...and Fuck Dollhouse!

"As long as we don't send anyone to feudal Japan, I think we'll be okay,"

OH, S.N.A.P.!

So worried about you! *Knew* you'd come through! Haven't seen E1 yet; waiting for the DVD. Which I said I wouldn't buy just to watch a marketing ploy of the unaired ep & orginal pilot. But then they had to renew the darn thing. So, it now becomes essential.

Did you see the Cabin in the Woods posters? Did you run over Merrick for not posting them yet?

I'm watching "Hole In The World" right now. The guy deserves some work.

It is really excellent. Definitely should have been shown as the season finale. It's definitely drummed up my interest in future seasons.

Much better than the goddamned season. Shoulda capped the little girl and tossed Caroline into Daddy.

Alexis Denisof got some work.

Yep, read the fucking books.

I love me some Alexis Denisof, and I'm really glad that he's going to be getting some work on Dollhouse. Also, E1 was really excellent. It's existence bodes well for the direction that the show is, hopefully, going in.

If they ended the season with E1 I might have kept Dollhouse on the DVR schedule....

I thouroughly enjoyed the episode. It was dark, depressing, but had that Joss Whedon flicker of hope. I'm just glad it will finally air because it deserves to be seen.

DVD only. Unless you are a pirate P)

Looking fwd to seeing Epitaph One.

unless they continue the story like lost, where you have a bunch of timelines advancing at the same time, it's like I already know what's happening.. I first thing I thought was "I wonder if this is cannon", like the unaired pilot (which isn't)

but it seems a bit pointless if they aren't going to realise it as canon...

but Epitaph One was a very good episode. I really wish that's the plotline they were going to go with for the show instead of all the crap that came before it.

Troll baiting your own posts. Apparently nothing is beneath you Herc.

I'm a bit of a Whenite, being a big Buffy fan who also dug Angel and loved Firefly/Serenity, but I wasn't blown away by most of season 1 of Dollhouse. It got pretty good by the final two airing eps, but Epitaph One was astoundingly good.

It's nearly 4:30am here, hence my failure at language. :(

...is a perpetual bore. All of his work is complete nonsense. When will real filmmakers and writers get the chance to show off their talents, instead of this unoriginal, uninspired mindless crap the masses are spoon fed.

Just got done watching Epitaph one.Great episode.Most expensive looking one of the season but supposedly the cheapest?

No way was I going to buy the dvd for this episode alone though.Too many episodes that were unwatchable for a second viewing.

this season of Dollhouse, A MUST SEE!!!

I'm more excited for season two now.

It was clear Whedon always loved working with the guy. At the outset it wasn't too clear whether Whedon's heart was actually in this or whether it was just a favor to Dushku, but loading it with actors he likes is a sign (to me) that he is in for the long haul.

Surely when Whedon says a pinch of salt he means the implanted memories not the 2019 future? I hope so anyway because Epitaph One is shit-your-pants fantastic in it's basic premise, though hardly totally original. Still beats the shit out of Heroes and, I'm sorry to say, TSCC as well.

of the Dollhouse Con news, personally it might be the best news of the whole con, AD can proper fucking act and will only dramatically improve already mostly impressive acting (Dushku excepted of course).

I wasn't a big fan of Dollhouse for a lot of reasons, but Epitaph takes the basic concept of the Dollhouse technology, and shows how it could easily change society for the worse.

We have barely touched upon (in Season one) the idea that rich people can use this for immortality, or that bodies could be inhabited by edited/controllable personalities, but this final episode contained such concepts and more.

The clever way it showed clips of the future of the dollhouse, (reminded me a bit of Babylon 5's Deconstruction of Falling Stars) was really interesting. I hope we see the show move in that direction, even if Joss tells us that we should take the footage with a grain of salt.

An active? A scientist? A Customer? An FBI guy?

You saw it??

I have to say, I remember you being one of "those guys" who counted down the episodes to cancelation but I found you getting into it at the end - the complete *damage* that the tech could cause - and there were some great conversations that you started.

One of the best things about last season, was that they didn't *tell* us that the whole "mind-wiping" thing would be bad - in fact, they pretty much sold as a good thing - but that they led the audience to see that that much power will corrupt anyone.

It's like, on the surface of things; it's good. But there is bad forcing the good. It's like a guy a knife point making you give money to a homeless person.

Awesome - my respect for Whedon can plummet. Dollhouse 101 was an abomination.

Or is he dissing all those whiny online bitches who complained throughout Heroes season 2?

