There are some things I'm not willing to wait for on DVD.
I am one of those who loved Star Trek in the past and fell away for the franchise. The last time I can remember being excited about the voyages of the Enterprise was Star Trek:First Contact. And that was a bit of a renewal, as I had been disappointed by The Undiscovered Country and Generations. I enjoyed them, but they didn't thrill me.
And I completely lost touch with television. Of course, a large part of that is not that I lost touch with Star Trek on television, but that I lost touch with television. To this day, I rarely watch TV. Sports, news, the history channel and Dollhouse is about it. So Voyager and Enterprise never got a real shot.
But I have to agree that Star Trek needed a reboot.
The movie I saw yesterday achieved it. Wonderfully so. It appeals to young and old, not only in years of life but in years of fandom. Yeah, they changed some stuff. Yes, they gave themselves an "out" to go against previous canon. Thankfully. I mean, when more time is put into fact-checking the script against previous episodes than into actually writing it, you have a problem. As a writer, I would despise that kind of oversight. No, you can't say that, that contradicts something Sisko said about Data recalling a line in the history books about Kirk. Talk about a buzz kill to creativity.
This movie is exciting. It maintains Rodenberry's original message, that we can survive and become a space-faring race, that diversity is a positive and that our humanity is why we will succeed, not how we will fail.
And it works not just as Star Trek, but as a movie. It is worth the money and it will rock your afternoon or evening.
I'll give a more detailed review in a couple weeks, so I can talk spoilers after those who want to see it have done so. But for now, let me just say that J.J. Abrahms did it right. Go see it.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Dollhouse: Why It Should Be Renewed
Those who already know me are probably wondering why it has taken this long for me to open my mouth about Dollhouse. After all, I totally love Joss Whedon and his work, being an unrepentant Browncoat and enough of a Dr. Horrible fan to have actually dressed up as Captain Hammer. (And I will wear it again at ComicCon, too.)
Perhaps I was reluctant, after all my talk early about how I never watch broadcast television, to talk about a TV show. I do watch TV on DVD. And to be honest, I have yet to watch a full Dollhouse episode on Fox live. I've been watching on Hulu.
For those who pay as little attention to the networks as I usually do, Dollhouse is on Fox, Friday nights in the notorious 9 p.m. death slot. Nothing survives there. The concept of the show revolves around programmable "actives," attractive men and women who can be given the background of anything from sexual toy to safecracker. They believe in their roles completely, because without that imprint they are Tabula Rasa. Blank slates. The story revolves around one particular active played by Eliza Dushku. A rogue FBI agent is trying to save her, The corporate entity behind the Dollhouse is exploiting her and her true background is unknown...meaning we don't really know if she wants to be saved.
Multiple twists have been thrown in, and as normal with Whedon the show is episodic in that each week a new story is started and completed with hints liberally and secretly distributed about a larger truth.
Unfortunately for Joss and his fans, what this often means is that the greatest enjoyment of his work is slow to emerge. Not a good thing in the immediate gratification world of network television. I often wish the man would go work for Showtime or HBO, or even endure the budget constraints of working with a smaller cable network. Not that Battlestar Galactica didn't pull it off.
Dollhouse follows this pattern. The more backstory that emerges, the better the program. Fans that have been there from episode one are falling in love. People that are tuning in one week in the middle don't understand what all the hype is about.
There is a lot to love about Dollhouse. It plays with the concepts of what truly makes us human. On a purely aesthetic level, the cast and sets are almost universally pleasing to the eye. Joss has consistently played with our expectations and resisted the urge to go too quickly for shock value. If he follows his own SOP, there will be events in next weeks season finale that will have been planned all along, with unrecognized hints in each previous episode hiding behind the obvious foreshadowing.
I am in favor of anything, movie or television, that give Alan Tudyk more opportunity to show his versatility. The man has awesome comedic timing and yet can switch gears to action in totally believable suddenness. There is a reason so many of the "tee shirt lines" in Firefly were delivered by Wash.
And Dollhouse has given us Miracle Laurie as a more voluptuous active who is never played by the Dollhouse as less attractive or able due to not being the Hollywood ideal in female weight and height. Indeed, one of the first twists was the show turning the expectations of its audience on ear in her character, who was initially teased as the stereotypical "not quite as worthy love interest." Laurie is gorgeous and I love that they are treating her as so and not acting like they need to apologize for her being 20 pounds heavier than the others. Indeed, the hottest love scenes on the show have involved her, not Dushku.
