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Joss Whedon Back on TV
tokenhillbilly writes "Joss Whedon of 'Buffy' and 'Firefly' fame has signed on to do another TV series on Fox starring Eliza Dushku (Faith from 'Buffy'). The series is going to be called Dollhouse, and the story surrounds a group of people 'programmed' to do missions out of a sort of high-tech dorm. '[The series] follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission. After each assignment -- which can be physical, romantic or even illegal -- the characters have their memories wiped clean, and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the "Dollhouse"). [The] show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions.'"
Uh, Alex Proyas (The Crow, I, Robot) did this in his 1998 movie Dark City ; an alien race constantly wipes the minds of their captive humans, reshuffling them in order to better understand the human concept of a soul (so that the dying alien race can learn this trait and perhaps evade their fate). The movie is one of my favorites, but I don't expect Dollhouse to be anything but drivel.
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I disagree. I feel the last two seasons of Angel were the best. I never watched Buffy, but I feel that Firefly was as close to perfect as a show can be, and Serenity was pretty good for a man who's only ever done TV.
Out of curiosity, what didn't you feel made sense about Serenity's conclusion? I thought it was good.
Fox: "Come on home baby. This time it will be different. We won't cancel you halfway this time. We'll change."
... I have no choice but to go back, for the sake of the children."
Whedon: "I'm in a co-dependant relationship with Fox
How many malevolent companies/groups/governments/cabals can we be expected to tolerate.
Given how many we tolerate in Real Life, I expect we'll tolerate a bunch more of them on TV.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
The last *two* seasons of Angel? Seriously? Season 4 turned Angel into The Connor Show, with that fucking annoying little brat ruining nearly every episode. Even the actor who played Connor was apparently sick of him, saying each episode was pretty much whine, beat up on Angel, whine some more, no character development. And then there was the annoying/fake Cordy, with the ickiness of Cordy/Connor.
Season 5, though...wow. Spike, plus Amy Acker as Illyria, plus great plots. And probably one of the best season/series finales ever made.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
It's funny that he's being accused of blatantly copying the show's premise, yet nobody seems to agree who he's ripping off:
Gunslinger Girls
Dark City
All My Sins Remembered
Joe 90
AphroditeX
Neuromancer
Did all of those shows rip off each other?
So is it also the same (as far as personnel go) as it was when they canceled Arrested Development in spite of it's many, many Emmys?
Even with Firefly they only showed about seven episodes, out-of-order, and crushed it. They also canceled Family Guy, Futurama... need I go on?
Fox is just plain notorious for canceling excellent shows with a strong fanbase. I'd think that after his terrible treatment last time he'd know better than to even consider working with them. Go to somebody like the CW who at least let Buffy run for a damn long time and are desperate enough for something good to keep them afloat.
What also isn't going to help it is the name. Much like Firefly/Serenity had a name that made a lot of sense to you if you already knew the story this promises to be a case where only fans will understand the name. Everyone else will likely not be interested in the program based on the name alone and will avoid it. I mean, if I didn't already know the reasoning and that Joss was behind it I'd probably have little to no interest in a show called "Dollhouse". Hell, I'd probably assume it was some lame new reality show.
This is just speaking for myself, but that ending was one of the very few times I've truly felt fear and suspense in an action movie. The standard trope goes something like: "Every one of Our Heroes is in mortal peril, and maybe the show plays it up by killing a Red Shirt, but you know that nobody you care about is going to bite it because they've got to be here for the next episode." Serenity was: "One fantastic character was actually killed, now another one's killed... dear God, this 'everybody might die' scene might actually end with everybody dying!"
If there had been a serious chance at bringing Firefly back to TV then I wouldn't think losing Book and Wash was worth the loss of Book and Wash, but for the movie's sake it was the right artistic choice to make.