closing the Dollhouse

I follow Eliza Dushku on Twitter and this morning, she tweeted that it was the last day of shooting on "Dollhouse". That made me sad.

Later in the day, she posted this picture of the wrap lunch. That was so cool that they had the wrap party actually inside the house. It's an absolutely gorgeous set. I'm so sad thinking about it being struck. That beautiful house, all turned to rubble.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the shows and seeing where Joss takes it.

"Dollhouse" of cards comes tumbling down

Joss Whedon's new show about programmable people, "Dollhouse", was barely picked up for a second season, but before lunch today, I got Variety's alert that the show had been officially cancelled.

The news wasn't good when the show was pulled for November sweeps, but hope remained that the show would survive. However, the ratings haven't been great, DVR numbers notwithstanding, and the show will be allowed to complete its 13-episode run, and all the episodes are expected to be aired on television before the presumed DVD release of the second season.

I'm sad that the show will be done soon, but I am glad that they at least got the extra 13 episodes. Without that, we would never have seen the amazing Jonathan Frakes-directed episode showing how Priya/"Sierra" came to be in the dollhouse.

Joss has a little time to decide how he wants to wrap the series. We'll have the two seasons of episodes on DVD. And we'll always have "Epitath 1".

"Dollhouse" - season two

I was really excited when it was announced that "Dollhouse" would be coming back for another season. It was iffy as to whether or not that would happen, so the news of the renewal was good news indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing what Joss Whedon has in store this year. There's been some exciting news about what might be happening this year as well as guest stars, not to mention that Summer Glau is coming on board in a recurring role. Hot Chick Friday Nights will just be combined into one show now rather than spread out over two. I'm especially looking forward to seeing how they bring November/Mellie back since Paul Ballard secured her release last year.

I'm following Eliza Dushku on Twitter, and she periodically tweets about the show, so I've enjoyed hearing bits and pieces. She obviously can't tweet about story or anything like that, so I don't have to worry about spoilers.

The new season starts on Friday, September 25, so only a few more weeks to go. Recently, I saw a billboard advertising the show. I particularly like the tagline.





One question I would like answered this year - let's see Foxtrot. We know Whiskey is a female, and we've gotten a glimpse of Tango, who was female. I think I expect Foxtrot to be female - it would sound weird as a man's name.

one fewer hot chick on Friday night

So this week is the "upfronts", where the networks announce their schedules for next year. Fox announced their schedule on Monday, and while rumours had swirled over the weekend, Monday morning brought confirmation that "Dollhouse" had indeed been picked up, albeit only for another 13 episodes to start with. Hopefully, the audience will build, and they'll order the rest of the season. I'm really excited about that because while some questions were answered with the season finale, there are still lots of questions that haven't been answered, and there's so much more to be learned about everyone. I wonder what they're going to do with Victor, and how Dr. Saunders is going to be now, and most important of all, will they bring November back? I sure hope so.

A friend posted this link to an interesting story about "Dollhouse".

But then there was the bad news. As had been rumoured now for quite some time, no renewal was forthcoming for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". I'm sad about that because I really enjoyed the show, and they really went out with a bang. I wonder if they knew they weren't coming back when they made the finale. Most of the major loose ends were tied up, and they would have embarked on a new set of stories, so at least it was a good enough place to end.


On a related note, the same friend posted this link which has a running count of the status of television shows on all the networks.

Paley Fest "Dollhouse" panel - April 15, 2009

The Paley Center For Media (formerly known as the Museum of Television and Radio) hosts an event called Paley Fest every year. For a period of about two weeks, they do events each night highlighting a different television show, with people from the show in attendance. The events are all held at the Arclight Theatre's Cinerama Dome. I'm not sure how long they've been held there or where they were held previously - maybe at the Center itself?

Tickets are first available to members and then non-members, and members also get a discount. In prior years, most of the nights are sold out fairly quickly, so I was surprised to learn that tickets were still available for some nights. The two shows I wanted to go to were "Dollhouse" and "The Big Bang Theory". Unfortunately, the panel for "The Big Bang Theory" is on a night when I already have plans, so I was sorry it wasn't on a different night so I could go. Initially, I didn't think I'd be able to go to the "Dollhouse" one either. But then, there were rumblings about the season finale not being shown (more info about that later) and uncertainty about whether the show would be around next year, so I figured if I didn't go to this, I might not have the chance again. So we decided to go after all.

