Spontaneous Musings

This time I decided to add other Whedonverse characters to the mix to spice things up a bit. If you don't them or didn't like the other shows, makes the poll rather easy.
Rules are the same - pick the one you enjoyed watching on the show the best or thought was the most fun, interesting, whatever. Don't over think. Just go with your gut. Quick responses.

I wanted to include a question regarding Mark Watches - do people care what the guy says about your favorite character? Does what Mark says affect whether you read his reviews of Buffy? Perhaps a better question is - will you read a blog or review or discussion board that bashes your favorite character? Or give up on it? Will you read people who do it? I ask, because, I'm not sure if the answer is as simple and obvious as I think it is. ( my two cents )How do you feel about it? Do you feel the same way? Differently?

[ETA: This poll had harder choices than I thought. First one that I really struggled picking between characters on. Good luck! Again...hope more than 10 people do this or I will look silly.]

[Poll #1852210]

Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse ended on Friday, January 29. It will air, or so I'm told, much later this year in the UK, so if you are in the UK or are waiting for the DVD's to come out, you may want to stop here - beyond this point are massive plot spoilers.

(The US will get Being Human and Merlin several months later. Hmm, if I didn't know any better I'd assume the only countries developing television series were UK and US. US is horrid at importing media from other countries, yet quite adept at stealing ideas from them (Being Human per example is being made into a US series for SyFy) and exporting all sorts of media abroad. Over 30% of the royalty income that film and tv distributors receive is from foreign rights distribution alone. The internet has merely made it easier. This is in a way a wise move - because much like the industrial age before it, whomever owns and controls the flow of new technological power source or in this case the information source/outlet, runs the world. It is about power. Always has been, always will be. Who has it, who wants it, and how people who have it wield it. The media outlets in the US wield a lot of power...a frightening amount, when I think about it.)

I mention this in part because it is among the central themes of this series. Joss Whedon is a fascinating writer - because he likes to examine the uses and abuses of power. In Dollhouse - he poses the question - what happens if someone can literally program or deprogram the human mind much as they might a computer - so that human bodies become avatars, blank slates until a personality or program is downloaded into them. Sort of a dark twist on Cameron's AVATAR concept - where the male hero gets to walk again due to being downloaded into a human/alien AVATAR body and save the world. Here, the results are far more horrific and the issues far less simple. Where Cameron's film tends to be a mindless, albeit tightly plotted, thrill ride, with some feel-good moments (depending on who you are) and a happy ending, Whedon's tv series is a creepy exploration into the abuses of power, identity, and self-empowerment and not least of all trust.

( cut for massive spoilers on Dollhouse S1 and S2, Angel the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer the series (just tv), Doctor Horrible, Toy Story, and Firefly )

Watching the Demons from BBC America...it makes me miss Buffy, although the demons remind me from something out of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere - which is a nice twist. The writing of Buffy is better, and more innovative - since we have a bouncy female heroine as opposed to the oh so original rebellious/angsty/brooding teenage boy hero, who, gasp, is related to Van Helsing. (*eyeroll*) BBC has done better...with innovative shows such as Being Human - although I'd have found it more interesting if it had been two girls and one guy. Apparently Whedon's the only one who felt the need to do horror/fantasy with a mostly female cast. US - isn't much better, *cough*Supernatural*cough*. That said, I'm wondering if the reason the gal is the ghost on Being Human - may not be a reference/commentary on the invisible girl/minority in society?

Demons is basically the old school, teenage boy demon hunter, teenage girl side-kick/girl friend damsel, blind seer, and a mentor/godfather - Professor Rupert Galvern. (Yes, I kid you not - Rupert G. I like the actor - he's the same one who played Gene on Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars. But I prefer Anthony Stewart Head, who had more edge.) And yes, you've probably seen this set up before. I know I have.

Also saw the last two Dollhouse episodes. Which were okay. Felt a bit rushed and cramped with story - but that's to be expected.

( contains major spoilers for Dollhouse and vague ones for Buffy S8, which I doubt anyone who doesn't already know them will figure out. )

Sigh. Back to work tomorrow. Short three day MLK holiday is over. MLK would have been 81 today.

