Dollhouse as much as I did. I had first tried to watch this series as it aired on FOX, I made it through the first two episodes, thought it was pretty bad, and stopped watching. I am glad I was able to see the whole series on DVD. Dollhouse starts off pretty rough; the acting isn't great, and it's just not interesting as they don't really dive into the premise and mystery of the Dollhouse that much in the beginning. As the series progresses though, everything matures: The plot, the acting, the characters, just everything. Each episode is better than the one before it, and next thing you know, you are roped in and want to know all about this mysterious Dollhouse.

While Eliza Dushku and the rest of the cast who portray the dolls, or "actives" as they are called, do a great job playing blank people-slates ready for imprint, then turn into someone else completely at the press of a button, it was the rest of the cast that really captivated me. Three characters in particular I thought were great were Boyd Langdon, Topher Brink, and Adelle Dewitt. Langdon is Echo's handler, and a bonafide badass when the situation calls for it. He protects and cares for Echo more than any other handler for their active in the Dollhouse and the chemistry I thought was just fantastic. Brink is the genius behind the actives, putting together pieces of this personality and that skillset to imprint on the actives; the great thing about Topher is he nearly complete blind faith to the Dollhouse. Some in the Dollhouse seem to see the conflict of morality that is going on there, but Topher see's it all as a beautiful miracle of modern science. Finally, Adelle Dewitt, the sometimes ruthless head of the Dollhouse. Dewitt has her own conflicts with the Dollhouse and in particular, a certain male doll. She will protect all those invoved with the Dollhouse at lengthy costs.

The special features included (see full specs below) are all pretty fun and interesting. I know all the hardcore Dollhouse fans were extatic to pick this DVD set up to check out the unaired episode, "Epitaph One", and it's worth it. I really hope that FOX gets around to airing this episode soon because it really gives us a taste of the future of the Dollhouse right of the bat, essentially saying "Hey, this is the direction things are going, you are just along for the ride to find out how this all comes to be." There are also some good deleted scenes for some episodes, and commentary by Joss Whedon on three episodes.

Dollhouse is a fun ride if you give it a fair chance and make it past the first few episodes. There was a lot of confusion as to why a TV show the performed so poorly was renewed for a second season, but after seeing the first season in its entirety, I can see why FOX wanted to give this show one more go. Dollhouse is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Special Features

- Commentary by Joss Whedon on 3 episodes

- The never-before-seen standalone episode “Epitaph One”

- The original unaired pilot “Echo”

- Deleted scenes

- Making-of featurettes (“Making Dollhouse”, “Coming Back Home”, “Finding Echo”, “Designing the Perfect Dollhouse”, “A Private Engagement”)