Dollhouse: The Complete First Season

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

Season Grade: B
DVD Features Grade: N/A
Overall Grade: B

It was quite a fortuitous turn of events that I ended up reviewing this title at a time in my life when contemplation over choices made seems to be at an all time high. After all you’re reading the words of someone who could have very easily been a lawyer, politician or human rights activist who some how ended up founding an entertainment company instead. Go figure.

In the Dollhouse, individuals referred to as ‘actives’ (including our gorgeous leading lady Eliza Dushku) get to lead many different lives ranging from expert hostage negotiators to superstar body guards to the perfect date for an outdoorsy type or even a midwife for a wealthy family expecting a difficult birth. After each engagement his or her memories are completely erased and they become a blank slate just waiting for their next assignment and personality. Analogies to high priced prostitution and the oppression of the wealthy over the poor are of course drawn to these people and very much appropriately so, however I must admit to being somewhat jealous of the ‘actives.’ To be able to change your personality, background, skills and abilities as easily as we change our cloths is an enticing offer to say the least. The downside however is that after each new personality is erased a small amount of the memories linger within the active. So as Echo (Eliza Dushku who also serves as executive producer) is torn away from each new self, she retains a small amount of that persona and these flashbacks could very well lead to the uncovering of the person she originally was.

The creative team behind Dollhouse, including the uber-popular and successful Joss Whedon, made sure that this series wasn’t going to only be a bunch of one-off stories that in total didn’t amount to anything larger, as a result each show is more interesting than the last and each new hour adds another piece to the puzzle that is the entire season.

One of those continuing threads is found in the story line of Agent Paul Ballard. As we are taken through our adventures with Echo each week Agent Ballard (the chiseled Tahmoh Penikett) is hot on her trail determined to expose the Dollhouse to both prove it exists and also to shut it down permanently.

It’s hard to watch a strong female lead in a series with a touch of sci-fi and lots of ass kicking and not draw parallels to the short lived, but awesome James Cameron series Dark Angel starring Jessica Alba. Unfortunately, Dark Angel embraced the sci-fi side of things a bit too much and lost their audience. Dollhouse stays very true to the modern world and keeps anything too futuristic or supernatural to a minimum.

Despite being a fan of Eliza Dushku and loving almost everything that she brings her tough girl no nonsense presence to, I wasn’t sure I ...