Ticketing is divided into two sections. Section one is the first five rows in the theatre. Section two is the rest of the theatre and about $15 cheaper. I had considered getting the front section, but that section was already sold out. In the end, I'm glad I got the second section. It had occurred to me that the difference between sitting in the last row of section one and the first row of section two was $15, which didn't seem like a good deal.

I got to the theatre, got my parking validation (normal validation for seeing a movie is $2 for the first 4 hours, but for special events, it's $3 for the first 4 hours) and then headed inside. I didn't see the rest of my party yet and looked around at the bottom section, but it seemed mostly full. I then noticed the upper level section and found three seats in the first row, just about dead center, which were unoccupied. Perfect. Great view, especially since it was higher than the front section, so I didn't have to worry about looking over someone's head. Don't need section one tickets. A friend joined me shortly thereafter, and then the husband arrived a bit later.

The night was a lot of fun. I'm glad we decided to go after all. In attendance were Joss, two of the show runners whose names I don't know but both are female, Eliza, and the actors who play Topher, Sierra and November. The actors playing Victor, Boyd and DeWitt had been scheduled to be there, but there must have been a change of plans.

Oh, before the panel, they showed a little clip of a "Twilight Zone" episode about a dollhouse. Then they showed the "Needs" episode of the show - the one where Echo, Victor, Sierra and November are allowed to go off their meds. It was really interesting to see the episode on the big screen. And I also caught a bunch of stuff I didn't catch the first time around.

People may have heard about the whole "13th episode" controversy, so Joss gave an update on that. "Dollhouse" is produced by Fox and shown on Fox, but studio Fox and network Fox are different. Network Fox didn't like the original pilot for the show that was produced, so Joss ended up making a second pilot, and most of the original pilot has been or will be cannibalized into the various episodes. Network Fox asked for 13 shows, but since there were two pilots, that meant they only needed 11 actual episodes. Episode #12 is going to be the season finale, and Joss made it that way. However, studio Fox needed 13 episodes for foreign sales and DVD sales, so they went to Joss and wanted him to do some kind of 13th episode to complete their packages. They asked about a clip episode, which Joss deemed as "lame". The 13th episode is a sort of stand-alone episode that is supposed to be quite odd and different and includes a bunch of other people, though there is footage of the regular dollhouse folks as well. Network Fox doesn't currently have plans to show the 13th episode since their 13 episode order commitment will have already been filled by #12 as the season finale, but Joss says they are considering showing it after all. No final decision has been made yet.

Joss also says that while he's not been given any word about continuing the show next season, he actually has some hope that they'll get that chance. Ratings have been just ok, but he said the demographic is good and the studio likes the show. Joss sounded very excited about the show and said that there were a lot of stories he still wanted to tell. He did say that the remaining episodes are absolutely killer, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

The moderator asked the people on the panel various questions, and then they opened it up to some questions from the audience.

Highlights that I can remember:

I thought the crowd was going to riot when a guy who was asking a question addressed "Josh", and when the crowd reacted, he had no idea why they were reacting that way. Bad place to get his name wrong, dude.

Someone asked if there were only 26 actives since they're using the military alphabet. Joss said they can have more than that, and that the same "name" can be used more than once - he said something about maybe revealing info about the prior Sierra and what happened to her, since the present Sierra was made in the first show.

The actress playing November said that the sleep pods were actually quite comfy. That led to a question about which room on set was the favorite of each person. Eliza said it was the crafts room and then mentioned something else as Joss was miming the drawing-your-finger-across-your-throat move so she'd stop talking about it since it's from an episode that hasn't aired yet. The actor playing Topher joked that his favorite is the lab since that's where he always seems to be. He did say he likes Dr. Saunders' office.

Someone asked how the original pitch meeting went, and Joss said it actually went quite well. He had six years of story arcs mapped out at the time to show them.

