#TBT Dollhouse Review

First watched in: 2014

I’ve heard Dollhouse described as the black sheep of the Whedonverse, and I can see why. For someone who’s had experience with Firefly or the Buffyverse, Dollhouse is something very different. I still enjoyed it, and like with anything else, I get more out of every runthrough. For new watchers, I would recommend to watch the show as close together as possible, especially in the second season. There are many details and nuances to the world that can get lost if you spend too much time between episodes.

Dollhouse is a Joss Whedon original that ran from 2009 to 2010 and starred Eliza Dushku, of Buffy fame. It gives the audience a look into a Dollhouse, which are places where people, called Dolls, can volunteer to have their personalities and memories removed for five years and instead get rewritten with different personalities and skills depending on the demands of the extremely wealthy clients, becoming "actives". That’s the point of contention; in a way, it shows human slavery. These volunteers (well, sometimes “volunteers”) have no free will. The argument is whether or not the personality and the body are two separate things, and the show gets a little into the morals of it all but was cancelled before much of the lore could fully develop. It’s a different kind of show, that’s for sure.

In retrospect, I saw this show as a bit of an actor’s vehicle. Over the course of the show, the people who played the Dolls had many different personalities, which included accents, tics, likes and dislikes, talents, and mannerisms. There was an instance where one of the scientists put his personality into a Doll so he could have an assistant he trusted. The actor who played the Doll was phenomenal, getting everything from vocal inflections to hand gestures spot on, so much that you really didn’t notice it wasn’t the scientist. Yes, the purpose of being an actor is to play all these different people, but having to change so quickly and give their characters full backgrounds and personalities, sometimes several in the course of an episode, is talent. There’s no other word for it. Some actors discover different layers to their characters over years of playing the same person. That’s not the case here. There’s only 26 episodes.

Fans of other Whedonverse shows will appreciate actors such as Eliza Dushku, Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Alan Tudyk, and Summer Glau. It’s always a treat to see familiar actors in different roles.

Dollhouse, despite its controversial themes, really lays out an enjoyable story that makes the viewer think as well as entertained.

Would I watch again? Yes, but probably not for a while