I don't know Turq, so far I've watched only a half hour of it. Very bad arc, the episode didn't draw me in at all. Mainly a chic flic I guess. Eliza has told the critics to hold out for episode 6 where Joss's episodes begin. This just may not be my cup of tea. I stopped at the end of the antecedent and will watch the consequence tonight. I'm not alone on this a lot of people on AVS Forum are disappointed with the series so far.
Liza Lapira (Ivy) can be quite funny. She was great in "Huff" as Maggie the secretary for the Oliver Platt character and had a small roll on this last season of Dexter. Apparently this is the only episode she is in. Instead I fired up the DVD player and watched a z-movie comedy called "Brutal Massacre." It is a mockumentary about a z-movie horror film production. Even the "making of" on the disk was a spoof. Jerry Bednob who played Maharishi in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" plays the cinematographer and Brian O'Halloran from "Clerks" plays the assistant director. Not a great comedy but held my interest better than the first half hour of Dollhouse. TurquoiseB wrote: > Best episode yet. Approaching the level of art. > > I am *not* projecting when I suggest that reincarn- > ation is a theme in Joss Whedon's new TV series > "Dollhouse." It's really there as a major theme. > > This episode opens with Echo, obviously on another > assignment and imprinted with a midwife's skills, is > helping a woman to deliver a baby in a mountaintop > chalet. During the final moments of the birth, Echo > says to the mother, "Here's a promise...all this... > this scary stuff...you won't even remember." The > mother gasps between contractions, "I want to > forget. I want to forget," and pushes one last > time, and Echo holds up her baby. > > Cut to the CGI "Bardo" sequences of Echo's "treat- > ments" back at the Dollhouse. If you haven't seen > the series, they're like the graphics from the end > of 2001 interspersed with flashes of the memories > being wiped from her memory. Echo opens her eyes > and says, as she does after every one of these > "treatments," and says, "Did I fall asleep?" > > It's a TV series about reincarnation. > > Technological reincarnation. Instead of the dolls > getting new bodies and the same soul, in each new > incarnation they get new souls in the same body. > A succession of selves plays over them. > > It reminds me in a way of what Rama used to say > about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. He viewed it > not just as a User's Manual for the passage from > death to rebirth, but a User's Manual for how to > most effectively make the passage from birth to > death a productive endeavor. It's a manual for > living. Living with many selves, that come and > go with alarming frequency, none of which is > really "you." > > Rama once had lapel buttons made up that said, > "Know thyselves." I still have mine. IMO it's > the best way to deal with these temporary selves > we find ourSelf wearing -- get to know them, make > friends with them, and then let them go when it's > time for them to go and be replaced with a new > self. They die, but something remains. > > So too with the dolls of "Dollhouse." With every > "treatment" they are supposed to be wiped clean > of any lingering impressions of these previous > selves. But it isn't quite working for Echo. > Something remains. > > To find out what that "something" is we can only > hope that FOX's entertainment executives are wiser > than its News executives. They could sink this > series as they sunk Firefly. And I think that > would be a real pity, because I think it's going > to take more than twelve episodes to discover what > that "something" is that persists as Echo when > Echo becomes someone else. > > > > >
