Review: Dollhouse

I'm way behind the curve on this one, but I finally got around to seeing Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. When I first heard of it a few years ago, I was told it was going to be very different from Whedon's other series so I stayed away from it, but thanks to a Christmas gift certificate and a really nice sale on the whole first season, I went ahead and picked it up.

F*** me for not picking this up sooner.

It was true that this series was somewhat darker. It didn't have the casual silliness of Firefly or Dr. Horrible, but it didn't seem all that different in mood than the story lines of Buffy or Angel (although it's been 7 years since I watched either of those shows heavily so my memory may be skewed).

As is typical of Whedon's series, episodes often can be taken independently without requiring the viewer to have seen every episode. But taken in continuity, they all fit together to develop wonderful parts. Occasionally, one will feel that it could have been left out only to be referenced later to help build an overarching theme. The way all that works out is one of the magics Whedon has that makes me love everything he does.

And if the first 12 episodes weren't good enough, the extra episode (Epitaph One) made the series way better. It takes the story line that's been somewhat slow to develop into a larger story, and drops it into a post apocalyptic scenario leaving the viewer wondering how the two are connected. There's teasing ties that have fantastic hooks that make me wish I'd seen this earlier so I could have been watching the second season as it aired so I could see how this has played out.

I suppose it's time to try to find out if Season 2 is on Hulu....

If you're a fan of Whedon's other works and series that take a little more thought than the average muck on television, this is a series you might want to check out.