Joss said that none of the episodes were shot in order, so oftentimes, he'd have to give the actors a cheat sheet to tell them what their characters knew at that point in time and what information the actors already knew but the characters didn't because those events hadn't happened in the show timeline yet.

The actress playing November said that she was excited when she first read the script that revealed November as an active. She said she had to keep it all a secret from her friends and family and just told them that her character might just be making lasagna for now, but other stuff was coming down the line.

They were talking to the actor who plays Topher (who was much more Topher-like than I expected him to be), and he said that he really just wanted a very mundane scene for Topher, like Topher shopping at the grocery store. And he'd just be walking down an aisle, and he'd look up, and Ballard would be shopping in that same store, on the same aisle. Ballard wouldn't know who Topher was, but Topher would freak at seeing Ballard. Everyone laughed at this story, and the husband and friend who I was there with and I all figure that if there's a second season, Joss is so going to fit that in somewhere.

It was funny to see Joss dressed really casually, and then sitting right next to him was Eliza in this low-cut but cute sequined short dress. The spotlight was on the stage, so she was like a disco ball - really hard not to notice her. She looked great.

After the panel was over, quite a number of the people in the audience rushed toward the stage, and they all stayed around for quite some time, signing autographs and having their pictures taken.

The Paley Fest panel nights are actually kind of expensive, but it was definitely worth going to this one.

"Dollhouse" - February 13, 2009 episode

Caroline nervously paces the room, as she has to make a very difficult decision that she doesn't want to make. Something has happened, and one of the ways she can get out of it is to volunteer for a program, and after five years, she'll be done and free.

Next, two mopeds are shown racing through the streets, and as the two veer off, one driver ends up crashing the bike to the ground, and it's revealed that Caroline (who we later learn is now called Echo) is that driver. She picks the bike up and catches up to the other driver, racing through Chinatown and into a sort of restaurant/club with a big banner that says "Happy Birthday, Matt". It turns out that the other driver is the birthday boy himself, and the two continue to have fun at the party. Echo is in this very, very short white dress, (yeah it's barely-legal short), but she looks amazing in it, dancing with Matt. He goes to get them a drink, and Echo ends up leaving the party and getting into a black van. She is taken away to a compound where she tells people that she may have found the guy, and she's trying to figure out if she should go back to the party after her treatment.

However, her treatment is actually a mind wipe, as we see a rewind of all the memories they're stripping from her. It turns out that Matt had paid for a weekend of fun with her, and we see how they met and what their weekend entailed. After she left the party, one of Matt's friends asked where she was, and Matt made a Cinderella reference about the clock striking midnight (metaphorically since the friend confusedly pointed out that it was 5am at the time), but Echo's transformation back to her old self is very different than Cinderella's.

After the treatment, Echo has a blank look on her face and doesn't remember anything that's happened. She's taken to see a doctor, who arranges a massage for her, but while she's waiting, her attention is caught by flashing lights, and she goes upstairs to investigate and sees a girl (who is a new recruit being mapped) strapped to a table with gadgets all around her. The tech who wiped her mind notices her and ushers her out, trying to come up with an explanation of what she saw.

We learn that Echo is an "active", someone who has had their own personality and memories completely wiped and who is imprinted with the memories and personality of whatever type of person is needed and requested by the company's clients. But none of them seem to know what's going on or that their memories aren't real, so I wonder why they all think they live in this big house. Really nice set, by the way.

Some kind of big-shot executive is shown talking to his daughter (she's supposed to be 12, but she looked younger than that to me) at home, but as soon as she hangs up, she is subdued by strangers and kidnapped. The man shows up at the Dollhouse offices and says that he just wants someone to facilitate the ransom exchange - he doesn't want the people caught or brought to justice, he just wants to pay the money and get his daughter back. Echo gets this task and arrives at the man's house. He is uncomfortable with the way she is handling the conversations with the kidnappers, to the point that when she says she knows what she's doing because she's been doing this for years, he laughs derisively at her since he knows that she's simply an active. He knows he's not supposed to reveal to her that she's an active, but he makes a cryptic comment about whether or not she was a clown or something else the previous day, which confuses her and which makes her flash on her imprintation process, which disorients her.