Compared to what? Another abomination? Zed, you don't think he was actually comparing the two series togther, do you?

They DO have one at Comic-Con, right? I don't think I'll ever understand the worship for this guy.

But the memories they showed through the old guy are possibly misleading. At least that's what I took from it.

And yeah, I've made no bones about it, that I didn't like the show or it's initial apparent direction.

But if the show goes in the directions we saw in Epitaph 1, I'll be very impressed.

Some of things we saw in Epitaph 1, which made logical sense, but were never hinted at in the series...
(1) People making backup copies of their own mind states
(2) Downloading snippets of personalities, so you can interrogate the memories.
(3) Mass downloads to control a population
(4) A method put in place to tell if the mind-state in a body actually belongs in that body
And there was more, but I don't want to get in to it, for fear of spoilers.

It's really a very good episode, and I'd highly recommend it.

I agree V'Shael. E1 was outstanding, WAY better than anything in the main series. It was very dark and Whedonesque, though it felt more like Firefly than Buffy/Angel, especially with all the made-up future slang.

possible spoilers

Basically, it's in a dark future where personality-wiping and body stealing technology becomes a global pandemic. It even appears that China developed a weaponized form of the personality switching/wiping technology that can be broadcast, and successfully turn half of America into an army to destroy the other half.

If season 2 is truly going in that direction, there's some great stuff in store for us. I almost wish they aired this episode as the premiere of season 1. People would have been much more pumped about the show.

they should of aired it, fox continues to look like morons.

he's too damm good to be hanging around on the sidelines. glad he's back into the mix. dammit, that mean i might actually have to watch season 2.

And maybe the longest hour of Tim Kring's recent life as he faces a fanbase that couldn't even fill Hall H, that are dissatisfied with the way the show has gone, free-falling Nielsen ratings in total viewers and 18-49, the Bryan Fuller failed experiment...and that's just off the top of my head. It's in the Hilton Bayfront San Diego's Indigo Ballroom, Herc, if you choose to go.

so months ago, the great and beloved AICN poster Mr_X ( who sadly was forced into ban nation for his love of supernatural) suggested both Alexis and Clayton and lo and behold they're in the show! awesome. some one out there is listening to my casting suggestions *ahem* I mean Mr_X.. ( honestly, i'm just as good)

had such a dramatic display of villain decay as this one

Other than the porn aspect, this show shot its wad

to free Denisof from his cave, where Alyson Hannigan kept him prisoner for the last 5+ years!

Yeah, because heaven forbid Josh ever took one or more of the most popular characters in a show he wrote, packed them up, sent them to a medieval society in a different time/dimension that seemed to consist mostly of overly-lit meadows and forest, and got them involved in local politics. Then sent them back home with little or no impact on the main storyline(s) of the series. Oh wait, at least we got Adam out of the Japan time travel. What did we get out of Pylea, exactly, that endured for at least a season? I'm also sure Josh wouldn't resort to any other weak plot gimmicks like introducing a baby son, aging him instantly, and giving us an angst filled teenager who ultimately annoys the audience and gets written out with little or no ultimate impact.

Ah, but Pylea gave us the dance of joy, which will surely endure until the heat death of the universe!

I just downloaded E1 this morning and it is every bit as good as everyone is saying. THIS is how the season should have ended. It was every bit as dark and creepy as Whedon said it would be. The flashbacks (which showed how the future came to be) also allowed the actors brief moments to shine (Topher's speech about what caused the future is probably the best acting he's done in the series). This was easily the best episode of the series (outdoing Echoes and Alpha) and, if this is a sign of what the show will be like come fall, I am now, for the first time, excited about it.

What is great about the episode is that it would work as simple standalone. In just 44 minutes, it established a scary future and explained the present in a way that you didn't have to know the characters previously to appreciate it. It was a very mini-movie.

For the Whedon-haters (the ones who wonder why fans like myself admire the guy so much), watch the episode and you'll see why the guy is as loved as he is.



*****SPOILER****
One last comment -- the quick shot of Whiskey (appearing with blood-covered hands in all white) saying "I found your friend" has to be one of the creepiest shots that has appeared in a Whedon series. REALLY well done!!!

Especially considering the way it was put together, best episode yet. If the series arcs this way overall I wouldn't be disppointed. Felicia Day needs to be in more stuff, more of the time.

