Let's Fold Scarves

You thought you were doing the right thing. I hear that can be confusing.

Angel – “Deep Down” (Steven S. DeKnight)

I’m not a big fan of Angel but I am a completist* and I’ve started so I’ll finish and so we are watching S4 to accompany Buffy the Vampire Slayer S7.

Anyway, I have decided to blog Angel from now on.

I am watching S4 with low expectations so it was a pleasant surprise how much I enjoyed this. It was really sad to see Andy Hallett resplendent in his greenery because it is terrible that he has died so ridiculously young. He also played one of my favourite characters. Cordy is also one of my favourites so it was disappointing to see so little of her (though storywise it made sense).

Fred and Gunn are a tiresome couple. The Fluffy dialogue started off being amusing but degenerated into tastelessness and unfunniness. It was painful.

Taking a Fluffy joke a little too far

The sex scene between Wes and Lilah was notable for Alexis Denisof’s chest, for Wesley doing something weird with his tongue and for Lilah licking his neck. The latter two things I wish I could forget.

Stephanie Romanov looked rather lovely and her character has indisputably moved to the right of the dark side with her beheading of Linwood. Linwood had a point, mind you, about her shortcomings, she is generally useless particularly if she did think Wesley didn’t know anything.

I like Vincent Kartheiser as Connor. I like the actor so much in Mad Men that I may be predisposed to like Connor but then I do like Dawn too.

Angel’s chat with Connor asking him what he deserved (a second chance, clearly) worked quite well considering the whole champion thing and using the comparison of what Buffy did to him (for more noble reasons, it must be said!) was excellent.

Since everything I write about seems to come back to Dollhouse, here is another observation. My problem with DH is that if you are going to deal with “difficult” subjects like prostitution, trafficking,  etc, then you need to deal with it well. Dealing with it crappily isn’t acceptable. So if Angel isn’t that great, it really doesn’t matter because it doesn’t usually deal with difficult real-life issues. Which is why “Billy” is one of my least favourite episodes along with “I Fall to Pieces” (stalking), “Hero” (Nazis) and “Expecting” (forced surrogate pregnancy).

*I’ll probably one day finish Astonishing X-Men and I won’t stop watching Dollhouse if it’s renewed just like I didn’t stop watching Heroes at the end of S2. I have stopped now. The murder of Elle was the final straw for a show that has next to no idea of how to write female characters of any interest at all.

Posted in Angel, Dollhouse, Television | 2 Comments »

Is it Friday yet?

or should I say Saturday?

I want to watch Dollhouse.

Posted in Dollhouse, Television | No Comments »

Maybe there’ll be cake.

Dollhouse – “A Spy in the House of Love” (Andrew Chambliss)

What a great episode. Why were the first five so crap? Or why were episodes 1, 3 and 4 so crap? Even three more mundane episodes to the standard of 2 and 5 might not have made this series so hard to get into. I am glad I persevered but it was a close thing; I was pretty unforgiving at the direness of Dollhouse’s first offerings. I don’t think the excuse of a new team taking time to bed-in is an adequate excuse. Maybe the really bad ones are the equivalent of “Teacher’s Pet” and “I Robot, You Jane”: basically rubbish but redeemed in retrospect by fans scrambling around for funny dialogue and briefly meaningful moments.

I literally spent periods watching this with my mouth open and I said to Andy that I needed an advert break except the way we are watching it means we don’t get any (though I do know Prison Break is back).

The moral confusion in this show is surely at its height. All the non-dolls are now morally compromised now that Paul has to be immoral if he wants to bring the Dollhouse down.

I was quite surprised to see charts and some string in Paul’s apartment wall because that implies he has found out stuff on his own.

Random awesome bits:

• Mellie closing down and telling Paul all. I just loved how Miracle Laurie switched off and on.
• “My name is Bond, Victor Bond” I said before the suave Englishman got into his Porsche. And Adelle is different from Hearn how?
• Dominic’s brain wipe (aka trip to the attic): oo, the irony of him being mean to Echo…
• The ironic irony conversation and Olivia Williams’ spellbinding performance. In the future when I rewatch Dollhouse (and I think I will) I believe that Williams will be my prime interest along with the casting find of Enver Gjokaj who, fingers crossed, is a major star at the beginning of his career.

The acting continues to impress me and only Fran Kranz has failed to win me over and I don’t think it is because of Topher’s character.

I liked how this episode was structured. It reminded me of “Out of Gas” and that is a big compliment. I haven’t thought too hard about the various plotlines because I’m sure they don’t all bear up to scrutiny and I’m not in the mood for being mean. Hooray. Like Firefly, to me, this series is less about its “lead” but more about the other individuals in the ensemble. Kudos to Eliza Dushku for not insisting that the show be all about her character(s).

