Dollhouse
by Alex
The price we have to pay for a new Joss Whedon show is, apparently, the gross hypersexualization of Eliza Dushku. I’m willing to live with this — Dollhouse is more than just another big-hearted, snarkily-written show where all the characters talk like Joss. The central technical conceit of the show — that you can wipe and replace people’s personalities — is also a wide open door to explore themes of world-bracketing and _mise en abyme_.
On the one hand, the show burrows down through multiple layers of reality anchored below the dollhouse — the various fantasy worlds the show uses to undress and imperil Dushku in each episode. This is a fantasy situation for the writers — the story arc of the Dollhouse reality can be interrupted in any episode by a one-off episode that can literally be about anything: its a situation drama without a situation. Or rather one which is a metasituation which can accommodate any number of stories inside itself.
Its also interesting to think about the character development that occurs between the Dollhouse reality and stata beneath it. The dolls and their support staff develop relationships in and through interactions in the lower reality. The friendship between Sierra and Echo thus develop half consciously (or not) (or consciously to a degree that the audience is not yet privy to) while they are other people.
On the other hand, you can’t give Joss a chair that erases your personality and not expect to see the technology ramify upwards. Honestly: Do you think Olivia Williams knows who she actually is? As the show looks for dramatic wallop it will surely give it to us by building narratives above the Dollhouse reality in which staff supposedly secure in their identities are revealed to be programmed pawns of bigger actors with darkly shrouded identities.
So despite the gross sexualization of Dushku the show has potential — there is always the possibility of the gross sexualization of Tahmoh Penikett and Dichen Lachman to look forward to, for instance. But seriously, despite my mixed feelings for the first couple of episodes, its clear that the world of Dollhouse is a big playground, and I look forward to seeing how Joss plays with it.
I am also willing to live with the hypersexualization of Eliza Dushku, but I’m glad to see your thoughts that the show is much, much more than that. There are a lot of big themes in this show. I really like exploring the concept of imprinting/replacing people’s personalities.
In a way, this reflects the larger theme that a lot of people are imprinted and have their personalities replaced. Soldiers, lawyers, professional athletes, etc. While they may start out consciously desiring a change, at what point do they lose control of the knowledge they gain and how their personalities are changed as a result of these new skills?
Are we all just actives as a result of society imprinting us in ways we have ALLOWED it to? Is this the only difference in the actives in Dollhouse vs. us in the real world? Anyways, didn’t mean to ramble. Basically, just wanted to say I enjoyed this post.