Saturday, December 5, 2009

Dollhouse, "The Public Eye" & "The Left Hand": Two Tophers for the price of one

A quick review of the start of the "Dollhouse" Mid-Season Burn-Off Theatre run coming up just as soon as I enjoy some wasabi peas...
"Who are you?" -Daniel Perrin
"She's God, honey. And you've heartily offended her." -Cindy Perrin
As I said when "Belonging" aired, I don't know how much heart I have left to analyze a doomed show, albeit one that over its past three episodes (which aired with a six-week gap in between the first and the next two) has been at the top of its game.

The two-parter did a strong, disturbing job of again exploring the moral implications of the Dollhouse, here bringing back Dr. Saunders' question from the season premiere: Isn't wiping an imprinted personality just as much a murder in its own way as wiping the active's real personality? Eliza Dushku and Alexis Denisof did very well grappling with their increasing self-awareness, Enver Gjokaj was once again an incredible (and hilarious) mimic with his performance as Victor-as-Topher, and Summer Glau found a new, haunting variation on her usual twitchiness. (Though I don't understand how someone goes from being one of Caroline's eco-terrorist pals to being Topher's even-more-brilliant counterpart at the DC Dollhouse.) And we got more hints of how we're going to get from here to the horrifying future glimpsed in "Epitaph One."

But with no real future for the series, I don't have a lot to say. I'll try to weigh in on each episode after I've seen it, and possibly do a big blow-out after the finale airs - especially if Joss can figure out how to wrap everything up on what sounds like the budget for a grocery run to the local Wawa - but mostly this is an opportunity for the few remaining "Dollhouse" fans to talk about the show's final days.

What did everybody else think?

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