So, finally saw the fan favorite "Epitaph One" and the unaired pilot "Echo" from the Dollhouse S1, Disc 4 DVD - courtesy of netflix. (Gotta love netflix, it's managed to expand my tv and video watching even more than I thought possible, not that I haven't watched enough tv and videos in my lifetime already...but hey, we are nothing without our stories..right?)

As an aside, leaving the office today, I sniffed the air and thought, ah, that musty, smokey, smell of December, then glanced about and thought..or just the musty smokey smell of people smoking pot outside my office building. This really has nothing to do with Epitaph One, Dollhouse or Echo for that matter, but thought I'd mention it.

Saw Epitaph One first, so will review it first. It was written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Jed's wife or rather the story was written by Joss, and the teleplay by Jed and his wife. It was directed by David Solomon.

Was not quite what I expected. I can see why it got mixed reviews on livejournal, the episode's narrative flow is not really linear in nature, and it jumps around a lot. Also we have the fill-in for the viewer or outside narrator device - which does not always work well but Joss Whedon and science fiction writers in general appear to be enamored of for some reason. Whedon has used it before in episodes ranging from The Zeppo to Storyteller. I personally find it annoying and jarring, but a lot of people adore it. The device basically involves a guest star, a recurring character or minor character telling the audience what the world is like, we jump into their point of view and see all the lead or stars of the series through their eyes. Medical shows do this all the time - the sick patient tactic - where we, the audience are inside the sick patient, we see what they see and experience the characters through their eyes. Not sure who did this first - but I do remember seeing it done in old black and white 1950s Gunsmoke reruns and MASH. The other device - which is the one used in "Epitaph One" is skipping ahead to the future, and the outside character coming upon the remains of the show or the characters, and trying to figure out what happened to them. (Which is a common thread in many dark science-fiction and fantasy dramas. Lots of them end in this manner, although I'm regrettably drawing a blank on specific examples.)

( Lengthy reviews of Epitaph One and Echo...warning, if you haven't watched, there be spoilers within these woods, also the reviews are a bit on the stream of consciousness side of the fence but then most of my entries are, you should be used to it by now. )

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I'm an arachnophobe. (ie. fear of spiders). And no, haven't tried to get past it. Well sort of. But again, no.

I got to the point, finally, that I don't actually believe the spider is actually going to jump up and eat my face. Or come back to life after I kill it and eat my face. Or burrow into a cut on my face or body and lay little spider baby eggs. (But there are days that I'm not entirely certain.)

Cause: devilish kids who thought it was funny to throw spiders at me as a child and tell gruesome horror tales about them - well jumping up and eating your face. Also probably did not help seeing what a brown recluse spider bite does to you up close and personal. Nasty. The poison eats the skin. (Initial cause? At age of 6, someone dumped a jar of daddy long legs on my head. Then when we were playing and about to go into a cool fort, we didn't because a huge wolf spider blocked our path - which caused the gal behind me to let a blood curdling scream when she discovered she was about to place her hand on top of it.) Moral of tale - practical jokes regarding spiders can have disasterous side-effects.

In other news? bored at work, obviously. I have 0 tolerance for boredom.
Crazy busy, I can deal with. Slow lulls make me crazy. And wish people would not hang out near my cubicle or show up behind me. Makes sneaking online and writing posts to fend off boredom risky. Or riskier than usual.

TV viewing? Dollhouse isn't on tonight. But it is getting all 13 episodes shown, so no worries. Yay Fox - who apparently has learned its lesson regarding cancelling tv series and not showing the episodes (eg. Firefly).
Not clear yet if it will make it to a third season, but I'll be surprised.
Can't see it getting the viewership that Fox requires for this to happen.
Far too cultish and nitch for that - ie. it appeals to left of center culture nerds like yours truly. And we don't tend to watch commericials and buy expensive cars.

Will most likely watch Supernatural (SPN) or wait until Sat to do it. Don't tend to watch SPN at night - too spooky, well it used to be too spooky, now not so much.

Before writing this, I read a wonderful review by frenchani about the episode, which more or less echoes my own thoughts on the topic. (No pun intended).

