Favourite TV Shows 2010 - Favourite Episodes 25-11

This year's list of my favourite episodes is a little longer than it has been in previous years. Not only did I manage to find a fantastic episode in every show I featured on my list, but also a couple of shows which didn't feature also get their dues. So onward with the first 15 of my favourite episodes of 2010!

25. Charlie Brooker's Newswipe - Series 2, Episode 2
Newswipe isn't the kind of show which necessarily has perfect episodes, it's just a uniformly fantastic show with moments that stick out more so than actual entire episodes of sheer perfect. I love almost everything that Charlie Brooker has ever laid his hands (particularly the XXXwipe shows) but it's hard to pin point an individual episode as the best of a particular series. So I chose Episode 2 of the second series as a true example of the show at it's best. There was the fantastic 'How to Report the News' segment, the genuinely informative piece on British journalists and the complete ripping apart of the Wooton Bassett story from early last year. Yes I don't like every element of the show (*cough*TimKey*cough*) but the bits I like, I absolutely adore and this episode had that in spades.

24. Modern Family - 'Manny Get Your Gun'
The best episodes of Modern Family will normally have the entire cast in one place (see 2009's 'Fizbo') and whilst 'Manny Get Your Gun doesn't have the cast together for the majority of its run time, when everyone does meet it is literally a collision. Modern Family might not be the most hilarious comedy on TV but this episode was able to have enough funny moments (Phil, Claire and Alex breaking down in the car etc.) whilst holding together the sense of family that makes Modern Family so enjoyable.

23. 30 Rock - 'When It Rains, It Pours'
After the resurgence that the show had back in spring, this episode was the solidification that 30 Rock was back on top form. A fantastic, but not flashy guest appearance by Paul Giamatti, Jack making the video for his future son ("the secret to good hair is dove....blood") and of course Tracey playing Cash Cab in order to see the birth of his child. 'When It Rains, It Pours' played to the strengths of most of the cast proved how 30 Rock can still hit it out of the park.

22. South Park - '200'/'201'
South Park celebrated its 200th episode in 2010 and definitely pushed the show to the limit. '200' and '201' were celebrations of a show that has been on TV for almost 15 years. Almost every celebrity that South Park had taken the piss out of was back, we had Tom Cruise (and more gayjokes), Mecha-Streisand, Scott Tenorman and of course Muhammad. What followed over their combined 40 minute run time was a fantastically hilarious and even thoughtful look at the ideas of censorship. Of course the show ended up getting censored and the creators received death threats for trying to portray Muhammad on TV, showing just how right South Park was in the first place.

21. Futurama - 'The Prisoner of Benda'
Futurama came back to our screens after great anticipation. Whilst it maybe wasn't as consistent as it was back before it was cancelled, there's no denying that Season 7 had flashes of the Futurama we loved, and 'The Prisoner of Benda' was the clearest example of this. Everyone knows body swap episodes, pretty much every sci-fi TV show ever has done an episode about, but what made Futurama's take so great was to the lengths that they took it. By the end of the episode almost everyone was in someone else's body and always leading to hilarity (Scruffy & Wash-bucket Amy FTW). The episode was intricate and even proved how dedicated the writing staff of Futurama are by having the writer Ken Keeler actually create an entire mathematical theorem to have the episode work.

20. Justified - 'Fire in the Hole'
'Fire in the Hole' was a template for the Justified was going to succeed as the show went forward. Based on the short story by Elmore Leonard and developed for TV by Graham Yost (Band of Brothers, The Pacific), the pilot Justified turn out to be a fantastic piece of television. This first episode hinted at a larger plot to the show, but also showed how it could work within a self contained. The fact that the show was buoyed by a fantastic performance by leading man Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) and a fantastic villainous portrayal by Walton Goggins (The Shield), made Justified's first episode one of the most rounded hours of television all year.

19. Rubicon - 'The Outsider'

Rubicon may have stumbled a little out of the gates, especially when compared against AMC's other fantastic shows Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but 'The Outsider' proved that Rubicon might have had what it took to actually compete with those two shows on a qualitative level (barring that godawful finale). This was the episode was the lose threads started to come together and the show became less interested in the central mystery behind the show and focusing on the characters jobs within API and the moral responsibilities it holds for them. It also Truxton Spangler's fantastic tie speech, one of the best scenes of television all last year.

18. Better Off Ted - 'The Impertinence of Communicationizing'

Sometimes a show is just so damn for funny for reasons that are quite simple to explain. A memo goes around the offices of Veridian Dynamics urging the employees to insult each other and hilarity ensues. Here is a series of hilarious outtakes from the episode. Enjoy.

