Dollhouse
I’m a self-confessed Whedonite. I draw the line at dressing up as a browncoat, or carrying a stake with me, but I think the man is the best thing to happen to genre TV since Roddenberry said: Hey – wouldn’t it be a great idea to do a space series. His latest project – for those of you not paying attention at the back – is Dollhouse.
The Dollhouse of the title is a corporation who hires out people for specific jobs. A bit like Office Angels but with a better hourly rate. The ‘temps’ in this case are the dolls - five men and women who have had their personalities erased (all similarities to Eamonn Holmes is entirely coincidental). When a client needs a doll for a specific task, the Dollhouse team implant an appropriate personality, along with the memories and skills needed to complete the job – be it corporate espionage, hostage negotiation, or plain old rumpy pumpy.
In the series pilot, we meet Echo (the trouser-tightening Eliza Dushku) - she has agreed to work for the Dollhouse for 5 years in return for which the corporation has agreed to help her escape from some undisclosed transgression from her past. As dolls, Echo and her ‘colleagues’ have but a simple personality imprinted – enough to allow them to walk, talk and interact with the doctors and technicians at the facility, but little more.
Echo has been implanted with the memories and abilities of a top-rate negotiator, in order to secure the release of a client’s kidnapped daughter. During a fragile negotiation process, Echo remembers snippets of her treatment at the Dollhouse facility – something that should not happen – and the transfer of the kidnappee is compromised (and the client is shot in the process).
In the pilot we get to see Dushku in a shower, Dushku in black leather on a motorbike and Dushku as a sexy secretary type, complete with glasses – something for everyone. You’d almost get the impression that the producers weren’t sure people would tune in to the show, so decided to throw everything into the pot. However, we also get to see her act, and at no point do we see Dushku the vampire slayer – no high kicks, no back flips, no smart quips; and of course, with this particular format we should get to see her play a different character every week.
It’s not a perfect pilot, but there’s enough here to make you want to come back next week. In that respect, it’s done its job.
Also starring: Olivia Williams, BSG’s Tamoh Penikett, and Angel’s Amy Acker. If the show is a success, you’ll also start to recognise some of the other names, particularly Fran Kranz, who excels as techie Topher Brink.
