Bored now

[hazelk]

1. I’m an addict.

2. I like Echo. I feel for her unfeeliness. I root for her rootlessness. The portrayal of the Dolls in their tabula rasa state speaks to something in me. I’m not sure what exactly. So pretty, so vacant and yet not entirely. They flock. After their fashion, they strive. They begin to remember. It’s hard to erase a person, the wipe may look clean but then patterns begin to reassemble themselves. Like stories but it goes deeper than words. Muscle memories, fractured images. I like that this process is so achingly slow.

3. The Dollhouse is shifty, never quite what it seems. Usually it’s worse. Who are these people? Topher eyeing up the cute Asian intern while expositing on how he does what he does. Lightbulb moment. He made her. Or is he just imaging how he could? Flesh crawl moment. Dewitt is scared like a little girl. Of Alpha or something else? Boyd is so very good at hurting people. Dr Saunders says being better is not good.

4. Alpha’s bride of Frankenstein plan is horribly compelling. He’s not trying to save her but to remake her in his own image. Alpha and Echo like Adam and Eve. Sometimes this almost excuses the on the nose metapositon. Nice thief giving Echo the Art 101 would be forgivable if he were programmed to do so.

5. Objectification is not just the premise of the show but in its day to day, minute by minute operation. The camera always seems to linger a little too long. Just long enough to overstay its welcome and that combined with the constant reminders that Echo is not an adult woman who in any sense chose to be looked at in this way but (effectively) a child grows progressively more uncomfortable to watch. Generally I find this kind of thing is desensitizing, here it's the reverse.

6. Everything that isn’t about the premise or the arc is either too clunky or too slick and sometimes both. I’m getting desensitized to that.

7. I’m an addict.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, you've managed to sum up neatly all the reasons I find myself oddly addicted to this show as well and why I'm still watching, and why I really want it to continue.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It's complicated isn't it. I'm hooked and it feels like it has so much potential. But. Whedon had an interview about his writing and said something about having to put himself in the position of both the predator and the prey and of all his shows this is the one the predator comes through most clearly. It's uncomfortable viewing.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

said something about having to put himself in the position of both the predator and the prey and of all his shows this is the one the predator comes through most clearly

Fascinating. I never thought of it that way, but that explains a lot.
About Whedon's shows and why this one is uncomfortable. Why to an extent all his shows, even the comics, have an element of discomfort - if you think about them too much. Sometimes I wonder if over-thinking art is a good thing - if it strips the entertainment value from it. Other times, over-thinking just adds to that value.

Here - I definitely feel like I'm in the POV of the predator. DeWitt, Dominic, Topher, even to a degree Saunders, Langton, and Ballard.
While we also have Alpha - who is to an extent a predator.

Echo and her fellow dolls appear to be the prey.

Oh, I'm beginning to wonder about Sierra - if she may be a plant by Alpha to mess up the doll house. Since her arrival both Echo and Victor have woken up a bit or reacted differently. I don't know for sure, just find it a bit overly coincidental.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I concur.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Concurrence is a good :-)

[yourlibrarian]

Sadly, I have to say that before the premiere I was sure I'd give all the episodes a try as Joss can be a slow burn. Now I'm just impatient to get to the much touted 6th episode.

By comparison, BSG is really burning on all cylinders for me.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I'm still watching BSG and enjoying it but it feels weird. Distanced. As if the show were already over. I'm really looking forward to Caprica though. Maybe that's the problem.

[maeve-rigan.livejournal.com]

Just about sums it up.

Also, I'm thinking that for most of us it has been so long since we've had to watch a Joss Whedon show unfold in real time that we're baffled. And nobody likes bafflement. I'm not expecting to understand all until it's over, so watching it unfold is part of the (morbid and creepifying) fun.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

That's true and although some people fell in love with Buffy or Firefly at pretty much first sight I never did. I am already finding the culminative effect of the episodes is significantly more than the sum of their parts - every time Echo says "Did I fall asleep" it hurts a little more.