17. Supernatural - 'Weekend At Bobby's'

I could have quite easily chosen the Season 5 finale 'Swan Song' as the best episode of Supernatural in 2010, but that episode would have worked on a whole other level if it had actually been the final episode of the show. Instead I decided to use this as a chance to speak of unsung heroes. Bobby has been the closest thing the boys have had to a functioning father figure since the beginning of Season 2, and whilst he's been a constant presence on the show since then, it took us until Season 6 to get an episode highlighting his awesomeness. Sometimes moves away from established format can prove to be messy and muddled, but Supernatural offer consistently offer up interesting ways of subverting their format, and 'Weekend At Bobby's' was one of the best.

16. Cougar Town - 'You Don't Know How It Feels'

Cougar Town magically transformed a few episodes into Season 1 and became one of the most consistently funny ensemble comedies on TV. Yes, Courtney Cox is still the obvious weak link and it's a shame the show has to built around her, but even she can't take away from the natural chemistry all the actors have together. Guest-starring Scrubs' Ken Jenkins as Jule's dad, Cougar Town finally strives for some more of the lofty emotional moments that Bill Lawrence's other show so often achieved. But even removed from the most emotional beats there was the fantastic Halloween themed hilarity, with a multitude of fantastic costumes. Ellie and Laurie going dressed as each other was the gift that kept on giving and Bobby's Windy Man is genius on so many levels. If you aren't watching Cougar Town, you are definitely missing out on a very worthy successor to Scrubs.

15. Chuck - 'Chuck versus The Beard'

Whilst Chuck Season 3 didn't quite reach the heights that the show was able to achieve in it's second season, 'Chuck versus the Beard' was an episode the fans had been waiting a long time for. Ever since Chuck gained the intersect, it was obvious it was only a matter of time until it bled more and more into his personal life and his family and friends would inevitably become privy to his life as a spy. First came Captain Awesome and then, finally, in this episode, Morgan found out. Of course this all took place during yet another assault on the BuyMore but what made the episode was Morgan's of sheer elation when his friend told him he was a secret agent. Chuck in 2010 had many great moments, in particular the first episode with Chuck and Sarah as a couple on the train, or Timothy Dalton's fantastic guest appearances, but it shall forever be remembered as the year Morgan found out about the Intersect.

14. The Pacific - 'Peleliu Airfields'/'Peleliu Hills'

Whilst some people don't hold The Pacific to the same lofty heights that they hold Band of Brothers (I cannot honestly say, seeing as I have only seen the first 4 episode of BoB) but I will say The Pacific is fantastic in its own right, dealing fair more with the emotional tole of warfare, rather than its visceral nature. But no episodes were as harrowing as the episodes that dealt with the assault on Peleliu. The men were completely out of their element and completely outmatched. Images from these episodes still float when I think back on the miniseries, from Sledgehammer finally breaking and trying to rip out the teeth of a dead Japanese soldier or Snafu throwing rocks into the blown apart skull of a corpse. They might not be pleasant images, but they came from some of the strongest hours of television I watched last year, and I'm grateful I saw them.

13. Louie - 'God'

It's very hard to describe Louie as a series. Louie takes the form of a series of vignettes, sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 20 or 40. One of the standouts vignettes from it's first season was the episode which dealt with the idea of religion. What starts of seemingly innocently turns into one of the most downright terrifying lessons on Jesus' crucifixion I have ever heard, going into disgusting details of how much pain Jesus would have been on the cross with only the choice between the pain being in his legs or arms, for three days. Even that scene alone would have been enough to earn this episode a place on my list, but the later scene with Louie talking to his mother about religion and the expertly placed stand-up excerpt helped prove that Louie is definitely something very special.

12. Dollhouse - 'Getting Closer'

Dollhouse only aired 3 episodes in 2010 and whilst the final two episodes were a mixed bag in the way that concluded the series, 'Getting Closer' was an amazing penultimate episode from writer Tim Minear (Firefly and Terriers). We got an action packed 40 minutes filled with so many mind blowing twists and revelations that showed that even with only 3 episodes left it was going to be hugely enjoyable. The two big twists of course were Dr. Saunders coming back and then proceeding to shoot Bennett in the head immediately after she and Topher had a moment (a Whedonesque twist on so many levels). But of course the huge twist of the piece was that Boyd had in fact been the head of Rossum since the very beginning. Yes in context it doesn't make much sense, but that doesn't take away from the sheer amount of fun that this episode really was.