It even managed to ape Alias in perhaps the weakness part of the episode. I would rather see Jennifer Garner running in heels than Dichen Lachman.

Echo’s self awareness took a huge leap forward and if I was feeling as grumpy as before I’d be taking that story development to task for its suddenness and inconsistency. Did last week’s reset have no effect on Echo at all?

To finish, a criticism: I understand that the conversation at the beginning between Echo and Boyd was important because Echo was talking about trust but since I was both fascinated and repelled by her outfit I have no recollection of anything she said. Maybe, in the future, important conversations could be conducted by people wearing cardigans.

Posted in Dollhouse, Television | 3 Comments »

I’m not your friend in here, Echo

Dollhouse – “Needs” (Tracy Bellomo)

This failed to engage me; it felt flat and unconvincing.

Echo’s closure was the only one that worked for me except I now can’t see that my theory that there is more to her than a freer of lab rats can have any weight any more.

I have gigantic reservations about Sierra’s storyline (let’s face it – who can’t not have reservations?) and I can’t see what closure she got. She meets the man who put her in the Dollhouse (and he’s even worse than you can imagine (I’d rather have the billionaire from “Man on the Street” with his shades of grey than this character’s (Billy from Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion) utter blackness)) and she stands there letting Victor do the work (not that I’m suggesting hitting him is adequate) and it’s only after she has shared a kiss with Victor that she falls asleep. So, what does that mean for her? The only thing I can thing of is that she has now stopped linking her rape by Hearn to Victor. Shit, Joss, what are you doing to Sierra?

If anyone in the Dollhouse knows how Sierra got into the Dollhouse then the moral ambiguity in the show now equals zero. Actually, Boyd’s words seem to indicate that he does know and he can still work there? I’m not happy.

Enver Gjokaj and Dichen Lachman continue to impress me with the strength of their performances and they have chemistry.

Miracle Laurie was asked to be even drippier than Mellie Mk I, and ye gods, what did they put her in? She looked like a Dust Bowl Okie. What would have been wrong with jeans and a t-shirt like the others? She is also very tall although I should have realised that knowing that she wasn’t dwarfed by Tahmoh.

November’s closure was a mystery to me. Presumably, before the Dollhouse she knew her daughter was dead so how does visiting her grave help at all? Yep, she’s still dead. Funny gravestone too with no surname and no dates.

Erm, Victor’s closure was sweet, he gets a kiss and can now relax.

Paul was once again practically redundant. It looks like this white knight might save the day by being passive: people keep sending messages to him after all. I called the dream sequence as soon as he opened the door to Echo. This is a Joss Whedon show after all. It was a bit tacky and shows that Paul is definitely a screw up. We need some background motivation for him real soon.

I hope that female handler got a bonus for being beaten up by Echo because somebody forgot to tell her it was an exercise.

Dollhouse makes no sense in many ways. It’s frustrating and the goodwill it regained after “True Believer” and “Man on the Street” is being eroded. The dolls have been reset so unless there is a twist involving Dr Saunders’ actions then episode 9 starts it all over again. Great.

I read yesterday via Whedonesque that Dollhouse may actually be renewed. The last five episodes have to trend towards fabulous or, I’m afraid, I will stop watching. Gulp.

It's hot in here

Posted in Dollhouse, Television | 5 Comments »

Being what? Sarcastic? Unfeeling? British?

Dollhouse – “Echoes”

Maybe it is too early for an effective “Band Candy” or a “Tabula Rasa” type episode but since the chances of a third or sixth season of Dollhouse are less than zero, I will take one now.

I’ll take anything that makes me adore Olivia Williams who was hilarious. She really made her role in this episode work.

I appreciated that Topher was only marginally different on drugs than his usual annoying, unbearable self. He managed to be unpleasant as he pulled at November’s head and shook it from side to side. He is not a likable young man.

I was initially disappointed that Caroline’s story was that she was an animal rights activist which didn’t strike me as all interesting. However, on reflection I feel that her being set up as a bit of a cliché student activist is going to be developed much further. Adelle does talk of two years playing “this dance” which suggests to me that their conversation isn’t straight after the break in.

Since the reactions to the drugs depended on whether the characters were normal or actives then a few characters have been ruled out as actives. The notable exception is Dr Saunders.

The main storyline put me in mind of superhero cartoon. I fully expected Batman to turn up. It was plainly ridiculous (a drug that acts through touch and wears off before the episode ends!) but I don’t care.

I didn’t even realise that Alice was dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl. The client Matt is a creep and one of the stipulations of hiring a doll should include “no video recording”…

Paul had even less to do than episodes 1-5 except to react to being dumped by his girlfriend. Their relationship has been soured for this viewer so perhaps it’s a good thing. It won’t be a good thing if it’s goodbye to Miracle Laurie which it might be since she isn’t a featured cast member. Boo.

