I think it was SF great James Blish who said, in response to a publisher's claim that a particular book was "an exciting, new novel," that the publisher made three mistakes in a single sentence. I thought of that while watching "The year's most anticipated new series!" the other night, Dollhouse (Fridays at 9 PM on Fox).When I first heard the title I was expecting some soft-core T&A along the lines of Paper Dolls or something but it was created by Joss Wheadon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and most recently the Internet hit Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), so I was cautiously hopeful. (I was never really a fan or frequent watcher of any of those shows, but I had seen Aliens IV, screenplay by Wheadon, and it was watchable if not great.)The show begins with a troubled young woman freaking out over some jam she's found herself in and an older woman, very reminiscent of Marilyn from La Femme Nikita, offering her a way out if she'll work for them… sort of like how Section One recruited Nikita. We next see the young lady, now called Echo, expertly racing a motorcycle and dancing the night away and leaving a rich guy's party to be taken back to this place that looks like the lobby of a Radisson hotel. she lies down on a couch a guy who is the new television cliché (the supergeek with no people skills) pushes a few buttons and the lights wash over her and we see her evening run in reverse and then——she's talking like a Stepford Wife and seems to have no memory of anything, except——she's now she's a hostage negotiator; SuperGeek explains that she and the other "assets" in his care can be "programmed" to be anybody and anything their clients request (for a million dollars) with personalities, memories and skills culled from and number of different people—and it can all be erased when their assignment is completed. Except on this assignment Something Goes Wrong and Echo remember things not programmed into her mind…
So let’s see: We’ve got a Nikita¬like recruiting program for mind controlled operatives, kinda like the now departed My Own Worst Enemy. (And did I mention the dedicated FBI agent pursuing the organization, kinda like (former FBI Agent) Ellison on Terminator? This was just the pilot episode, things will be more fully realized as the series continues, Questions Will Be Answered, but the basic premise… Do the “Dolls” represent the ultimate in designer people? The world’s greatest escort service? Give a whole new meaning to the concept of “personal assistant?”The return of Lost was highly anticipated, as were the last ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica. But Dollhouse? I wasn’t really anticipating it even after they started advertising it.
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