11. The Walking Dead - 'Days Gone Bye'

What a pilot episode this was. You can argue as to whether the rest of the show was able to reach the heights that this episode did (I'd say episodes 4&5 came closest) but there's no denying that Frank Darabont wrote and directed one hell of a pilot episode here. Capturing every single beat from the first issue of the comics, The Walking Dead proved that there was still life in the zombie genre. From Lennie James' fantastic portrayal of Morgan to Rick shooting the half Zombie in the face was filled with little moments of sheer brilliance. Compared to other works of Zombie fiction, the pace was positively sedate able to properly explore the toll of being alone in a world infected by zombies. To start a tale of ongoing survival, The Walking Dead couldn't have possibly hoped for a stronger episode than this one.

Of Dollhouse Season 2

Well here we are, the end of Dollhouse. It also looks like this is the end of Joss Whedon's involvement with network television. Whilst we might get a cable show out of him, it seems more likely that we'll be getting a lot more internet content from him in the future. But before I launch into the review, it must be said that my Top 10 Lost Characters and Episodes will be up over the next two days. I may need to discuss some placements (there are a lot of characters and over 100 episodes to choose from).

But now we must go into mourning of Dollhouse... kind of.

Dollhouse was a show that never truly worked. I will say that a lot of the actors were superb, Enver Gjokaj was a revelation and an actor that needs a long and healthy career after this show. The very definition of a character actor, he just his body stance, accent and mannerism for each different character that he played. Then there were many single episodes of Dollhouse which were great. My personal favourites from Season 2 were 'Belonging', 'The Attic' and 'Getting Closer' and they definitely stand as some of my favourite episodes from last year, and maybe even this year. But ultimately, it never came together as a cohesive whole. All the elements were there for something truly great, I mean it's a Joss Whedon show, so obviously there's something there! But when you compare Dollhouse to something like Firefly there a lot of differences. Whilst Firefly was dicked around by Fox, it had an identity from the pilot and you could tell the cast meshed well together. On Dollhouse, the two leads feel miscast and the show suffers for it, whilst the story and the strength of supporting characters do buoy some of the problems, they sadly don't make up for them.

I'm not saying Dollhouse is a bad show though, I gave Season 1 a 7/10 and Season 2 was better, but sadly it's also incredibly flawed and whilst a string of later episodes, like in Season 1 do help make the show feel better, they sadly don't erase the missteps from existence. Like in Season 1, Season 2 of Dollhouse opened with a string of standalone episodes and whilst the first episode had some great moments between Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker) and Topher (Fran Kranz), the "Assignment of the week" wasn't really engrossing. The same can be said of the following two episodes, 'Instinct' (in which Echo becomes a crazy mother in what was easily the worst episode of the season) and 'Belle Chose' (which had a cool serial killer element but sadly just a shone a massive spotlight on Eliza Dushku's lack of range). But after this the season stepped into high gear.

We got the episode 'Belonging' early in the season (which I've already reviewed) which still stands as one of the best hours the show has put out and the show just keeps going in this fashion. We get a two part episode focusing on different Dollhouse's, featuring Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Alexis Denisof (Angel), which was then fully rounded into a four part story arc. Sadly after a string of strong episodes, I felt episode 9 'Stop-Loss' was the weakest episode in the second half of the season, but then we got the incredible 'Attic' and 'Getting Closer'.

These were the two trippiest and twistiest episodes that Dollhouse has produced, 'The Attic was visually stunning and took us around the insides of various employees of the Dollhouse as well as setting up the final conflict of the season. This was quickly followed by 'Getting Closer' which took all of our safe assumptions and turned them on theirs heads by making probably the friendliest character into an insane Big Bad of the season of the entire show (a move which many believe didn't come to proper fruition in the following episode). Plus the normal Whedonism that whenever someone is truly happy, that has to be ended fairly quickly.

Finally the final two episodes were the wrap up which whilst too many didn't feel overly satisfying, I did feel they did their jobs admirably. Whilst episode 12 seemingly wasted the shows final use of Amy Acker, and the biggest twist was ultimately not so fleshed out but I still enjoyed the pay off that was given to many of the characters over the course of the show. Same can be said of 13, whilst it should have probably been longer due to the amount of plot that needed to be filled in, it still did it admirably.

