Dollhouse Falls Asleep for the Last Time
FOX
No one could say they didn't see this coming, but The Hollywood Reporter says it's official: Dollhouse has been canceled. Fox, it reports, will finish running the rest of the 13 episodes of season 2.
Whenever a show with an intense fan base gets axed, there is wailing and gnashing and second-guessing. This is an especially hallowed ritual with Fox, which fans seem to believe airs great shows like Arrested Development (for three seasons) just for the cruel pleasure of later canceling them.
But though I'll miss Dollhouse, and though I risk the wrath of the Internet, I'll say it: Fox gave it as much of a chance as it reasonably could have.
Don't get me wrong. I liked Dollhouse. I often loved it. And when I didn't love it, I loved what it was trying to do. It was the kind of very ambitious storytelling that TV should be encouraging. Through a difficult (maybe fatally flawed) premise, Joss Whedon told a complex story about the nature of consciousness and human (especially female) exploitation, and he did it in the framework of situations and characters far more morally ambiguous than any TV outside a few cable channels usually allows.
But the show had its shot, and then some. Yes, Fox meddled too much early on. The first several episodes of the show forced a case-of-the-week procedural format on it that didn't really fit. But it got a promotional campaign to rival Barack Obama's general election. It got a second-season order with one of the lowest ratings for any renewed broadcast show ever. And once it found its voice, Fox committed to it and, apparently, let it be the show Whedon envisioned.
Fans didn't like that the show was put on Friday nights, which is not exactly the biggest night of network TV. But (1) Friday has been a destination for sci-fi shows (e.g., BSG) for years, (2) that didn't stop reruns of House and Bones from pulling bigger Friday ratings than Dollhouse originals, and (3) look—something has to go on Friday nights.
TV history is full of great shows that have been traduced by the networks that put them on: Freaks and Geeks was misunderstood and jerked around by NBC, and Whedon's Firefly had a legitimate grievance, with episodes run out of order and its pilot rescheduled and chopped up.
But fair's fair. I'll hammer networks when they make dumb choices and screw over shows, but let's give them credit when they give a decent shot to a risky show. Dollhouse had runs of brilliance. It also had a hugely challenging premise (getting viewers to identify with characters who were mind-wiped every episode—which it nonetheless largely pulled off), a lead who didn't have the versatility her role required, and some basic problems of credibility (why would clients keep hiring the Dollhouse when its assignments so often went so horribly wrong?).
For all that, it did remarkably well. But it just didn't happen this time. I'm at peace with that, but if you're not—at least let me know what novelty items you plan on mass-mailing to the Fox offices.
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1
Frankly, Fox gave Dollhouse enough of a chance last year - these 10-13 episodes (supposedly all 13 will be produced, but we'll see) are simply a bonus season that neither the show nor we deserve - but I'm thankful for ('tis the season!).
Especially since sci-fi in 09/10 seems to be just as doomed as I suspected: Dollhouse is done, Day One was preemptively killed, Fringe is getting murdered on Fridays, Flashforward is declining fast, Heroes is now an unintentional comedy, Lost is soon to be over, V seems to be stillborn, etc.
And yet, when you look at the only successes this year, they are the unusual: Glee, Modern Family, etc.
Or to summarize, I have no clue what TV development will be like next year, but unique voices seem to hold the most hope. Yet Dollhouse proves you can have too unique a voice....
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1.1
Fringe is actuallyi on Thursdays, but you are right about it getting killed, unfortunately. I sure hope that it's not next!
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2
Well, you've said it all. Enjoyed the show, but with the ratings I was happy enough to see a 2nd season.
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3
I think because we all knew the show wasn't going any further, I was actually happy about this announcement because it includes the idea that all the remaining episodes will get made and aired, which I was afraid would not happen.
I love "Dollhouse", it has a serious shot at being my favorite show on TV, but not everything needs to run for seven seasons. With the proliferation of original cable programming, maybe in the future we'll see more great, original sci-fi premises like this one. And now Joss Whedon will be free to give us some of them!
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4
[...] Dollhouse Falls Asleep for the Last Time [...]
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5
@JP- isn't it possible that Fox crippled Dollhouse in the first place by pushing inappropriate ideas onto Whedon, from which the show could never recover? Full disclosure- I've never seen Dollhouse, nor anything else by Whedon excepting Dr. Horrible and Alien 4, but I thought that was the story you and Whedon were pushing last Spring.
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6
I'm OK with it being cancelled. I was just happy it got a second season and now they get to have an actual ending. I'm sure it will be very uplifting...
But I don't know if I agree with you about the ads. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were on during shows I don't watch, but the ones I saw certainly weren't good ones. If I was basing it off the commercials I would think it was a show about models that get naked. And that's only part of the episodes!
Then again, can you have a commercial really explain the show? Can someone really come in that hasn't watched before and catch up? No. So the fatal flaw was the first 5 episodes which were just not that good. If I wasn't a Whedon fan I'm not sure if I would have stayed on. I'm certainly glad I did though.
Anyway, I'm not blaming Fox, like I said it was cool of them to let them finish it off. TSCC could have used the same treatment and then they could have had an actual ending, too.
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7
Well, this just makes me incredibly sad.
Granted, it was a flawed show - something not helped by the fact that Eliza Dukshu was in the lead role. But the supporting cast was really pretty terrific. And when Whedon got into THEIR backstories, it was was well-written, well-acted, and absolutely heartwrenching tv.
If Fox was thinking of cancelling the show, I wished they'd indicated it before the 13th episode was written, so at least we'd get to see the apocalypse play out. Joss is great at those!
It would be a wonderful world we live in if tv creators were actually given a realistic sense of their show's lifespan, so they could plan the story accordingly. It would be great if, like LOST, shows got to figure out where they were going and then get there.
So sad. So sad.
Rachel -
8
[...] Me Out of Here" The 70-year-old tanned actor says he's ready to live in the jungle. Fox deserves credit for sticking with "Dollhouse" "The show had its shot, and then some," says James Poniewozik. "Yes, Fox meddled too [...]
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9
[...] 1. James Poniewozik says that Fox deserves kudos for keeping Dollhouse on the air as long as they did. [...]
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10
Well, I'm disappointed but not broken-hearted. I'll be sad that episodes like Briar Rose won't be coming to me once weekly, but I'll be happy not see anybody's breasts turn them evil.
The really ranged from brilliant to horrible misogynist tripe, and the bad wasn't only concentrated in the first 5 episodes.
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11
[...] http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/11/11/dollhouse-falls-asleep-for-the-last-time/ a few seconds ago from web [...]
- poniewozik Lisa De M: WH crashers on Today tomorrow. NBC: no $ for intvu. (of course, a show on NBCU's Bravo has no $ value!) http://bit.ly/7hustM - 9 hours ago
- poniewozik NBC's Trauma: highest good-soundtrack-to-bad-plot ratio on TV? Now playing: Dead Kennedys' Holiday in Cambodia. - 9 hours ago
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