Okay, who's up for a new season of Dollhouse? Come on, we're going to catch up with all our friends from last season, and watch Eliza Dushku bring down an international arms dealer using only three facial expressions. So make the jump and let's get to the good stuff.
Hi everyone, I'm Waffleboy and I'll be your recapper for this season of Dollhouse. Just so you know I've been a big, big fan of this show since, let me see, about 10 days ago when the DVD's showed up at my apartment from Netflicks. Still, after watching a complete season in one week, I am totally on board and will be parked in front of my TV every Friday night at nine o'clock.
Okay, if you haven't watched Dollhouse before and you really want to know what's going on, your best bet is to get a hold of the Season 1 DVD's. Seriously, the plot on this show is pretty complex, but here are the barest of bare basics to get you going.
The Dollhouse is a place in an evil corporation where they keep people who are totally void and without personalities. Yeah, I know, where I work we call that the accounting department too. Anyway, these people are called "dolls" or "actives" and the reason the evil corporation keeps them around is because they can put the personality on anyone they want into them and then rent the actives out to super duper rich people.
The best active in the Dollhouse is Echo and she just happens to be played by the show's star, Eliza Dushku. The dollhouse is run by a very precise British woman named
Adelle DeWitt. The guy who handles all the science stuff is called Topher, and he is what you would get if you combined Bart Simpson and Doctor Frankenstein, and then fed him about 200 pixie sticks. For the record I like Topher a lot. The head of security is a guy named Boyd Lamont, who was Echo's handler right up until they found out the last head of security was an agent with the NSA. Boyd got the job after they sucked the brains out of the last guy and sent his body to the "attic." As you've probably figured out, they're not big on written warnings at the dollhouse.
The big story line last season was about an FBI agent trying to expose the dollhouse. The good news is he finally got inside it in the final episode of the season. The bad news is he had already gotten fired from the FBI and the guy he broke into the dollhouse with was a former active named Alpha.
Alpha is a psychopathic lunatic who kidnapped Echo so he could put 39 personalities in her head at the same time so she would be just like him and they could live happily and crazily ever after. Too bad for him Echo wasn't ready to settle down and proceeded to whomp on his melon like it was a piñata and she was jonesing for Chiclets. Alpha took off and Boyd and former Special Agent Ballard took Echo back to the dollhouse. See? I'm telling you the DVD's make a lot more sense and you'll get to watch some pretty kickass TV too. Anyway, on with Season 2.
Our episode starts with Echo in the chair. Yay the chair! Okay, granted on this show the chair is a device used to strip away the very souls of people, but on the other hand if we are watching somebody in the chair it means new episodes of Dollhouse, which beats watching CSI Altoona over on CBS, so yay!
Echo is talking with her new d-bag handler who I'm not planning on getting attached to because he doesn't have a name and Agent Paul Ballard is being all protective of Echo with Topher, and Topher correctly points out that Agent Paul Ballard is just Paul Ballard now. He's right, but Paul Ballard is always going to be Agent Pucker Face to me.
Topher tells Agent Pucker Face that Echo is fine, and Topher totally got rid of all of those 39 personalities that Alpha crammed in her noggin at the end of last season. Topher knows this is true because gosh darn it, this is the Dollhouse and everything works perfectly at the Dollhouse. This is right when Topher's computer starts wigging out and showing a clip from The Bride of Frankenstein. Topher figures out that Doctor Saunders sabotaged his PC, and handles the situation the way any man would; he storms off to take a nap.
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Comments (3)
ohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!!! I am SO fucking happy you are recapping this show! I've missed the trashbacks so much, and I don't have HBO, so YIPEE!!!!!!!
Okay, sorry about that, just got a little excited there for a minute. :)
I love the nickname Whiskey Sour, and I totes agree that the scene between her and Topher was freaking fantastic. His character was a bit one note for me last season, and this scene really changed that for me.
I love the part when he told her he gave her opinions different from his own, but SHE made the decision to hate him. You get that sad feeling from him when he says that, and I think he was hoping for a verbal sparring partner, and got more than he bargained for.
Anyway, I could geek out over this show all day, but I'll spare you my rambling.
Thanks for a KICK ASS recap!! I can't wait to see what this season will bring!
SWAK, PottyMouth
1 of 3 | Posted by PottyMouth | Posted on September 29, 2009 6:45 AM
I thought that "Vows" was a good episode to kick off the season, and I didn't think it was noticeable at all that they had budget cuts. Sometimes when that happens everything starts looking really cheesy, but I thought everything still looked good. However, its discouraging to see that the ratings suffered again. Hopefully this show just slowly picks up steam, but I think Fox has just dropped the ball in promoting this show, and also has it in a bad time slot. Such a shame.
Also, I was really happy that they played the song "The World" by Earlimart at the end of the episode, just as Paul realizes that Echo is remembering more of her past than she should. Great song, and I thought it fit the scene real well, too. I actually posted a video clip of the scene on YouTube, but it got taken down for copyright violations, which is yet another sign that Fox doesn't know what they're doing when it comes to promoting the show - don't they realize that it's good for a show's ratings to have YouTube popularity? FYI, I have it posted on my blog at modestcomplexity.blogspot.com/2009/09/earlimart-on-dollhouse.html
2 of 3 | Posted by darci | Posted on September 29, 2009 4:04 PM
Hi everyone! (which sounds so much better then both of you ;) )
Yay PottyMouth! Long time no see, I mean aside from your awesome recaps on America's Best Dance Crew and SYTYCD. I don't blame you on geeking out about this show, because I could do it all day too. It's hard to think of a show on TV that deals with deep philosophical questions (freewill, your identity, the makeup of the human soul) like this one. It's way cool, especially when you consider that while this is going on Eliza Dushku is usually dressed like a hooker for 40% of the episode.
darci, hi, a lot of good points. The time slot isn't very good, although the only positive I can think of right now is they are only going to get pre-empted by baseball once during the playoffs and world series, which is a plus. Sorry to hear about your Youtube clip, and yes with the ratings they have any pub is good pub. I guess what it is going to come down to for this show is telling your friends and spreading the word and getting some more faces starring into the glass teat
Anyway, a new episode tomorrow night!
3 of 3 | Posted by waffleboy09 | Posted on October 1, 2009 2:06 PM