A meeting is arranged on the docks, and the money is being taken away by the head kidnapper's men but suddenly, something goes wrong with Echo and she collapses. When the client asks what's wrong, she says not to let them all get on the boat. The deal had been that when the money was on the boat, they would release his daughter. Echo says they have no intention of releasing the girl. When the client tries to stop the last man, the client ends up getting shot, and the kidnappers get away with the money and the girl.

Echo is picked up by the van, and she's talking what sounds like nonsense. But then it's revealed that her imprint personality was a kidnap victim, and one of the men she saw on the docks was one of the who kidnapped her, which is what caused her breakdown. She is determined to track them down to save the little girl, right after her treatment. The word "treatment" seems to be a trigger that works with the actives. Echo's Watcher...ummm...I mean...Handler figures out what's going on and tries to get them not to wipe her memory just yet because Echo is the key to finding the little girl. The tech nerd who's been wiping minds turns out to be one of the people who developed the system, and there's some discussion about the ethics of what they're doing and whether they're simply providing a service or engaged in something more sinister. The imprints come from a composite of multiple personalities, and one of the personalities used for this particular character had been abused as a child and had never gotten over it, having killed herself within the past year. The handler manages to convince them not to wipe Echo's mind yet, so they set out to find the kidnappers. Based on her phone conversations with the kidnappers and what the little girl had said when she was on the phone with her father, Echo figures out that one of the kidnappers knows the little girl and is probably one of her teachers. When a suspect is identified, they head to the suspect's sister's secluded cabin.

Echo is dropped off and knocks on the door, and they eventually let her in. She tells the other men that they're not going to get anything out of this because the one man is going to kill them all, and that he wants something more than money, namely, the little girls. She explains exactly what the man is going to do and what he has done, killing his partners, taking the little girls, abusing them and then dumping them for dead, and she confronts him and tells him to his face that she's not afraid of him anymore. As the men engage in a firefight, she goes to rescue the little girl. The man who had been the abuser is killed, and the others are letting her leave, but then the door explodes in, and a team from Dollhouse, including the new recruit she'd seen earlier, take out the rest of the men and recover all the money and will remove all evidence. The client is still alive and will be happy to get his daughter back.

This time, Echo's mind is thoroughly wiped, and the girls lay down in recessed beds that are about the size and shape of a coffin with a glass cover overhead. Weird sleeping setup.

Meanwhile, an FBI agent has been trying to track down the Dollhouse, something that seems more like a rumour and myth than reality, but he's convinced it's real. He takes measures to get more information about the location of the Dollhouse. At the end, someone is sending a picture presumably to the FBI agent, and it's a picture of Echo. The person is also watching a video of Echo when she was Caroline while two people lay dead behind him. I don't really understand this part, but based on the previews for the next episode, the husband is speculating that the man watching the video is Alpha, a rogue active (since all the actives seem to be named after the phonetic alphabet), and the dead people are Caroline's parents.


There were parts of the story that I found to be a bit confusing, but overall, I really enjoyed the show. I liked the marked difference in Caroline and Echo - whereas Caroline was frazzled and nervous and jumpy and looking worried and concerned, Echo is cool and polished and calm, almost to the extent where she would probably fit right in if she decided to move to the town of Stepford. The imprinting idea also has a bit of the Stepford Wives feel to it, although in that case, they didn't just replace the personalities, but rather, the entire being. However, the FBI guy did say that getting rid of the personalities is a kind of murder in and of itself.

They've set up the question of Echo's past, what happened that led her there. And that also makes you wonder what the backstory is for all the other people there. And why do they all think they're there, living there, sleeping in weird quarters and not even questioning how weird that is, and what exactly do they think they're getting treatment for?


Much of the advertising that I've seen has focussed on Eliza Dushku with mannequins, which I think is a good representation. Mannequins are a clean slate (and Caroline doesn't think a clean slate can be possible), and you can dress them up to be and look like whatever you want, to suit whatever you need. That's the same for the actives - they're clean to start with each time and then they're dressed up through imprintation.


Echo and the mannequins, instead of the bunnymen


Echo in the mind-wipe chamber with her handler and tech.


