Dollhouse

The jury is still out for Joss Whedon’s latest endeavour, the Friday night spy-drama Dollhouse. If you’re unfamiliar, it features Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumnus Eliza Dushku as one of a group of “dolls”, young people whose minds have been wiped clean so they can take imprints for different personalities and skills. Effectively the instant-skill-set ability of characters in the Matrix movies combined with an Alias-like drama. The dolls are run by a vaguely sinister organization, and while it is implied that much of the work the “dolls” are put to are of the sexual wish-fulfilment variety, the missions we see them on generally include the archetypes routine to this type of spy-drama; hostage negotiation, bank heists, undercover infiltration, and so on. Running parallel to the weekly Dollhouse mission plot line is that of a Mulder-like FBI agent doggedly determined to seek out the organization, which is generally considered an urban legend.

Many Whedon fans, such as our own bloginhood, gave up on the show in short order, finding it formulaic and undistinguished television, bereft of the features treasured by Whedonites. Those who stuck with it were eventually rewarded; beginning with episode 6, “Man on the Street”, the show completely turned on a dime. The structure moved away from case-of-the-week and became much more about the internal politics and struggles of the Dollhouse organization, and the dolls’ real personalities are becoming much of the focus. The story arcs are beginning to stretch across multiple episodes, and most importantly, large doses of trademark Whedon humour have crept in.

It may be too late, as many feared when Felicia Day posted to her Twitter that the 13th episode of the season, in which both Day and Firefly favourite Alan Tudyk appear, will only be available on the DVD. Despite this, the official statements continue to maintain that the show is not in danger, though ratings continue to decline. With Dollhouse facing an uncertain future and a fresh re-watching of Buffy under my belt, I want to take some time for a nostalgic look back at Buffy, to look at what makes Whedon such a respected and talented writer, and why his shows perpetually struggle despite his critical successes. Much more after the break.

Looking back at Buffy over the last several weeks has struck home to me again why Whedon is such a remarkable writer, and why it was such a remarkable show. The number of things he set in motion have resonated across network television ever since. Before Buffy, network dramas followed a consistent structure: “story-of-the-week” plots with long character arcs. Occasionally a multi-episode arc would be introduced, usually during a sweeps month. House, MD is probably the most successful current drama that follows this conventional structure. Most medical cases are introduced and resolved within one episode. Main cast character arcs play out over multiple episodes, but have an internal one-episode dramatic arc as well, with conflict and resolution by the end of the episode. Sometimes a medical case arc plays out over a couple of episodes, though House does this less than older medical dramas such as ER.

Most conventional dramas on the air - shows like the three CSI series - use this formula, which is entirely engineered on one principle; to make it easy for new viewers to start watching or old viewers to miss an episode without losing interest in the show. There’s always some playing with the formula - for instance, a recurring killer on a show like CSI who makes 3 or 4 appearances spaced throughout a season, usually during sweeps - or the short-arc characters ER was fond of, such as Don Cheadle or Alan Alda’s half-dozen-episode arcs - but these are done to try to loosely hook people into coming back every week, without making a serious commitment. And romantic subplots between characters usually feature heavily.

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