Go here if you wish to read her thoughts: http://frenchani.livejournal.com/364809.html

As frenchani and others on my correspondence list have adeptly pointed out, the one weak link in this episode may be the lead and co-producer/creator of the series, Eliza Dusku. That said, Whedon is adept at turning a solo/lead tv series into an ensemble without anyone noticing he's doing it except the audience who is watching it and commenting on it. He did it with both Buffy and Angel, two shows in which everyone but the cast, crew and network execs treated as an ensemble series. And he is doing it again here - ignore the credits, this episode focused on Topher, Adelle and Ballard far more than it did Echo. Echo was relegated to well an Echo - which actually suits Dusku's talents, she is a better supporting actress than lead. Or an echo. I'm guessing Whedon has figured that out and is playing with the concept. So in a way, maybe, Dusku, is the perfect person for the role.

I haven't seen the episode "Epitaph One" - so do not know where we are headed and do not really want to know - at least not at this point. I can guess though - it appears that Whedon has indeed grown bored of vampires, and is moving on to zombies...reminding me of a discussion I had recently with a friend.

CW: Everyone is so into vampires...but zombies! cool..
Me: Well vampires have hit the saturation point, I'm not sure there's anything new anyone can say about them. Zombies on the other hand, may be on the upswing..

Dollhouse is an interesting twist on zombies. As Anya in BTVS once stated: zombies don't eat brains or people. They do whatever the person who raised them demands them to do. They are at the beck and call of that creator. (Which is true - the actual folklore states they don't eat people, they do the bidding of the person who raised them - often in a voodu rite.) In Dollhouse - Whedon takes this a step further, and examines the relationship between creator and creation. Dollhouse is also to a degree a critique of the abuses of power seen within our own media and entertainment industries. The culpability of those who acquiesce to such manipulations, and the moral quandry of those who require them.
( major spoilers for Dollhouse - up to Episode 2.1, Vowes )

[As an aside, I noticed that Tara Butters and her writing partner had joined the writing team of Dollhouse. Butters was the producer and head-writer of Reaper. Whedon appears to be pulling talent from hit cult tv shows - such as BattleStar Galatica and Reaper.]

Dollhouse has been building lately, and I'm finding myself hoping it does get picked up for at least a second season. [ETA: Am tempted to tell you to forget this entry and read this instead: http://fresne.livejournal.com/152895.html?style=mine#cutid4 -
I liked fresne's take on Dollhouse more than my own. ]

Like Lost this week, Dollhouse played with perception, and how what we think we see or know, may not be true. [I haven't watched Sarah Connor Chronicles yet, because it has gotten really bleak and I'm trying to avoid things like that at the moment. House was bad enough. I was sobbing during this week's House, and last week's Sarah Connor just depressed me. Not shows you want to watch after you've lost your best friend.]

When this week's Dollhouse episode began, I found myself thinking, okay not another one of these - rewind episodes. I've lost count of how many tv shows have done the old "Twelve Hours earlier" or "Six Hours Earlier". It's headache inducing if done poorly, trippy if done well. Here it was, thankfully, done well. Also the always tricky muliple perspective tactic - we start with Echo...follow her for a bit, then rewind and go to November, follow her, then rewind and go to Sierra, follow her, then rewind again and go to Victor - follow him and finally back to Echo and real time. Another tactic that if done poorly gives the viewer a migraine, but if done well is rather cool.

Whatever happens to Dollhouse? Andrew Chambliss - the writer of this episode is someone I going to keep an eye on. So for that matter are Olivia Williams (Adelle), whomever is playing Sierra and whomever is playing Victor.

Here, Chambliss kept all his balls in the air and did not drop a single one. As did the three actors I mentioned above, who made the episode believable.
( spoilers below )

Brain is still a bit fried from work, I'm afraid. As I told J over dinner on Friday night, I find it hilarious that everything I do at work - are the subjects I sucked in at school. The research clerk at work asked me if I'd planned to be lawyer and contract administrator? Uh, no, I retorted. Actually, I'd planned on being a political analyst, a novelist, a folklorist, and an English Lit Professor. More or less in that order. In law school - I planned on becoming constitional lawyer or humans rights advocate. Life, alas, does not always turn out the way we plan.

