There was me trying to find out when FX or Sky would show this Fox drama in the UK (and monitoring US network announcements and rumours about whether this would reach season 2 – looking like a yes) and it sneaks on to SciFi behind my back on Tuesday. Among all the Star Trek repeats, B movies and lame duck series like Knight Rider and Eli Stone, they just occasionally showcase something interesting... after all, remember who brought us the only worthwhile season of Heroes.
Anyway, luckily, this is digital telly, so there are repeats all week. Here's the review I've had in the starting gate for months...
Dollhouse
SciFi
Tonight 8pm, then Tuesdays 9pm
Eliza Dushku was the bad girl vamp-staker Faith in Joss Whedon's first hit, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Having been in the doldrums with Tru Calling (she sees dead people, yawn), she returns to the Mutant Enemy fold (raargh! argh!) as Echo, one of a group of "Actives" (or dolls), tabula rasa people who can be imprinted with mental/physical/emotional traits and abilities to fulfil roles for high-paying clients (which usually boils down to wanting a high class hooker who can also ride a motorbike). The Actives are people who've signed up for this because they want to escape their real lives – their minds are wiped after every assignment.
The drama comes from an obsessed FBI agent trying to uncover the secret of the Dollhouse; the problem that old imprints and memories of their former lives start to leak into some of the Actives' minds; an escaped psycho-Active; and (judging by the first two episodes)... every, time, Eliza Dushku, goes out on a job, something, goes frickin, wrong.
The Whedon stamp should ensure quality - surprises, pace, empathy and, above all, wit. But the snappy one-liners of Buffy and Firefly are sadly in short supply. Some US thriller TV clichés have crept in: the honourable African-American bodyguard; the wisecracking geek computer expert (called Topher - that awful shortening of Christopher); the shady corporate types; and the aforementioned dogged FBI agent. And the fact that the lead character changes persona every episode means it's hard to invest in her development.
Word has it that the later episodes are much better than the first five, but so far this just rubs salt in the still-sore wound of losing Whedon's space cowboy romp Firefly after just one season.
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