Sliding down on a crazy carpet ([info]ladylakira) wrote,
@ 2009-05-12 09:57:00
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Entry tags:dollhouse

Dollhouse
The last episode of Dollhouse has confirmed my belief that the show's greatest weakness is in insisting that Echo is the main character. At first, I thought it might have been Dushku's acting, which reminds me too much of Faith. Then again, that could have been my own failing. Still, looking at what they've written for Echo, I can't say that she's very engaging. The episodes that I liked the best are the ones where she's kind of just another cast member and other characters get spotlight time. It's the same problem I had with Repo: the Genetic Opera.

I do hope that the show isn't cancelled, but it's not for Echo. It's for Victor and Saunders and Topher and Ballard and DeWitt....


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[info]troubleinchina
2009-05-13 03:20 am UTC (link)
When I first heard that line, it pissed me off. But probably not on purpose.

The part that didn't piss me off was the ambiguity of it all. Did Topher actually program Dr Saunders/Whiskey to hate him? Did the original Dr Saunders hate him, and Topher didn't know? Did Whiskey-the-Active hate him, and Topher didn't know, and that's bleeding into the Saunders-persona? Did Whoever Whisky Was hate him? Was there a relationship there? Lots of ambiguity, and places for folks to play.

What pissed me off was that it highlighted (for me) that Saunders' responses to her scarring either were or could have been programmed by Topher. He could have written her to not care about her scars, to view them the same way I view my crooked pinkies. He could have programmed her to see them as survival in battle - that she "lived" when others died - and seen them as honourable. He could have programmed her with anything in reaction to those scars.

Instead, she thinks everyone treats her with pity.

We see no one in the show treat her with pity. No one ever responds to them except Echo in the very first episode, and then it's with a bit of confusion. So what is she reacting to?

Since I first watched the scene, I've come up with ways of explaining this line the work for me - she's obviously going through the process of realising she's a doll, and she was "shelved" for being "broken". She's irritated at Viktor's reactions, especially when she's stressed. There's a lot that could explain that.

But my very first response was "Did it occur to anyone in this show that there's more ways to look at scars than as pity-inducing?"

... Yeah, I'm on this obsession with disability in the media lately. Ask me about Mulan's father using a cane some time.

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[info]ladylakira
2009-05-14 12:04 am UTC (link)
I'm finding that people are really coming to Dollhouse (when they aren't wandering off in boredom) with their own... agendas? It's like people who are watching it are watching with a more critical eye than normal. Admittedly, part of this is likely due to the show's periods of meh, where some people (like me) start to look critically at it just for something to do and to stay entertained.

I will note in passing that while Topher could have gone to the trouble to program Whiskey to view her scars as honourable etc, I don't see that as an in-character action at all. It's been established that the process isn't an exact science so some things are there no matter what the personality builder is aiming for. It can be assumed that he was aiming for a competent doctor (and may have just lifted Saunders' personality wholesale, with minor mods so that Saunders won't freak at suddenly being a doll, and female, no less). It is not a stretch of the imagination that Whiskey's reaction to her scars is a reaction that would be shared by a large number of women. Plus, it makes it less likely that she'll want to leave the Dollhouse.

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