[I deleted a rant about our educational system to spare the beleagured educators on my flist who have tolerated one too many of them from this journal and do not need to see yet another one. I appreciate how hard your jobs are, guys. There is a reason I'm not an educator.]

Decided not to do much this weekend. Ankle was killing me on Thursday and Friday. So as a result, when met J for Dinner, we decided to forgoe the movie and just watched Dollhouse at my place instead. Saw the doctor on Thursday - who took a look at the ankle, amongst other things:

Me: So this is my ankle, what do you think?
Doc: It looks really swollen. What did you do?
I tell him.
Doc: Severally sprained it. That will take a while to heal.
ME: How long?
Doc: oh, four to six months.
Me: Wait, FOUR TO SIX MONTHS??? I did it in Feb, it should be getting better...
Doc: it is. Just going to take a while to fully heal. Keep the brace you have on it, and continue using the cane...
Me: I have a velcro one for home use.
Doc: you don't need to use one at home, you can give it a rest at home. But you do need one to walk on it elsewhere. Because the stability is gone at the moment. It's wobbly. So really easy to re-sprain or retwist. The brace provides added protection.
Me: Should I be wearing the air cast?
Doc: no, the brace is enough.

Then he had someone take my blood. I told him my middle finger and area above my right eyebrow where I'd gotten the six stitches still hurt - he said that made sense, they would continue to hurt for a while. I probably had fractured the finger and banged my head badly to get the stitches. The stitches are gone and wound has healed. But it does throb. Particularly when it rains.

So...I stayed home today, knitted my niece a long purple scarf, and watched DAMAGES - eight hours worth saved on the DVR. I'm all caught up now. And just in time, since I think if I'd waited much longer the DVR would have automatically deleted them, just as it automatically deleted most of the episodes of Life on Mars that I'd saved on it for later viewing. Not upset about losing Life on Mars - wasn't that into the show to begin with. As a result, I now have the Damages theme song whistling through my brain. Not sure if anyone is watching this series? I think three people, all living outside the US, are. It's a weird show - appeals to me intellectually, but not emotionally. I don't really care what happens to any of the characters. Well, that's not entirely true - I care, but not...in the way one might think. At any rate - it's a show that appeals to me more on an intellectual than emotional level, except for the fact that there's an odd catharsis achieved in watching each of these nasty characters get their just desserts or attempt to destroy one another. Not a show I'll ever love, but one that I continue to be intriqued by.

Also watched Dollhouse twice. Interesting show Dollhouse. Weirdly plotted. We go five episodes with very little happening, just little hints here and there, then suddenly two episodes in which everything is revealed in a one-two-three punch. Whoaaa. Information overload, not to mention busy, jarring, and surreal. Wouldn't it have made more sense to sparse that out a bit over the space of the last five episodes? As opposed to packing it all into the past two? Don't get me wrong, very happy they finally decided to tell the audience what was going on, as opposed to teasing the audience. But, it may back-fire on them. TV viewers are a fickle prickly bunch, particularly in this day and age, when they have sooo many tv shows to choose from. (Although why people choose to watch reality tv shows continues to boggle my mind. I just do not understand the appeal of watching a bunch of icky people talk about themselves to the camera, but I'm not a fan of documentaries either for much the same reason.) That said, Dollhouse for a whole host of reasons I won't go into, continues to intrigue the heck out of me. It's weird though, much like Damages, in that it is appealing to me on an intellectual level not an emotional one. I feel oddly detached from it while I'm watching it, the opposite of what I felt when I watched Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Buffy engaged my emotions, Dollhouse...seems to disengage them, while at the same time engaging my intellect - much like a puzzle box or mathematical problem might.

My favorite line in this week's Dollhouse or the one that lit the little light bulb off in my head was Topher's rambling bit of dialogue regarding drugs. He states that it's fascinating how differently everyone reacts to drugs. How there are an infinitismial variety of variables, and we really can't predict how one person will react to a substance. No one reacts in the same way. Be it caffeine or hallucingentics. For example - you may take horse (pot) and go, uh, that's fine, doesn't do much for me, and never do it again. While I'll take it and it turns me on, I love it, best thing ever, and keep doing it, while he takes it and it's adios amigos.

