tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17759756.post1606649276747145307..comments2023-10-30T02:03:56.081+13:00Comments on Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty: Instict Review; Dollhouse 2.02Maiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212711843307060731noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17759756.post-62302394688760768002009-10-12T16:41:03.730+13:002009-10-12T16:41:03.730+13:00I wonder if the actives would recognize themselves...I wonder if the actives would recognize themselves if they saw photos. Is that something that Topher controls? Last season had the episode where the mom came back to see her funeral in Echo's body. This season has Echo's character freaking out when she finds pictures of the client's dead wife. Perhaps it's something Topher tinkers with which would explain why if an imprint was, to use your example, missing a leg, the personality would still fit the active.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17759756.post-86036636891601660492009-10-12T10:51:30.709+13:002009-10-12T10:51:30.709+13:00I thought this quite possibly the weakest episode ...I thought this quite possibly the weakest episode of the show. It had an intriguing basic idea, but the actual action was very slow, predictable and dull. Adelle's generally an interesting character, but she was prominent in this episode in all the worst ways, long speeches and prodding dialog along in a way that's supposed to make things seems credible but instead just undermines the credibility of the narrative. <br /><br />Agree on how much Sierra as a character was wasted. It was never explained why the client bothered paying for another Active with a fake assignment just to be a pointless friend for Echo's character. Or was that supposed to be a security precaution put in by the Dollhouse like in 1.3? Either way it seemed pointless, and last episode made a point of saying how high the demand for Actives was. <br /><br />The post-Mellie interactions were better, but they were completely unconnected to anything and weren't as interesting as they should have been. Unlike this review I didn't think they delivered that much, except perhaps to establish that November was actually let go rather than grabbed by people in a van and transferred to another Dollhouse after the end of last season. <br /><br />Thematically, in the first minutes of this episode I thought they might make some interesting dramatization of the totalitarian constraints that maternity often functions in, and the parallels between the sadly far-too-prevalent patriarchal terrorism and the type of further-reaching domination that the Dollhouse forms. Ultimately they didn't go there, focusing too much on the impact of Echo's psycho-physical lactation change, and breaking down completely with the move into horror-movie shenanigans at the end. <br /><br />I agree that in many ways Dollhouse is the most amazing thing ever, but there are other times when neither the themes, plot nor moment-to-moment action is compelling. This was one such time. <br /><br />In other news, just watched 2.3 and thought it was a lot stronger, I'll be curious what you think of it.Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17759756.post-42096687887889898092009-10-11T22:20:12.374+13:002009-10-11T22:20:12.374+13:00I thought Echo's imprint's "paranoia&...I thought Echo's imprint's "paranoia" in this episode was entirely justified; her husband _was_ behaving bizarrely, and interpreting his intention to get rid of her and the baby as wanting to kill them wasn't an unreasonable one (and being sent back to the Dollhouse really is a death sentence for that imprint, or would be if the wiping still worked on Echo), and her actions did postpone her death. I didn't get a "lactation makes you crazy" vibe at all.<br /><br />I didn't have a problem with her erratic behaviour and abilities post-wipe either; she's only just beginning to learn to integrate multiple personalities to work in concert. The car bit showed this - it took her a moment to access a personality that knew how to drive, but she managed it.<br /><br />I knew you'd like the Topher/Ballard scene :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com