After the excellent futuristic episode of Epitaph One, it's a bit of a let down, coming back to the day to day woes of Echo and company, in the mere old present.
This was predominantly a Whisky/Claire Saunders episode, and I'm just more than a little miffed that Amy Acker STILL isn't a regular cast member. It must be hard for Dushku to have Acker acting next to her, knowing that she can be upstaged by this excellent actress at any time if she doesn't give her very best, which, luckily for Dushku, she does. The scenes that Acker has with Lennix, with Kranz and with Dushku herself (classic female glancing! ;)), are rife with drama, about wasted lives and missed opportunities. This is, dramatically speaking, one hell of an episode! Especially if one considers the dialogue, this next exchange builds on the one Claire has with Boyd Lenton before:
Topher: "Why didn't you find out who you really used to be? You had your chance. Maybe DeWitt would even re-imprint your old identity. You've earned it.
Claire: "Because I don't want to die. I'm not even real. I'm in someone else's body, and I'm afraid to give it up. I'm not better than you. I'm just a series of excuses."
Topher: "You're human!"
Claire: "Don't flatter yourself."
The episode has it's usual suspension-of-believe moments (or rather plot holes?), like why didn't Echo's handler see the spike for what it was? And Ballard, 'jumpstarting' Echo by hitting and getting hit by her, seems really a far-fetched prospect, risky and thus lame. Especially for someone who has 39 personalities stuffed inside her head. Even so, this episode lacked in showing clearly and explicitly how Echo operated as highly efficient killing machine: The action scenes looked heavily edited to hide the lack of credible fight moves by either Dushku or her stand-in.
I can really recommend this episode to fans of great dialogue. There's some action too, but John Woo ... it's not. Which is what this show would need to be considered great. With Buffy, Whedon could vary between drama, comedy and action, (BtVS was thé quintessential action-dramady...) and with Dollhouse he doesn't have the luxury of the comedy angle anymore, let alone the musical one, so he really needs to develop the action side of Dollhouse. He can't re-make Gunslinger Girls, but he can come close.
PS The previous reviewer so clearly shows her ignorance, when wondering about Victor and Sierra, and about DeWitt and Victor's face? OMG! If you can't be bothered to watch every episode, then DON'T review this! And excellent writing won't decide Dollhouse's fate, merely viewer numbers.
The Melancholic Alcoholic.
This was predominantly a Whisky/Claire Saunders episode, and I'm just more than a little miffed that Amy Acker STILL isn't a regular cast member. It must be hard for Dushku to have Acker acting next to her, knowing that she can be upstaged by this excellent actress at any time if she doesn't give her very best, which, luckily for Dushku, she does. The scenes that Acker has with Lennix, with Kranz and with Dushku herself (classic female glancing! ;)), are rife with drama, about wasted lives and missed opportunities. This is, dramatically speaking, one hell of an episode! Especially if one considers the dialogue, this next exchange builds on the one Claire has with Boyd Lenton before:
Topher: "Why didn't you find out who you really used to be? You had your chance. Maybe DeWitt would even re-imprint your old identity. You've earned it.
Claire: "Because I don't want to die. I'm not even real. I'm in someone else's body, and I'm afraid to give it up. I'm not better than you. I'm just a series of excuses."
Topher: "You're human!"
Claire: "Don't flatter yourself."
The episode has it's usual suspension-of-believe moments (or rather plot holes?), like why didn't Echo's handler see the spike for what it was? And Ballard, 'jumpstarting' Echo by hitting and getting hit by her, seems really a far-fetched prospect, risky and thus lame. Especially for someone who has 39 personalities stuffed inside her head. Even so, this episode lacked in showing clearly and explicitly how Echo operated as highly efficient killing machine: The action scenes looked heavily edited to hide the lack of credible fight moves by either Dushku or her stand-in.
I can really recommend this episode to fans of great dialogue. There's some action too, but John Woo ... it's not. Which is what this show would need to be considered great. With Buffy, Whedon could vary between drama, comedy and action, (BtVS was thé quintessential action-dramady...) and with Dollhouse he doesn't have the luxury of the comedy angle anymore, let alone the musical one, so he really needs to develop the action side of Dollhouse. He can't re-make Gunslinger Girls, but he can come close.
PS The previous reviewer so clearly shows her ignorance, when wondering about Victor and Sierra, and about DeWitt and Victor's face? OMG! If you can't be bothered to watch every episode, then DON'T review this! And excellent writing won't decide Dollhouse's fate, merely viewer numbers.
The Melancholic Alcoholic.