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Dollhouse Renewed? Why not Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles?

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    I just found out that Dollhouse is being
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    renewed by Fox for another season.
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    It’s a Joss Whedon TV show so I wanted to
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    give it a chance when it first started.
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    Dollhouse is a show about a bunch of people
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    who get there brains wiped and then new
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    personalities and experiences and
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    memories get put into their heads and they
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    can exist as that person for X amount of time
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    and they get hired out by
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    clients to perform various tasks.
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    Most of the “engagements” are men
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    trying to fulfill a fantasy.
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    Dollhouse is really a glorified brothel.
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    Dollhouse is really misogynistic
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    I don’t know what other word to describe it
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    as. There is a big issue that hasn't
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    really been raised about whether this is rape
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    or not. It’s been talked about online a little bit
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    but the show hasn’t dealt with this issue at all.
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    So they sign these contracts saying
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    that they’ll be in Dollhouse for X amount of
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    years and their conscious mind
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    isn’t around so they can’t consent to every
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    single engagement that they go on.
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    Now if you can’t consent then
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    that would be rape right?
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    In Dollhouse we as the viewer are supposed
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    to condemn the dollhouse, we’re not
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    supposed to like it, we’re supposed to think
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    it’s morally and ethically wrong
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    to do these things to these people yet we
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    identify with all of the characters
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    in the dollhouse.
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    So Boyd the handler, you think he’s pretty
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    cool because he seems to have issues with
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    what’s going on, yet
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    he still continues to work there.
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    The woman who runs the place
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    towards the end of the season we start to
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    get more of an emotional grasp on her
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    and her character becomes a little more
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    more entrenched in who she is and not,
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    you know, not hating her.
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    Tofur the crazy scientist,
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    you totally think he’s funny and witty and
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    smart and goofy
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    you don’t really take him too seriously.
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    If we’re not supposed to like dollhouse
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    which I think we’re not supposed to
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    then why are we sympathetic with all of the
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    characters inside of the dollhouse?
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    Joss Whedon on Whedonesque.com
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    was quoted as saying that part of the pitch
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    to renew for a second season was that they
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    were going to go in the direction of
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    the season finale.
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    I think we have enough crazy, serial killing,
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    murdering men on television that we don’t
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    need to add to the repertoire with Dollhouse.
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    The season finale was just blah
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    cover my ears
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    cover my eyes
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    I didn’t want to watch a single other episode
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    of Dollhouse after that.
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    It was just so grotesquely violent
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    it was unnecessary
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    it’s this crazy maniacal guy who was
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    damaged by the dollhouse
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    (which were sympathetic to right?)
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    doing all these crazy things
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    so now he becomes the enemy and the
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    dollhouse is kind of in that grey
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    middle zone area.
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    This news is troubling in that I really
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    didn’t want Terminator: the Sarah Connor
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    Chronicles to get cancelled.
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    I thought it was a really good show.
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    I felt like the story line and the characters
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    were really complex.
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    They made complicated relationships
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    between each other and the characters
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    evolved in interesting ways that I thought
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    could grow over another couple of seasons.
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    Also the show is based on the Terminator
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    movies which most of us have
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    probably seen that are kind of big macho
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    fests about you know
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    gore and violence and
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    blowing things up and robots
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    the whole sci fi chase scene
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    GRAAA thing
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    But Sarah Connor, although it had those
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    elements, was actually really smart.
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    It fused together the action part of the sci fi
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    genre but it also brought in character
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    development was really well done.
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    The show is also mostly about a woman
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    she’s an independent, tough, single mom
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    that’s trying to protect her son.
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    The other main character on the show
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    is a representation of a teenage woman
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    who although she’s a robot
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    you still see as young female.
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    She’s empowered, she’s smart
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    she’s strong
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    these are all good things to have on
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    television I think.
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    I think looking really critically at why a show
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    like Dollhouse is getting renewed
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    and the Sarah Connor Chronicles are not
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    The Sarah Connor Chronicles really took its
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    time and sometimes it was a little slow
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    moving because they really did a lot of
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    character development
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    and really built up a story line
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    so you really became attached to what
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    was going on and really invested.
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    Where Dollhouse you met a new
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    character every week.
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    It wasn’t really super complicated you didn’t
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    have a lot of character development
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    There were a few things here and there
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    where the main character Echo
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    started to remember her old past
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    but even then it wasn’t that interesting
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    and it was kind of the same old same old.
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    There was a really interesting article
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    in the Washington Post that talked
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    about how Dollhouse was produced
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    by Fox and aired on the Network of Fox
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    so they have more invested in that
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    financially and can make more profits.
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    Where Sarah Connor was produced by
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    Warner Brothers aired on Fox
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    there’s not as much financial investment.
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    I know that Joss Whedon is capable of
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    writing really good quality television
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    that’s critical and analytical
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    and has social commentary while still
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    being entertaining and fun.
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    So I don’t know why he can’t do that again.
Title:
Dollhouse Renewed? Why not Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles?
Description:

Fox Networks decided to renew Dollhouse for another 13 episodes but canceled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I'm less then thrilled about this decision.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
Duration:
04:47
There has been no activity on this language so far.

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