Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dollhouse

I watched the premiere episode of DOLLHOUSE this morning on www.fox.com.  The series had been delayed a number of times and I'm sure people were anxious to see what Joss Whedon had come up with.  

Before I watched the episode, I read that ratings for the show were not very good.  Friday has killed a lot of series -- and so we'll have to see how Dollhouse does in the coming weeks.  

The first episode you got a little introduction to Echo, a girl who is programmed to do different tasks and then her memory is wiped and she waits for the next task.  It seems as if all the operatives are very good looking girls.  There is a backstory that you got a little of.  A police officer (I think he was police or FBI or something) was trying to find all the girls that had disappeared and had the key word - dollhouse but little else.  He was dedicated to finding the kidnapped girls, but his supervisors were not behind him.  They wanted him to give it up.

The main story focused on the kidnapping of a small girl -- the daughter of a Mexican businessman.  The kidnappers were asking for $10 million dollars and Echo is sent in as the mediator.  The memories she had been given were that of a skilled negotiator who was near-sighted with asthma.  As the show goes on, she challenges the kidnappers and sets up a meeting to get the little girl back.  As it turns out, the memories implanted into Echo were of a young lady who had been abducted at 9 and she runs into her kidnapper while trying to retrieve the little girl.  She does retrieve the girl -- so there is a happy ending -- sort of.  Echo goes back into the chamber and her memories are whipped clean.  She and others then go to their sleep chambers and wait for their next assignment.  

There are a lot of different things going on here.  There is the Echo story.  There is the FBI/special agent story looking for the missing young women.  There is the entire dollhouse organization and so you are left wondering what will come up next.  I liked Echo's handler -- a former policeman who really wanted to save the little girl and protect Echo.    So we'll see what happens next week.  

Did anyone else watch the episode?  What did you think?

Take care.
Sandy


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the show has promise. Personally, I liked it better than Fringe's first episode. A TV reviewer that has seen several episodes says that the second is much better than the first.

There's one thing that bothers me about the premise. The Mexican business man apparently knew about the Dollhouse and went there when he needed help, yet the FBI (and presumably the police) know nothing about it?

We'll have to see how well hidden the Dollhouse is in coming episodes.

--Larry

Sandy said...

Yes, I agree. This is a secret organization that isn't all that secret if you know the right people!

Sandy said...

Can you believe this was renewed? Talk about a nail biter!!!! There are probably a number of folks asking why Dollhouse and not Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. I guess that is one for the folks at Fox to answer. I liked both shows, but perhaps Dollhouse had more to offer -- and it was in the first season. We'll have to see if it lives up to their expectations next season.