So true. But not just in regards to drugs or food or caffeine. It's also true about culture, art, events, how we experience and perceive the world around us. It's why for example - one person may think it is perfectly logical to write the date MM/DD/YY and another think that is idiotic and why do people insist on doing it that way? Or why one person will adore Buffy the Vampire Slayer and write a whole book of essays on the series, while another switched it off after just two episodes, never to be seen again. Or why someone will addictively watch all the basketball games on tv this month leading up to the Final Four, and another will curse the tv stations for airing them during their favorite soap opera, even if said soap opera will resume once the games are completed.

Frustrating as it is that others do not necessarily share our views or perceptions or tastes or experiences, even more so when said interests conflict or get in the way with our own, it is ultimately what makes us unique individuals. Human. Not just part of a herd or hive. What we need to work on, all of us, constantly, is learning how to better tolerate people whose outlook is contrary to our own (within reason of course - you can't really tolerate someone who thinks its cool to chop off everyone's fingers or scream at the top of their lungs). Not only tolerating it, but appreciating and accepting and more accurately, I guess, respecting it, as an unique, and different point of view, that we just can't quite comprehend because we aren't them. I think that is very hard for us to do sometimes, because somewhere deep down in our DNA is the impulse to judge and critique others for not sharing our perspective, whether we are aware of it or not. So, by the same token, I think, we need to forgive one another for not always tolerating and/or respecting that other point of view, and more often than not foolishly and irrationally railing against it for occassionally making our lives annoyingly difficult.

[Disclaimer: This is an unedited, unproofed post, not betaed, and directly written into the little box on lj. If it is edited in any way - it was done so as I wrote it in said little box. There will be typos and grammatical errors. Also, the formatting on this thing makes me crazy - so the paragraphs may be off.]

For anyone out there who is having troubles keeping track of the names of the characters on this episode? Go here:

http://www.tv.com/dollhouse/gray-hour/episode/1235618/cast.html

I'd suggest googling it yourself, but I did that and got spoiled on the identity of Alpha or rather who is being cast to play Alpha.

Also here's the list of characters:
( spoilery - so cut for that )

The problem with this show is you need a map to keep track of the characters names. Which does not bode well for its survival. Also, it would help greatly if Walton, Ballard, Vitas, Lubov, and the guys Taffy was flirting with above - didn't all look alike - similar coloring, hair color and build. Lubov and theif 2 looked a bit too similar, and Ballard and thief one.The casting director must have a thing for tall, dark, and brooding men. I like them too, but this is ridiculous.

Note: if you have a convoluted plot, premise, and backstory - you do not want to add to the confusion. TV viewers by nature are not known to be patient. They tend to be fickle and after a tough day not to mention week at work? Don't want to work that hard on a Friday night to figure out a tv show. Particularly a tv show that has a disturbing and distasteful premise.

That's not to say I couldn't follow it - I did and I enjoyed it. But I also watched it on Saturday morning, after a decent breakfast, and a good night's sleep. Not on Friday, when I was spent - to the point that I was sort of nodding off, and could barely focus on much of anything. Also, I could rewind and rewatch if I so desired. Well not so much anymore, since I deleted it to make room for another tv show I'm recording on the DVR tonight. Most viewers don't necessarily fit into this category.

If you are waiting for the show to be less distasteful (or squicky)? It's not quite there yet. But, it is providing us with a bit more background on the premise, not to mention providing the lead character Echo with a bit more agency along with the other dolls. Each episode does to a degree feel like another pilot, but a more textured pilot in addition to the others. I'm told that this will end after the seventh episode - which makes sense, because that's what Whedon does with all of his tv series. The first seven episodes are sort of psuedo-stand alones that act as pilots for the series. The eighth kicks the back story in and the show suddenly takes off. This happened on Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Whedon is the type of tv show writer that you have to be patient with and allow time to build his story. He's not going to be brilliant out of the gate like Ron Moore or Abrahams. That said, as posted in my previous reviews of Dollhouse - this show asks a lot of its audience, far more than Firefly, Buffy, or Angel ever did. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on your pov.

( Dollhouse: The Gray Hour or otherwise known as Blue Skies- spoilery long review )

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 )