Dollhouse - A Review of the last two episodes, Ghost & The Target

Before launching into a review of the series, a few observations and caveats:

1. I still think we have to watch at least six episodes of this series to really know where it is going.

2. Mark A. Shepard wins the award for the most recurring guest appearances by an actor on TV. In the past two weeks - I have seen this guy on BattleStar Galatica, Burn Notice, Leverage, and now Dollhouse.

3. Whedon has apparently cobbled together the same producing and writing team he had in the fourth and fifth seasons of Angel, with a few notable exceptions - Bell and Fury. And he's provided his writers with the ability to write and direct their episodes. Which means that what we see onscreen is what the writer intended or about as close as you can get in this medium.

4. This show is not as creepy and disturbing as I expected and many people I've read indicate. Of course I may be interpreting it differently and I can certainly see how people may see it -otherwise. But this is true about everything - I've discovered. Heck, there are folks out there who have managed to be creeped out by the Brady Bunch and Doctor Who (- which I can also see. Heck - I've been creeped out by Doctor Who.) People - you bring your own subtext to everything you watch - that's what makes it interesting.

Dollhouse, as I've stated in prior posts, reminds me a great deal of the 1990s series on USA Network -La Femme Nikita. Or La Femme Nikita meets Ibsen. Except with a bit more of a twist and a little less violence - La Femme Nikita not Ibsen (there's no violence in Ibsen). In some respects this is actually more interesting than Nikita was. The marketing of the series is a bit annoying - to such an extent, that I posed a question on Hulu to Whedon asking: To what degree is your work affected by the network and/or ratings? For example - I know the WB insisted you have Spike in S5 Angel and use him immediately - to what degree did this change your storyline or affect it? Or Fox's marketing of Dollhouse as a sexy action flick - to what degree does that influence your story? (Or something to that effect, I think he's been asked it before - and I don't think I'll get much of an answer, if I get one at all. But I was bored yesterday, so what the hell.) I wanted to ask to what degree idiotic fan write in campaigns, essays, and protests affect your writing? But decided to restrain myself.

5. Sometimes I wish Whedon would cast against type more.

( Dollhouse - spoilers up to Target )

Because I'm bored...another html tagging exercise book meme

This came out of a discussion with embers_log as response to who chooses these books for book memes anyhow. The books on this list are pulp and genre. I'm trying to pick at least ten from each. Some may be dated, but what the heck. Feel free to add on.

Rules - Bold what you've read. Italicize one's you've started. And I really don't feel like doing much else. I came up with 65 before I got tired. Really don't know how people come up with a hundred. Should clarify - it's not that I haven't read a hundred, I have, I just can't remember them. Was hard remembering these. These aren't exactly the type of books that stick with you after you read them. Well, the one's I came up with did. But you know what I mean.
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And I can't think of any more.