A lot of the critics of the Dollhouse premiere, and of the three episodes available to the press, don't understand something, and here is what that something is.
Anyone can write a show about vampires. Anyone can write a show about people that are hired for missions (aka Charlie's Angels)..they are missing the point.
My AP English Teacher Mrs Brown once told me, there are no such things as new ideas, only old ideas combined in new ways. Like paints on a canvas, they can be mixed in different, new and challenging ways but the paints are still the same colors.
My point is this, anyone can write a vampire show, anyone can write a sci-fi show, but what Joss does, how he writes, how he weaves an intricate universe that asks the important questions philosophically about who people are and what motivates us and what is the meaning of life, that's the deep stuff that keeps people coming back.
Even Dr. Horrible used a ton of musical conventions, with a complete understanding of what they are, before breaking them.
I learned while studying music (and engineering, for that matter) that the best way to know how to break the rules is to know what the rules are and then DELIBERATELY break them.
This first episode of Dollhouse was an establishing shot. It was what the network wanted, and now the critics are calling it conventional. I have a feeling they are just being idiots, because Joss always establishes conventions before he breaks them in new and unexpected ways.
Now that Joss has created the frame for his crayon drawing in black and white, I look forward to where he puts the colors -- both inside and outside the lines.
Chris
4 comments:
This wasn't a review, Chris, sorry. This was a rant about how stupid people that don't like Joss Whedon are. That's lame.
Where did I say people that don't get Joss are stupid?
Chris, read your entry aloud to yourself.
As for Dollhouse the show, I felt it was just.... bland. Yes, I know, the dolls are supposed to be like that. And half of the BS in the first episode was I'm sure due to Fox being dicks. But it just wasn't consistent. The writing, while enjoyably the next step for Whedon, was cookie-cutter. The show is called Dollhouse, and yet, every single scene inside the Dollhouse was horrible. And what a waste of Tahmoh Penniket.
Joss Whedon could be the next Grant Morrison if he's not careful.
I hear you. And you know, it took Buffy about a season and a half to find its voice, by my estimation.Joss seems aware of this stuff too as he felt a lot more confident about the second half of the season of Dallhouse than the first half, in interviews.
But my point was, I guess, that I'm giving Whedon a chance to fill in the cookie cutter outline with some substance before I write off this show, Buffy was cookie cutter in the beginning too, very monster of the week, but look what that turned into. And I don't think the critics are "stupid" for not liking him -- the criticisms are valid -- but they'd be making a mistake if they judge the whole series based on the pilot -- that's not the way Whedon writes his arcs. That's all I was getting at.
Time will prove if my patience and unwilligness to sickle the show based on the pilot was a wise choice.
Chris
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