Right there with the majority of the posts. Will keep watching it for Josses sake but am getting a Bionic Woman feel so far. Of course it is only one episode so too early to make any real judgments.
It is with great sadness that I admit that I too was underwhelmed by the pilot episode of Dollhouse. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to connect to any of the characters like I have to the ones on Whedon’s other shows. We’ll see.
I was afraid my girlfriend was going to “connect” to herself in the middle of Helo’s boxing scene.
Low self esteem kicked in and I got in the gym first thing Sat morning.
LOL. Yeah - that scene was a hi point for me. 
THAT was the biggest thing I noticed: no banter. Weird!
I just heard that Mark Sheppard is going to be in at least one Dollhouse.
Maybe they can get Grace Park to be an agent…Ti Chi…anyone…
Truth be told, I liked the lack of Josstalk. I don’t want to feel like I’m watching another Buffy/Angel show.
I haven’t seen a good one-hour pilot in so long I can’t even tell you when it was, so a mediocre one doesn’t bother me. I’m surprised (and a bit impressed) that they even started to draw implications, but like other shows with an “investigator” character, I wonder how is search is going to proceed; I imagine he should get some resolution at the end of this abbreviated run even.
I actually didn’t notice until I started reading ep reactions…and then went, oh yeah, that was a Joss show. I caught his typical victimized-girl storyline, but totally missed the lack of humor. I kind of hope we’ll get something, but this show is creepy enough as it is, so adding funny would make it downright disturbing.
I totally agree, Hero. While I acknowledge that Dollhouse is not Buffy or Angel or Firefly, the team aspect of all these shows are what really drew me in. Self-made families working together to best the “big bad” and whatnot. This leaves me intrigued to see where Joss takes the show. I’m glad it’s different. I’m comfortable with the first shown episode. A few of the Whedonwhores always tell the noobs to push through the first season of Buffy or the first ep of Firefly, that it gets better and then it gets fantastic. I trust Joss and I will continue to push through Dollhouse. It will be worth it.
Really there was noone to banter with. There was such a seperation between the characters as far as their roles and reponsibilties. It will take a little time to get a situation for them to be Whedonized.
I refuse to pass judgement until I see at least three more episodes. I have hope that Joss will not fail us.
The weird thing is that I’m pretty sure what we saw was the redone pilot, not his original, if I’m recalling my TV gossip correctly. What I am looking forward to is Nathan Fillon in Castle, his new series. He looks like he has fun dialogue in the previews. I will give Dollhouse a chance though. Even the hubby seemed interested and he’s not into BSG or Firefly, so there’s hope.
Interestingly, though, I enjoyed this pilot far more than I did the Buffy pilot (on which I’ve posted elsewhere). As I said above, I think this show has possibilities, and with a writer like Jane Espenson coming on board in a few episodes, I think we’ll start seeing some interesting stuff.
Or maybe not. Maybe it will suck. One of the most important things an artist can do is to fail from time to time. It makes the subsequent art that much better.
I said earlier that I couldn’t get through the first fifteen minutes, but I think your plan is sensible. I plan on trying to watch the pilot again, and will probably at least try three of the episodes.
I’m not sure what it was, but I just had a hard time getting into this show.
I watched it Sunday on hulu. I have to say, I enjoyed it. There were some flaws, yes, but I feel like they’ve got a lot more to tell us. The set up for Echo’s back story has drawn me in. I wanna know more!
I FINALLY had a chance to watch the pilot tonight. I will admit, I am a Whedon fan, but I like the pilot. Like Apollymy, I was pulled into Echo’s back story. Why did she join, or was she thinking about it and they “recruited” her into the program. Do they work for the government, a branch of the government, etc. Who was the guy that killed the couple at the end watching the Echo video. Were those her parents, the parents of someone else with whom she went to school? Was he a doll that got away?
Like I said, I was pulled in and had a lot of questions. 
I look forward to the show next week.
How embarrassing, to get Joss’s name wrong. Sometimes the fingers settle into muscle-memory habits (like typing an “h” after “s”)… always a good idea to revise before you post!
You know, on BSG I’ve been impressed with Tricia Helfer’s and Grace Park’s ability to portray different characters in subtle ways. I didn’t get any of that from Eliza Dushku. She played four characters (her original self, her going-on-a-date self, her wiped self, he negotiator self) and beyond the obvious tricks like glasses, I didn’t get the same sense of wonder I’ve gotten with other actors who play multiple roles. Any one of them could have been Faith fakin’ it.
An obvious problem with the premise is, how do you get invested in a character when her personality changes every episode? Presumably it will be taken care of when her “real self” starts breaking through the programming. (Gee, that’s a hard one to predict.)
David From Montreal
Not a proffesional prooffreador, can ya tell?
LOL - I was only teasing btw - just wanted to make that clear!!!
I agree about Eliza’s performance. She is a pretty good actress but she did not wow me in the pilot. I hope she gets better.
Overall I agree also about the premise - I just wonder if we (as fans) are going to be able to connect to the show on an emotional level like we have with Joss’ other shows. I mean - I connected with the characters in Firefly almost immediately - even though the first episode wasn’t even the pilot. I found Ghost interesting but did not connect with any of the characters - including Tahmoh’s character - though he is SO DAMN HOT!!!
You know, on BSG I’ve been impressed with Tricia Helfer’s and Grace Park’s ability to portray different characters in subtle ways. I didn’t get any of that from Eliza Dushku. She played four characters (her original self, her going-on-a-date self, her wiped self, he negotiator self) and beyond the obvious tricks like glasses, I didn’t get the same sense of wonder I’ve gotten with other actors who play multiple roles. Any one of them could have been Faith fakin’ it.
Agreed. I’ve never been impressed with ED as an actress. For that reason I wasn’t all that excited for Dollhouse.
Joss was my first geek love and I’ll forgive him one (really, really) crappy pilot. Much as I loved seeing Tahmoh boxing (swoon), good lord that scene was about as subtle as a brick to the head. He’s on the ropes! But he won’t go down without a fight! GET IT?!
Many have commented that Joss’s trademark dialog was missing, and it was. Except for the annoying, cutesy psycho rambling that he can’t seem to stop writing.
This came out more bitter than I intended. I’m going to keep watching because Joss can surely do better than this pilot.
Edit: I just noticed my own signature quote. Maybe what Dollhouse needs is rocket launchers? Heh.
I am also looking forward to Castles. That looks like great fun!
On the more relevant topic, I have enough faith in Joss that I will give it several episodes before I really judge. Many shows get off to a rocky start, and I know that Fox forced him to dumb-down the pilot, which apparently forced him to rewrite the next several eps as well. Meh.