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.