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Info:
  • TV Series: Dollhouse
  • Episode: The Target
  • Starring: Eliza Dushku, Harry J. Lennix, Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett, Olivia Williams, Amy Acker,
  • Written By: Steven S. DeKnight
  • Directed By: Steven S. DeKnight
  • Network: Fox
  • Series: Dollhouse

Dollhouse: The Target

Echo looks for a bulls eye.

By Stephen Lackey     February 22, 2009


Eliza Dushku learning more deadly skills in DOLLHOUSE: THE TARGET(2009)
© Fox

 

Watching this week’s episode of Dollhouse brings back the old Firefly fears. This episode really should have been the first episode of the series. There was a little episode of Firefly in which the entire show was set up via flashbacks. The same sort of thing happened this week on Dollhouse. Throughout the current time events, flashbacks that detail the setup of the Dollhouse and the characters are cut in. Now, none of this happens as cleverly as it did in Firefly and that may define the core problem with this series. It just feels like Dollhouse is just not quite good enough compared both to current genre shows such as LOST and Battlestar Galactica, but also to Wheadon’s past efforts. Firefly and Buffy both displayed a clarity of vision that Dollhouse doesn’t yet have. When those shows started, they had the Wheadon stamp from word one. Again, Dollhouse is missing Joss’ signature in a lot of ways. It is a Wheadon show though, so it deserves some time to grow into something great. The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn’t compare to the ones that followed.
With all of that said, this episode does set a stronger path than the debut episode did. By the end of the episode, the characters are better defined and a bit a mystery is set up. The mystery was very subtly referred to last week but this week the pieces of the puzzle are laid out ready to be assembled. Dollhouse isn’t going to be as serialized as LOST or even Fringe, but there are a couple of underlying story arcs that will push the series forward. In fact, the little closing moment right before the credits was quite exciting.
This episode could have been called Hard Target Part 2 or Surviving the Game Part 2 because it featured the same sort of formula as those two films. Eco is given the mind of a thrill seeker to spend the weekend with a very wealthy man. After white water rafting, rock climbing, and a roll in a sleeping bag, this mysterious man reveals his true intentions; to hunt her. The primary story gets fairly simple from here on: she runs and he chases with a bow and arrow. The thing is that her personality features two brothers that weren’t Democrats so they taught her how to use a gun. The story isn’t overly clever or unique but it is fun and the reveals at the end stir the pot. It’s clear that Dushku is great in the action scenes and that she revels in doing them.
The flashbacks also play into the main mystery and the story of the week too. These flashback were the true meat of the episode and in the end were the most important parts of the hour. The show isn’t as good as it should be with Wheadon’s name on it but it has potential now that it didn’t have at the end of last week’s episode. So far, the show is very “fetishy” with Dushku scantly clad quite often and then in other scenes, talking like a baby. Alias did a good job of balancing these kinds of elements with solid storytelling so hopefully the writers behind Dollhouse have watched the first two seasons of that series. A Joss Wheadon penned and directed episode can’t come soon enough. The episode was entertaining and honestly it’s getting points for what it could be rather than what it currently is. This one is worth sticking with. It took The Sarah Connor Chronicles about four episodes to get good.
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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

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sportwarrior 2/22/2009 2:00:00 PM

Hey I used to use my sister's dollhouse as a target...

exalan 2/22/2009 4:27:40 PM

I think it deserves more than a B-....Everything about this episode was better than last weeks.  Give it time it will show you its real greatness.  Buffy took a full season to show us.  Just remember how great season 2 was. Obviously dollhouse doesn't have that much time but Whedon won't set it up to fail. Fox might but he won't.

Hobbs 2/22/2009 6:34:39 PM

Actually the first episode of Firefly that should have been shown was the first episode.  If you remember the network thought the 2nd more action packed episode should air first for that stupid reason.  The first episode of Firefly set up the show just fine.  It didn't fail because they didn' t show the flashback episode first...my God man...by the time that one aired we already knew the characters well enough that the flashbacks meant more.  Ugh...so many people have Firefly all wrong...lets not forget the studio wanted that thing to fail from the beginning what with running it during the baseball playoffs as well if I remember correctly.  Firefly would have been one of the greatest sci-fi shows to run if they would have let it continue.  You could have easily gotten 7 seasons out of it at least.

Jury is still out on Dollhouse but I think it's fun typical Joss fashion.  Problem is Joss has Fox as a studio doing this show again so it might last as long as Firefly did. 

snallygaster 2/22/2009 10:12:19 PM

Slight nitpick here... it's Joss Whedon not Wheadon.

This episode could have been called Hard Target Part 2 or Surviving the Game Part 2 because it featured the same sort of formula as those two films.

The basic plot format of a human hunting human prey has been around for quite some time, with the 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game usually credited as the origin. It's been adapted into movies for decades (starting in 1932, filmed on the same sets being used for King Kong). A number of tv shows have also made use of the plot, everything from Gilligan's Island to The Incredible Hulk. Heck, Whedon himself has already visited this plot (check out the "Slayerfest 1998" storyline in the Homecoming episode of Buffy).
 

That said, Dollhouse is not off to a great start, but given that it's a Whedon production, I'll give it more time to establish itself. I've never been disappointed by any of his series. Also great to see Amy Acker again.

audioslave69 2/22/2009 11:46:40 PM

I was also very happy to see Amy on the show , she is just sooo cute >.<.
Last time i saw her was on supernatural.
And about the show I dont think its gonna disapont I have faith in Joss.
By the way i saw a bio of buffy  on the history channel the other day it was an eye opener, i cant believe all the shit he hast to go throught with fox to keep his show.

mbeckham1 2/23/2009 7:17:54 AM

Definitely betterthan last weeks, thi whole Alpha thing as got me intruigued, onbviousy gonna be the arc fo the seaso if not series.  My theory is he somehow sensed she was a potential composite event ike him, and he's setting up these disasters to force her mind to edraw out previous imprints, including hallucinagence, llife and deasd=th situations her urent implnt wasn't preparred for and disabling her handler.  I wuld expect or hp that even last week's meeting with her previous implant's kidnapper was arranged by aAlpha causetherwise that would be just too much of a coincidence.  I think his ultimate goal s to recruite more like himself so they can set them up as a sort of master race lording over the ordinary unimprinted humans.

Ayway looking cool.  And Dushku has breen able to balance a different performance each week with something consistent.  The imahes of her otherselves was a really cool effect.  And I like her handler more and more.

 

Great to see Amy Acker, and great to see Penikett getting closer, and that Romo Lupin guy from Battlestar Galactca.  Is it me or has he been the heavy in just about everything lately.  Just in the last few weeks he was in Burn Notice, Leverage, and of course a year or so ago he was in Bionic Woman  in an imortant role and now he's here, in a role I suspect we'll be seeing again.  It's great too, cause he's cool actor. 

Great to see Amy Acker again.  Olivia Willuiams is still balancing the maybe she thinks she's ight, maybe she's Cruella Devill line quite nicely.  Love the Britis Accent.  Definitely worh sticking with.

 

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