1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,000 I just found out that Dollhouse is being 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,000 renewed by Fox for another season. 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,000 It’s a Joss Whedon TV show so I wanted to 4 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,000 give it a chance when it first started. 5 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Dollhouse is a show about a bunch of people 6 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,000 who get there brains wiped and then new 7 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 personalities and experiences and 8 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,000 memories get put into their heads and they 9 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,000 can exist as that person for X amount of time 10 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 and they get hired out by 11 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,000 clients to perform various tasks. 12 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Most of the “engagements” are men 13 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:30,000 trying to fulfill a fantasy. 14 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Dollhouse is really a glorified brothel. 15 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Dollhouse is really misogynistic 16 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000 I don’t know what other word to describe it 17 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:38,000 as. There is a big issue that hasn't 18 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000 really been raised about whether this is rape 19 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000 or not. It’s been talked about online a little bit 20 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 but the show hasn’t dealt with this issue at all. 21 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000 So they sign these contracts saying 22 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000 that they’ll be in Dollhouse for X amount of 23 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:51,000 years and their conscious mind 24 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,000 isn’t around so they can’t consent to every 25 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 single engagement that they go on. 26 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,000 Now if you can’t consent then 27 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000 that would be rape right? 28 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000 In Dollhouse we as the viewer are supposed 29 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 to condemn the dollhouse, we’re not 30 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,000 supposed to like it, we’re supposed to think 31 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,000 it’s morally and ethically wrong 32 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000 to do these things to these people yet we 33 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000 identify with all of the characters 34 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:12,000 in the dollhouse. 35 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,000 So Boyd the handler, you think he’s pretty 36 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000 cool because he seems to have issues with 37 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:17,000 what’s going on, yet 38 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:18,000 he still continues to work there. 39 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 The woman who runs the place 40 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 towards the end of the season we start to 41 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,000 get more of an emotional grasp on her 42 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000 and her character becomes a little more 43 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000 more entrenched in who she is and not, 44 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,000 you know, not hating her. 45 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 Tofur the crazy scientist, 46 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 you totally think he’s funny and witty and 47 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,000 smart and goofy 48 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000 you don’t really take him too seriously. 49 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000 If we’re not supposed to like dollhouse 50 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:45,000 which I think we’re not supposed to 51 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,000 then why are we sympathetic with all of the 52 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000 characters inside of the dollhouse? 53 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000 Joss Whedon on Whedonesque.com 54 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 was quoted as saying that part of the pitch 55 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000 to renew for a second season was that they 56 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000 were going to go in the direction of 57 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:58,000 the season finale. 58 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:00,000 I think we have enough crazy, serial killing, 59 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000 murdering men on television that we don’t 60 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,000 need to add to the repertoire with Dollhouse. 61 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000 The season finale was just blah 62 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 cover my ears 63 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,000 cover my eyes 64 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,000 I didn’t want to watch a single other episode 65 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,000 of Dollhouse after that. 66 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 It was just so grotesquely violent 67 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:19,000 it was unnecessary 68 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,000 it’s this crazy maniacal guy who was 69 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 damaged by the dollhouse 70 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000 (which were sympathetic to right?) 71 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000 doing all these crazy things 72 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:29,000 so now he becomes the enemy and the 73 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,000 dollhouse is kind of in that grey 74 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000 middle zone area. 75 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:34,000 This news is troubling in that I really 76 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,000 didn’t want Terminator: the Sarah Connor 77 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Chronicles to get cancelled. 78 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,000 I thought it was a really good show. 79 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 I felt like the story line and the characters 80 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:41,000 were really complex. 81 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000 They made complicated relationships 82 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000 between each other and the characters 83 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,000 evolved in interesting ways that I thought 84 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 could grow over another couple of seasons. 85 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Also the show is based on the Terminator 86 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:53,000 movies which most of us have 87 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,000 probably seen that are kind of big macho 88 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,000 fests about you know 89 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,000 gore and violence and 90 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,000 blowing things up and robots 91 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,000 the whole sci fi chase scene 92 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000 GRAAA thing 93 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,000 But Sarah Connor, although it had those 94 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000 elements, was actually really smart. 95 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000 It fused together the action part of the sci fi 96 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,000 genre but it also brought in character 97 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000 development was really well done. 98 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 The show is also mostly about a woman 99 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,000 she’s an independent, tough, single mom 100 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,000 that’s trying to protect her son. 101 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:27,000 The other main character on the show 102 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000 is a representation of a teenage woman 103 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000 who although she’s a robot 104 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,000 you still see as young female. 105 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000 She’s empowered, she’s smart 106 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,000 she’s strong 107 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 these are all good things to have on 108 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:39,000 television I think. 109 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,000 I think looking really critically at why a show 110 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,000 like Dollhouse is getting renewed 111 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,000 and the Sarah Connor Chronicles are not 112 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:46,000 The Sarah Connor Chronicles really took its 113 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,000 time and sometimes it was a little slow 114 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,000 moving because they really did a lot of 115 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 character development 116 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,000 and really built up a story line 117 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:54,000 so you really became attached to what 118 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000 was going on and really invested. 119 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Where Dollhouse you met a new 120 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,000 character every week. 121 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,000 It wasn’t really super complicated you didn’t 122 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,000 have a lot of character development 123 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,000 There were a few things here and there 124 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:06,000 where the main character Echo 125 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 started to remember her old past 126 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,000 but even then it wasn’t that interesting 127 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,000 and it was kind of the same old same old. 128 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:14,000 There was a really interesting article 129 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,000 in the Washington Post that talked 130 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,000 about how Dollhouse was produced 131 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,000 by Fox and aired on the Network of Fox 132 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:22,000 so they have more invested in that 133 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,000 financially and can make more profits. 134 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,000 Where Sarah Connor was produced by 135 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:27,000 Warner Brothers aired on Fox 136 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,000 there’s not as much financial investment. 137 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,000 I know that Joss Whedon is capable of 138 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,000 writing really good quality television 139 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,000 that’s critical and analytical 140 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,000 and has social commentary while still 141 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,000 being entertaining and fun. 142 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000 So I don’t know why he can’t do that again.