I really liked Eliza Dushku, who played all the different aspects of her character, or multiple characters. I know her a little from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but I got into Buffy late in the game, so I've only seen some of Eliza's appearances on that show. I can see why she'd be interested in this role since she will be mostly playing a different character every week because of the imprints and yet still be building the character of Echo as time goes by. The variety of challenges will be like it was for Scott Bakula on "Quantum Leap", but in this case, she will actually be playing different characters every week, not one character pretending to be different people every week.


Because the debut of "Dollhouse" was right after the return of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on its new night, they had little vignettes of Eliza Dushku and Summer Glau talking about the two shows and each of their characters. It's funny that they're packaging the two together. Even one of Eliza's publicity shots as Echo resembles a publicity shot of Summer as Cameron.


Eliza Dushku as Echo

Summer Glau as Cameron

Another publicity shot of Summer Glau as Cameron, showing Cameron's terminator roots.

Summer Glau, in a picture that better shows how pretty she is.


So, yeah, I know Summer is pretty, and she's pretty hot too, but in the vignettes with the two of them, Eliza looked so much prettier. Sorry, Summer, you're pretty, and you're hot, but Eliza is just smokin'. Yeah, I'm jealous.


I was surprised to see another familiar face - Amy Acker, whose name the husband recognized, but I didn't until I saw her on screen as the doctor attending to Echo - she played Fred in "Angel". I'd only really watched the last season of that show. She's not included in the cast pictures I've seen online, so I'm not sure how big her role is, but they've certainly set her up as an intriguing character because of the scars on her face.


I'm looking forward to seeing more of the show, and Hot Chicks Night on FOX looks like it's gonna be terrific.

the 13th

This year, there are three months in which the 13th day of the month happens to fall on a Friday. Some people view such days to be indications of bad omens. I'm just discovering that those days for me are indications of very busy weekends.


Friday, February 13, 2009

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" returns from its hiatus to a new night, moving from Monday to Friday. The last episode before the break was a bit odd, so I'm interested to see where the story is going to go. And TV Guide online's description of this week's episode indicates the appearance of a particular character, which I'm interested in, but I'm also interested in seeing the person portraying that character.





This Friday also sees the debut of Joss Whedon's new show called "Dollhouse". I don't know much about it, but I love the look of the billboard ads I've been seeing as well as the tagline: "She can be anyone, except herself." And hey, I became a Joss fan with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and I also like Eliza Dushku, so I'm looking forward to seeing the show.





On the theatrical side, this Friday will mark, appropriately enough, the release of the remake "Friday the 13th". Yep, Jason reigns again. I'm not a huge horror fan, but not because I don't like them. I just have a really hard time not getting scared out of my mind by them, so because I often have trouble handling the really bad ones, I don't see many of them. But I have seen a number of films in the "Friday the 13th", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Halloween" series, and the trailer for this new version of Jason's journeys actually looks really good. The husband wants to see the movie, so I've decided I'm going with him. He has agreed that we'll go to a daytime showing, as I hope that will give me time to get over the movie before it starts to get dark. And yes, I'll be bringing Teddy, who is probably going to have his head severely mangled.


Friday, March 13, 2009

The movie "Race to Witch Mountain", a remake of the original "Escape to Witch Mountain", will be released that day, and we already have our tickets for a screening at the El Capitan Theatre. I loved the original (though I don't remember much about it anymore), and the trailer for the new film looks great, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Also released that day is "Sunshine Cleaning", which I became interested in after seeing the trailer. I believe the film is opening in limited release that day, so I may not get a chance to catch it that weekend.

That may also be the weekend we drive out to Hemet for the day to see a Disney exhibit, though we're not set on which weekend to go yet.


And what about Friday, November 13, 2009? Well, we don't have anything definitely planned yet, but that day might very well be in the middle of a week of us vacationing in town, but it's too early to know for sure yet.

2008 fall television season

Since today is Labor Day, that means it's September, and September means that the start of the new fall TV season is imminently upon us. Here's a run-down of the shows that I plan to be watching this year, which means, unless I get another really bad case of writer's block when it comes to TV shows, these are the shows I will be blogging about.


