One of the better aspects of Dollhouse is the ensemble cast and the abundance of characters. There are the characters that are not (to the audience's knowledge at the beginning of the series) dolls, such as Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), Topher (Fran Kranz), Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker), Boyd Langton (Harry J. Lennix), and Adelle Dewitt (Olivia Williams), and then there are the dolls, such as Echo (Eliza Dushku), Sierra (Dichen Lachman), Victor (Enver Gjokaj), and November (Miracle Laurie). The non-dolls give viewers a ‘security blanket’ of sorts, inasmuch as the audience knows more or less how these characters might react in particular situations. All of these characters are very strong, and complement each other well, giving viewers characters that they maybe can't relate to exactly, but could try to understand and empathise with.
It's with the dolls that they writers get to be really creative. Every doll has different personas, with the exception of November, who is primarily a ‘sleeper active’ (that is, she maintains the one persona but can change into a butt-kicking ninja upon hearing a code developed by the Dollhouse), which means that the audience has no idea who the dolls really are or what to expect from them throughout each episode. In episode eight, "Needs," Echo, Victor, Sierra, and November awake with parts of their original memories intact, allowing the audience to gain some idea of who these characters were prior to being in the Dollhouse, but apart from this, the dolls can change every episode. I think that this may be one of the reasons why so many people dislike Dollhouse. After all, the dolls are the characters the viewers are meant to be empathizing with, but in their natural state, the dolls are little more than naive children, with no memories and no original thoughts and definitely no discernible character traits, making it difficult for audiences to relate to them. To Dushku’s credit though, she does bring some sense of personality to Echo throughout the series, so that viewers find themselves gradually caring about her fate. I however, really like the fact that the dolls could be someone different every episode, and I enjoyed watching Dushku adopt various personas, and thought it was interesting watching how the characters that were not dolls reacted to the various personalities of the dolls. I found that the predictability (to a certain extent) of the non-dolls balanced the unpredictability of the dolls very nicely, making for some very interesting episodes.
As well as finding the characters a little hard to relate to, I think a lot of viewers were somewhat disappointed with the plot and story arc of season one. The main story arc revolves around Alpha, a doll who went crazy and killed numerous people in the Dollhouse before escaping. Characters such as Dewitt are trying to locate Alpha, in order to bring him in and prevent him from murdering anybody else, whereas characters such as Langton and Topher are wondering why Alpha chose to leave Echo alive. This storyline was interesting, but it was rather sporadic, disappearing for a few episodes and then becoming the focal point once again. Many reviews state that the episodes were more focused on ‘Echo’s imprint of the week’ and the assignment she went on with that imprint, or persona. I can see the validity of these statements, especially in some of the earlier episodes, where the Alpha storyline seemed to disappear into the background.
Article comments