First off, you should be watching Dollhouse on Fox. I'm as big a Joss Whedon fan as one can be without building a shrine and sacrificing farm animals, and I'm here to tell you: the man creates better episodic TV than anyone--including J.J. Abrams.(I tried watching Fringe. I tried really hard. I even held my thumb over Joshua Jackson's face whenever it appeared onscreen to diminish the lameness he brought to the series. But you know what was missing from Fringe? That special Whedon touch.*)
I've heard fair-weather critics express doubt over what Whedon is doing in his latest production; that Dollhouse's premise is shaky and flies in the face of the strong-female-lead work he's done in the past. Because that's what it seems like with--what?--three episodes in the can.
But to those folks, I'll humbly point out that Mr. Whedon has always been a dude who writes toward an ending. He's got an entire mythology mapped out, and after seven seasons of Buffy and five of Angel, you should be ashamed of yourself if you think there's not more going on in the D-house than just hot babes serving as escorts.
I see the seeds being planted, and each episode has been better than the last. Were I the speculatin' type, I'd say we're witnessing Eliza Dushku's "Echo" about to go rogue from her mind-wiping overlords, and the show's premise will actually center around her bringing the Dollhouse down.
Watch last week's episode, "Stage Fright," over on Hulu, and tell me how it compared to any other hour-long drama you've been a slave to. Watch it for no other reason than to see what Echo does to an arrogant pop star with a folding chair. (I watched that scene three times, wishing the same for Beyoncé.)
The second reason for today's post is to let you know that my habits have changed recently. I'm gonna use a Revolutionary Road analogy to explain.
I like DiCaprio. I like Winslet. I like Mendes. But it'll be a cold day in hell when you catch me wasting my time on Revolutionary Road. I watch movies and read comics because of the escapism factor.
The world is a scary place right now. I know people who have lost--or are threatened with losing--their entire careers in the worst economic climate in a long time.
The day I choose to watch a movie about two beautiful people whining about their "horrible" jobs and abandoned dreams, rather than popping in Hellboy II on DVD, is a sad goddamn day indeed. (Perhaps one day I'll make an exception and watch Revolutionary Road and United 93 and maybe a little Old Yeller. Then I'll take a candlelit bath and pop in Pink Floyd The Wall on the CD player. Sure. I'll be just fine.)
That's a very long way of saying that I've been reading and writing other stuff. Escapist stuff. I'm still committed to the Block, of course. More than likely, what you'll see popping up here in the future will be movie and book reviews. (Possibly on deck in the weeks ahead: The Midnight Meat Train and Watchmen.)
If you've been paying attention these past few months, you've already been clued in on where to find my other projects.
If you haven't been paying attention, may I suggest a Joshua Jackson film marathon. Anything from 1998 to 2005, keeping in mind he peaked with Cursed.
* For example, Whedon would've killed off Josh Jackson within six episodes--just for the shock value. And he would've done it in a particularly nasty way that would've made me scream, "Take that! Fuckin' Pacey sack of shit!"