Saw it within a day after Torchwood: Children of Earth. Both shows have remarkable story telling and ideas well beyond what has come before. Epitaph 1 really vaults Dollhouse into a whole new strata of scifi. It's starting to be a great year in TV.

Two words: Winifred Burkle

Well said.

Haha, good point, BW. But I have to admit, while I loved most of what was in Angel (even the puppet episode), I couldn't stand the Pylea episodes.

Setting aside there are a half dozen different ways she could have been brought in (same with the warrior dude that got brought back with them: he disappeared quickly), and the fact Whedon essentially killed Winifred off... we got Adam out of the Japan trip, as I noted. At least he made a little more sense in the context of an immortal being. How else do you set up the appearance of an immortal? But he ultimately got wasted about as much as Winifred did, agreed.

And regardless of what it introduced, Pylea was a pretty bland fantasy genre sorta place, dance of joy notwithstanding. It did serve some purpose (so did the Japan time trip), but it was such an uninspired way to do it.

Ha! Glad to see I'm not the only one happy to hear about Aly Hannigan's baby-Daddy coming on board. Also, more Felicia Day = bonus. Proof at least that Fox only screws up MOST of the time. Not all, just most.

I really liked it and was really surprised that FOX couldn't find a way to broadcast this episode. I also love the fact that those characters will show up again and I hope that continues during the shows run. What I don't get is why there is such hate for feudal Japan story line. I thought it was really good and certainly the best part of Heroes season 2. As much as there has been to complain about Heroes over the last 2 seasons that certain isn't one of them. But why even jab at Heroes its so obvious that the show has lost its way from where it was going in season 1.

had / has Bell's palsy. Got to be scary. Left side of your face freezes and you know all you can think about is stroke.

But hopefully he's all better now.

So crack the whip and say *get back to work dude*

Can't recall any other actor successfully taking a character thru so much growth. And pulling it off.

Hope he gets a char with as much potential and challenge.

Season Four preview : http://tinyurl.com/neqkvj Now this with Supernatural are shows I can't wait to watch.

Not the biggest Pylea fan, but if we're talking about what it brought to the show: a backstory for one of the best karaoke loving characters.

Like BW said, gave us Fred

But it was awkward, even the actors eeemed to be in a wtf place

Angel's reaction to not burning up in the sun and him seeing himself in the mirror, patting his hair, "Seriously, is it always like this!?" I liked Lorne's horrendous family and his decapitated head. I like that we got to see the far reachyness of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. And I loved the finale, "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb", when they walk in, laughing and relieved, and find Willow standing there, waiting for them. Heart shatter.

If there was on thing I didn't like about Pylea it was Angel's inner, purer demon. It just didn't look vamp enough. At first I thought he turned into a different type of demon altogether, which was confusing.

they took a vampyre (to quote Jonathan) and made him a werewolf with scales and horns

didn't make any sense

only happened because they were killing off Buffy and didn't want another crossover ep, so Angel and co had to disappear into another dimension. Everyone's right though, I remember thinking at the time "Wow, they've just ruined my favourite show" although in the end they JUST ABOUT pulled it off. But considering how dark s2 of Angel was, the change in tone was just jarring.

Pylea brought us plenty, not least of which was Charisma Carpenter in a gold bikini. What the hell happened to her career, anyway? Why is she not a regular on some hit show now?

Why wait until the very last unaired (!) episode to give this series something of a drive and sense of direction? Bascially, apart from the Pilot all of Season 1 was filler. I hate it when they do crap like that. Whedon should have gone for a miniseries instead, that would've suited the concept much better.

Also, do we know for sure that Season 2 will build on Epitaph One? Or is it just going to be the same old Pseudo-Alias filler-crap each week again? As much as I loved Epitaph One, I think another Season as boring as the first will definitely kill this show.

I know it didn't have many fans, but Babylon 5 had a decent arc in place and still managed to suffer from a poor year 1 because it wasn't obvious to people that there was an arc in place.

Babylon 5's season two ramped things up quite a bit though, and got the show properly moving in the right direction. Or at least made it more obvious to the audience that it was moving in *A* direction.

Dollhouse needs something similar. Some indication to the audience (who you can't assume will have seen Epitaph 1) that the show is moving towards some kind of destination.

also has Bell's Palsy. It looks so weird when she is talking. Only one side of her mouth is moving!

That's the rumour for today :)

@FoxBroadcasting:Jamie Bamber (BSG) to guest star in the Dollhouse seas. prem. where he's involved in an engagement w/Echo & Paul Ballard.

go fat lee go