The shows cancellation was a double edged sword. Whilst it meant that the writers knew it was ending so they could build towards a conclusion. This increase in momentum definitely helped the show as a whole because we got that terrific string of episodes. But sadly we also got too little time to tell the story in, both of the last episodes would have been better if their content had been fleshed out more (especially episode 12 where the first 10 minutes are spent recapping the end to episode 11).

Ultimately Season 2 was a great improvement over Season 1, but sadly it was still a mixed bag of a show. Some terrific episodes, writing and supporting characters don't make up for the miscast lead actors, subpar standalone episodes and a concept which from the beginning was flawed and tampered with. Whilst there are many single episode I loved a lot, they were always balanced out with something that didn't mesh completely. But in the end those great episodes are too good to ignore and luckily the show isn't horrendous, just flawed. I would recommend that people should watch Dollhouse, it did a lot right but a lot wrong. As long as you go in not expecting a perfect show, a lot of fun can be had. In the end however, I will await Joss Whedon's next project with baited breathe, especially if the Dollhouse experience is what leads him to start looking for creative freedom. Because we all want to see what he can come up with given complete control and little input from executives is surely going to help.

However we're here to talk about Dollhouse Season 2. I'm not sure I'll miss it the same I do other shows, partly because it feels like a complete run. Season 2 was good season of television, with enough great episodes to elevate that much higher. The fact that it has an endpoint is a definite plus but ultimately a lot of the show is still frustrating, but that shouldn't put potential watchers off from what is a very cool idea for a show with some superb performances (and some mixed) along with great episodes and writing (for the most part).

8/10

Favourite TV Shows 2009 - Honourable Mentions

Here we go with my third annual list of the best television shows of the year. 2009 was a brilliant year for television and whilst once again the list will be made up entirely American shows, I would like to give special mention to Gavin and Stacey for just being an immensely enjoyable show and along with Outnumbered being one of the better British sitcoms to come about in years. Think of this as being an Honourable Mention for the Honourable Mentions. That being said, I now bring you the honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions

Dollhouse
Joss Whedon's new show isn't as fully formed as Firefly was when it came about, and Eliza Dushku isn't the best lead actress in the world, and yes, when the show is bad it's damn near awful. But when it's brilliant it can stand up with the best of them. Not every episode of Dollhouse is a winner but the ones that are such as 'Belonging', 'Briar Rose' and 'Epitaph One' are some of the best hours of television you'll come across from 2009. Sadly we had to sit through some real clunkers to get to the gems and now with the show hurtling along for it's final three episodes, I really want to find out where Joss Whedon would have gone with this great but seriously flawed show.

Modern Family
One of the shows I seriously considered putting on the list. Whilst Modern Family came out of the new season as the clear winner of the best shows, I picked another show to be representative. But Modern Family is superb. It's not quite as cartoony and brilliant as Arrested Development but it's kind of a safe funny family comedy, in the same way that Gavin and Stacey is. It doesn't have the same kind of story, but the ideas behind it being about family and a large expanse of very different people from different cultures whilst still being hilarious make Modern Family a clear winner and a show which will probably go from strength to strength in the coming months/years.

Party Down
It's the new show from Veronica Mars creator, Rob Thomas and it's absolutely hilarious. It's very sarcastic, dark but it's just so damn good. Following a group of unemployed actors working for a careering firm, we get not only an inside look at Hollywood but also some truly insane characters. Along with Chuck, probably my favourite show for guest casting and not only for the stars from Veronica Mars but actors such as JK Simmons, Breckin Meyer and Ken Jeong. Also Kristen Bell has guest starred and will guest star again in the coming season, so honestly if that isn't reason enough to watch I don't know what is.

Pushing Daisies
Only three new episodes of Pushing Daisies aired in 2009 but it's one of my favourite shows ever and whilst it could never quite make it onto my favourite shows of the year, I'm giving it it's final dues right now. Pushing Daisies was one of the most original shows ever put to the small screen and it was an honour to have been there from the beginning. Pushing Daisies I salute you. Now let's Bryan Fuller (a God amongst men) can get the comic book series out.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Apart from Pushing Daisies, this was probably the most painful cancellation of the season. Whilst the show kicked off 2009 with a very boring trilogy of episodes focusing on Sarah Connor which weren't very interesting and took a lot of the life out of the show. However they followed this up with a final string of 5 episodes which made the show awesome again. Whilst those three episodes hold the show back so much, I couldn't not put this one my list. Not only for a brilliant finale, some incredible ballsy moves but for the prospect of what might have happened if it had gotten a third season with which to answer the questions so tantalisingly raised in the final episode.

