Tonight the final episode of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” will air on Fox, canceled after barely two seasons.
Saw that coming.
“Dollhouse”, produced by Joss Whedon and Boston-born actress Eliza Dushku, premiered in February of last year to mixed reviews. There were the Whedon loyalists who recognized the spark of genius that made projects like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Serenity” brilliant. And there were those who saw it as flat, complicated, and directionless from the beginning.
Then there were the fans who just genuinely enjoyed the concept: Technology that can imprint a human brain with any personality. Our main characters were everything from the perfect date to the perfect assassin, and a few surprises in between.
But as of tonight, all that “Dollhouse” was is coming to an end. Cancelled before its time. But this isn’t the first time this has happened to a Joss Whedon show.
Perhaps Whedon’s most famous cancelled show was 2003’s “Firefly”, a Space Western with an ensemble cast, amazing dialog, and a budget too big for its experimental genre-mixing. It went off the air after only 13 episodes, but the seeds of a cult classic were planted.
Two years after the little-known show was cancelled by Fox, it had a huge fan following and a big damn movie. Serenity, the movie based on “Firefly”, was a hit. It gave fans the satisfaction of seeing their beloved story resolved on the silver screen.
But why was “Firefly” cancelled? If ratings were the problem, the network had only to wait a while. If DVD sales of the TV series and ticket sales for Serenity are any indication, “Firefly” would’ve had ratings of Buffy-like proportions within at least two seasons.
Was the budget too big to maintain? Budgets can always be cut, even with a special-effects heavy show. Perhaps the network was worried that audiences weren’t ready for a genre-bending sci-fi concept no one had ever seen before.
To that I say: Look at the success of Battlestar Galactica.
Even Whedon’s show Angel, a spin-off of his incredibly popular Buffy series, didn’t last as long as its creator intended. Cancelled in the fifth season and forced to wrap things up hastily, Angel was meant for at least another season. Its death wasn’t quite as tragic as “Firefly”, since the series did get a full five seasons. But again, the assumption was made that once Buffy ended, no one would want to watch its spinoff series. The network doubted Joss Whedon’s fans a second time.
And now, with the cancellation of “Dollhouse”, the Fox network is again snubbing the work of a great creator of television and doubting the faith of his fans. But this time, I find it hard to blame them.
“Dollhouse” was not Joss Whedon’s greatest show. I don’t even think it was his second best show. It fell far short of the brilliance of Buffy, as well as the short-but-sweet web series Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It may be that “Dollhouse” was doomed from the beginning. Were it not for loyal Whedonites the world over (and the curious viewers willing to give it a chance), it might not have lasted past the pilot.
But Whedon has had terrible pilots before. Season one of Buffy (which, as I might have said before, was his finest work) was a comedy of low-budget errors. Once it got off the ground, the show was great, but it was only by luck that the network decided to let it live past that first laughable season.
“Dollhouse”, by contrast, was blessed with an enormous budget and all-star crew from the very beginning. The set was beautiful, the actors were beautiful, the writers were legends in the industry… and yet it didn’t have that certain special something that takes a story and makes it great. How could a show starting with all the advantages turn out only mediocre at best, and get cancelled by the second season?
“Dollhouse” wasn’t terrible, it just… wasn’t great. Maybe the problem was that we expected greatness of the next big Joss Whedon show starring a bad-ass female protagonist.
It had its moments. The comic stylings of nerd-genius Topher Brink were always good for a laugh. The acting of Enver Gjokaj and Dichen Lachman as they switched seamlessly between personalities was breathtaking. The “Dollhouse” itself was a gorgeous set. The surprise plot-twists every five episodes or so kept me on my toes. And then there was the raw presence of Eliza Dushku, a woman who can turn heads no matter what she’s doing.
But none of this was enough to overshadow the fact that “Dollhouse” — much like its lead character — didn’t know its own identity. The show felt hesitant, like its creator knew that one false move could get it cancelled. They wanted so badly to get it right. And they failed to recognize their strengths and run with them.
From the beginning “Dollhouse” was a decent show that failed to grasp its full potential. They had their chance, and now they’re getting cancelled. As this is not Whedon’s first cancellation, the rumor goes that once “Dollhouse” goes off the air, he won’t be doing any more TV shows. Instead, Whedon will be focusing on web-based projects like Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Perhaps the show will redeem itself in the final episode. But it looks like this one’s going out with a whimper, not a bang.