In case you haven’t noticed, Dollhouse is tanking. It’s second season premiere didn’t perform well in the ratings, and last Friday’s episode did even worse — Stargate Universe kicked it in the cortex. Dollhouse is in very real danger of being canceled. Why isn’t it doing better? Where did Joss Whedon and company go wrong?
Perhaps that isn’t fair — the blame can’t be put on Whedon’s shoulders alone. There is Fox’s decision to leave Dollhouse on Friday nights, bereft of any real advertising support — a programming block of one. If Fox really wanted to give Dollhouse a chance, they’d have paired it with Bones or Fringe, and not after a pair of sitcoms (one of which stars Michael Strahan) that no one is watching. Stargate Universe did well because Syfy Channel has been pushing it relentlessly, hammering it into their audience that something new is coming down the pike.
But the thing you can level at the Dollhouse writers and producers is the middling way the show came out of the gate. Whedon has always been great at ending TV seasons — Buffy and Angel have tons of memorable season finales, and Dollhouse’s S1 ultimatum was terrific — but not so great at starting them. Listen, I’m all for Joss taking his time to build his universe and layer his stories with emotional substance topped with an action frosting. But anyone looking objectively at the Dollhouse situation for the season would have to see that the show has its back against the wall. It’s the fourth quarter and Team Dollhouse is down by a whole mess of points — it’s not the time to do slow burn undercovery episodes. Dollhouse needed to score, early and often, and it didn’t.
Is it too late? I fear that it might be. Whedon and company are telling the stories they want to tell — and unless those stories suddenly bring the whup-ass in the next couple of weeks, they might not get to tell them for much longer. The saddest part of it is that I desperately want Whedon and Dollhouse to succeed — I want smart genre content to work on broadcast television, so that networks will continue to take risks on programming that doesn’t have a host. I just hope that it gets the chance.
How do you feel — is this a call to action or a eulogy? Can Dollhouse be saved? If so, how?
Image Credit: Carin Baer/Fox
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Actually I didn’t know how it was doing… you guys never post Friday ratings…
The issue was that it came out of the gate with several weak episodes that focused more on the story of the week and less on the characters and the mythology of the show. By the time it got to the good episodes, it had lost a lot of the people who first tried it out. The crazy thing is that it continues to make that same mistake: while the 2nd season premiere was fantastic, the second episode was again mostly back to the story of the week format. Yes it set up a major twist, but it could have been done better. However, the show is and has been good enough to do well. The real problem is the horrible time-slot, the lack of a good lead in and lead out, and most importantly, zero promotion. I am a fan of the show and I wasn’t sure when it was going to premiere until the week of. That isn’t good. The fact that you can’t watch the first season on HULU is also an issue. People should be able to try out the show. That’s how you build audiences.
Agreed. They need to get back to what worked in the first season which was the mystery of the Dollhouse and the ensemble – not just Echo. The Topher/Claire and Claire/Boyd scenes have been awesome. Get back to what worked and leave the story of the week in the dust.
Very well said
Anne has it exactly right. The show has been wildly inconsistent from a quality standpoint, so I’m not shocked that the ratings continue sinking.
Perfect, Anne. And I think Whedon’s strength has always been his story arcs. Even episodes of Buffy that had a “stand alone” feel usually served a purpose within the overarching story. Dollhouse was on a roll at the end of Season 1, but Season 2 has not been keeping my attention. It’s…boring. I wish they would focus more on the other actives and explore a story arc. Seriously, Whedon should know better than this. What’s wrong with him?
I think Friday’s ep was too reminiscent of the stand-alone eps of early S1. This show needs some big developments in its long-term story arcs if it’s going to make it. Personally, I’m rooting for it.
I personnally can’t stand Eliza Dushku. Might be just because of Faith. Anyway, won’t watch the show because of that, and, let’s be honest, this isn’t the first Whedon-Dushku show to fail. I might not be alone in this.
what show are you talking about????
Was thinking of Tru Calling, then googled it and realised it wasn’t a Whedon show. Sorry. My dislike of her still stands, though!
