Dollhouse: Probably DOA
Dollhouse: Probably DOA
Nov 06Herc over at Ain’t It Cool has what can only be called the pre-mortem post-mortem on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, which has already been doomed to certain failure by a Friday night time slot, the same night where Firefly rotted and died a quick death.
X-Files was the first thing I thought of too, and Herc has the date–1993. Do the shitholes at Fox seriously think they can turn Friday into some kind of sci-fi night again in the tradition of a move they made fifteen years ago? A move that has meaning only to about twenty people, most of which work for Fox? It’s not like when NBC owned sitcoms on Thursday; no one reminisces about “Must-See Friday” over on Fox when Mulder and Scully ruled the roost.
I can’t honestly believe that Fox wants Dollhouse to fail; I just don’t think they give a shit either way. What they probably hope for is another Firefly–drop a little cash on a token first half-season, sell a shitload of DVDs, make a cheap feature film that will probably make its money back and maybe a little profit, sell some comic books and toys and T-shirts to the nerds.
Joss, meet cable.
Cable, meet Joss.
I’m starting to wonder if Dollhouse is just not very good. I look at Fringe, a similar geek pedigree (though it’s creator has had a lot more TV success) and I can tell that Fox can produce and market a new geek show, so if they can do it, there has to be a reason why they’re not doing it for Dollhouse. I don’t believe that they are specifically trying to screw over Whedon, so that leaves me to believe that they don’t have faith in Dollhouse. And that leaves me to believe the show might not be very good.
Caroline: Why isn’t Joss being paid buckets of money by Sci-Fi, or TNT, or (even better) Showtime to do what he does? Does seem a better fit.
Jason: I’ve had the same thoughts too. I think Joss is very capable of creating accessible, thrilling, smart, emotional genre TV; I wish he’d do it more often. I think sometimes he gets a little lost in the worlds he creates.
I’m with Caroline (and Matt)…cable. Joss could do a kick ass 10-13 episode run on HBO, Showtime, or even the cable nets.
His stories would be without filters, fillers, or network frills; his actors wouldn’t be strapped to the characters year-round; he could take a year between seasons and rev up the creative juices.