Vows

Joss probably didn’t intend for the name of the Dollhouse season opener to be some oblique reference to the upcoming kol nidre holiday, but regardless episode one had a strong sense of teshuvah to it as the show returned to where we left the season finale, wrapping up plot points and unleashing new ones for the new year. I watched Dollhouse and Flash Forward back to back on teh Tivo and the difference was striking — one a superbly executed but extremely derivative corporate project (start with sudden crash, include random uncannily placed animal — there was even an Oceanic Airlines billboard!) while Dollhouse is a resolutely original project that struggles to deliver on its promise. Some of the wrapping up on Dollhouse was disappointingly pragmatic: Amy Acker drove off to her other show, while Enver Gjokaj was on screen just long enough to explain why the makeup crew wouldn’t have to be reapplying the Alpha Scars for the rest of the season (as well as to telegraph future DeWitt intrigues). Dichen Lachlan was on for what appeared to be purely contractual reasons.

There were moments of sparkling dialogue — mostly of the DeWitt Vs. Guys In Suits variety — but I for one miss the days when in the course of 90 seconds Joss could simultaneously give David Boreanaz a cameo on the last episode of Buffy, explain why he wasn’t going to be on for longer than that, and tie up stuff with Buffy in a realistic way but non-subplot starting way. The scene where Bamber is convinced Dushka is spy and she explains away her attempting to break into his desk as a sign of her enthusiasm to find out where their honeymoon will be was very nicely written but man did the Topher/Saunders scene not do the work it was supposed to dramatically, although it did give me a very good sense of what the writers were striving for.

Meanwhile, we did get to see Apollo and Wesley again which is welcome and I look forward to seeing how they get incorporated into the show as Joss moves towards sukkot, and I’m hoping we’ll get to see Alan Tudyk before simchah torah. We’ll see — overall I’m guardedly optimistic that Joss will make good on the ‘do-over’ that Fox has handed him.