Of Dollhouse - "Belonging"

This will hopefully be the start of something a lot more frequent where I take an individual episode of a show and rave (or rant) about it. I will probably still be avoiding comedies just because of the difficulty I find in ranking individual episodes (other than very occasionally where the results are amazing, see 30 Rock "Season 4"). So it'll mostly be drama series, such as Dollhouse, Mad Men and Lost. So here we go why I absolutely adored the latest episode of Dollhouse.

So if you read this blog a lot you might know that Dollhouse is very a flawed show. It fluctuates between absolutely brilliance and absolute awfulness. Luckily this season has had a lot more good episodes but also stuff that just doesn't work (the episode where Echo is a mother is a good example) but luckily we haven't hit the absolute shite that we had hit in Season 1 by this point (pick pretty much any episode from 2-5). Luckily the show does have those occasional moments of sheer brilliance, episode 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13 from Season 1 spring to mind and now episode 4 from Season 2.

This episode did pretty much everything right. It advanced the plot more towards what we saw in last season's equally sublime "Epitaph One" and managed to minimize the effect that Eliza Dushku's lack of overall acting does to the show. Sadly she just can't handle being the lead character of Dollhouse due to the fact that it just feels like she's playing the same character more often than not. This shows in that most episodes which are brilliant definitely have her in a more subdued presence. This is what happens in this episode. This episode mostly follows around Sierra (played to stunning perfection by Dichen Lachman) as we find more about the circumstance that led to her becoming a Doll. Dichen Lachman just exudes a chemistry and natural talent that Eliza Dushku just doesn't and it's episodes like this that make me wish that she wasn't the lead or at the very least the show was far more of an ensemble with Dushku taking far more frequent trips to the back of the group

This is some of the most compelling stuff that the show has pulled off and at first I wasn't too interested in what we were going to find out but when the quality of what we saw was this brilliant I have no complaints. We get introduced to quite possibly the most evil man ever (and he's not supervillain evil or just messed in the head evil, he's just so in love with this person*) and we tell a tale of drugs, rape, brainwashing and true love. At times touching and at others genuinely pretty heavy for a network television. We follow through a series of flashbacks interspersed with various different parts of the present day, advancement of the overarching and Dichen Lachman playing not one but THREE different versions of the same character, all of whom are played astonishingly well. Of course the circumstances of her becoming a Doll are exceedingly shocking, all played behind the seedy backdrop of the Dollhouse, and whilst some might think that they've got the best interests of the Doll's in mind, you can't help but feel these people have seriously compromised morals.

The hour is just packed with twists and just some of the most disturbing stuff to come from television in a while, Dollhouse is very dark and it's subject matter is very touchy, luckily episodes like this just make it work. Anything that deals with slavery and rape is obviously going to have to be done in a certain way and this episode plays it to perfection, luckily buoyed by the brilliant Dichen Lachman (honestly I don't think I'll be able to stop raving about how great she was in this episode)

Of course we get other great performances this episode, Topher (Fran Kranz) moves more and more towards what we saw him like in "Epitaph One" adding far more layers to his character beyond the computer geek without morals (his story this season has definitely been the most compelling, especially his scenes with Amy Acker in the premiere). Harry Lenix gets to go all badass as Boyd in something I've only really seen done on Breaking Bad and Enver Gjokaj buts on an ever amazing performance as Victor. However if you know Joss Whedon something bad is coming because of the sweet nativity that exists in him, seriously Joss Whedon is a complete dick when it comes to happiness (see pretty much everything he's ever done)

Then we have the behind the scenes personnel. This episode was written by Maurissa Tncharoen and Jed Whedon who also last seasons "Epitaph One"(and also "Stage Fright" so it's not all gold) and was directed by Jonathan Frakes who played Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation (he also directed Thunderbirds, so again it's not all gold). The combination of this director, writer and these actors make the show just flow so well that it comes off without a hitch.

Whilst Dollhouse might still be in for bumpy ride (particularly with being taken off the air till December and cancellation looming) as long as they can continue to put out great episodes like this, I'll be more than happy (although the double dose of Summer Glau we'll get on December 4th will have a similar effect). If you haven't watched Dollhouse just know that after a bumpy first few episodes it gets very good, occasionally brilliant. If you've fallen off the band wagon, just know that this show is a brilliant sign of things to come and if you've already seen "Belonging" then you know just brilliant and awe inspiring this episode was.

