Dollhouse premiere Friday the 13th! Who's watching?

[Slayerfaith1982]

Tomorrow on FOX they're debuting the new Joss Whedon sci-fi show Dollhouse. Who's planning on watching? Joss has done such great cult favs like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. Plus it stars Eliza Dusku. Sure she was in that craptastic show Tru Calling, but that didn't have Joss heading it up so that explains why that show blew chunks. Everyone watch so it doesn't get cancelled by Fox super-fast like Firefly did!

[diggumsmax]

I will certainly be watching. While the overall idea of the show seems a bit odd I'm a huge firefly fan and love Whedon's work. I hope other people tune in to. Friday night has become an actual good night of TV once again. Dollhouse, Terminator, and BSG all in one night. I hope people tune in and this doesn't turn into another Firefly situation. One of my favorite shows, to bad there are only 14 episodes.

[DoubleJ]

I'll be checking it out for sure. I agree with diggumsmax that the plot of the show seems strange, but I have faith in Whedon!

[DustoMan]

I'll watch it because I'm a glutton for punishment. I'm sure FOX is going to cancel it after 2 weeks.

[Slayerfaith1982]

I even find the concept a bit odd, but have faith in the dialouge and characters Whedon has a knack for fleshing out.

[Neutral_HD_Fan]

I'll be watching, but am not counting on it being picked up again next season. Part of the reason Whedon's other works have been so popular is due to the fact they were equally attractive to both men and women. However, all of the commercials shown so far are geared around Eliza's "sexyness" and most show her with little to no clothing on. Knowing Whedon, his show will most likely be nothing like the commercials. While all of his works include sex appeal, they were never overdone or tasteless. This is just another example of fox doing what they have always done, murdering good shows.

[winklepr]

I'll let you take one guess...

Hint: See also my avatar

[BuckeyeStar]

It's from Joss Whedon and his other shows have all been gold, I shall be watching.

[Satans Puppet]

Felicia Day has confirmed she'll also be appearing in the first season of Dollhouse!!!

I Can't Wait!!

[zombiequest]

I watched the first 15 minutes to see if it interested me (a critical time-frame in any premiere to set the stage and build interest) It didn't catch my interest at all. If you're a Dusku-Fan you'll watch it for her alone... but I was hoping for something strikingly different and entertaining. We already have a couple "Momento" type tv-shows out there, "My Own Worst Enemy" being one of them.. and a much BETTER show that grabs you easilly in it's first 15 minutes, and doesn't let you go. Maybe it needs time to build a fanbase but it's start didn't appeal to me at all.. Just like "Bionic Woman" blew chunks right off the bat... win some, lose some.

[gr8one]

Originally Posted by zombiequest

I watched the first 15 minutes to see if it interested me (a critical time-frame in any premiere to set the stage and build interest) It didn't catch my interest at all. If you're a Dusku-Fan you'll watch it for her alone... but I was hoping for something strikingly different and entertaining. We already have a couple "Momento" type tv-shows out there, "My Own Worst Enemy" being one of them.. and a much BETTER show that grabs you easilly in it's first 15 minutes, and doesn't let you go. Maybe it needs time to build a fanbase but it's start didn't appeal to me at all.. Just like "Bionic Woman" blew chunks right off the bat... win some, lose some.

i cant possibly think you can judge a show by 15 minutes, if your already 15 minutes in whats another 20 minutes to at least finish the first episode?

[John32]

I DVR'd it. I haven't watched it at all yet. I heard it's not that good though, hopefully future episodes will be better. I've got faith in Joss but, I unfortunately think that Fox exec's tampered with it.

[winklepr]

Originally Posted by John32

I DVR'd it. I haven't watched it at all yet. I heard it's not that good though, hopefully future episodes will be better. I've got faith in Joss but, I unfortunately think that Fox exec's tampered with it.

You're correct, this isn't the original pilot Joss had written and shot. Joss had to rewrite it based on requests from Fox. I believe (if I recall correctly) that the original pilot was possibly "too confusing" and didn't have some elements that Fox preferred (action for one, which doesn't surprise me coming from the channel whose golden boy is 24).

That all being said, Fox appears to have shown more interest in it and hasn't quite gone to the extremes it did for sabotaging Firefly - so I still hold some hope. The way I see it is this: It's on Friday so it needs to be either a critical darling (like Friday Night Lights was it's first season) or have decent enough viewer-ship (see Ghost Whisperer) and it should easily get a full season order/second season. If it doesn't accomplish either, then here's hoping Fox doesn't make the same mistake twice (see also: Firefly).

Since I believe most TV is written for people with at least a elementary/middle school intelligence, it can be dangerous on network TV to write with requirements higher than that. This is why I believe this past episode had to really spell-it-out for the viewer in that first 15 minutes. That being said, the second half showed much more promise than the first and I know Joss will give us an egg that will only becomes more golden the more time it's given.

Although it may not have been as good as I expected (and the original pilot probably would've been), it was still quite good to me and I know my expectations will be surpassed as they have been with Buffy, Angel, and Firefly in the past. It may also not be fair considering my already-high expectations. A friend who watched it with me and knows nothing of Joss Whedon or the show enjoyed it and said he would be tuning in next week - so it worked perfectly for him. I think it will just take a little longer for it reach/surpass my expectations but I have faith (ha get it?) and precognitive knowledge it will.

Speaking of My Own Worse Enemy, that's really the only problem with this show. By that I mean, after shows like Buffy (which many consider it's first season to be the worse oddly enough, but that's for a different thread altogether), Angel, and Firefly (Dr. Horrible if we can count that as well) - Joss truly is his own worse enemy in the eyes of his fans by building such large expectations. To me, as biased as I obviously am, he's just competing with himself and is his own Christian Slater. All in all, it should be able to go toe to toe with LOST or BSG - it just may need a little more time up front invested. But considering it's first episode didn't have an exploding airplane or spaceship to start out with a quite-literal bang, I think that's only fair .

I say game on and I'll see everyone next weekend to talk about next Friday's episode! I am above all else still extraordinary happy to have a Whedon-TV show after the half decade drought. Even though we got an excellent movie (Serenity), musical (Dr. Horrible), and comics (Astonishing X-Men, Buffy Season Eight, Runaways) during that time, it's nice to have him back.

[Josh Z]

I'm a big Whedon fan. The pilot episode didn't do much for me. It wasn't terrible by any means, but many of the performances were shaky and even the dialogue lacked Whedon's trademark wit. I'm not sure that Dushku is a strong enough actress to pull off what the role will require of her from week to week.

Whedon was also off his game as a director here. The pacing just wan't right. There wasn't much energy in any scene. And what was up with the motorcycle race where it was patently obvious that the bikes were going about 10 miles per hour?

That said, Whedon's strength is long-form storytelling, and his shows tend to get better as they build up some steam. I'll keep watching until Fox cancels it, which will probably be 2 or 3 weeks from now.

[Slayerfaith1982]

The show didn't seem like a Whedon show 2 me, that's it's biggest crime. I realize they had to create a scenario and introduce characters, but all the dialouge was very generic and flat. Not 1 bit of the intelligence or uniqueness you expect from Whedon dialouge. It came across as just another generic sci fi action show