But I fear this show will be canceled as others have been. Sad, because if Fox really wants to rescue that time slot, the one thing that is absolutely required is patience. Well, patience and an understanding that in today's more fractured TV environment, ratings are never again going to approach "All In The Family" levels.
If it was for me to decide, Fox would wait until the fall season, when the hit 24 is on hiatus, and put 13 episodes of Dollhouse following House on Monday night. Not everybody watches Monday Night Football. I think it would capture some audience there and take them back to Fridays in the spring, possibly bumping Terminator's rating as well.
Also, take a lesson from Firefly... Dollhouse is going to rock on DVD, selling better than shows like House or Bones or even the aforementioned 24. Fox is currently living off things like American Idol... which is entirely in the moment and has no residual potential in rerun or on DVD.
If they are smart, Fox could take Dollhouse and Sarah Conner Chronicles and slowly build a Friday night powerhouse. But that takes patience and long-term planning. Two things in major deficit at television networks.
Perhaps I was reluctant, after all my talk early about how I never watch broadcast television, to talk about a TV show. I do watch TV on DVD. And to be honest, I have yet to watch a full Dollhouse episode on Fox live. I've been watching on Hulu.
For those who pay as little attention to the networks as I usually do, Dollhouse is on Fox, Friday nights in the notorious 9 p.m. death slot. Nothing survives there. The concept of the show revolves around programmable "actives," attractive men and women who can be given the background of anything from sexual toy to safecracker. They believe in their roles completely, because without that imprint they are Tabula Rasa. Blank slates. The story revolves around one particular active played by Eliza Dushku. A rogue FBI agent is trying to save her, The corporate entity behind the Dollhouse is exploiting her and her true background is unknown...meaning we don't really know if she wants to be saved.
Multiple twists have been thrown in, and as normal with Whedon the show is episodic in that each week a new story is started and completed with hints liberally and secretly distributed about a larger truth.
Unfortunately for Joss and his fans, what this often means is that the greatest enjoyment of his work is slow to emerge. Not a good thing in the immediate gratification world of network television. I often wish the man would go work for Showtime or HBO, or even endure the budget constraints of working with a smaller cable network. Not that Battlestar Galactica didn't pull it off.
Dollhouse follows this pattern. The more backstory that emerges, the better the program. Fans that have been there from episode one are falling in love. People that are tuning in one week in the middle don't understand what all the hype is about.
There is a lot to love about Dollhouse. It plays with the concepts of what truly makes us human. On a purely aesthetic level, the cast and sets are almost universally pleasing to the eye. Joss has consistently played with our expectations and resisted the urge to go too quickly for shock value. If he follows his own SOP, there will be events in next weeks season finale that will have been planned all along, with unrecognized hints in each previous episode hiding behind the obvious foreshadowing.
I am in favor of anything, movie or television, that give Alan Tudyk more opportunity to show his versatility. The man has awesome comedic timing and yet can switch gears to action in totally believable suddenness. There is a reason so many of the "tee shirt lines" in Firefly were delivered by Wash.
And Dollhouse has given us Miracle Laurie as a more voluptuous active who is never played by the Dollhouse as less attractive or able due to not being the Hollywood ideal in female weight and height. Indeed, one of the first twists was the show turning the expectations of its audience on ear in her character, who was initially teased as the stereotypical "not quite as worthy love interest." Laurie is gorgeous and I love that they are treating her as so and not acting like they need to apologize for her being 20 pounds heavier than the others. Indeed, the hottest love scenes on the show have involved her, not Dushku.
But I fear this show will be canceled as others have been. Sad, because if Fox really wants to rescue that time slot, the one thing that is absolutely required is patience. Well, patience and an understanding that in today's more fractured TV environment, ratings are never again going to approach "All In The Family" levels.
If it was for me to decide, Fox would wait until the fall season, when the hit 24 is on hiatus, and put 13 episodes of Dollhouse following House on Monday night. Not everybody watches Monday Night Football. I think it would capture some audience there and take them back to Fridays in the spring, possibly bumping Terminator's rating as well.
Also, take a lesson from Firefly... Dollhouse is going to rock on DVD, selling better than shows like House or Bones or even the aforementioned 24. Fox is currently living off things like American Idol... which is entirely in the moment and has no residual potential in rerun or on DVD.
If they are smart, Fox could take Dollhouse and Sarah Conner Chronicles and slowly build a Friday night powerhouse. But that takes patience and long-term planning. Two things in major deficit at television networks.
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