Dollhouse

A lot of critics have been panning Joss Whedon’s new show Dollhouse, and I know some people are giving it a pass because they didn’t get into it in the first episode.

Me? I love it. I also love good cop procedural shows if they have character development (Bones, NCIS) and I think the misunderstanding of Dollhouse comes because people expect the characters to be quirky and funny like those in Buffy, Angel, and Firefly.

What Dollhouse really is: a serious science fiction show crossed with a cop procedural. Now that I’ve seen three episodes, I can see that they’re setting up a really intriguing mystery with the FBI agent seeking Echo, Echo’s past, and the possibility that Echo is a new kind of Doll–one who can adapt the mission to fit parameters no one programmed her to expect.

I’ll continue watching, and I think if you like a character-driven show, you’ll come to find it satisfying when the mysteries start to unravel more than in the first few episodes, when Echo is still more of a tabula rasa. But you’ll want to watch those first episodes to see how the mysteries and characters are getting set up.

About

Stacy Whitman is the publisher of Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books. She specializes in fantasy, mystery, and science fiction for children and young adults.