10/10

*if I can I'm so using this in my English. Guy continually rents the same empty husk of a human being to have sex with who hates every second of the time she spends with him? Sounds like Love Through the Ages to Me

Of Dollhouse Season 1

Joss Whedon's first new television show since 2004 ended it's first season last Friday and whilst there is still one episode left for me to see (which I won't be able to see unless I buy the American DVD set or wait the 12 weeks for Sci-Fi to air the episode, btw Dollhouse starts Tuesday at 9), it isn't actually part of the main series. The episode entitled "Epitah One" is split apart from the rest of the series, and whilst I'm dying to see it, isn't important to the show and I can do this review without it.

Dollhouse is schizophrenic. Not only in terms of the actual characters but also in terms of actual quality. It's strange. This show is definitely a slight stumble for Joss Whedon. The show definitely feels a lot stronger when its dealing with a continuous arc and the stand alone episodes just feel a bit thin and un-Whedonlike. Joss Whedon is easily one of the ten best writers in the world, no contest, and yet this show just doesn't seem to take off. Occasional there are flashes of the brilliance that we all know he's capable of but then we get an episode where Echo becomes a backup dancer (WTF was that shit?)

Before I go full on critic mode, let's explain the premise. The show is essentially about a company which offers you're dream woman/man for whatever job you want. Want to have a homosexual encounter behind you're families back? Order a doll and programme him/her however you like. Need to steal something from a bank? Get a doll with safe cracking skills. Or maybe you just want a friend, so get a doll who knows exactly what you want. Thing is all of these dolls who being made to do this are real people. They've all literally sold themselves into slavery. They all have their personalities and memories wiped and are then reprogrammed to become an entirely new person (apart from in looks). It's interesting concept and one that Joss could have taken to so many interesting places and yet hasn't, at least not yet.

The main flaws with the show are the schizophrenic action and bad acting/characters. The writing for the show fluctuates so much it's hard to keep track. Overall there are only about four great episodes of the show and I would say just watch those (plus the finale) but the problem is because of some plot elements in the first episodes (which otherwise are stand alone and completely forgettable) are quite key later on. So it comes as a choice. Dollhouse is definitely decent, in fact I would say episode 11 is down right awesome, but you need patience to actually get to the good stuff. Hopefully from less input by Fox next season we'll get less stand-alone episodes and more room for Joss to flex his story muscles.

Then there's the casting. Eliza Dushku CANNOT support this show on her own. She just doesn't have the range, at all. From Buffy we knew she could play the bad girl well, really well in fact. But here when you need her to play a new character every episode the roles just don't seem sufficiently different. There isn't really any vocal changes or movement changes. Essentially she just plays Faith from Buffy twelve times with a twist. Luckily Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj who play two other dolls are great. In fact they out act Eliza at every turn. There is one episode where Eliza and Dichen play the same character and it's almost comical to watch Dichen complete own Eliza's performance. Enver Gjokaj was a great find for the season with some great moments (particularly episode 11) and shows how much great casting there is on Whedon shows.

Whilst the rest of the cast is pretty good and getting some cool moments, its definitely hard to become attached to them. With half the main cast having they're brains wiped every episode and the rest being controlled by an evil corporation, it's hard to find an in. At the moment the show is only getting "oh that's cool" from me. I do enjoy characters such as Topher(no I don't find him annoying), and Amy Acker is just as enjoyable as she has been in other television shows (shame she won't be back next season), but the characters are lacking something that made Firefly sparkle. That show had the fabled perfect cast. All nine actors were superb and had genuine chemistry, here it feels like whilst everyone (except maybe Dusku) is perfectly suited to the role, the characters have to come to fruition as quickly as other Whedon shows.

Not to say Dollhouse is bad, it isn't. In fact episodes 6, 8, 9 and 11 stand out as being great episodes of television in general. 7 and 12 are alright but definitely lack something. 7 due to trying to force comedy moments between characters I just couldn't latch onto, I laughed but it felt a bit forced, and 12 because it just didn't feel right, some plotting decisions just seemed really stupid and took a lot of my excitement away from the previous episode. The rest of the episodes are just stand-alone episodes and could be avoided but definitely avoid episode 3, that episode is just pig swill.

Episode 11 is easily the strongest episode of the show so far and it's unsurprising really as Alan Tudyk (Firefly) puts in an amazing performance in this episode and proves how well cast Firefly was and how great a repertoire of actors Joss has been able to build up over the years. The fact that this is Joss' first new show since Firefly and just makes me miss it more. In 14 episodes Joss created one of the best universes to make stories in and then the show got canceled. The characters were superb, great writing and cool story. Thing is Dollhouse could be so many of those things but already in 12 episodes it is falling a long way short of the obscenely high bar that Joss Whedon has erected over the years.

