Dollhouse

[andrewducker]

Ok, so season one just finished. I haven't seen any of it yet - but I have heard that it got much better as it went along and that the final couple of episodes were very good.

So I'm wondering whether I should pick it up on DVD when it appears...

[Poll #1399726]

Posting spoilers will get you killed - general discussion of themes is fine though.

Comments

[odheirre.livejournal.com]

Highly, highly recommend it -- comparable to Buffy/Angel in having an arc and progression of characters, and it has an interesting theme.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Opens Tuesday on SciFi UK (as does the new Knight Rider).

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

Watched the whole series, now watching it again as there's an awful lot packed into it. I have quite mixed feelings about it - there's no denying it's a high-quality piece of television exploring fascinating themes and all aspects are present and correct. And if it wasn't Joss' work I would probably love it unreservedly. But it doesn't have much of the humour that I associate with Joss and at the end of the season I didn't feel hugely emotionally invested in any of the characters. That being said, I think Buffy and Angel both took a few seasons to really find their feet and I shall be sticking with this if it continues.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

(o) Heard of it, not really interested.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

(o) but will surf the interent and talk throughout it whilst my gorgeous sexy girlfriend is watching it.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Heard of it, and very good things I heard.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

I think it's worth buying for £10-15 - it takes a while to find its feet, and it takes Eliza Dushku even longer to be convincing when playing the multiple personalities. I'll watch it if it gets renewed, and the first season will stand alone quite well, but so far it's not Buffy/Angel/Firefly.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the last episode yet, but overall I'd say it's been very good.

The first episode is dull. The third episode is utter crap. The rest range from least pretty good up to excellent.

It probably never hits the same level as the very best Buffy, Angel and Firefly episodes, however.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

It's OK. The first 10 episodes are so-so. One or two are absolute crud, but stick with it. I was wondering exactly where the show was going until they did the big reveal in the second last episode, which sets it up nicely for the future.

I suppose it's like the first series of Buffy, it's not great. It was only once that show got into series 2 onwards that it found its feet.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

haven't seen the last few eps, but yeah, it definately got a lot more involved after ep5. Worth seeing.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

I've seen the first six episodes, I think. Mixed bag; good enough that I will probably watch the rest of it eventually, given people's enthusiasm about the end of this series... but with a lot of bad. Some really crappy dialogue (what happened, Joss?!) and Eliza Dushku disappointingly unconvincing in many of her roles, often tending towards wooden.

Bad enough that I've been watching the whole of Primeval in preference, and being more entertained and less irritated by it - but then, to be fair I expect much less from it.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

It starts out rough. I mean, really rough. Rough like a lot of people I know nearly stopped watching it during the first seven or so episodes rough.

The show's main problem is that Eliza Dushku cannot carry it. Fortunately, as the show goes on, it becomes less LET'S PUT ELIZA IN SEXY TIME CLOTHES! and more an ensemble show. The last couple of episodes have been sincerely, honestly good.

[lizzie-and-ari.livejournal.com]

Have seen the first 3 episodes and it was ok enough to hold my attention but not gripping enough for me to search for the rest asap.

If you would like to borrow said 3 episodes as a taster you are more than welcome.

Lizzie x

[andrewducker]

Cheers - might take you up on that.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I checked "never heard of it" because you ommitted a button for "heard of it, entirely uninterested".

[andrewducker]

It baffles me that you'd choose the option which you fail to fulfill the criteria for when there is a perfectly good criteria beneath it where you presumably fulfill _both_ criteria.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

What I've heard doesn't appeal personally. Happy to give it a miss.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The first few episodes are terrible. It remains problematic throughout, both due to the sexism and the fact that if the episode has a particular theme, you often get bludgeoned over the head with this theme repeatedly until you want to beg Joss Whedon to stop. All that said, episode 6 is quite good as are several of the episodes after that. Be warned, episode 2 and 3 are painfully bad.

[avatar.livejournal.com]

It's worth watching, just don't expect it to be as good as Firefly or Dr Horrible. I didn't find any episodes "painfully bad" etc, they were all decent to good.

I didn't like Buffy/Angel.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Curious poll; why don't those who've seen all of it get to say whether they liked or disliked it?

I thought it wasn't very good in many ways, but it was very interesting in some ways. You would not miss anything important, and you would avoid the worst episodes, if you watched only 1x01, 1x06-1x09, 1x11 and 1x12.

[andrewducker]

1) Because most people I know stop watching something if they don't like it?

2) Cheers for the info. I shall probably pick it up when it hits DVD over here.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

But you're asking whether it's worth watching the whole season, and you say you've already heard that it gets better towards the end. So it's entirely plausible that someone who ticks the "yes, I watched the whole thing" option could mean "yes, I watched the whole thing, because it seemed to be on an upward curve, but the ending was disappointing and on the whole I'd say don't bother".

I would say it's worth watching if you like interesting failures.

[andrewducker]

Good point. I suppose I'll have to hope that people who did that would leave a comment telling me their complex feelings on the matter :->

Oh - and I agree with your opinion on Trek. It was made of Stupid. But very enjoyable, so I didn't mind. I would like more smart movies in my life though, and feel that a smart movie could have been made that was just as much fun.

[girl-onthego.livejournal.com]

It's worth watching the whole things, it opens up a lot of interesting questions about universality of consciousness, etc. But you do have to watch the first four or five and have faith, because there's a lot of character setup before things start to get really interested.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

"Heard of it but not seen it" implies, in context, "heard of it, not seen it yet, want to see it". Which I don't.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, interesting. I didn't intend that at all. I meant simply what it said. I'd have taken "heard it, not seen it yet, want to see it" as
"Haven't seen it yet, but plan on doing so" - which was the final entry on the poll.

I suspect that entry should have been moved up to beneath the option you chose, so as to highlight the difference.