Watching Orphan Black first spoiled Dollhouse for me. Eliza Dushku doesn't make a bad job of portraying lots of different people in one body and getting you to root for all of them, but there was no hope of her doing a better job of it than Tatiana Maslany. She is the gold standard and everyone else just falls a bit short. In fact, I think Enver Gjokaj as Victor did a better job than Dushku - his portrayal of Victor as Topher was rather good.Dollhouse wasn't bad. There are some bits of humour, mostly from Fran Kranz as Topher and the Victor/Sierra romance was charming in a somewhat thought provoking way - of people that fall in love regardless of who they ostensibly are. There are some shock reveals - exciting! But most of these aren't examined in any great depth. Some of the missions seemed a little contradictory - where did the academic who wanted a pupil to fall for him get the money from? And unfortunately, the most interesting parts of the story were mere cameos - the consequences of the technology condensed, for the most part, into a mere two episodes, one per season. And Bennett Halverson, who had the potential to be a really interesting character, barely featured in just five episodes.Dollhouse had the potential to be great, but it needed MORE. More insight. More looking at difficult questions. More consequences. Sturdier characterisation. More more and more.

Although some will justifiably argue that there are issues with certain elements or individual episodes of the show, Dollhouse in its entirety is groundbreaking science fiction. When a good science fiction writer introduces some futuristic or alternate reality, they ground that fantastical world or technology in human behavior, and ask the question, "what would people do if this was actually a thing?" The measure of how much I enjoy that fiction often relies on how far they go into answering that question, how detailed they get in examining the realistic consequences of an unrealistic invention.Joss Whedon and his cohorts delve into the nitty-gritty of the premise: what if we had technology that allowed us to take over the human mind and implant whatever trait, idea, or entire personality we wanted into it? How would we use this technology near the moment of conception, how would it evolve, and how would it eventually affect civilization? What I am most impressed by in this show is the number of things it addressed that I never even thought of, but that made absolute perfect sense.If you've watched many other Whedon series, you probably know that the very beginnings can seem promising, but lackluster. If you're a fan of any of these series, you also know that rewatching the beginning at some point after completing the series is a delight, because the real good of the show is in the character development, the complex metaphors, and the philosophical questions that you just can't get right off the bat. It was all there from the start, but you aren't being led by the hand to these things, so rewatches are often just as, if not more enjoyable than the first watch-through. Dollhouse is no different. The questions of morality that this show poses are innumerable, and, like with many Whedon creations, the related themes - the importance of choice, what it means to be human, identity, sacrifice, the nature of evil, what causes us to behave ethically - make for some deeply moving television.

Okay I am a fan of Joss Whedon. I think some of his television work from the mid 90's to 2005 is some of the best that science fiction and fantasy shows have to offer. So I think that when he was at the top of his game he decided to experiment a bit with Dr Horrible, which I thought within the realms of comedy superhero stuff could have been better but I'll give credit that it was entertaining. Then there's this, a failed experiment and throughout this review I will treat it as such.Okay, so the premise is about a secret organization that gets people to voluntarily have their minds wiped and then they get new lives in order to help some rich guy (it changes every episode) with something whether it's helping to get their kidnapped daughter, saving the life of a pop star or something else entirely. While this is going on an FBI Agent or cop is trying to expose the Dollhouse.Now with an idea like this I think the best route to take it would be to make it a show like Real Humans and have the focus be these different plot-lines so they can ask questions focusing on "Okay, what would happen if hypothetically this situation existed?" That would be so much more entertaining to watch. Anything resembling that in this show is only SLIGHTLY dwelled upon. I mean slightly watching the after-effects of a personality bleeding into the blank slate is probably the best you're going to get and with something like this I can just see so much more being done with this idea.With every Joss Whedon show I have seen usually something has connected me to it in the past if it's the characters or the story. Here there's nothing and I mean NOTHING that connects me to it. If the handlers of Dolls or the scientists had more of a personality then I might have been connected but most of the leading characters in the episodes we have never seen before and the Dolls are literally blank slates until they are imprinted with new personalities. I mean Joss Whedon is a good television writer but I would like to know how do you make a show where the leading actress switches personalities every single week.Okay so in terms of a failed experiment I can see this being a lot worse than this but then again I don't think this show is that great. The characters are just boring to watch and the stories to each episode is pretty much some rich guy wants Echo, she goes to do a task, some big twist happens and Echo saves everybody and fixes the problem. Fans say if you watch the show for a bit longer the writing improves and I believe them in the sense that with some exceptions like Heroes most shows improve writing the more they go on, it's just that in the meantime I found nothing to connect myself with.

Let me start out by saying that I don't really like most TV shows and was looking for something a bit different when I found this on online. Frankly I'm not surprised that one of the few TV shows I liked is cancelled. Dollhouse is such an intriguing series that brings up quite a few questions about humans, what is humane, and what being a human means. This series to me draws on life and being able to make free choices. Someone else wrote a review stating this series reminded them of Stepford Wives and I completely agree with them. There is an eerie and off balance feeling that the Dolls give off. Whether they realize something is wrong, whether they care, or whether they even have the capacity to care, is inconclusive.**** SPOILER BELOW **** You do get brief glimpses of the dolls trying to break through their general stupor and remember what their lives as humans used to be, but there's still some confusion I think about whether or not it's really over. The episode where they are "set free" to prevent future glitches definitely put a diabolical and hopeless spin on the whole situation. **** SPOILER ABOVE **** I think this is one of the best shows that used to be on TV and am infuriated that it was canceled. I hope something similar to it with the right amount of mystery and intrigue comes along, and soon.