Then there's the fact that the show doesn't feel like a Whedon product. Whilst we do get the occasional piece of Whedon dialogue ("People were fighting on me") its few and far between and therefore lacks the punch of Buffy or Firefly which were able to turn on a dime from comedy to drama in a second making it feel so much more powerful. Whilst some Whedon touches are there such as the moment a character is happy they must pay, there just needs to be more. We need more Joss Whedon not a watered down version playing to network executives. The show currently gets 3 million viewers a week, you're not going to lose anymore so next season just go all out Joss Whedon just like you did on Buffy. Luckily the show has a decent collection of Whedon alums to make it feel more Whedon-y but it looks like next season the only one left will by Eliza Dusku, who as I said, isn't the strongest lead the show could ask for, unlike the scarily charismatic Nathan Fillion from Firefly.

The show has definite room for improvement. If they can tighten up the characters (in particular Ballard who made a completely out of character decision in the finale) and make the show a bit more serialised then it could definitely work out. Oh and Dusku needs to do a lot less, still have her as the main character but make it a lot more of an ensemble piece, I always find myself more invested in any story not involving her than the ones that do. The show could have dealt with so many interesting concepts such as the existence of souls or even dealt with slavery and things of that ilk, but so far it just doesn't seem it wants to. Joss is clearly an intelligent man, but so far he's not raising the intelligent questions with the show.

Overall the show is decent with occasional flashes of brilliance (such as a "death" scene in episode 9 or the superb episode 11) but I want to see where they go in Season 2. I can tell Joss is going to address the problems people had with the first and hopefully make the show as superb as his other works. I would definitely say watch the show, but prepared for it not hit its stride (or stumbling saunter) until episode 6. 7/10

PS If you're looking for a great show by Joss Whedon or just something cool then please go and watch Firefly, the boxset is stupidly cheap on and it's easily one of the best shows of the past decade. Plus I really need Serenity 2!!!

First Impressions - Dollhouse

Alright, wow. I thought I'd do a few posts in between this and my Heroes first impressions however that obviously isn't that case. So here we go with Joss Whedon's new show. Now I'm not the biggest Joss Whedon fan in the world. I love Firefly and am getting through Buffy at a steady pace. So whilst I'm a fan of most of his stuff and think he's an amazingly talented bloke, I'm not as big a fan as the people who hound after single little thing that he puts his hand to.

So after last years amazing Dr. Horrible and the announcement of this my interest was piqued. After some rave reviews of the pilot script I got a lot more interested. Then the problems started. There were script rewrites, hiatuses in production, recasting and re-shoots. So we finally made it to what I saw yesterday. Critical reception was middling, especially from those who had read the original pilot script. So I went in with lowered expectations.

It did meet them and I was sort of impressed but it's not the "WOAH OMG" feeling I got from Lost and even the Firefly pilot. So I'm going to carry on watching the show (it's only going to make it to 13 episodes so it's not a massive chunk of my time). Overall you can tell there's a far better show trapped in there but for the first few episodes I don't think we'll be able to see it purely because of the need to introduce this to a mainstream audience (which it already hasn't).

So overall the concept is very cool. People being essentially blank slates and then having personalities imprinted over the top to do certain jobs such as in the pilot the perfect date or a hostage negotiator. It leads to a lot of moral problems such as whether these people have free will and whole notions of slavery (luckily there are no black Dolls which definitely wouldn't have helped). I'm anticipating the later episodes because you can just tell that it really is going to expand very soon.

However I do have some complaints. It just really feel like a Joss Whedon show. Now obviously we warned about that by the man himself before the show began but still. There isn't his trademark wit that made Buffy, Firefly and Dr. Horrible shine. There were moments like when Echo says that something fell on her, only to get the answer "well I hope it was something really great". But the show is missing the deft balance of humour and drama that makes Joss' other work so amazing.

Secondly I'm just not feeling the FBI story at the moment. Whilst it's cool to see Battlestar actors after the show has finished (well it hasn't finished yet but you get my drift), the story doesn't have any ties to the many story which I hope it develops soon.

Finally I'm a bit upset we won't be seeing many other Dolls. In the main cast two of the main characters are Dolls but we were originally going to get four. The problem being the script rewrites which necessitated recasting. I'm hoping we get to see the original pilot at some point because what we got last night just wasn't meant to be our opening taste to the show.

