What went wrong? Episode 8: welcome to the dollhouse
As far as short-lived Whedon series go, I thought about doing firefly (& don’t get me wrong; i like that one too) but ultimately aside from the buffyverse, the Joss series that resonated most with me was, is & probably always will be dollhouse. So why was this series unfairly axed well before its heyday? Well, we put our best people on the case to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Premiering February 13, 2009, Dollhouse starred Eliza Dushku as Echo, one of the most popular dolls in the titular house (who all have military alphabet names for some reason), as she & the other dolls are able to take on the personalities of anyone (thanks to cutting-edge technology) & get rented out to wealthy clients to do with them as they see fit. Again, there’s a lot more to it than that but that’s the basic premise of the series in a nutshell. Joining her along for the ride for the ride are fellow dolls, Sierra (Dichen Lachman) & Victor (Enver Gjokaj who absolutely crushes it in this series). On the other side of the coin are the people who run the dollhouse, head of scientific operations, Topher Brink (Fran Kranz), handler Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix) & the head honcho herself, Adelle Dewitt (Olivia Williams). Rounding out the cast is Tamoh Penikett as FBI Special Agent Paul Ballard, a man who somehow knows about the dollhouse & is hellbent on exposing them to the world. That’s about all I can say without spoiling anything but suffice it to say it’s a hell of a ride full of twists & turns that leave you on the edge of your seat.
The series premiered to critical acclaim & even helped Fox double its audience its viewership levels among women after the tragic demise of the sarah connor chronicles (a series I’m more than willing to cover on this channel at some point as a huge terminator fan). It even helped the network finish in second place among the 18–34 demographic & in first place for the male demo for that night. What I loved about the series is the way it explores the philosophy of identity & how that relates to the world around us. It’s essentially the tv version of the ship of theseus paradox as it poses the question of whether or not you can ever truly escape who you really are.
So with mostly positive reviews & decent ratings, why was the series tragically cancelled after just two seasons? Well, studies found that viewership had dropped quite a bit by the time the second season finale premiered & as you can imagine, this did not sit well with many of the TV execs out there. It also didn’t help that their advertising budget was meager to say the least & even if they did have a lot of money to spend on that, it’s not exactly an easy series to market to the masses. So they never really had a chance to draw in an audience larger than the traditional Whedon fanbase. So the series went out with a bang (literally )on January 29, 2010 as a time jump showed what this world was like in the future (incidentally, it was 2020 so I guess technically it’s now set in the past).
But despite its quiet cancellation, the series retained a cult fanbase that tried to lobby for its resurrection for a third season. It even went on to be nominated for a hugo award for best short form dramatic presentation. Although a new season never came to fruition, the series did return in the form of a graphic novel. Titled epitaphs, the series helped bridge the gap between the first & second season finales, both of which were flash forwards.
The series proved to be a success which led to more comics set in this universe as well a few one-shots here & there. So hopefully that was enough to sate the fan’s appetite for this rich & impactful universe they’ve created. As for whether the franchise will ever return in tv or film form, I honestly doubt it at this point but as long as they keep churning our new dollhouse content, I along with the rest of the fandom will be more than contented to consume it. So we raise our glasses to the little series that could & is still chugging along to this day.