Eliza Dushku is the reason I don’t like the show. She can’t act her way out of a wet paper bag with scissors in her hand… Echo is supposedly supposed to be able to be anything, but is convincing as nothing. Unfortuantely, Dushku’s a producer, so Echo’s not going anywhere any time soon.
I’m one of the viewers that tuned in the S1 premeire and followed it for the first few episodes and gave up on in. I couldn’t stand the “adventure of the week” style (I’m a huge “Lost” and BSG fan if that’s any indication of my taste). I’ve been trying to ge caught up on S1 via DVD, but it’s having difficulty keeping my interest. I’ve got the first two eps of S2 on my DVR, but if the show’s just going to get cancelled, no sense in following another show that Fox will end prematurely. Besides, “V” is coming really soon!!!
It’d help if the writing of the show’s pitiful writing wasn’t filled with plot contrivances, there being literally nothing to the characters.
Eliza and most of the cast not named Ballard are great. it’s the writing that stinks.
Seriously:-
1. Why would you not hire a nanny.
2. Why would people in your life not notice a new woman turning up and suddenly declaring herself the mother of your son?
3. And that’s without going into the gaping holes in the concept of the show in general.
Whedon doesn’t help anyone’s suspension of disbelief with his sloppy writing. The cast are having to do double-duty with his poor planning.
Add a sluggish pace and contrast the season premiere to others, and it’s clear the fault is with the writers and not the performers.
But Whedon wrote Buffy and Firefly, he can do no wrong, right?
Sigh.
I’m a huge fan of Joss and even of the show but I have to agree with you…Eliza’s the weak link and the fact I don’t care about her character at all is really stopping me from totally investing in the show (as I’ve always done with Whedon’s other work).
Each week, I’m far more interested in the supporting characters and actually find myself getting annoyed when it switches back to the main plot with Echo – it’s the only part of the show I don’t care about at all.
Sadly – I don’t see that changing (as Matt pointed out, she’s a producer), which is a real shame since the supporting cast is chock full of amazing talent (any one of whom could carry their own show, imho).
I agree. Something about Eliza urks the heck out of me. Probably the fact that I think she can’t act to save her life. And I feel this show has no continuity and the writing is subpar.
Cancellation talk makes me sad
Well, I think ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Firefly’ share one big problem – Fox wanted so many changes to the original vision for both series, then the network gave both series poor advertising and airing.
A shame they kept this over Terminator…the Terminator season finale was pretty good and left open a ton of story lines.
I agree, I’d stuck with “Terminator” even though I was too terribly fond of it. It got cancelled just as it was FINALLY getting interesting.
Totally agree with Matt!
I also agree with Matt and JC. Perhaps we can start a movement to revive Terminator… The finale left me anxious to see what happens next.
Agreed. Terminator was the better show. Dollhouse has become the Echo show, instead of being well-rounded. I gasped when they brought Mellie back, and the Alpha story seems to have been forgotten.
Let’s not forget that ‘Sarah Connor’ was also miles ahead in quality over that awful ‘Terminator Salvation’ movie to boot!
I loved T:SCC as well. The problem was that it had even worse ratings and it got even worse network support. Fox didn’t choose Dollhouse over Terminator. Terminator died for a lot of the same reasons Dollhouse will. A string of slow episodes in an already shaky genre demographic.
I agree! They should have kept Terminator and canceled Dollhouse.
A shame 18 of its S2 eps stunk and never went anywhere. If anything a slower show than Dollhouse, and one with a far worse cast.
I so agree. I though Dollhouse was weak and I loved Terminator and I was really hoping FOX would have pick that one instead of the train wreck we are left with. I am going to take this show off my DVR because I really not interested in it anymore. Also putting it behind two sitcoms no buddies is watching really hurts the show.
Where it wrong is that it’s not that good of a show. Dollhouse has two primary problems as far as I can tell; 1.) Eliza is not a strong enough actor to play a character who gets as much screen time as Echo does. Echo also annoys/bores a lot of people, 2.) The show is far less creepy/disturbing than the concept suggests it should be. The writing of most of the one-shot stories is pretty bad (despite the occasionally fun dialogue). The people I know who still watch this thing do so because of one of the underused supporting characters and if they have anything nice to say about Echo it’s that ’she was less annoying this episode’. There seems to be a limited number of sci-fi shows that air at any one time, I hope Dollhouse gets canceled as soon as possible to give another show a chance.
