This post is for Joss Whedon fans, non-fans of Dollhouse, and those still on the fence about tuning in.
Early episodes of Dollhouse led the series to receive poor reviews. The series received a 57/100 rating on Metacritic.com, a Web site that aggregates reviews from all the major TV review media (in comparison, the first season of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles received a 74/100 for its first season). A 57/100, which is considered "mixed or average reviews" on the site, is disturbingly low for cult-fave Joss Whedon. Whedon is the Dollhouse creator, and up to this point had yet to release a poorly received (and for that matter, highly viewed except for early seasons of Buffy) TV series. Click for an example of a particularly scathing review.
But the true barometer of Dollhouse's success as a series is from Joss Whedon fans. Unfortunately, this too has seen below-average assessments, and even some truly scathing critiques of the series. A penny arcade Web comic that portrays fans of Whedon and Dollhouse as some sort of emperor-with-no-clothes scenario sent waves across the Whedon fanbase at Television Without Pity.com.
I adore Dollhouse - now. But around the time of the series backlash, it is difficult to disagree with these assessments. But I am truly bothered and disappointed by the lack of beneficence from the Whedon fanbase and particularly fringe Whedon fans who only dabble in his work (and thus making it easier to criticize). These are fans that may be very familiar with the praise over Whedon's work. I can specifically point out a large part of this segment who know of the fervor surrounding Firefly and its fiercely loyal following. I have met many of these guys and gals who have bought the Firefly DVDs and Serenity and raved and raved about Whedon and his work, without really seeing any of Angel or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These viewers are usually general science fiction or comic book fans who follow trends in the media, buy TV shows on DVD, and write or talk about their favorite sci-fi shows on a regular basis. You likely know one of these people, be it a coworker, classmate, or annoying sibling. I know a lot about this population - I am proudly a member of it.
But it's these science fictions fans that I have a beef with. I will list my reasons why.
- First, these viewers tend to judge quickly and harshly with works of media. I will refer to a recent genius episode of CSI (of all sources) that pretty accurately depicts how quickly this cult-fandom turns on new science fiction works. The episode is a satire on the situation with the remade Battlestar Galactica in 2003, where creator Ron Moore previewed the series and riots practically ensued because the new show was so drastically different than the original work. I don't know what it is about this population, but they find it very, very easy to rip apart entertainment media and use ad hominens freely. Blame it on the interpersonal disconnect between telling someone off to their face or telling someone off online, or an assortment of other reasons - the bottom line is that this group is passionate, fierce, and when they disagree with something, malicious.
- This is what I am most upset about. Many Dollhouse critics, who are likely well aware of the Fox meddling with Firefly, have selective amnesia when being aware of the same meddling occurring with Dollhouse. This leads me to conclude that a lot of the backlash against Dollhouse is for other reasons than genuinely dislike the show - wanting to see a sacred cow skewered, dealing with the fact that they did not jump on the Whedon train from the beginning, and enjoying writing harsh attacks on entertainment media. To quickly summarize the Fox meddling with Dollhouse, they were in involved with major creative decisions for the first five episodes of the series, made Whedon reshoot the pilot, and is likely the reason why Eliza Dusku is scantily clad in at least one scene an episode (dominatrix, anyone?). This is highly familiar with Firefly, except less on the creative decision-making part, and more on showing episodes wildly out of order. Let's look at the "pilot" episode for Firefly, or the one that aired first, "Train Job." In my opinion - and many critics share the same view when it was first came out - the episode was sloppy, poorly written (except for that one hilarious scene involving a jet engine), and not a good start for the series. The actual pilot, which was ironically the last episode that aired on Fox, was a fantastic introduction to the series that was witty, well-written, well-acted, and all around brilliant. This is likely because Whedon had more than three days to write it, which, according to the Firefly DVDs, is about how much time Fox gave him to write Train Job. Whedon had more than a few days to write the pilot episode of Dollhouse, Ghost, but Fox had a major part in creative decisions of the episode. For instance, the first (and one of my least favorite) scenes of Ghost where we meet the real person behind Echo, was never supposed to be there.
- Last, none of this would matter if the episodes starting right after Fox's involvement were not markedly different than the episodes where Fox was running the shots. Starting with Man on the Street, the sixth episode, viewers were treated with a different kind of TV series: a Joss Whedon one. Character development, interesting relationships between characters, and that trademark Whedon twisty wordplay finally appeared. This episode also marks the moment where the show's mythology opened up wide: It was revealed that the series is not about pimping out people for situations-of-the-week, there was a much deeper conspiracy happening. It is my conclusion that because of the huge difference between episodes where Fox was calling the shots and Fox was not calling the shots, the early episodes were received so poorly because they were Fox episodes, not Joss Whedon episodes.
So, please, I beg of you, if you gave up on Dollhouse after one episode or two, please think about the context of why those episodes were the way they were and understand that future episodes are much, much different. Also, please view all of a body of work before you assess it completely. And, thanks to Fox, we won't even be getting to see all of Dollhouse.
