Dollhouse - "Vows" (Joss Whedon)
Thirteen things:
One, Olivia Williams' hair is not "ugly", does not "look awful", and does "flatter her". Seriously, did these complainers see the dos she had in S1?
Two, the A story (I assume the story with Echo is the A story) was ill-conceived and poorly executed. Think about any of it for more than ten seconds and it turns into Emmental cheese. It was terrible. And it consumed a large chunk of the episode. And I could moan about all of it.
Three, I am happy to report that Eliza Dushku rocked her different roles. This is the first time that I have felt she was on top of them all.
Four, conversely, Dichen Lachman was found out: she can't do posh (which is weird - everyone can do posh) and that two minutes of an Anglo-Asian in pink was excruciating and unfunny.
Five, Adelle fingering Victor's scars was still not enough Victor.
Six, Olivia Williams was in tremendous form. She really relishes her role as Adelle. Andy thought she looked a bit thin. I didn't really notice. However, I will be mightily disappointed if her face ever loses its mobility and its lines.
Seven, freaky accent changes from Jamie Bamber and Alexis Denisof.
Eight, Tahmoh Penikett sets me on edge. He walks funny, he stands funny, he speaks funny. And the character he plays doesn't interest me.
Nine, Ballard's push ups were just so cringeworthy and unworthy. Cheap.
Ten, talking of cheap: I hadn't really grasped what was going on in the scene between Whiskey and Echo until I rewatched it and, eek, that was tacky. She's having her vagina checked out (with hands of blue) and she has a sexy flashback. Urgh.
Eleven, I was dismayed at Ballard hitting Echo in order to get her to drop into ninja mode. Dismayed that this sort of violence is barely commented upon. Dismayed also because it's a crappy device. Dismayed because it is totally unrealistic. Yes, I know this is fantasy but things have to make sense within the reality of the fantasy. One slap from a man built like Ballard would put little Echo in a seriously bad place. And bored of it too. How many times is Echo going get hit? Every.single.episode?
Twelve, I don't understand quite why Whiskey attempted to have sex (or not) with Topher. This lack of comprehension I accept may be my fault. However, Amy Acker slumped against a wall saying "because I don't wanna die" was the best part of the show.
Thirteen, as it ended, I turned to Andy and said "I don't know if I can be arsed watching this anymore". A rather pointless statement because I will continue to watch it. Damn you Joss, if this was made by anybody else, I would have said goodbye a long time ago (see Alias, Lost, Heroes, The X-Files, The West Wing).
I agree with everything here.
The whole show gets a great big meh from me right now.
Definitely a meh episode, but I thought that Eliza and Amy Acker both killed. Wonderful acting from both. I did not see a drop of Faith in Eliza's performance, and she nailed all of her scenes. Even when I expected her to falter a little, she didn't.
Jamie Bamber irritated me less here then he did on BsG, probably because he was supposed to be evil and no one was trying to convince me otherwise, but I still cringed whenever he was on screen. He's pretty much an energy sucker in whatever context, it seems.
And I still have no love for Topher. Fran Kranz's attempts at emotion feel completely false and mostly ridiculous to me. I'd love to see Ivy replace Topher any day. Liza Lapira was pretty much the only redeemable part of that awful scene with Sierra.
The vaginal exam context excluded, I must admit I found the Echo/Whiskey flashback a little hot. I hope we get some queer characters on Dollhouse soon, even if they're only imprints for an episode.
Yes! Yes yes yes! He moves funny. Like in a predatory way, all the time.
This episode was obviously a statement that Dollhouse is going in a new direction this season, but I wish that "Vows" felt like a more confident statement of that purpose.