I really do agree with a lot of your points – Echo is boring and Eliza is not a strong enough actor to carry the role. And one thing that has annoyed me from the very beginning is the fact that these people chose to give up their lives for a contracted amount of time. I mean they must be aware of what they would be getting themselves into. If I was to give up my life for five years, I would take the time to ask questions and figure out what is the catch!
But on the other hand, I really love Joss Whedon and I really do not want to give up on him!!! I feel like this show does have potential – there are some really good aspects. Unfortunately they are the never ‘ahha’ moments of Buffy, Angel, or Firefly (I am not comparing the shows with each other or Dollhouse – but in each of those series there were episodes that were like OMFG that was brilliant!! And you are right we should give up that time slot to another, better show, but that would mean no more Joss Whedon… Which I am not sure I want either.
Dushku’s acting ability aside, I think the series wsa doomed when they decided to make a “doll” the star of the series. How did they expect any viewiers to get attached to a lead character who gets their personality wiped every week? There is no real character development. Why should we care what happens to Echo when we don’t even know who she is? The thing that made Quantum Leap interesting (same premise kinda), was the interaction between Sam and Al. Imagine if Sam had forgotten who Al was after each leap, a la Echo and her handler. I still think Dollhouse had a good premise, but the fatal mistake was making the lead character a doll. Echo is no more interesting than Victor or Sierra and not nearly as interesting as any of the other supporting roles. If they were going to base it on a doll, it should have been Whiskey. At least she had the same personality for more than one episiode.
I agree with the “slow start” problem Joss has, but I really think the blame lies — once again (*coughFIREFLYcough*) with friggin’ FOX. Why do they agree to pick up shows like this if they then (i) refuse to support them with advertising dollars or pair them with other shows in a way that MAKES SENSE; and (ii) put them on FRIDAY NIGHT, when the only people watching TV are the kind of folks who want to see J. Lo. Hew and Patricia Arquette talk to ghosts???? In short: FRIGGIN’ FOX.
While I would love to blame Fox, there was huge promotion before and as the first season started airing. Dushku was everywhere. Unfortunately, I think the slow burn of the writing lost interest of most but the hardcore Whedon-ites. The end of S1 gave me hope, and I willl stick with it. Plus, I love Dushku – I don’t understand the haters.
Love Joss, love Eliza – problem is: the show isn’t good. It didn’t start strong and though I stuck with it to the bitter end of S1, it didn’t end strong. It was mediocre from start to finish. And there are three new shows this season that are far superior that I’d rather spend my time watching/catching up on on a Friday night (Glee, Vampire Diaries and FlashForward). So I wasn’t even the slightest bit tempted to return to the Dollhouse. And that’s sad.
They should have played the unaired episode from season 1 as the season 2 premiere. It’s the only reason I’m still watching, so I imagine there are people that didn’t download it or buy the DVD and have completely lost interest.
Listen if “Dollhouse” didn’t say Joss Whedon on it, it would have been cancelled already. Don’t kid yourself, people’s faith in Whedon’s ability to deliver a great show is the only reason this show is even on the air right now. I know that’s what it is for me. Is there a single person on this thread that wasn’t a fan of “Buffy” or “Firefly” before the show aired?
So accurate, and yes I’m a Buffy fan. If this wasn’t apart of the Whedonverse no one would be mentioning this show. I agree w/Marc that we want to support “smart genre content to work on broadcast television,” but if we’re really being honest here we can all agree that Dollhouse ain’t it. I haven’t watched my last recording of this show and based on the consensus I’m in no rush to do so. Dollhouse has displayed fleeting moments of greatness, but those moments are few and far between. I don’t want this to be another Heroes, where people watch hoping that to catch one of those rare redeeming eps.
