Friday Nights on FOX, 9pm EST.

Here's how wikipedia explains the premise of the show:

Eliza Dushku plays a young woman called Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls". The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments (referred to as engagements). The new persona is not an original creation, however, but an amalgam of different, existing personalities. The end result incorporates some of the flaws, not just the strengths, of the people used as templates. The Actives are then hired out for particular jobs – crimes, fantasies, and the occasional good deed. On engagements, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Beyond Dushku's character, the show also revolves around the people who run the mysterious "Dollhouse" and two other "Dolls", Sierra and Victor (played by Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj), who are friendly with Echo. The names of Actives are simply letters in the phonetic alphabet. Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal and under constant threat on one end from Paul Ballard, a determined federal agent who has heard a rumor about the Dolls, and an insane rogue Active on the other.



Three episodes have already aired and I'm already in love with the show and where it's heading. It's a Joss Whedon show, and he's got a great track record in terms of writing for tv (Buffy, Angel, Firefly), but also a terrible record with FOX (Firefly) which means there's already a sense of doom and gloom for fans of this new show. Hopefully it'll make it through the 13-episode run.

So yeah, is anyone else watching this besides me?

The pilot was a little weak (it wasn't initially going to even exist as a pilot...) but episode 2 and 3 have been great. The preview for the next episode looks awesome as well. If you're even slightly interested in the premise I'd give the show a chance.

I've been watching it. I think it's been dreadful so far but I'll watch a couple more. I think it's a really dumb idea for a show, the writing has been basic, procedural and humourless. Plus, Joss Whedon is a dumb dick.

I've seen all the episodes. I liked Firefly, didn't love it. It was OK in my opinion, not into the whole self contained episodes thing, prefer a continuous plot rather than little progressions. Loved Serenity though.

I'm getting the same vibe from Dollhouse that I get from Firefly. I love the little story progression stuff with the detective doing his thing, but I get bored from Eliza Dushku doing her thing, which often ends up incredibly cheesy. I already think the concept itself is crazy dumb, but I don't hate it. I like the show, but the shit she does every episode barely catches my attention.

Knowing Joss Whedon though, Dollhouse is going to pick up the pace... But I'll still be bored like I was with Firefly.

I've only seen the first episode, but it was pretty disappointing.  I'm one of those HOW THE HELL COULD THEY CANCEL FIREFLY people, but the premise of this one is so uninteresting.  

I haven't been all that excited even keeping up with the news before this show aired.  Maybe it's because I'm watching so many other shows that adding another one seems tedious.

this is one of hte worst shows on tv atm BUT

joss whedon did not start writing the script until ep 5.

Ok, I admit it, this show sucks. I was trying to find a reason to like it since I like Joss Whedon.

yeah we don't have any tv anymore so I was watching this

it's really bad and should be one of those Sunday afternoon shows like BEASTMASTER or Xena Hercules etc. and that Pamela Anderson spy show

although I was watching and it did have the best transition into a sex shot ever - I think it was something guy shoots arrow ---> two of them fall back onto bed

I dunno you had to be there it was just funny because it was so bad like not even the dirtiest innuendo I'd say bow and arrow is a pretty average sexual metaphor

They should've made this as an anime then they could sell the boxset for $399.95 at FYE along with a single of the opening song "Watashi no ai ga daisuki desu ne yo na" with karaoke version etc etc.

Yeah, if this was an anime it'd definitely be a hit. "Intelligent" anime like Death Note.

now that you mention it yea this sounds exactly like an anime

even the names for everything sound like something that should be in katakana and sound nothing like it's actually pronounced and have a perfectly serviceable word for it in the native language already but use the phonetic English version anyway

DOORUU

AKUTEEBU

Aahah yeah this is a plot to an anime.

Also is joss weadon the asshole who wrote that serenity movie I watched the other day? waste of fucken time

i watched some buffy and angel pretty recently too and yes they are not good shows for adults. they're okay, they aren't totally stupid and have some good episodes. buffy is good i guess in some episodes from season 2 and 3, with a couple stragglers in seasons 4 and 5 but apart from that it's more or less a really bad show i think. angel's good episodes are more evenly spread if i remember right, but i think season 2 of angel was as close as that show came to being good. there was still a lot of bad plots and IRONY MUCH? type of dialogue, but i can still enjoy some of the storylines in that year cos it's all very in the streets and stuff so it feels a bit more interesting.

firefly is funnier than buffy and angel but aside from that it's kind of the same deal.

like i said i think joss whedon is pretty dumb and the reason people go nuts for him is cos he works in sci-fi and fantasy and that's where the nutters live, also he really indulges in shipper relationship stuff which some people just gorge on in really embarassing ways. he also makes attempts at telling story arcs, sometimes, which i have always liked and it's why i enjoyed buffy and angel when i was younger. that used to be a bigger thing than it is now with even shithouses like lost and heroes being serials rather than standalone series.

he gets props for being a feminist writer or something which i've never seen because giving one woman in your tv show the special powers to kick vamps in the balls does not make it feminist at all? it seems the opposite to me, like this one SPECIAL GIRL can be strong cos she's got an excuse but all the others are just silly weaklings who throw plastic pots at danger and cry. especially when every other female character in all of your shows gets kidnapped/does a striptease/hunted/attempted raped or whatever in every single episode

if it was just the one show where joss made all the same missteps regarding feminism i could maybe buy that he can't represent every kind of woman in the one show since there are only so many characters but in what are now 4 shows he has done the exact same things and they are all either hollow or exploitative.


edit:

actually thinking a little more maybe it isn't an explicitly feminist problem i've got with the guy but just that he can't write characters for shit and keeps returning to the same dozen joss whedon originals. cos in all of his shows there is a STRONG LADY but only one of course, and then there are the weird damaged girls, the nerdy but genius in some regard women etc. but there are also these types for the males too - there's at least one xander in all of his shows (i don't think he realises this character stopped being remotely endearing about 3 seth cohens ago?), there's always a brooding handsome guy, there's the sage older man. and so on.

buffy and angel aren't conscidered legitimately good by anybody who is over 15 or has read... a book. They serve the nerd and teenage girl(angel, he's soooo handsome and mysterious and his name is... angel *anime swoon* how sweet and romantic) fandom and that's it. Luckily the general public seems to have forgotten they ever existed, and the world is a safe place that way. Just now they've been replaced by twilight...

buffy and angel are stupid as hell man.