America's Toughest Jobs - Monday, 9pm, NBC - I really don't need another reality show to watch, but the previews for this show intrigued me enough to watch the first episode. I like that this show isn't just about made-up challenges - the challenges are actual jobs that the contestants have to do, and these aren't run-of-the-mill desk jobs. The first episode involved going out on crabbing boats and being on the water for 24 hours with very few breaks and amazing swells and lots of heavy ropes and cages to lift and sorting through crabs and just a ton of work. It definitely made me appreciate all the work that crabbers have to go through, and it made me annoyed with the people who just wouldn't do the work. I did think it was funny that the person on each team who did the best was a woman, especially since some of the guys had been smack-talking about how it was hard work and it was no place for girls to be. Yeah, dude, shut up and just do the work. They've shown previews of the other jobs/challenges that will be coming up, so I'm looking forward to seeing more.

90210 - series premiere Tuesday, Sept. 2, 8pm, CW - I loved the old "Beverly Hills 90210" show, so I'm going to give this new show a shot. I'm not sure I'm still going to be interested in high school antics, but we'll see. If nothing else, I have to see what they do with Kelly's and Donna's characters.

Kitchen Nightmares - season premiere Thursday, Sept. 4, 8pm, Fox - I have to remember not to eat while watching this show, or at least not look at the screen too closely, but I like this alternate side of Gordon Ramsay. The first episode, showing this week, is supposed to revisit some of the restaurants featured on previous shows, to see what has happened to those restaurants since the shows aired. That should be interesting to see.

Hole in the Wall - series premiere Sunday, Sept. 7, 8pm, Fox - This is the American version of the Japanese show Human Tetris. I've been looking forward to seeing this, though I'm not actually sure how long it's going to be able to retain my interest since the games will be fairly repetitive. But maybe watching people trying to contort themself without having to think too hard about the show might be a nice weekly break.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - season premiere Monday, Sept. 8, 8pm, Fox - I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the new season of this show. The end of last season was quite explosive, literally, so I want to see how they explain some of the new developments.

Fringe - series premiere Tuesday, Sept. 9, 8pm, Fox - I'm not entirely sure what the show is about, and I haven't even really seen a trailer for the show, but seeing the billboards has intrigued me. I'm not particularly in the J.J. Abrams fan club, but I'm curious enough to give this show a try.

The Big Bang Theory - season premiere Monday, Sept. 22, 8pm, CBS - I'm looking forward to seeing the show this season, to see where they take the Penny/Leonard thing, and to hopefully see them build on the great start from last year. This is my only sitcom this year, so I need it to provide me with lots of laughs.

Heroes - season premiere Monday, Sept. 22, 9pm, NBC - They've already told us what to expect this year by subtitling the show "Villains", and apparently, Nikki isn't so much dead. I didn't think last season was as good as the first season, but I'm still liking the show, and the previews look great.

Knight Rider - series premiere Wednesday, Sept. 24, 8pm, NBC - I enjoyed the movie earlier this year, so I'm glad the show got picked up. Go, Justin Bruening! Looking forward to seeing this show.

Survivor: Gabon - season premiere Thursday, Sept. 25, 8pm, CBS - I've been watching the show now since the end of the first season, but I actually haven't decided whether I'm going to be watching this season. I've gotten a little tired of it, so it will probably be a matter of whether the previews interest me and if the first couple of episodes make me invested enough to keep watching. Sometimes, the people are just too stupid and aggravating to me for me to enjoy the show.

Desperate Housewives - season premiere Sunday, Sept. 28, 9pm, ABC - Since the new season continues the five-years-ahead jump that ended the last season, I'm interested in seeing what all the new developments are, especially since Edie didn't leave like I thought she had.


There are two other shows that I'm looking forward to seeing, but they won't be on for a while.

24 - Yes, the stupid writers' strike meant that last season didn't happen at all, so I have to wait until January 2009 for the new season to start, though there's supposed to be a movie in November, I think. Need to see Jack Bauer again!

Dollhouse - The show isn't currently on Fox's schedule, but it's expected to start airing probably sometime in January. The premise sounds interesting, and I like both Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku, so I've definitely got to give the show a try.


These are the shows that I'll be watching, and here's an article that has the season/series premiere dates for all the returning and new fall TV shows so you can find the ones you're interested in.