Dollhouse: a Buffyfest Retrospective

Tonight marks the series end of Dollhouse, Joss and Eliza's pet project dreamed up in the loo after consuming some Gouda Pizza at a Hollywood hot spot. Sure we made fun of it in the worst of times (singing, bad outfits, and let's not forget those embarrassing Dushku/Glau Fox intro ads), but the show turned out to be the typical Joss Whedon gem. A compelling, unique journey in a sea of blah on network television...and these things take time before maturing like a fine wine (see: Buffy, Angel, Firefly-to-Serenity, etc.) Before the series finale airs tonight at 9 pm on Fox, let's take a look back on Dollhouse:


The Dollhouse Death Watch: the "skeptics" and the "realists" took one to the jaw when Michelle's team prevailed in this game we played in season 1 (even though she ultimately was the one to drop the show altogether!) I'm glad Bitsy and I were proven wrong, though. For this we can be grateful that amidst poor ratings, the show defied all odds and got a season 2.




And Dollhouse provided us here at Buffyfest some great joy too, whether it was seeing Joss and Eliza at the Apple Store in Soho promoting the project, interviewing the lovely Miracle Laurie, and let's not forget waaaay back in February of 2009: our live coverage of the packed to capacity panel and screening event at New York Comic Con. Good times.



Shockingly, I only just watched the unaired pilot recently, and it made me full of regret. It really does set up the fantastic show we'd ultimely get after the network no longer cared to set parameters. If you haven't seen it, you should really check it out. In fact, instead of proclaiming Dollhouse the Fail it once was, I'd go so far as to say I'd recommend it to anyone. Sure I'd skip a few eps...so my suggested order of things would be as follows:

Season 1
Unaired Pilot
"Man on the Street"
"Echoes"
"Needs"
"Spy in the House of Love"
"Briar Rose"
"Omega"
Epitaph One

Season 2
"Vows"
"Belonging"
and everything after that....

Or you can just hunker down and get through the whole thing so you don't miss a single Topher moment! Now that certain reveals have happened, I'll surely be watching this fantastic series again from the beginning. I'll just check my email during Stage Fright.

Ah well. Another Whedon show bites the ass of Fox. Here's hoping the rumors are true and Whedon's next project is on cable. Next!