Dollhouse

TV Review: DOLLHOUSE - SEASON 1 - ’Man on The Street’

Finally left alone to do what he does best, Joss Whedon shakes up his new series and finally delivers the kick-ass episode we’ve waited six weeks for.

Grade: A-

Stars: Eliza Dushku, Tahmoh Penikett, Olivia Williams, Fran Kranz, Harry J. Lennix, Enver Gjokaj, Dichen Lachman

Writer(s): Joss Whedon

Director: David Straiton

Release Date: March 20, 2009

I have to admit, DOLLHOUSE’s first five episodes were pretty rocky. It never quite got the mixture of mythology and storytelling to fully hook viewers. And with so many questions unanswered about the “Dollhouse” itself, it felt as if it were a show looking for its mission statement

Thankfully, that all changed tonight. With the Joss Whedon penned “Man on the Street,” DOLLHOUSE fully embraced its inner mythology, shed all of its convoluted storytelling and got back to what Whedon does best – telling interesting, funny and complicated stories with a healthy sci-fi edge.

It’s no secret that Fox has been sticking their hands in the DOLLHOUSE pie from the beginning – mucking it up and forcing many changes on the series that resulted in a couple different variations on the pilot and a bastardization of the wonderful concept Whedon had originally came up with (anyone ever read the far superior pilot script?).

So it’s refreshing that the proclamations from both Dushku and Whedon that this episode is where the series finally hits its stride, turned out to actually be true.

Call it a reboot – a welcome one – where the series essentially delivers Pilot Version 4.0, and the one we’ve been waiting for.

It doesn’t hurt that we’ve gotten to know the characters a little more and a direction seems to be fully in place. Plus, major secrets are spilled and some hunches have proved to be true, while others proved false (or at least for the time being).

The episode begins with a TV news story about the urban legend of the “Dollhouse” – a place where people can be programmed to be whatever you want it to be including high priced call girls (FINALLY, that’s mentioned instead of glossed over).

“Man on the Street” interviews are peppered throughout the series, lending a human voice to concern, pity, approval and outrage of what the Dollhouse is actually doing.

This is also an episode where F.B.I. agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) finally gets close enough to the Dollhouse to realize how powerful it actually is.

We get a VERY powerful sequence where he finally comes face-to-face with Echo (Eliza Dushku) who has been hired by a software gazillionaire who leases out Echo every year to live out a fantasy involving his dead wife and the house she never got to see before her death.

It’s a nice scene, which reflects heavily on Ballard’s obsession with Echo (and I’m still betting he’s the notorious Alpha – even though we’re treated to a different sort of reveal toward the end).

Anyway, Ballard starts getting close to his neighbor Mellie (Miracle Laurie) who he is confiding in regarding his F.B.I. case regarding Echo. Thankfull, Ballard and Mellie end up in the sack together, in a really sweet scene.

Meanwhile, Sierra (Dichen Lachman) is being mishandled by her handler (he’s essentially diddling her when no one is looking). Who figures it out? Boyd (Harry Lennix). He’s a former cop and has a nose for sniffing out bullshit when he sees it. This renegade Boyd is something we need more of — and if anyone is going to get to the bottom of the Dollhouse’s agenda and corruption, I’m betting he’s the man.

As for the bad handler. Well, the way they take care of him is send her in to eliminate Mellie for finding out too much information about the Dollhouse. But guess what? SPOILER ALERT …

.... Mellie is a Dollhouse sleeper agent sent to keep tabs on the nosy F.B.I. agent and she eliminates him when she gets a mysterious message on her answering machine by Dollhouse madame Adelle (Olivia Williams).

Meanwhile, Echo is sent to kick Ballard’s ass in one of the best fight sequences I’ve seen on a TV show all year. A job well done by director David Straiton. At the end of his ass-kicking, we learn that Echo has been implanted with additional information from a mole inside the Dollhouse agency. She spills the beans on some important info on how he’ll get closer to the Dollhouse, but first he needs to lose his job at the F.B.I. to do that.

Damn is this episode good.

Overall, “Man on the Street” manages to have an A and B story that makes sense and ties things altogether. It also does a great job of toning down the “ignorance is bliss” demeanor of the dolls in the house, and start to give them more of a tolerable "blank slate" personality.

There’s some amazingly well-written metaphors and themes slipping in and out of the framework of the episode too (particularly with the gazillionaire’s little story of the perfect “house”) and later when Echo is drawing a house.

Finally emotion. Depth. Thank you Joss Whedon for finding the heart of show. Thank you Fox for leaving him alone for two seconds to do just that.

Oh, and Topher (Fran Kranz) was actually pretty entertaining for once and not as annoying.

There was even some trademark Whedon-esque (no pun intended) humor bubbling beneath the surface – particularly with the man on the street interviews.

It would have been hard to kick off the series with this episode as a true pilot (only because so many pieces of information had to be set up to get to this point), but I’ll go on record as saying "Man on the Street" was just as good as the best of any BUFFY or ANGEL episodes.

This is a turning point for the show, where we realize the global ramifications of the Dollhouse (they have places all over the world) and that their ultimate endgame is not being a sci-fi whorehouse, but something a little more sinister (though we’re not keyed in just yet what that is).

Hooray. I’ve been really harsh on the series, because I wanted to like the show so much. I wanted to love the show, but it didn’t hook me. And now, I think the series has finally gotten back to where it should be.

Maybe Fox has left Whedon alone or maybe all the false starts and stops needed to be cleared away for Whedon to free his own mind and rebuild his DOLLHOUSE from the ground floor.

This is a great step in the right direction – and with next week’s episode looking pretty cool too, we may have finally seen the series what the series should have been all along.

And oh, did I mention how hot Miracle Laurie is?

I didn’t.

Well, she’s hot and the fact that she can be a kick-ass doll makes her even more hot.

Watch out Echo, there’s a new doll in the house and here’s hoping she’s going to give you a run for your money before the season is over.