Dollhouse

After a long wait and a lot of talk, Friday saw the the premiere of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Which was ace, if you are one of the world’s big Whedon-lovers. The creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog and general all-round king geek of television was having another shot at primetime TV.

Dollhouse is a sci-fi based on the concept of a set of agents, blank canvasses of people - dolls - onto which any information, knowledge, personality or skill-set can be overlaid, in order to get a job done.

But how did it go? Well, it’s some parts Yay!, Um? and Well, lets wait and see because seriously, it’s got to get better than this, right? It’s Whedon! But then, when expectations were so high in the months - even the year - before its debut, it’s difficult to imagine how it could have been any different.

There are whole sites, like Dollverse, that have been building up to the launch seemingly forever, pointing out where to watch it legally (and perhaps illegally). There has been deconstruction, discussion and dissection on all aspects, at ultimate Joss-fansite Whedonesque. Since Dollhouse was first announced, every press release, every interview, every schedule change has been seized upon for angsty interrogation. "What might this MEAN?!" is asked of every snippet; as if it were the subject of the attentions of a teenage crush.

The whole argument seems to be that after all the refilming, tinkering and refocusing of the series to please Fox, about whom there have been doubts from fans way before it actually aired - it seems to be missing a certain Whedon-ness. The bounce and wit that people expect from one of his shows - the trademark dancing dialogue and such - seems to be missing.

Critics who have seen more than one episode say that particular element comes together more in the next few episodes. They also suggest that the Fox network’s insistence on every episode being self-contained is presumably so they can cancel it halfway through the series without caring too much (it’s what they seem to do with everything else).

For my part, I can do little more than defer to my visiting mother’s review of the pre-credit sequence - Eliza Dushku wandering a street and a club in a very short dress, then some mysterious happenings - which ran:

That woman appears to be wearing a nightie. Why is she wearing a nightie ... Oh! Now she’s wearing a different nightie! Goodness! Someone’s in a bodybag. Exposure, most likely. Well that’ll serve you right for wearing a nightie in public.

... before I had to switch over. Though I watched more later without her, I started to think that having her commentary would make it more way more fun, so I’ve decided to wait until l could persuade her to watch more, and perhaps liveblog it.

The more I looked into other people’s reactions, the more worried I felt. I want to love Dollhouse. I love Buffy; I love Firefly; I love Dr Horrible an awful lot. And while I’m not that keen on Eliza Dushku, I’ve really been looking forward to Dollhouse - and now I’m scared to watch it, in case it’s not all that.

The new Joss Whedon was always going to be an event, but one wonders if it was always going to be a bit of a letdown. When you build something up so much, the chances of it not living up to your expectations increases. Hopefully, Dollhouse can grow past that. Past the restrictions of its Friday the 13th opening, and its terrible Friday timeslot in the US, and grow into a witty, warm, Whedonesque series. Fingers crossed.