Dollhouse

[Brude]

[quote name='Mexal' post='1705306' date='Mar 2 2009, 18.32']As much as I love him, he doesn't exactly inspire badassness to me.[/quote]
I'm guessing he's not supposed to. He is a FANTASTIC actor though. It's possible he was more of a assassination/covert action sort of specialist. The truth is you don't want someone who is going to attract a lot of attention for that type of role. Covert operatives in real life are usually very regular looking people. Yeah for movies and TV it's good to have pretty people doing this stuff but in reality it's not really how it's done.

I've long thought he is one of the best character actors around so this makes me happy if it's true (there is nothing on IMDb about it yet).

[G'Kar]

[quote name='grozeng' post='1705012' date='Mar 2 2009, 14.31']Also, E! said who is playing Alpha.

SPOILER: actor playing Alpha

It's Wash from Firefly.

[/quote]

Are you serious? :rofl:

I can't see it.

[Rumarumo]

Every role he's been in has been comic relief. Here's hoping he can do murderous psycho as well as he does that.

[EHK for Darwin]

[quote name='Yerman' post='1705379' date='Mar 2 2009, 18.24']Every role he's been in has been comic relief. Here's hoping he can do murderous psycho as well as he does that.[/quote]

I really hope Whedon doesn't go for his trademark ironic, humorous villain here. (which the casting seems to suggest) This show can do with some serious, non-comedic menace. And since they've already established the guy as a brutal psycho, I'm gonna be a bit disappointed if we get a Nerd of Doom.

[DanteGabriel]

[quote name='EHK for a True GOP' post='1705406' date='Mar 2 2009, 20.07']I really hope Whedon doesn't go for his trademark ironic, humorous villain here. (which the casting seems to suggest) This show can do with some serious, non-comedic menace. And since they've already established the guy as a brutal psycho, I'm gonna be a bit disappointed if we get a Nerd of Doom.[/quote]
I'm hoping for a Roy Batty type.

[EHK for Darwin]

[quote name='DanteGabriel' post='1705407' date='Mar 2 2009, 19.09']I'm hoping for a Roy Batty type.[/quote]

That could work.

[grozeng]

[quote name='John Henry Eden' post='1705365' date='Mar 2 2009, 19.15']Are you serious? :rofl:

I can't see it.[/quote]

It was in the spoiler chat with Watch with Kristen. She has been wrong in the past though, so it might not be true. As soon as I saw it I checked IMDB too.

Here's what she says (the spoiler gives away who deactivates Echo next week too)

SPOILER: E! chat

Mike in Aurora, Colo.: I dig Dollhouse! Any chance you can tease what's coming up next week?
Did you know that the Dolls can be remotely deactivated via telephone? Well, it's possible, it happens, and it's bad news for Echo (Eliza Dushku). Who makes the call? Clues point to the mysterious active known only as Alpha. And guess who'll be playing him? Alan Tudyk (aka Wash from Firefly).

[awesome possum]

I think he is a great actor, and could probably pull it off but if the Whedonverse alum keep piling up the show will start to come off as a product of someone who's his own biggest fanboy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there are a whole host of actors out there; a whole host of whom can probably pull of manufactured psychopathic killer better.

[grozeng]

Looks like I gave away a twist when I posted the spoiler on Alpha. Apparently Whedon wanted it under wraps because

SPOILER: Alpha

We are going to meet Alpha before we know he is actually Alpha so knowing the actor will ruin the surprise

[Phoenix]

SPOILER: Dollhouse

For folks worried about Wash's ability to do other than funny, you should catch his one off as a pedophile on CSI.

He can do creepy, and calculating.

[Jon AS]

Phoenix, you really need to use spoiler code for that.

[Phoenix]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1707853' date='Mar 4 2009, 13.28']Phoenix, you really need to use spoiler code for that.[/quote]


My bad. Should have seen the post upthread about the Dollhouse peeps not wanting it to get out.

Sorry all.

Also, thanks Jon AS for adding the code in my me. Appreciate it very much.

[Jon AS]

[quote name='Phoenix']Also, thanks Jon AS for adding the code in my me. Appreciate it very much.[/quote]

Err, I'm not a moderator. Ran edited your post, says so right at the bottom.

And the spoiler tags are required for anything revealing information from episodes that haven't been aired yet, it doesn't really have anything to do with the wishes of the show's creator.;)

[Phoenix]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1708226' date='Mar 4 2009, 18.19']Err, I'm not a moderator. Ran edited your post, says so right at the bottom.

And the spoiler tags are required for anything revealing information from episodes that haven't been aired yet, it doesn't really have anything to do with the wishes of the show's creator.;)[/quote]


Ok, I'm so not awake today.
Fifty lashes for me.

I'm taking my shame and going and hiding now.

I really thought someone had name dropped upthread. Clearly, I left my brain somewhere.

:leaving:

[Paddy]

Just finished watching the first 3 episodes.

The pilot was rather "hmmm" for me. Some nice bits, but the amount of lame, heavy-handed dialogue was annoying. Specifically when the client was talking to Echo after their first discussion with the kidnappers, when he correctly guesses that she had been kidnapped. He says a bunch of stuff about Echo's implanted personality that we, the audience are plainly supposed to read as being about Echo herself. The worst was something like "The evil men filled your head with memories". Puh-lease.

