This Week in Dollhouse

True Believer



I didn't particularly care for this one. The stand-alone plot of the episode was ungood. It involved Echo infiltrating a cult (without, of course, realizing that she was planted there). However, the cult itself was very poorly fleshed out. Was the cult leader a self-conscious fraud or not? Why were the cult members following him, in particular? What did they think their purpose was? All of these questions (and more!) go unanswered. Also, the characters related to this plot were either given no discernable characteristics, or were huge jerks for no known reason.

Plus, it touched on one of my TV pet peeves, the Simpleminded Christian. I know this isn't quite fair, because they were dealing with cultists, not mainstream Christians (it's kind of like Mormons complaining about Big Love, a show in which LDS Mormons are the normal populace that the polygamists hide their lifestyle from). Still, I hate the treacly, unrealistic dialogue that this show (and other shows) put into the mouths of people who believe in God. It always proves that there aren't religious people in these writers' rooms, so they don't know how religious people actually think.

One other slight problem is that the idea of the Dollhouse staying a secret gets less and less believable. This week, Echo worked for a federal agency. (They got the job through some Senator who "helps them avoid government entanglements.") She didn't interact with the Feds, but Boyd did. And he had no logical explanation for why Echo was doing what she was doing or why her eyes were cameras that they could see through. C'mon, a room full of federal agents and nobody questions this guy's really vague explanations any further?

On the other hand, the overarching plot moved forward considerably. Even this, though, fell victim to sloppy writing. (Consider the rest of this paragraph spoileriffic.) Lawrence, the jerk blonde guy with close-set eyes who is a Dollhouse higher-up, demonstrated his earlier hinted-at dislike for Echo, when he snuck off to the cult showdown to try to kill her. However, he did a terrible job. The cult leader was about to shoot Echo when Lawrence shot him instead, saving her. Then he just smacked her unconscious with his gun instead of, you know, shooting her with it. Or, if he didn't want her death traced back to him, shooting her with the cult leader's gun. Or, hey, letting the cult leader kill her in the first place. It was not intelligently handled, either in-story or by the writers. Echo is apparently getting closer to her "composite event" where she'll stop forgetting her programming, but this seems like an excuse to have Eliza play the same old full-of-moxie girl that she always does, undercutting the premise of the show.

The FBI-dude-who-is-tracking-Dollhouse plot moved forward a smidge this week, but he still seems dumb and incompetent. Also, if he uncovers Dollhouse, how is there a show anymore?

Next week is the fabled Episode 6, which Joss and Eliza have promised will begin the awesomeness. Also, it guest stars Patton Oswalt. Huge nerd cred for that one. I have to say, though, if it doesn't live up to the hype, I might give up on this show. The ratio of how much a criticize it to how much I enjoy it is not a good sign.