I haven’t seen ONE episode of Buffy or Firelfy….and I’m in LOVE with Dollhouse (more of Mellie and less of Echo though please). Maybe I should start watching sonme Buffy! I just can’t stand Sarah Michelle gellar
If you’ve been able to deal w/Eliza Dushku’s leading lady skills then you will find SMG to be a breath of fresh air, believe me. But you’d be doing yourself a favor by checking out some of the better Whedon projects.
Firefly and Buffy are legendary. I went into Buffy thinking I couldn’t stand SMG too, but the show is sooo much more than that. I agree that Dollhouse has not reached even a quarter of the awesomeness these shows achieved.
I find Eliza Dushku far more interesting than Sarah Gellar. I have no issue with her being the lead role. Sarah was fine too but she’s a bit of a snob. Why was she never in the special features of BTVS?
Olivia Williams needs to strengthen her character. I like the idea of her role as sale woman and head honcho, but she needs to be more aggressive.
I want more side stories and less of Echo, unless it’s interesting idea like the 2.03 episode or more character development.
I don’t know what FOX expected. They put the show in the Friday night death slot and hardly promoted it at all. They didn’t have any faith in the show and I feel that the only reason they renewed it was to appease Joss Whedon’s fans after treating “Firefly” so poorly. The other problem is that the first two episodes of “Dollhouse” were so underwhelming. I expected better, especially with such great guest stars and talented writers. If the show is canceled, it’ll be a real bummer for two reasons. First, we’ll never get to see all of the terrific guest stars we were promised in Season 2 and second, “Terminator” could’ve been renewed instead. It was ten times better than “Dollhouse” and after that terrific finale, I’m certain Season 3 would’ve been outstanding.
Dollhouse is cr*p, the casting is terrible with E. Duskhu, I cannot stand her stupid face, she cannot act. Check the pics, always the same stupid look on her face. The story is lame and the characters are boring. No wonder its tanking.
And you of course are in high demand as a male model right?
Main reason? Eliza Dushku
Joss should find a way to close out her character’s role in the show (kill her off just as she finally returns to her former self), and then build up the show around the other characters (or introduce a new doll who can act).
But with Dushku as the lead, the show was D.O.A.
Heh. And watch the viewership completely fall apart, cause she and not Whedon are the show’s major draw.
No-one’s asking any of the other cast to be on magazine covers.
What magazines want Dushku on their covers?
The Whedon hard-core love to blame Peter Liguori at Fox for the bad episodes at the beginning of last season. Who do they blame this year? Liguori wasn’t within a mile of the place when crazy-mama was done.
Actually I take that back, the story could float, its just Eliza in the main role makes me so angry that it makes the story and everything bad. She is just the worst choice for this role
I really wanted to like “Dollhouse” but it just didn’t work for me. The main reason I don’t like the show is Eliza Dushku. I think she’s a terrible actress and I just don’t want to watch her on screen every week. I tried to give the show another shot this season, but couldn’t get past the first episode.
I’m a HUGE Whedon fan. An even bigger Buffy, Angel and Firefly fan – but let’s call a spade a spade: Dollhouse really is making the same mistakes twice! The end of Season 1 was SO GOOD and now it’s getting lost again. neither of the 2 new eps were that good…meh. I’ll watch it and be loyal til cancellation because that’s what us Browncoats do, no matter what Whedon work is at hand.
Let’s face it, Dollhouse is the fourth best show that Whedon has created. I like it, but far less than Buffy, Firefly or Angel.
I think Bernardin’s take is mostly correct, they just need to start getting into it faster. Plus, scores of characters are barely visible now. I think the plotlines being laid down for Whiskey and November are really intriguing, but are those actresses even going to continue to be part of the show?
Diving deeper in Dharma, I mean Rossum, has potential too. Hope they have the time to get into it.
It’s far better than the unorignal, derative rip-off of Blake’s 7. And Fillion and Glau are close to Penkitt in inability to act.
Yeah sure, Summer Glau can’t act, that’s the reason she always end being the most beloved character in every show she appears.
Dollhouse needs characters who are intriguing and who kind of enjoy their jobs. It’s like the characters in Firefly- they may have been ornery, but they loved shooting and robbing. Even though they annoyed each other, they also enjoyed each other’s company. OPn Dollhouse, none of these characters ever get excited about anything, even the people who aren’t Actives. Plus I could do with less of Topher. I know he’s supposed to be comic relief, but maybe that means he should actually be funny. How about we get Alpha to kill him and have a doll implanted with his knowledge but not with his personality.