Also, in Helo's first scene, the intercutting of the boxing match with the other agents taking the piss out of him... really amateurish and beyond heavy-handed. The sort of thing I'd expect to see from a High School Arts or Drama student.

Second episode was much better, but for all of that, it was completely ridiculous. I thought it was much more interesting before the hunting thing started. That made me roll my eyes at the absurdity of it and the explanation of it all being set up by Alpha didn't solve that. I mean, ok, I'm not quite sure what Alpha is trying to achieve (though I suspect it's getting Echo to "break out" of her implants and become free), but whatever it is, there is [i]no way[/i] that getting that archer guy to hunt her down was the best way to do.
Extremely convoluted.
However, as I said, I could get past that and found the episode to be really enjoyable.

The third episode was shit. One of the worst things I have seen in a long time (not saying there aren't worse things out there, but I know not to watch them - they're not aimed at me).
Given all the possible things that they can do with dolls, protecting a pop singer from a stalker is not one of the ones I want to watch an episode about.
The twist of the singer encouraging the stalker was completely lame and way beyond plausible for me. Maybe if she had better reasons for it, but her stated reason was awful and I didn't feel that we were shown that she had a reason to feel as confined as she claimed.
And more mind-numbingly heavy-handed dialogue after Echo first saves the singer and she asks her things like "You don't know what it's like to live your life pretending"
Making the singer come to appreciate her life by putting her under real threat was another eye-roll moment, especially when they revealed that was Echo's plan all along. Lame.

There were good moments though. The head-shake that people have mentioned and the performance of the actor playing the stalker was decent. Ok, he didn't deviate from cliche, but he came across as pretty intense.
Did anyone else think he looked like a Ginger Jake Gyllenhall? Especially in the video he made and when he was getting Sierra to sing.
What else? Yes, Lubov being a doll was interesting.
Some decent lines in "You can fire me, but bitch, don't think that you can take me." and
Langton: Are you ready for your treatment?
Echo: All right, but can I kick that guy's ass first?
Langton: I will seriously consider it.

I guess there's a couple of things that interest me enough to keep watching. Alpha mostly. But if this wasn't Whedon, I'd definitely be done with it.
That third episode was [i]criminal[/i].

[Jon AS]

So you're about to have a baby, do you either:

a) Opt for the help of medical professionals

b) Higher an obscure, criminal organization to provide you with "the perfect midwife", presumably for obscene amounts of money

Seriously, on what planet does option b make any sense at all?

Apart from that I liked the episode. The job-of-the-week was quite interesting, the remote wipe added some excitement (While the resolution felt a bit anticlimactic, it was still better than if "Taffy2" had managed to talk Echo through a highly complicated procedure) and I loved how Topher's first reaction to it was "I didn't do anything wrong!".

I do wonder where the hell Alpha gets the resources he needs to mess with the Dollhouse like this.

Helo is still boring, though I really want to know what exactly Victor is supposed to achieve.

[Shryke]

Yeah, I didn't get the mid-wife shit at ALL. Made no sense.

The rest of the episode was pretty good though.

[kungtotte]

Mid-wife shit in a Ra's Al Ghul-looking mountaintop monastery, no less. Seriously what the hell? I guess it was included to show the wide range of stuff the Dolls do, but I don't know what Whedon is smoking :unsure:

I really liked the Mirror Doll idea, but I felt like they didn't live up to the potential of it, and now that they've basically "wasted" the concept it probably won't be used to any great effect in subsequent episodes. Or if it is, it'll seem less for having been used once. Also no Amy Acker in this episode, which sucks.

Whedon is lucky that he's Whedon, or I'd have given up on this show already.

[Brude]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1711571' date='Mar 7 2009, 04.23']So you're about to have a baby, do you either:

a) Opt for the help of medical professionals

b) Higher an obscure, criminal organization to provide you with "the perfect midwife", presumably for obscene amounts of money

Seriously, on what planet does option b make any sense at all?[/quote]
A lot of people for whatever reason opt for doing a very private home birth situation and midwives are who you go to for that. Even very rich people. Midwives are a serious profession when properly trained and several top medical schools have midwifery programs (NYU I know has one because I used to work for the midwifery school's insurance broker for a while). Personally, I don't understand the desire to have a child in one's home instead of the hospital, but a lot of people do it. Also, a lot of times midwives work at hospitals too, it's not just for home births. But I guarantee you, if someone wants a home birth like that and they also have more money than God (so much that they can afford to live in a home that looks like a Tibetan monestary, or like a top Hollywood actor might have), they'll pay whatever for the best. It's probably cheap to them.

I guessing Joss has known some obsenely wealthy Hollywood people who have done home births utilizing mid-wives. It's not (necessarily) a weird thing, though I could tell you some stories where the motivation for it was...odd.

[Jon AS]

I am not objecting to the idea of home birth, though I can't quite understand the motivation. What I do question is the necessity (or even desire) to hire an active from the Dollhouse, since it has been stated that that costs ridiculous amounts of money. Why not hire a normal midwife instead?