So overall the show is good, not as good as Joss' other stuff but fun and with a load of potential. I'm going to keep watching if only because I have faith that it's going to blow up and be amazing by the seasons end (just like Fringe is sort of kinda proving to do.)

Of Shows in Trouble

Alright I feel completely lousy, so I aim just to make this a bit short.

Umm television is fucked. Completely. Today I've seen that three of my favourite shows are in trouble (one of which hasn't even aired yet!!!).

Alright those three shows are Pushing Daisies, Dollhouse and Terminator. As you may know I love Pushing Daisies, Terminator is a great TV version of the movies (it's better than Terminator 3) and Dollhouse is the latest show from the genius that is Joss Whedon. If you don't know him, where have you bin for the past decade? Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Serenity and Toy Story. Joss Whedon is a living legend.

Right now about them being in trouble. I've already posted that Pushing Daisies needs help, and by help I mean like a miracle, a real deus ex machina. Pushing Daisises is on its last legs. We might get 22 episodes (that's a full season) but that's only if you include the first season. It's going to be almost impossible to get another 9 to finish Season 2 let alone a third season. So whilst the show looks to be getting increasingly awesome over the next few weeks (Emerson's daughter, Randy Mann, Gina Torres, Ned's brothers, Chuck's dad and some Norwegians are all involved) it will probably end with the 13th episode of Season 2. Whilst this was supposed to be a two parter culminating in episode 14, due to no more episodes not being picked up by ABC (they make Lost) 13 might have to act as a de facto finale for the show (unless Mr. Fuller wouldn't mind making a movie to finish the show? (God how sad is it that I'm already asking for a movie when the show isn't even dead yet?))

However this might actually mean good news. Yup if Pushing Daisies dies, Heroes gets good again. Odd as it may sound it's true. Bryan Fuller creator of Pushing Daisies was a writer on Season 1 of Heroes and wrote the awesome Company Man and was also the writer who dealt with Claire back in Season 1 (remember when she was an interesting character?) If Daisies dies Fuller has said that he is going to go back to Heroes, he might not work full time on the show but at least it will mean that show will get a competent writer. No offense to Tim Kring, Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander but you really need to step up game, especially because two of you worked on Lost!! (although they didn't exactly write any episodes or prove themselves like Lindelof, Cuse, Vaughan or Goddard have). So with Bryan Fuller back on board who knows Heroes might finally get awesome again (woah deja vu)

Next up is Terminator. This show actually is in the least amount of trouble of the three. Its been picked up for a full season (22 episodes) and is being moved to a day where it's not expected to maintain a high level of ratings, and since the viewership of this sort of show is going to be quite loyal you can expect that it might actually hold onto some its viewers. However the bad news is that the night is Friday night (remember this in America) and it's not a night known to cultivate massive success. Unless of course you count the X-Files. So we may be saying goodbye to Terminator in May (which is a shame because Summer Glau (Firefly/Serenity) is now officially the longest serving Terminator with more screen time that Arnie got as the character).

Finally, and this is the one that hurts the most, Dollhouse. Joss Whedon makes great stuff. Anything he makes is guaranteed to have a rabid fan base. The problem is, is that his shows don't "appeal" to the masses. And yet the masses could easily love them if they watched it. Buffy is massively popular, not just with geeks but with so many people. It's like Lost, that show should only appeal to a group of geeks who love sci-fi and yet because of cool and interesting characters the show is a mainstream success. It's why Britain is a place where sci-fi is generally accepted. Doctor Who is a national phenomenon, Life on Mars is a critical success, theres a slot on BBC called the "Buffy" slot and Heroes has been picked up for lifetime rights by the biggest broadcaster in the UK. All these shows have a sci-fi theme. Yet they enjoy success in Britain, success that isn't normally seen across the pond. For some reason America can't get beyond stereotypes when it comes to genre television. Battlestar Gallactica is not the same as the original 70s version, it's in fact a massively political show with interesting and developed characters. So many great genre shows have died, such as Firefly (another Whedon show) due to America just not watching. And yet they would enjoy it. Lost is going to make six years and X-Files made it nine. Both of these shows are inherently genre and lasted for a good few years. Yet Dollhouse (which I'm almost positive will be awesome) will only make it 13 episodes. It's being aired in a the Friday night death slot just like Firefly did and look what happened to that? 14 episodes and dead. At least we're guaranteed to make it to 13 and it'll make an awesome DVD. Damn I'm really depressed now.

Sources:

Bryan Fuller to go back to Heroes
Terminator and Dollhouse on Friday Nights