This
Personally I think we all *get* what the Dollhouse is and I wish they’d jump ahead in the timeline to where Epitaph 1’s scenario starts to unfold. I also find the character interactions inside the Dollhouse to be interesting and would like to see more of that developed. I feel like S2E1 and S2E2 were totally disconnected and a lot of stuff was introduced in the first that they didn’t follow through with in the second. Hopefully this will get worked out.
I love the show and Eliza and I really want it to succeed. I think it has so much potential and I wish Fox would get it off of Friday nights.
I like the show. I think most typical TV viewers are morons and this is the reason such a smart show is having ratings trouble.
It doesn’t have to be good to have viewers…but in this case it IS good and doesn’t have viewers. If all they want are ratings, they could dumb-down the show and start spoon-feeding the audience but what fun is that?
Please don’t assume that just because people have different opionions about a show’s quality than you that they are morons.
I have liked pretty much all of Whedon’s other work, BSG, Lost, etc … and this show is losing me and many others because it is simply not up to par.
I am a HUGE fan of Whedon’s previous work (Buffy especially), but I couldn’t get into this show. The show is about a very dark subject, but it wasn’t dramatic enough, or didn’t utilize its subject to tell enough compelling stories. The whole show felt very general, which may have been the fault of network execs. One of Joss Whedon’s greatest strengths is his sense of humor, and there was very little of it in the first few episodes that I saw.
A huge problem though is Eliza Dushku, who is a very charismatic actress, but not a very skilled one. This role requires more than she can give, at least on a weekly basis.
I sort of hope it gets canceled so the Dr. Horrible sequel will come out sooner…
Oh yes! You’re last comment… Yeah losing Dollhouse and Enver would be worth getting the Dr. Horrible sequel quicker! >< I'm so fickle. Heh…
I wish it was easier to get from where we are in the show now to where the show was with the unaired episode. My problem is there’s too much to watch and too little time. I prefer to check out flash forward and SGU before DH. Heroes was 4th on that list and now I’m done with it completely. There’s also BBC Merlin S2 I haven’t started watching and I’ve discovered Mad Men. I like Whedon a lot but there were just too many brothel episodes. I’m DVRing and will watch DH eventually, if it’s still around, but I’m swamped. Oh, Dexter is back too. Whew!
I agree with most of what the previous posters have said, especially in regards to the supporting cast who are not nearly used enough. I love the show because of everyone who isn’t Echo – I know that’s a dumb thing to say about it, but if the show could stick to stories that shared the focus across the board rather than on Echo, yeah I would enjoy it more. I loved Epitaph One and the relationship between Sierra and Victor (Enver is awesome!). That is why I’m still watching.
It was lucky to get a second season. It should have been cancelled due to the ratings it was getting. So the fact it’s still suffering and is going downhill is not surprising. I tried watching last season but got lost and tuned out after several episodes and I am not even going to try this year. Interesting concept but also iffy constructed also… It needed to really grab you and it didn’t… Being on Friday doesn’t matter. If it’s good and interesting; people will watch…even on Friday.
I’d have to agree with most posters–Eliza is not a good lead for this show. The other supporting actors are so much stronger (Dichen, Acker–did you see her nuances in the premiere?) Also, Topher is not as funny as the writers think he is. Zander and Wash–now those guys were funny and endearing. Topher is grating and somehow smarmy.
Oh, and it doesn’t help me that the two biggest actors, Eliza and Tahmoh, also seem to me to be the worst (though to be kind I’d say both chars are my least favorite as written so maybe it’s not completely their fault). Without the excellent supporting cast I’d already be gone. Oh yeah, watching Supernatural (starting at season 1) for the first time too.
Tammoh is terrible. And always has been.
Eliza’s great when given decent material (see some of her film roles).
Shame the writers are idiots.
You’re right about the supporting cast being very good (Fran and Dichen aside). It’s a shame Lennix seems to have been forgotten, he’s the show’s finest performer.