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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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03.05.09
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This new series by Buffy/Firefly creator Joss Whedon is promising, considering that each of the first three episodes are better than the previous one.
The premise is that there is a highly secret organization called "The Dollhouse", which rents people to customers. This is anything from a date to a hostage negotiator to a dancer, anything depending on what the particular client wants or needs. A number of people are the "Doll's, who have had their personalities wiped so they are childlike and easy to control when not working. When they go on a job they are uploaded with all the information and skills they will need. After each job these personalities are wiped clean.
In charge of the company is Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) and her main henchman, Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond of JOURNEYMAN).
The pilot shows the main character, Echo (Eliza Dushku), with her real personality and before she became Echo, with the premise that she's desperate and willing to undergo the procedure for a good reason. There's also a detective, Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA), who is determined to find the Dollhouse and it's suggested the reason is because of the Echo character.
In the first episode we see ECHO with two widely different personalities, which was interesting, but my main concern was that how can you get attached to a character who has a different personality each episode? And where was the "Joss Whedon feeling" to the show? The second episode, however, quickly made up for this, when during a date in the wilderness gone horribly awry, Echo is confronted by the ghost of her "real" personality. And in the third episode, in which she becomes a dancer and bodyguard to a spoiled singer, she manages to override her pre-programming and improvise. She's retaining the information she is programmed with and she's not supposed to.
Other characters are Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix of THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS), Echo's bodyguard and "guardian angel", Topher Brink, the computer genius who uploads the different personalities into the "Dolls", and Dr. Claire Saunders (Amy Acker of ANGEL), who is heavily scarred from an incident that happened months ago in which all the "Dolls" were slain except for Echo.
This is undeniably one of the most interesting television shows airing right now (3/09).
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Rating: 5.5 out of 10.0 - 2 votes cast total
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