Dollhouse

You guys! I’ve seen the pilot! I was at a TV-conference/market in Cannes and FOX just so happened to have a screening room goin’ and... yeah.

The episode worked very well as a stand-alone and you could clearly see how the ongoing storyline was going to play second fiddle to the Personality Of the Week strands.

Dushku shows more range than I expected although I predict many people will be irked by the way she plays the blank Doll state.

That being said it was a hard Pilot to follow. There is a lot of stuff going on and while the balance amongst elements is good, the sheer volume of information is staggering.

Another quibble: a heavy-handed scene about identity when blank-Echo sees a cubist painting of a woman and deems her "broken". Her heist-partner gets all deep on her ass (while also having a gut wound) and it was the only time in the episode where I wasn’t on the edge of my seat with sheer glee.

Still, more good stuff. Stellar cast - it’s Whedon after all. Olivia Williams is pefect in her part. Enver Gjokaj is indeed a phenomenal actor as it’s been rumored. Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett and Harry Lennix are perfectly cast, although the latter could use getting some more material.

In Dichen Lachman’s case I think she may be having some initial trouble wrapping her head around the Whedon dialogue. There’s a plot point where Echo’s installed personality is remotely wiped while she’s locked in a bank vault and the Company gives it to Sierra (Lachman’s character) so that she can save the day.

Watching Dushku and Lachman play what was esentially the same character should’ve been absolutely awesome but instead was only quite so ’cause it seemed that Dushku was waaaay more comfortable with it. Maybe ’cause Taffy -the character in question- turns out to be very Faith-like. Not to worry though that’s not all they have her do.

Extra good stuff:

 the wiping effect. A rewind of scenes from the episode. Not original but done very prettily

 fantastic act-outs, and

 there is an Alpha and he’s gone rogue.

Oh! Also, the episode closes under Sia’s version of The Pretenders’ ’I Go To Sleep’!

Squees x 1.000.000

I’m at work and have already spent too much time writing this but I’ll try to get back soon and write a proper synopsis of the episode in case anyone’s interested.