Dollhouse: Season One (2009)

4 Discs DVD

About a decade before every teenage and tweenage girl fell in love with vampires with this Twilight craze, the teens and tweens of the late 90s fell in love with those who slayed the vampires with the cult phenomenon series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which truly made a name in the small screen biz for Joss Whedon. Eliza Dushku appeared in several episodes of the series (and its spin-off Angel as well) and, as the geek legend goes, Dushku and Whedon were having lunch, discussing their careers, and somehow the genesis of Dollhouse was birthed. I was curious to see what all this proverbial fuss was about when I received this DVD, and, while it didn't happen automatically, I have to say this series has one more fan... although it might sadly be too late, since they're pulling the series for the entire sweeps month of November.

For those who are as late to this Dollhouse party as I am, to put it simply, the Dollhouse is a clandestine private organization that can provide its clients with practically anyone they desire through their "dolls." This company caters to society's elite, farming out these "volunteers" (who give the Dollhouse five years of their life in exchange for massive payments and elimination of whatever kinds of troubles they had before coming there) that are imprinted with any personality the client needs, only to have every memory of the imprint wiped away when the "engagement" is over, and these zombie-esque dolls can live in obscene tranquility in this super-secretive and elegantly posh compound, without a trace of memory of who they just were on an engagement... or who they were before they got to the Dollhouse. When they go out on assignments, each doll has a handler, who covertly watches each "engagement" in case there is a need to intervene. Each doll has been programmed to trust his/her handler and will respond to the handler, regardless of personality, through a series of keywords spoken by the handler. Essentially, this series is like an episodic blend of the films The Manchurian Candidate and The Game.

The primary doll in this house is Echo (Eliza Dushku), the most requested doll of the bunch, and also the most special. While, normally, the dolls have no idea who they were before they came here, Echo seems to keep evolving, retaining bits and pieces of memory that she shouldn't be able to have with her programming. Her new handler, Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix) is relatively new to the Dollhouse and questions some of the ways which the head honcho Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) conducts this secretive business. We get a host of other unique characters like the dolls Victor (Enver Gjokaj) and Sierra (Dichen Lachman), FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), who has flubbed assignments in the past and is stuck with trying to track down the Dollhouse, which many in the agency see as a myth, Mellie (Miracle Laurie), Ballard's neighbor who has the hots for him and probably the best character of all, the tech nerd Topher (Fran Kranz), whose geeky sense of wit lightens up the show quite a bit.

One of my main beefs with the show is that it isn't incredibly easy to follow, and Whedon and his writing staff certainly don't do you too many favors when the show starts. They pretty much throw the viewers into the deep end, right off the bat, and it's a bit of a struggle during the first two episodes, due to the swift pace of the show and the overall complexity of it, to keep afloat. However, starting with the third episode, we start to peel away some layers and uncover some minor revelations here and there about the mysteries of the Dollhouse and, chiefly, how the real person Caroline became the doll known as Echo. We also see an increase in action as well, with a very slick fight between Echo and Ballard in Episode 6, an episode which turns out to be a real turning point in the season - and a point of no return, of sorts, because you'll likely be as hooked as I was after this phenomenal episode. They start to toy with the structure of each episode even more with slick flashbacks and more interesting reveals and it seems like the show really hit its stride after the halfway mark because each episode gets better and better. Still, although they do keep getting better, the show is still definitely a spoon-fed show as you really have to pay attention and keep up with the rapid pace car that is Joss Whedon's intricate storytelling.

Eliza Dushku is really at the top of her game here as Echo, especially considering the double-duty she's pulling as a producer on the show as well. The collective first season really represents her most compelling performance to date, maintaining the fragility and naivete of Echo while she's at the Dollhouse and easily slipping into whatever personality is called for when she's on an engagement. A role like this, taking on so many different character traits within a single episode alone, has to be a dream role for any actor, and Dushku more than amply proves she has the chops and the range to pull this off for however long the series will run for. While we're compelled to Dushku's Echo for the dramatic centerpiece of the series, it was quite brilliant for Whedon to give us the loveable, sarcastic nerd Topher, played spectacularly by Fran Kranz. One just can't help but smile every time he comes into frame, because Kranz pulls off this role in smashing fashion and he provides a humorous yin to Dushku's dramatic yang. While I'm impressed by relative newcomer Enver Gjokaj as Victor, and the more subdued Dichen Lachman as Sierra, there's something about Tamoh Penikett's fed Paul Ballard that is just irritating to me. Sure, I get that he's SUPPOSED to be irritating as this slightly obsessed and inept FBI agent, but the dude just looks constipated half the time we see him, with these bizarre facial expressions and unnerving speaking voice, although he is rather impressive in the few fight scenes we see him in this season. I do also quite enjoy Harry Lennix's Boyd Langton, the handler with a soft spot for his doll Echo, and Olivia Williams as the boss-lady Adelle DeWitt. It's also quite interesting how, in a few episodes here and there, we get to see these non-doll characters show some diversity themselves, like an episode where an experimental drug is set loose at a college campus, which makes everyone rather delirious, and it's rather fun to see these actors step out of their normal routines for something a bit more off-the-wall. Also look for a wonderful guest-starring turn from Patton Oswalt and a smashing turn from Alan Tudyk at the very end of the season. Honestly, there are numerous other actors and performances I could talk about here, some that are impressive, some that aren't, but they still do serve rather important places in the series, and it just goes to show how effective Whedon and his writing staff are to give even more minor characters the room to grow, even with limited screen time.

Dollhouse is a rather thought-provoking series that gives us a high-concept sci-fi drama with very subtle undertones dealing with human identity beneath it all. It's a series whose scope and execution are impressive - although not the most user-friendly - and makes for some riveting television.

For some reason, these screener discs that I received didn't have any special features on them, unlike most screeners I receive for regular DVD's or full-season sets like this. Peculiar. I'm giving this three stars because it looks like normal consumers do get quite a bit here, with the unaired pilot episode dubbed "Echo," another bonus episode "Epitaph One," deleted scenes and seven featurettes. I wish I could tell you about these, but due to the amount of content we get here, I'll give it three stars simply by default, since it sounds like a bountiful feast of special features.

Dollhouse is a very slick series that has opened my eyes about the mass appeal of TV juggernaut Joss Whedon. While it does take a bit for newbies like me to catch up to Whedon's style, this first season has definitely made a fan out of me.