Dollhouse

The mind-wiped Dolls of Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse will crack safes, attend high school reunions, and fulfill every sexual fantasy. And, as Whedon revealed today, they may also help clients experiment with their sexuality.

Whedon has admitted that much of Dollhouse analogizes the issues around prostitution, as his Dolls, or "Actives," are being hired out to perform roles that are dangerous, sexual, or emotionally intimate without their knowledge or consent. Specifically, Whedon wants to explore whether certain actions are truly morally reprehensible, or whether they are what American society has decided to deem morally reprehensible.

In response to questions on whether he has plans to include any gay characters on Dollhouse, Whedon recalled that on Buffy, the writers had a policy that magic could not change a character’s sexuality, and that it couldn’t be used, for example, as a punishment. But Dollhouse operates with a different set of rules:

On this show, people’s personalities are being completely overwritten. When someone hires an active, what they’re basically doing is hiring somebody for an experience that absolutely nobody in the world will ever know about including the person that you went through it with...If you don’t think that at least a third of the people who hire Actives are not bi-curious, you’re naive.

So will be see Eliza Dushku’s Echo gently and confidently guide women through their first same sex experience? Or will Dolls prove the perfect insulation against political sex scandals?