The supporting cast was sterling as usual notably Reed Diamond as an apologetic Lawrence and Enver Gjokaj’s smart NSA agent.

This was by no means as good as last week’s (or least the second half of last week’s) but was better than 1-5. However, losing its must-see momentum was an error. Not surprisingly, I won’t be sad if Dollhouse isn’t renewed because it isn’t very good and I think Joss Whedon should be doing something (anything) else and with a better actress as his lead. Eliza is still okay but that might be okay if the series didn’t need an amazing, fantastic, awesome, convincing, marvellous actress and not an okay one.

After last week’s topless Paul we had topless Sam so it’s a positive relief that there is equal opportunity ogling allowed. Sierra’s white lab coat, short skirt and high heels get up was ridiculous. Who do we criticise? Mutant Enemy costumers or Topher and the unseen back room staff of the Dollhouse?

Posted in Dollhouse, Television | 2 Comments »

The many faces of Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt

These are all from the episode of Dollhouse called “Echoes”. You can’t call her wooden.

The original is on Flickr.

Posted in Dollhouse, Screencaps, Television | 3 Comments »

The season finale revealed!

Doll House Crowd Convicted, originally uploaded by moley75.

This is a poor screengrab of the final few seconds of Walk on the Wild Side (1962). The dollhouse in question is a brothel.

Posted in Dollhouse, Films, Screencaps, Television | 2 Comments »

I don’t think I’ve got any sugar left.

Dollhouse – “The Man on the Street” (Joss Whedon)

This is a series that I now want to watch rather than a series I am tolerating. How mad is that anyway? It’s like continuing to buy Stereolab or R.E.M. records long after you listened to any of them more than once.

So much happened in this and yet they managed to squeeze in far too much of Joel Mynor playing mind games and creepily justifying himself to Ballard. Oddly it was creepy Joel who actually hit home to me the utter wrongness of using the Dollhouse – using people for your gratification is immoral. The man is clearly not filling a void in his life if he has to repeat the event every year. I’m not sure how much we were supposed to sympathize with Mynor. The ending seemed to endorse his use of the Dollhouse to make himself feel better.

I loved Eliza Dushku’s performance. She is really getting into her groove or is being better directed but her multiple characters were well played (her squeaky “porn!” as Boyd leads her out of the house was very funny).

Thank goodness that I am warming to Olivia Williams as Adelle at last. She was splendid telling Boyd she needed to give him a bonus and telling Lawrence that she played a bad hand well.

The fight between Ballard and Echo was superbly choreographed but it is ridiculous to think that any woman of Echo’s stature (5’5”) could last twenty seconds against a man with the size, strength and skill of Ballard (6’2”) no matter how well programmed she is. His reach alone could hold her dangling helplessly from his outstretched arm. She ain’t no Slayer.

The tv documentary vox pops seemed pointless filler even though they were clearly important enough for Joss Whedon to write them and to name the episode after them but then Ronald D. Moore thought flashbacks were needed in the finale of BSG. JW and RDM make (generally) great tv shows and I don’t.

I could have done with less of Tahmoh Penikett’s hairless chest. Neither Eliza or Tahmoh being on display do anything for me but Miracle Laurie may be my new crush now that Katee Sackhoff is off to the other side.

Mellie underwent a drastic character change to start this episode as a believable human being. I do, however, feel a bit pissed off that she is a doll because I really liked her. She was warm, funny and real… I hadn’t really noticed how gorgeous she was until this episode and she played off well with Tahmoh (particularly in their post-coital conversation “I was thinking of Caroline.” “Well, I wasn’t!”) and I even liked him too. It truly was a great episode

I absolutely and totally knew that she wasn’t going to die. I didn’t know how she was going to stay alive (the activation of her killer instinct was cool but not a surprise – she was far too bland and stupid NOT to be a doll) but I knew that there was no way that she was going to another Jenny Calendar.

I wish somebody would wipe my mind of the first four episodes.

Posted in Dollhouse, Television | 1 Comment »

God didn’t make me see again so that I could just watch*

Dollhouse – “True Believer” (Tim Minear)

A delicate operation

This was my favourite episode so far although it was full of flaws. I may have relaxed a bit and accepted it for what it is.

The lack of a sexual element in relation to Echo really improved my reaction to the episode. I was quite nervous at first and I urged them to cut to the chase as Echo was accepted by the cult until I delightfully realised that the cult and its leader were actually okay – apart from the being religious nutters and the hitting women aspect. Echo may get hit in every episode (so it seems) but she always gets her own back (so that’s all right then…).

While I don’t really buy Topher’s pathetic inability to use medical/clinical terms the scenes between him and Dr Saunders were hilarious. Amy Acker’s delivery was perfection.

