Dollhouse

Once again, my favorite little show that could Dollhouse is in trouble. The ratings are fluctuating and its got the Friday-night Death Slot, so things really just aren’t looking good. But why? What exactly is the reason that nobody will watch Dollhouse? Can someone please explain this to me?

Is it because the show is on Friday nights, and everybody is too busy “out on the town?” Somehow I highly doubt that. Sure, a lot more people go out on Friday nights than any other night of the week, but I’m confident that it really isn’t that many more. I’m sure there is still a very large number of people who sit at home and do…whatever on Friday nights. So why not just tune into the Dollhouse? Odds are in your favor that you’ll find something you like.

Which brings us to The Dollhouse Initiative. The goal here is to get more people watching Dollhouse, get the ratings to exceed the three million mark (which, in my head, is the line Dollhouse needs to cross to survive), and to get this deserving show its third season (or at least a back-nine pick-up).

But the problem isn’t with the die-hard viewers. There are upwards of two million die-hard viewers that tune into Dollhouse Every. Single. Friday. and watch the new episodes. So, what does this mean? It means that you, as the casual viewer, should start watching Dollhouse. Even if all it means is that you just put it on in the background while you do something else. Because even if you do that, I’ll bet you a hundred bucks you get sucked in.

So what’s Dollhouse even about? That’s the question I know you all want the answer to. So here you have it: Dollhouse takes place in a not-so-distant future world of ours, where the technology has developed to imprint personalities into people. This means that dollhouse1x06—09you can turn a person into anybody you want – but there’s only one catch. In order to imprint a person with a personality, you have to wipe their own, original personality clean. You have to get rid of the essence of that person. When wiped clean, these people – called “Actives” – are completely and totally innocent and have no memory of anything, which is why they live in the dollhouse, so that they can be watched over and protected. The Actives are assigned engagements, which appear whenever someone with a large amount of money pays for one of the Actives to be imprinted with a specific personality for a specific purpose.

So what’s the big deal? Well, there’s more to Dollhouse than just that. That’s just the basis of the show. The show deals with Echo (played masterfully by Eliza Dushku), an eliza-dushku-dollhouse-2Active who has signed a five-year contract with the dollhouse following making some bad decisions in her life. Echo is the star Active of the dollhouse and is given more engagements than any of the others. But Echo is special. Echo remembers things from her engagements – things that she should not remember. She’s no longer the innocent doll she’s supposed to be, and she’s secretly working to bring down the dollhouse. In the outside world, the government also is becoming aware that this underground dollhouse community exists, and they are trying to find enough concrete evidence to successfully shut it down.

Yeah, OK, but why should I watch? You are pretty much guaranteed to find something you like here. The show’s creator Joss Whedon is a genius when it comes to television, and he has already run two of the most popular shows on TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Don’t let that fool you, however. Here, Whedon isn’t dealing with vampires and sunlight. Here, he’s dealing with mankind itself. He’s discussing the difficult moral and ethical decisions that come with advancing technology. There’s a lot of grey areas when it comes to Dollhouse, and that is part of what makes it great – you never know what to think about the actual dollhouse establishment. Yet with all of the grey areas, there’s also a lot of humor. A lot of it. It’s witty and sarcastic and sometimes downright hilarious. There’s a lot of sex and a lot of violence, and if you like sci-fi, there’s no way to not like the show. Like any other television show, there’s the couples you root for and the villains you don’t, and there are a 3841135624_a04aa7227a_olot of brilliant dramatic moments. Not to mention, every once in a while, a huge jaw-dropping twist will be thrown in, and who doesn’t like that? Dollhouse has a little bit of everything.

That sounds awesome! Tell me more! The first season of Dollhouse aired last spring, so if you want to catch up on it, there are various avenues to try out. iTunes has the first season of Dollhouse available, which is a quick and easy way to catch up. The best route to take is to buy the DVD, which features a boatload of bonuses, including an exclusive episode that never aired. Plus, DVD sales have been known to save a show before, so you’d be helping the cause. A special note about the first season, however: the first five episodes of the series were created as standalone episodes. Although they are still awesome episodes, it isn’t until episode 106 “Man on the Street” that the series really begins and really picks up. So just keep that in mind. You’ll probably be hooked by then, though, so it won’t matter.

As of this writing (October 3), the second season of Dollhouse has already aired two episodes, which you can currently watch for free on Hulu, download on iTunes, or watch on Amazon On Demand.

Get a look at my review of Dollhouse Season One and the Season Two premiere, “Vows.”

Plus, there’s also an amazing list of guest stars lined up for this second season in addition totahmoh-penickett-joss-whedon-eliza-dushku-dollhouse-tv-series-2008-comic-con-photoshoot-mq-01-51748 the already fantastic cast – there’s Jamie Bamber of Battlestar Galactica; Alexis Denisof of Buffy, Angel, and a guest stint on Private Practice; Summer Glau of Firefly and The Sarah Conner Chronicles; and Michael Hogan of Battlestar Galactica. That’s a lot of great talent, people.

So, alright, you think it’s great. That’s great. What about other people? The results may surprise you, if you do a quick search on the reception to Dollhouse. While most reviews will probably cite a poor launch (which comes from the standalone episodes that made up the first five episodes), almost every single review will tell you that by the end of the series’ first season, they were hooked and that the back-half of the first season was some of the best television they had ever seen. The second season of Dollhouse currently sits with a perfect five-star rating on iTunes, with close to 300 reviews. Compare that to the first season’s iTunes rating of 4.5 stars, with close to 2000 reviews. People who watch Dollhouse love Dollhouse. There’s no doubt about it. So shouldn’t you dollhouse-season-2-9start loving it too?

Alright, so tell me what to do! It’s really very simple. All you have to do is every Friday night, turn on your television. Turn it on to your local FOX network at 9:00pm EST and just watch. Or don’t watch. Maybe you just leave it on in the background – I’m sure most of you have more than one television in your house, so you could put Dollhouse on one of them. The point is, turn it on. Maybe DVR it and watch it within the next seven hours. And then when you love it, tell your friends. Get them to tune in. Hold a Dollhouse Season One marathon, get them hooked, and then make a habit out of watching Dollhouse together every Friday night and talking about it. It really is just that simple, and more than likely, you won’t regret tuning it. Dollhouse delivers every week.

Check out the show. If you can’t catch it on the first run on Friday nights because you are out partying or hanging with friends, DVR it and watch it by 3 am that day. Or watch it on FOX.com. Or watch it on Hulu. Or buy the latest episode from iTunes. All of these are measures that really, truly do help the show, as it gives the network heads a better sense of just how many people are watching the show.

And if you love what you see, make sure to recommend the show to your friends. Word of mouth is a great way to help promote the things you love. So tell your friends. Get them to watch. And then discuss the show and keep spreading the word. Every little bit helps.

And that’s really it. Dollhouse deserves to be around to see the five-year plan series creator Joss Whedon has planned play out. It’s one of the only shows I know of that actually has a little bit of everything, has something to offer for anybody, and that’s why the Dollhouse Initiative can work. All it takes is a little help from you on Friday nights. Dollhouse isn’t over yet, and we need to make sure it stays that way.

You won’t regret it. Promise.