Dollhouse: Episode 14 & 15

Well, I missed the first week of the new season of Dollhouse because ever since I joined the DVR world I've completely lost track of when things are actually on TV. Since I don't pay attention to schedules, I missed that shows were coming back for new episodes. Anyway, I'm caught up now.

To start, Fox only aired 12 episodes last season, but there was a crucial thirteenth episode on the first season dvds (thanks Drew!). That episode completely changed the outlook for the show, with a post-apocalyptic vision of the future. Some of the things shown in that episode are being planted as seeds in these episodes, which is nice but troubling.

What strikes me about these two episodes in particular is that Eliza Dushku is really pulling through on the promises made by Joss Whedon at the start of the series that she was a great actress that hadn't been given the chance to show her chops. Throughout the first season I was always skeptical; always looking for a slip up or reason to doubt her. Well no longer. I didn't even think about it while watching these two episodes until I was done and realized, "Wow, she really pulled that all off well!"

I'm also really pleased with Alexis Denisoff's appearance in the show. As a Whedonite I think it's great to see him again, and I think he's great in that he performs well. I just hope they do more with him than the teasing of an insider. They played that story last season and it needs to get more interesting, but I'm sure it will.

Finally, I really like the way these two episodes take some time to cast the Dollhouse in a positive light. Joss is never going to get over the instinctive unease that the audience is going to have with a program like the Dollhouse, but it's nice that he reminds us every now and then that it can be used for good purposes.

I promise that for future episodes I'll give more detail in reference to the story, but that'll have to wait for posts where I'm only discussing one episode at a time and not at three in the morning.