Dollhouse Renewed

After being in Devon for a week, I didn't have a chance to watch the Dollhouse finale until yesterday and then I wake up this morning to find that the show, previously thought to be dead in the water, has been renewed by Fox for a second season.  The surprise move by the network that previously cancelled Firefly is supposed to have come because of the strong online viewing figures and the hoped-for strong DVD figures.  The series is set to return in the autumn with a thirteen episode run, each of which will be cut down to 42 minutes rather than the slightly longer episodes in series 1.  This is said to be one of the ways in which Joss Whedon will be reducing costs on the show, although there's whisperings that some of the cast might be axed.  Please not Sierra.  Or Victor.  Or Adelle.  Or Whisky.  Especially not Whisky because I don't think I can stomach TV without Amy Acker in it.

So Episode 12.  The final episode unless we're counting Epitaph One, the post-apocalyptic "coda" episode that will only be available on DVD.  Bloody good wasn't it?  I had a few minor quibbles.  Mainly Alan Tudyk, who I love and adore and was so good in the previous episode, didn't really shine here.  After all the build-up to Alpha, now we finally get to meet him he's not as fun to watch as I'd hoped he would be.  That final chase sequence, with Alpha dangling Caroline's identity "wedge" over a railing and her chasing up the stairs to catch him wasn't really dynamic enough and was poorly directed.

These two episode aside, this was a stellar episode and it does now feel that we're nearly there, that Dollhouse has almost fulfilled its early potential.  I've been championing Eliza throughout the show's run, although a lot of critics have pointed out what they believe to be her limited acting abilities.  What's thrown people is that the show's concept seems to offer an acting showcase for one actress when, as the past six episodes have shown, Dollhouse is much more of an ensemble piece.  There have also been precious few "actorish" moments, y'know, all the tears and drama stuff that you might expect from a show where the supposed lead plays a different character week in and week out.  She's been quietly convincing in every episode, particular as the blind woman in True Believer, Patton Oswald's dead wife in Man On The Street and as a middle-aged woman in Haunted.  One of the show's major story arcs has been the derailment of nearly all of Echo's assignment.  She doesn't get the fun Alias moments like Sierra, or the suave James Bond-ish moments like Victor in A Spy In The House Of Love.  I digress.  Anyway, Eliza's great.

The finale also did a good job of tying up loose ends whilst also creating new stories and rearranging its story elements to a sufficient degree to make us want to know what happens next, much like Angel did at the end of season 4 with Home.  One thing that I'm thankful for is that Paul Ballard seems assimilated into the Dollhouse.  His hunt for the Dollhouse was beginning to get tiresome and at least now he's inside, he can have relationships with characters other than November.  We've also got a sentient Doll, Whisky.  I was intrigued by her statement "I know who I am", her decision not to look at who she was before she entered the Dollhouse and her question to Topher, "Why was it important that I hate you?"

Other things that were generally awesome:

Composite Echo.  The moment when we witness all of Echo's previous personalities assimilating was a big pay-off to all of the procedural episode we had to slog through at the start of the season.

Sierra coming onto Paul Ballard.  Big lulz there.

Ballard's sacrifice for November.  This was perhaps the first moment in the entire run where I was genuinely moved and who else was expecting him to save Caroline?  The use of Beck's cover of Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes, was a nice touch.

"I'm not anyone because I am everyone."