Why?

I’ll say again that Enver Gjokaj is really cute and that was before his awakening.

Tahmoh Penikett aimed for Nathan Fillion in his first scene with his fellow FBI officer but failed but still managed to be his most endearing so far. The scenes with Mellie were just stupid – a huge dish of something Italian is a daft thing to bring into someone’s workplace, her inability to get that the man in the corridor was a postie was insane and allowing her to hang around in the office was bonkers. As it stands Mellie seems simple rather than sweet and smitten so I just hope it is all going to be switcheroo’d on us very, very soon.

Adelle’s attitude to Echo is suspicious and Lawrence is right that she is a threat. It is a pity he is such a creep. I did enjoy Adelle telling him to take the stairs.

*I wish Eliza had delivered that line better.

Posted in Buffy Season 5, Dollhouse, Female thinking, Television | 1 Comment »

Eximete! Vis zenobia! Solvere!

Normal Again (Diego Gutierrez)

Quote of the season: “You’re addicted to the misery.”

I looked back at a review from season 5 and, while the episode wasn’t very good (it was “Spiral”), I wrote about it with affection. I don’t feel affectionate towards the mid to latter half of season 6, a fact which I am inclined to blame on my wavering attachment to Joss Whedon.

Whedon seems to bring out the critic in a lot of us. I think the weight of his self-proclaimed feminism and his desire to explore contentious issues is becoming too much for his work to bear. After all, I can happily watch series like Bionic Woman and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and not really care how contrived or inconsistent or stupid they are as long as they reasonably entertain me but I can’t do that with Whedon’s work because there is supposed to be more to it than mere entertainment.

For me, the problem with season 6 has been its sexual content and unpleasant plotting revolving around Warren. Sexual exploitation and manipulation is part of human life but I don’t want to watch it on TV. Which leads me to Dollhouse – I know the task that Whedon has set himself to do but do I want to watch how he is going about it?

I was initially reluctant to watch Mad Men because I thought that I didn’t want to watch a show about misogyny and racism but the show is of such high quality that although it portrays these things it does so in an interesting, mostly subtle and definitely thought provoking way. It’s not entirely light-handed but it is not ever a gratuitous show. I think my point is that Mad Men is well made but Dollhouse isn’t – yet.

Season 6 isn’t very good overall.

I have now tipped into that camp. Except for “Once More, With Feeling” and “Tabula Rasa”, the episodes have been a mixed bag that were too often unbearable particularly anything involving Spuffy and the Willow’s a junkie storyline and not just because they are difficult topics but also because the writing and the plotting were weak. It has been a struggle to get through this boxed set, and the competition for my time, namely Mad Men and Battlestar Galactica (and that has its weaknesses and inconsistencies but is often exciting and moving), has highlighted the weaknesses of latter day Buffy.

I also blame Anthony Head. Giles’ absence has been keenly felt and not just for the Scooby gang. His mature, adult presence stuck the show together (and ensured less screen time for other characters).

On to a few points about the episode itself:

I think it was brave to suggest that Buffy may still be in a mental institution with the final scene in the hospital. It can and is argued that this doesn’t necessarily mean she has always been there but it is borderline UNambiguous.

A line like “Eventually my parents just forgot” is really not enough to erase Joyce’s reaction to Buffy’s coming out all the way back in season 2. However, if it’s all in her head then anything can happen on 7 seasons of Buffy.

Anyway, I don’t really care one way or the other but I hadn’t realised until I read Sam’s comments on Mikejer’s site that there were people who hated season 6 for a third reason. Obviously, I know there are the kittens but there are also the folks who cannot bear the attempted rape in “Seeing Red” and the souled Spike storyline and now I know there are those to hate that Buffy may no longer be a superhero but a young woman making up fantasies in her head – they feel that Whedon let them down.

Tara has a bit of a cheek marching into the Summers’ home but she saves the day: a fact that I love a great deal. She earlier wears a spectacularly horrible top but that isn’t the last bad top she’ll wear.

There is some tremendous acting from Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kristine Sutherland in the scene where the latter tells Buffy that she will always be there for her. It brought tears to my eyes.

I know you’re afraid. I know the world feels like a hard place sometimes, but you’ve got people who love you. Your dad and I, we have all the faith in the world in you. We’ll always be with you.

I almost felt sorry for Xander as he explains how pathetic he is (“But then I left and ever since I’ve had this painful hole inside. And I’m the idiot that dug it out.”) – Nicholas Brendon is great here. I also like the scene when Spike tells Xander all about his relationship with Buffy and in typical Scooby fashion Xander doesn’t pay close enough attention.

Only two epsiodes to go.

Posted in Battlestar Galactica, Buffy Season 6, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Mad Men, Television | 12 Comments »