I’ve been really curious to see the new Fox series from Joss Whedon, Dollhouse, for quite some time. It seemed like a great concept and I’ve been a fan of Whedon’s stuff for a while. I never did get into Buffy, the series, but I did like the original movie quite a bit. I didn’t realize until recently that he was a part of Titan A.E., which I thought was a decent (though not great) effort at a more adult-oriented animated film. Firefly and Serenity I really liked, so again, when I saw the first trailer for Dollhouse, I was pretty jazzed.

I watched episode one online (it actually came across great on my PC with Fox’s HD video player). It stars Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) as Echo. She is one of several dolls, humans whose minds are erased and imprinted with whatever roles are necessary for a given client’s needs, be that a friend, a lover, an assassin, or what have you. The premise, in a nutshell, is that Echo, while out on assignments (called engagements by the Dollhouse staff), starts to become self-aware, and as she goes through successive engagements, receiving new imprints each time, she learns more and more about her own true, sullied past. We see a glimpse of that in the very first scene, as a conflicted, pre-doll Echo is signing up for a five-year stint at the Dollhouse, and as the story of the first episode plays out, we already see signs that the house of cards the operators of the Dollhouse have carefully constructed may be ready to tumble down around them.

The Dollhouse itself is filled with some interesting characters. The one in charge is Adelle DeWitt, played competently by Olivia Williams. She’s cold and confident, and her bottom line, it seems, is the mighty dollar and the interests of the company’s shareholders, no matter what might become of her dolls. They are resources, to be used in whatever way will gain the Dollhouse the most influence, money, or both. Playing the opposing role of conscience, it seems, is ex-police officer Boyd Langton (played by Harry J. Lennix). He’s Echo’s handler, and he has already plied his somewhat weak influence in the Dollhouse to help Echo. Surely more of this is in the offing. One can see Boyd helping Echo to eventually regain her memories. But to do this, he would not only have to oppose Adelle, but the scientist who seems a bit mad with his own power, Topher Brink (Fran Kranz). Topher is an interesting character, quick to free himself of his morals in his intense drive to play with the minds of these dolls, creating amalgams of various, recorded personalities to create whatever the clients of the Dollhouse needs. He is a master chef of sorts, pulling ingredients from various sources to create what he considers works of art. No matter that the canvas was once a human being with memories of her own. One assumes that each of the dolls was promised that they would eventually regain their memories, once their stint in the house was done (less the five years of their service, of course). One more major plotline is that of an ongoing investigation into the Dollhouse, which many in law-enforcement circles believe to be fictitious. One agent, Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), is on assignment full-time to find the Dollhouse and those that run it, so that (presumably) they can be brought to justice for kidnapping the dolls and wiping their memories (no matter what legal mumbo-jumbo they might have signed beforehand). Ballard’s got his hands full, because even while he struggles to complete his mission, those above him are trying to derail his efforts, thinking it a complete waste of time and resources.

I love the premise of the show. One can already see that the writers can play quite a bit with the morality of the dolls’ actions — do the ends justify the means? In the first episode, for example, Echo becomes a hostage negotiator, trying to regain a daughter for her very rich father. If she succeeds, then one might argue that in this one act the five years Echo gave up were worth it. But there’s the rub. On one engagement she might save a little girl, but on another she might assassinate a government agent. The characters Whedon has put in play make for a nice stew, a varied landscape of opposing goals that will make for a lot of rich plot possibilities.

But that’s only half the story, of course. What about the writing, the acting? Well, here it doesn’t live up to the promise of the premise. Dushku plays Echo faithfully, but her character in particular has a lot placed on her shoulders. She has to portray whatever Doll happens to be needed on her engagement. She came across to me like someone who was in above her head, acting-wise. She played the role, but not with any sort of authority. She’s a bit too doe-eyed in the face of the camera, a bit too stiff. I can suspend disbelief enough to let that go for an episode or two, but hopefully she comes into her own more as the series moves on. Fran Karnz as Topher had some of those same characteristics, though to me his character is a bit more interesting than Echo, so again, I hope that he can mature. Olivia Williams and Harry Lennix were the standouts. I think they’ll end up holding the show up for a time until the various threads begin to complicate one another and make for a more interesting soup.

The writing on the first episode was ok. (SPOILERS AHEAD) They placed Echo in the role of a high-priced hooker for her first on-screen engagement, and I fear that many of her engagements (at least the ones that are shown on the periphery of each episodes main plot) will be of this variety. They appear ready to show a fair bit of skin, perhaps to compete against the 18- to 35-year-old audience. I don’t mind that, per se, but I hope those engagements get pulled into the plot, rather than act as eye candy only. Echo’s second engagement, however, was as a hostage negotiator who was nearsighted and had asthma. From an acting standpoint, this was great, because it created a character that would bring something interesting to the table. From a plot standpoint, I think the way they went about resolving the hostage situation was weak (read: unbelievable). Echo’s personality was pulled together from various, disparate sources to create the perfect woman for this particular engagement. But as it turns out, one of those personalities was herself abducted when she was a child, driving her to become a hostage negotiator, and when it came time for the transfer of money-for-child, one of the abductors just happens to be the very man who abducted her when she was young. Could it happen? Sure. Would it happen? About one time in a gazillion. It set up an interesting dilemma — Echo’s new personality was having a very difficult time overcoming her fear to complete the mission — but it didn’t pass the bullshit test, and so from that point on, I was like: yeah, right.

I’m certainly willing to overlook a few faults. It’s nice to see some good science-fiction on TV, so I’ll be tuning in to Dollhouse for a few more weeks yet to see how it goes. I recommend that you do the same.