I Have Thoughts on Dollhouse

[lea_hazel]

So Dollhouse arrived in Israel not too long ago and at the behest of my brother, I've been watching it. I suspect my brother knows full-well that I'm more inclined to have negative feelings about the show than he is, but I haven't elaborated much due to bad experiences. About six months ago a close friend of mine started D/Ling DH and when she told me about it and I brought up my issues, we had a huge fight, and ever since then she's been treating my like "my feminazi bonerkilling buddy who hates everything I like and is out to harsh my squees." I've been burned, you guys.

Anyhow. I digress. I just finished watching 1.04 "Gray Hour" and I have thoughts!

There are fifty quintillion ways in which DH could have lived up to its premise of being more than a super-expensive whorehouse. So far, they have only been glimpsed. This frustrates me. I am not even a little bit interested in Girlfriend Experience fantasies, dude. The tiny little segment at the beginning of this ep of Echo being imprinted as a designer midwife is exactly what I want to see more of. Surrogate parent/child/sibling? The best friend you never had? The perfect therapist? Just off the top of my head, there are so many scenarios I'd like to see, but don't. I could go on.

I am also unamused by the fact that the DH clearly contains men, and the sexualization of men is clearly alluded to, and yet it's shunted off to the side. Meh. Enver Gjokaj and Tahmoh Penikett are too attractive to be so distressingly fully-clothed. And Harry Lennix has a sexy voice.

Um. I've read a bunch of spoilers since I was never expecting to watch the show, so I already know a bunch about the characters that hasn't been revealed. I don't remember all the details, but I'm assuming everyone who appears in more than one episode to be sekritly a doll, except possibly Annoying Dude (Topher?).

So far, Echo's handler is the only character I like, and so I am eagerly anticipating his being crushed to a fine, fine powder sometime soon. Anyone I like even a little bit either dies or becomes evil, often both. See: Felix on BSG. Dushku does a good "blank", although the production ups the "eerily fake serene" vibe of the DH too much, and the BGM and opening tune grate on my nerves. A lot.

Since I'm studying neuroanatomy now, and also reading a book about psychology and neuroscience that also deals with memory, the very first second episode makes the DH look incredibly sloppy. Not only do almost all of their engagements end in disaster, not only do they have a bunch of rogue dolls on their hands, Echo's little fist-to-shoulder move after winning the most dangerous game reveals that Asshole Dude who thinks he's a genius made a rookie mistake. Unless this is directly addressed in future episodes, I'm going to assume that after engagements, he wipes their hippocampus, but not their amygdalas (or at least not thoroughly). Basically, they retain the emotional traumas even if they lose the explicit memories of the events they caused them.

Anyway, I'm not sold, and not terribly sorry that the show was recently canceled. I'm interested to see what Whedon might come up with next, but I won't automatically watch it.

Comments

[marina]

Ugh yeah I saw so much about this in fandom I decided to give it a pass. And while I'm glad to have people I can bitch to about this IRL who will not react as your friend did, I also basically make sure to never ever get into these discussions with people before subtly probing their views (unless it's super important/I'll never see them again) because I don't want to have that kind of experience :( I'm sorry you did.

Also I am so saddened and unsurprised that the DH contains men and yet never sexualizes them in the same way.

[lea_hazel]

I mean, I've only seen a few episodes, but the background shots show men and women sharing showers and whatnot, but the boys don't get sent to dress up in stiletto heeled thigh high boots and play sexual fantasies with rich people. The only assignment they ever showed a male doll on was as a gangster trying to mislead the agent who's trying to chase them down. What if I want to see Enver Gjokaj in go-go boots?

[sandoz_iscariot]

the boys don't get sent to dress up in stiletto heeled thigh high boots and play sexual fantasies with rich people.

I hope I'm not being too spoilery, but yeah, there's a definite difference in the way male Dolls are dressed and depicted when they're sent out for sex and the female Dolls. Dollhouse could have been something much more than it is, but all it is is "that sexy human trafficking show" and I really have no more faith in Whedon as a feminist filmmaker.

[lea_hazel]

That's the impression I got from all the reviews I read. Plus "all the women who appear to have agency are all sekritly dolls."

[ex_pippin880]

People who try to argue that Dollhouse is ++feminist and not at all problematic skeeze me out more than the actual show does.

[lea_hazel]

Seriously. There are a thousand other shows no less skeezy that Dollhouse, and yet very few people try to argue that human trafficking is fine and dandy, as long as they're not made by Whedon.