"Dollhouse" Ghost (2009)

Director:

Joss Whedon

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator)
Joss Whedon (written by)

TV Series:

"Dollhouse" (2009)

Original Air Date:

13 February 2009 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A wealthy backer asks the Dollhouse for help when his daughter is kidnapped. They send Echo to negotiate the release. One of the memory imprints used to prepare Echo for the mission causes some complications.

Plot Keywords:

Memory | Identity | FBI | Moral Ambiguity | True Love

Cast

Eliza Dushku	...	Echo / Caroline
Harry Lennix	...	Boyd Langton
Fran Kranz	...	Topher Brink
Tahmoh Penikett	...	Paul Ballard
Enver Gjokaj	...	Anton Lubov
Dichen Lachman	...	Sierra
Olivia Williams	...	Adelle DeWitt
Amy Acker	...	Dr. Claire Saunders
Reed Diamond	...	Laurence Dominic
Kurt Caceres	...	Gabriel Crestejo
Brett Claywell	...	Matt
David Doty	...	Sam Zimmerman
Tim Kelleher	...	Detmer
Vincent Laresca	...	Mr. Sunshine
Haley Pullos	...	Davina Crestejo (as Haley Alexis Pullos)

Runtime:

50 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Mutant Enemy

Trivia:

When Gabriel first meets Echo, he reveals that he had expected a fatherly character as the hostage negotiator, someone like Edward James Olmos. Olmos plays Commander Adama in "Battlestar Galactica" (2004) which Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard) also stars in.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Adelle DeWitt: Nothing is what it appears to be.
Caroline: It seems pretty clear to me.
Adelle DeWitt: Because you're only seeing part of it. I'm talking about a clean slate.
Caroline: You ever try and clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before.
Adelle DeWitt: Are you volunteering?
Caroline: I don't have a choice, do I? How did it get this far?
Adelle DeWitt: Caroline, actions have consequences.

Movie Connections:

References First Blood (1982)

Soundtrack:

Just Dance

Quite a good start, with potential to stay that way

As usual, after just seeing one episode, many people here are too quick to write a new show off. I thought the first episode did a very good job of laying out the plot and introducing the concept of 'actives' such as Eliza's role 'Echo'. Many seem to agree that Buffy and Angel were Joss Whedon's best work and something he hasn't been able to top, but even those 2 shows (which I'm a huge fan of) failed to capture me from the first episode the way Dollhouse did. Instead they started to grow on me far into the second season or even further, until I one day realized I really loved them. As far as I'm concerned, Dollhouse kicked off with far better episode than they did, so I'll stay optimistic.

Also I'd have to disagree with a comment made earlier that the following episodes can only deliver a single-episode story with a new character, without being able to relate to 'Echo' or having a greater story-arc. It was quite obvious that 'Echo' is having flashes of memory and seems to be remembering fragments of things that were supposed to have been wiped. While there probably will be many single-episode stories like the kidnapping in this pilot, I can easily see a story-arc forming over the whole series, which Joss Whedon has done successfully before (again Buffy and Angel, with the single-episode creepy crawlies to dispatch and a bigger story forming over that).

Anyway, all over I think it's a great start, and while it's a wait and see to how well the story will develop, I'm still giving this an 8/10, just for that.