I’ve decided that I’m going to try to spend most -if not all- of this week talking about TV. Mostly so that I can tell people that my blog is about random stuff, and not just video games. Also, because I have thoughts on TV shows that I want to share! I may have mentioned that yesterday.
So, Dollhouse. I watch this one every Sunday morning when I’m getting my weekly exercise on the elliptical. You might say that spending 50 minutes exercising a week is not enough, and you may be right. But this is my scheduled exercise, which I do very reliably, as opposed to any other exercise I get being more spontaneous. During the warmer months I spend at least an hour in the pool afterward, so it’s a pretty good day for my physical wellness. Adding Dollhouse to the routine has also bumped up the elliptical workout from 30 minutes to the aforementioned 50, which seems like a lot more time when I’m actually on the machine.
Hey, I thought this post was about a television program, not my slowly improving exercise habits!
I’m four episodes in right now, and I’ve got to say that I feel like it’s starting out a bit too slowly. The premise of the show is that there is this semi-secret organization called the Dollhouse, which wipes the minds of willing candidates and then contracts them out to do jobs. The “Actives” are then programmed with whatever skills and personality traits the job demands, and then some. It’s a neat premise, thought not exactly what I expected. I guess I read the summary on the DVD case as though our main character, Echo, was always herself, just with new skills programmed in for whatever she’s going to be doing that episode, like changing jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics. But nope, in every episode she plays a different character, and they all begin and end with her as a totally blank slate. It doesn’t really hinder the show, but you definitely feel less attachment to Echo, because you don’t really have that one character to follow, but the same actress playing a new one every time.
This format leads to the show having a sort of “caper of the week” feel to it, which I’m not really into. I prefer to have my serialized programming follow an overall plot thread. Little frays in said thread are fine if you want to add side-stories and character development, but up to this point each Dollhouse episode could be more or less a self-contained story. It does seem to be dangling carrots hinting at consistency and a grander plot, but so far they’ve all been repetitive background noise. By which I mean characters keep talking about stuff, but they’re always saying the same thing and never developing anything further. It could all come to a head in episode five and I’ll have egg all over my face, but I kind of doubt it. Any consistency here is enjoying a very slow burn.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the show was cancelled after two seasons, so it could end up that all these loose ends will be hastily cobbled into a big, sloppy mess just to put a wrap on whatever story they’re telling. That might be even worse than having no continuity. Could end up that they winds themselves into a rich, if somewhat short tapestry. Who knows? I sure can’t tell where it’s going yet, but I have theories.
Dollhouse is certainly an entertaining show, but like I said, I’m not too keen on the fact that our main character isn’t (yet) really a character. The independent episode plots are cool, but I think the show will get much more interesting once the secondary stories start to develop and take the forefront. That said, Alias is still the top dog* when it comes to this specific brand of fiction. Sydney Bristow could go on any number of zany missions, but she was still always headed towards a clear goal. For Echo, not so much. But I’ll stick with it. Worst case scenario, there are only 22 more episodes, and they do provide an incentive to get a little exercise.
*In all fairness, my experience with Alias is from season three onwards, and even then I mostly “watched” it as background noise to Dissidia and Picross 3D. I certainly enjoyed what I saw though.