I took that whole thing as “It was a big success because: We got his daughter back, we got his money back for him, etc.”
I’ve not heard that Fox is showing the eps out of order and Whedon is supposed to have said that the news which has leaked out about Fox “tampering” with the show, is the kind of tweaking which happens to any series before launch. Nor is having the network request changes automatically a Bad Thing[sup]TM[/sup]. The original concept for House was to have Laurie in a wheelchair, which everyone involved in the production admits was a mistake and they’re grateful that the network folks vetoed the idea.
dropzone, I speak as someone who has never seen anything of Whedon’s work besides the movie Serenity and the first episode of Dollhouse, and I do not think that the series deserves to have a fork stuck in it just yet. There are a number of really interesting possibilities for the show to take, and while I’m inclined to believe that the nature of Follywood is such that the most interesting ideas will never be touched upon, I think that the show could be worth watching. The issue is what they’ll do with the FBI agent, IMHO. Its awfully easy to fall into the same pattern as the A-Team with that character.
I liked it. I’ll keep watching, at least because I want to know the story behind Echo’s ‘handler’ and Amy Acker’s character.
I don’t really care if it’s ‘plausible’. House sure isn’t plausible, I like that too.
I agree with you that network intervention isn’t universally bad. I did read the Whedon quote about it being normal studio tweaking, either in TV Guide or EW, but my first reaction was to call bullshit. Shutting down for two weeks isn’t normal.
The pilot thing is kinda similar. With both Firefly and Dollhouse, Whedon didn’t get the pilot he wanted showed first; both were changed by studio intervention. With Dollhouse, they made him write a new pilot. With Firefly, IIRC they simply showed a different episode first. Why I have no idea, as I have never seen Firefly.
After googling, I may have to retract.
http://www.dose.ca/tv/story.html?id=39656fcd-8e62-4c3f-8b46-c389d2a21d02
http://www.dose.ca/tv/story.html?id=70ba7e8d-bf60-4428-9f05-9fd6b1ad07a5
So okay, maybe shutting down for a couple weeks isn’t all that unusual, and maybe the rewrite wasn’t due to network pressure. It sure sounded good, though.
The rumor mill says that critics absolutely lurve the second episode of Dollhouse. We’ll have to see if that’s true or not.
This is true. But you forget - a lot of us who made those complaints right as Firefly started did watch the rest of the episodes…and still dislike the show. Watching it and giving it the classic “chance” didn’t improve our opinion of it at all.
Didn’t the tech dude try to explain that genius does not appear a vacuum; it came from overcompensating for other shortcomings. The profiles she was based on reached their excellence in their chosen field because of mentioned handicaps.
Boooooriiiiing.
I recorded the first hour - didn’t realize the opener was a two-hour show. I thought it started slowly, but you have to have some back story and set up. I’ll try it again next week, even though I missed the ending last week.
It was two hours?
I dunno, maybe I messed up the recording. In any case, I only saw half of the first show.
Name two good television shows with worse lead actors.
I’ll spot you CSI: Miami, if you aren’t sick of CSI. Name another.
Zach Braff on Scrubs?
Now here’s the improtant question that hasn’t been addressed yet: Dichen Lachman - the other “hot chick” doll. Hot or not?
According to IMDB her parents are Tibetan and Austrailian.
No, it was only one hour. It was shown after “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and FOX only has two hours of primetime per weekday.
Ugly Betty. Ghost Whisperer (not a good show, but at least relatively popular). David Boreanaz didn’t figure out how to act until some time in the second season of Angel.
I don’t think Dushku is a bad actress. I certainly don’t think she’s found the groove of this Echo character yet. That takes time.
The premise is ludicrous, and the pilot was weak. I don’t think that’s reason to write the whole show off yet. I mean, Buffy was pretty terrible for its entire first season - I just didn’t notice 'cause I was 16.
I actually liked a couple of characters, which is more than I was expecting to from reading about the premise. Echo’s handler is interesting - I want to know how he ended up doing what he’s doing. The FBI agent also seems cool. And I want to know what led Caroline to letting herself become Echo.
It’s not the best show on TV, but I think it’s worth giving a chance to.
I might have to put my distaste for Eliza Dushku on hold - I think part of my thinking of her as a terrible actress has a lot to do with not being able to get the picture of her saying things like, “Five by five, B.” out of my head. I will attempt to judge her acting in this show on its own merits.
Yes the premise is insane - but I think it has potential. And Eliza is smoking hot.
Out-law hi-tech memory-swapping corporation? Possibly much more interesting than amoral hi-tech memory-swapping semi-government agency.
The only issue I can see so far is that wiping the main character every episode is either going to make her uninteresting, or they’ll go for the obvious route of having her remember more and more, which is probably not going to be very interesting either. The fact that she signed up for it more or less by choice makes it a bit harder to predict where things are going.
7/10, would watch again 
Since they went back and shot the first episode later, it’s possible that she’d already played the entire first season through before doing this one episode.