Slave to the Idiot Box: TV Shows Thus Far
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoOn TV so far this fall:
Flashforward: Although I'm a little sick of the writers acting as if the audience didn't watch the previous episodes, I really do love this series and can't wait to see where it goes. And John Cho is fabulous--I do hope his character doesn't die!
House: House, you bastard! Wait, I need more of that and less of House being a reformed addict. I watch this show firstly in order to see Hugh Laurie's brilliant acting job of being a total asshole to all those around him (particularly foolish people); secondly for soap opera drama between the secondary characters; and thirdly for thorny moral medical dilemmas. This season has been way too heavy on #2 and #3 and far too light on #1.
I did get a huge kick out of Wilson calling House "Sookie", though. And James Earl Jones is always an amazing actor to watch. Unfortunately, these two things could not save the rest of the episode.
Dollhouse: It's easier to write about this show in terms of the unaired episode "Epitaph One" and the episodes so far this season. So, spoilers ahead for both of these, starting with "Epitaph One".
This is the show that I would watch; if the entire show were like this, I would have been on board from the get-go. I thought a lot about why this particular episode appealed to me after I disliked the rest of the show and its premise so mightily and came up with the following reasons:
1) The inherent skeeviness of the premise of the Dollhouse is taken to its logical extreme and shown to be the disturbing thing it actually is, instead of the exploitive and hyper-sexualized stories that showcase the dollhouse's technology each week. Imagine if the technology for the stuff the dollhouse could do/does actually existed--it would be creepy as all get-out to think that you could have your personality replaced, and not of your own free will, at random, by whatever power that was got ahold of the technology that week. (Which is the underlying problem of the dollhouse as a premise and why the sexualization/fetishization of the characters is so disturbing; it's not consensual in the slightest and seeing played as if it is doesn't work.)
1a) "Epitaph One" illustrated just how cheap the value of a human life would be if the dollhouse's tech actually did exist, instead of merely dancing around it like the show does week-to-week.
2) The stakes were higher than ever before. It's a lot easier to root for the underdog when the extent of the threat they face is clearer. Rooting for Echo to take down the Dollhouse with Ballard's help is all very well and good, but it's very unclear to me what their plan is, and just what they would have to do to take down the Dollhouse in the first place. The Rossum Corporation appears to have its fingers in many, many pies. In "Epitaph One", though, the enemy, and the scale of its powers, was clear and present, and the danger the characters were in was tragic and very, very real.
3) Amy Acker, bless her, seems to be at her acting best when playing characters who aren't quite of this earth anymore, and this episode showcased it in spades.
Then, we have the two episodes of this season so far, which have been incredibly lackluster and gleefully returned to the same problems that I had with the show in the first place as if "Epitaph One" never happened (or never *will* happen, depending on your point of view). In fact, the show upped the level of skeeve with the second episode in which Topher somehow managed to alter Echo's body so that she could lactate and awaken her Mothering Instinct, (which, of course, all women have lurking around their edges--watch out, it turns them into knife-wielding psychopaths!!) so she could mother some lazy schmuck's baby after his wife died. This lead to scenes along the lines of NO THEY BE STEALIN' MAHBUKKIT BABEH!, which were creepy and tiresome at the same time, not unlike a slasher film around the two-thirds mark. Attention, Dollhouse writers: I don't want a slasher film; I don't want soft-core fetish mindf*ck porn. I want a well-thought-out sci-fi drama that doesn't treat its female characters like disposable whores and actually goes somewhere with its very interesting premise. Is this possible?
(Also? Alexis Denisof's character's goofy accent?! I am glad to see him back on TV, but WHUT.)
Flashforward: Although I'm a little sick of the writers acting as if the audience didn't watch the previous episodes, I really do love this series and can't wait to see where it goes. And John Cho is fabulous--I do hope his character doesn't die!
House: House, you bastard! Wait, I need more of that and less of House being a reformed addict. I watch this show firstly in order to see Hugh Laurie's brilliant acting job of being a total asshole to all those around him (particularly foolish people); secondly for soap opera drama between the secondary characters; and thirdly for thorny moral medical dilemmas. This season has been way too heavy on #2 and #3 and far too light on #1.
I did get a huge kick out of Wilson calling House "Sookie", though. And James Earl Jones is always an amazing actor to watch. Unfortunately, these two things could not save the rest of the episode.
Dollhouse: It's easier to write about this show in terms of the unaired episode "Epitaph One" and the episodes so far this season. So, spoilers ahead for both of these, starting with "Epitaph One".
This is the show that I would watch; if the entire show were like this, I would have been on board from the get-go. I thought a lot about why this particular episode appealed to me after I disliked the rest of the show and its premise so mightily and came up with the following reasons:
1) The inherent skeeviness of the premise of the Dollhouse is taken to its logical extreme and shown to be the disturbing thing it actually is, instead of the exploitive and hyper-sexualized stories that showcase the dollhouse's technology each week. Imagine if the technology for the stuff the dollhouse could do/does actually existed--it would be creepy as all get-out to think that you could have your personality replaced, and not of your own free will, at random, by whatever power that was got ahold of the technology that week. (Which is the underlying problem of the dollhouse as a premise and why the sexualization/fetishization of the characters is so disturbing; it's not consensual in the slightest and seeing played as if it is doesn't work.)
1a) "Epitaph One" illustrated just how cheap the value of a human life would be if the dollhouse's tech actually did exist, instead of merely dancing around it like the show does week-to-week.
2) The stakes were higher than ever before. It's a lot easier to root for the underdog when the extent of the threat they face is clearer. Rooting for Echo to take down the Dollhouse with Ballard's help is all very well and good, but it's very unclear to me what their plan is, and just what they would have to do to take down the Dollhouse in the first place. The Rossum Corporation appears to have its fingers in many, many pies. In "Epitaph One", though, the enemy, and the scale of its powers, was clear and present, and the danger the characters were in was tragic and very, very real.
3) Amy Acker, bless her, seems to be at her acting best when playing characters who aren't quite of this earth anymore, and this episode showcased it in spades.
Then, we have the two episodes of this season so far, which have been incredibly lackluster and gleefully returned to the same problems that I had with the show in the first place as if "Epitaph One" never happened (or never *will* happen, depending on your point of view). In fact, the show upped the level of skeeve with the second episode in which Topher somehow managed to alter Echo's body so that she could lactate and awaken her Mothering Instinct, (which, of course, all women have lurking around their edges--watch out, it turns them into knife-wielding psychopaths!!) so she could mother some lazy schmuck's baby after his wife died. This lead to scenes along the lines of NO THEY BE STEALIN' MAH
(Also? Alexis Denisof's character's goofy accent?! I am glad to see him back on TV, but WHUT.)
