BLOGS

Whedon Need No Stinkin' Dollhouse Interview!

The March 20th episode of Dollhouse is the fabled sixth episode, the one in which everything supposedly changes and the series really kicks into high gear. Angel has already told us her impressions of it, but now we have a lot of questions about the rest of the season -- luckily, show creator Joss Whedon was standing by to take our conference call, and play defense on a bunch of questions about sex, dolls and Dollhouse Season 4.

Obviously, the primary reason for the Dollhouse to exist is weird sexual engagements, but the first five episodes only touched on that a little. Was that a choice because you're on network TV, or did you just want to wait to get to that place?
Joss Whedon:
Some people at the network definitely said, "Well, wait a minute -- this idea that we've bought is illegal and very racy and frightens us!" That, for me, was frustrating, because I was telling them it was dangerous ground, and it was meant to be. That's not to say that the only thing I pitched them was "Echo has sex." I thought of her as a kind of life coach, the person you absolutely need in your life at a certain moment, who will either change you or comfort you or take your life to the level that you want it to be. And that could be something nice, evil, sexual... It could be any number of things. It was never just meant to be the one. The one sort of took over because it's the one that frightens people the most and also, obviously, interests them the most. So, yes, I think we ended up not going there as much as we would have in the first few episodes, because we were still in that dialog with some of the people at the network. You end up doing a disservice if you just sort of gloss over it and never hit it head-on. Having said that, I still have no problem with the idea that somebody very rich and very far off in the mountains would hire the perfect midwife, because -- the birth of my child? You don't want a thinker.

Some of the Whedonites are still looking for the snappy banter and/or pop-culture references that have been the hallmark of your previous shows. Do those have a place in Dollhouse?
Whedon:
There is humor in the show -- there's a lot in the episode after "Man on the Street" -- but the fact of the matter is, this is not a comedy. If there is a typical Whedon show, this is not it. It's not the lighthearted romp that the other shows were. It's not going to play that instrument. You have to do different things at different times. If people are feeling like it's too serious, then either their expectations have to be changed, or we need to lighten up a little. There's definitely funny stuff coming up, but, I don't think they're ever going to see the same sort of long, six-page runs of just pure humor. This is not that show.

Boyd seems the most sympathetic and moralistic of the characters who work for the Dollhouse. Will we learn a little more about why is he working there? In some ways, it's hard to understand why he does the job in the first place.
Whedon:
It is hard, and we keep asking the question. I will tell you without reservation that, in this season, we don't answer it. Way before we had it cast or even written, I had a feeling I knew what had happened with Boyd. There was a line from an episode that ultimately wasn't even filmed, where he talks to Saunders: "None of us in here were next in line for Pope. Everybody has a reason." Rolling out how people came to this place is part of something we wanted to do a little bit later on, when we have people invested in the characters enough to be asking.

There's been a lot of fan speculation as to whether any of the people we know as staff members could possibly be dolls. Is that something you've thought about?
Whedon:
Yes, we talked about that -- the different possibilities that we could tweak, the pasts that people have, and how many layers of unreality you can have in somebody's identity. And, to an extent, we get very excited. We have to pull ourselves back and say, "If we make this a lie within a lie within a lie within a lie, people are just going to start slapping us." Like, now they're not invested in anybody. So we've talked about it, but we've been very restrained with the concept, because you have to have some touchstone of reality, even in this world.

If the possibility of dolls within the Dollhouse staff exists, is that going to prevent us from seeing what, say, Topher does outside of the Dollhouse? Are you handcuffed, as far as showing that stuff?
Whedon:
We're not handcuffed. It's just that at this point, we're still interested in how they relate to our actives and particularly Eliza. So we don't spend a lot of time with people in their outside lives, although we do spend some. We will learn a little something about the private lives of some of our employees, but it's something we're threading in lightly. That's really something you would come to later in a season. Our first 13 [episodes] are basically just, "take the baseball bat and keep on hitting." And then later on, if you have people hooked, those threads are easier to weave in, because people are more invested. But at this point, we're just swinging for the bleachers, emotionally.

Amy Acker's character, Dr. Saunders, is just a cloud of misery. Are we going to learn more about her?
Whedon:
Yes, we sure are. I love that character, not just because it's Amy Acker, but because she wears misery and torture on her face -- literally. We will definitely learn how she came to this fabulous career. In the last few episodes, we get to turn the Acker up pretty hot, and it's very exciting.

Are we going to learn how Paul came to be so obsessed with Caroline and the Dollhouse? Is that something we would learn in a season one?
Whedon:
We don't really go back into his story in the first season, the first of so many seasons that there will inevitably be.

But season four, though, for sure?
Whedon:
Oh, yes, totally -- season four is like a whole two-parter. We're about to send him forward in ways he doesn't he expect. We feel like there's a thorn in his side, and we feel that we can push it further and twist it and possibly hit a vital organ. We want to make it as hard for him as possible to explain himself, why he's doing what he's doing.

Any other Whedon alumni slated to appear on the show?
Whedon:
Well, I did mention that Felicia Day was going to appear in an episode, and that's pretty much it for Buffy. Most of them are, I'm happy to say, working. I do like to see the gang, but we have to establish to reality of this world before we can bring in somebody without it being too jarring. Although we have one episode with a guy who looks a lot like Nick Brendon, and his character's name is "Nicholas" and that was a terrible idea. We should have never named him Nicholas, because every time I see his footage, I go, "Hey, wait a minute! Oh, I'm confused."

We learn tonight that there are other Dollhouses out there, are we going to see any of them?
Whedon:
We do get to see one of the higher-ups, and we talk about the other Dollhouses. We didn't want to do an Italian Wolfram & Hart gag, where we just use the same set and fill it with Italians. It's one of my favorite things we ever did, but that's because Angel was a lot sillier. So as the economy started to take a toll on our budget, that and the fact that we'd thrown out our pilot, we hunkered down. So, no, you will not see Dollhouse Tokyo this season, but, boy, I'd like to.

We'll save that for when the show starts franchising itself.
Whedon:
That's what I'm thinking.

Dollhouse New York.
Whedon:
Dollhouse Miami. [Does David Caruso impersonation] "It looks like we" -- glasses off -- "have got a doll."

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh! What do you think about the new episode? And would you watch Dollhouse Miami? Let us know below, then read Angel's reaction to the sixth and seventh episodes.

8 Comments

March 21, 2009 1:51 AM
Mack the Spoon
Reply

The sixth episode lived up to the hype!
Also, I would watch Dollhouse:Miami if it was like that. Hee!

March 21, 2009 3:35 AM
Eric
Reply

Glad to hear you liked it, Mack. I still need to catch it. I wish they would get to Ballard's backstory soon, because I love love love Tahmoh.
I never even thought of the employees as actives. Interesting...

March 21, 2009 4:57 PM
Smokie
Reply

I'm wondering why they didn't take a week off because of the two hour Galactica finally that took place at the same time. I never watch any of the shows live myself, but I know people watching the show when it is actually airing are the most important for the ratings.

It was a pretty good episode and nice to see the story move forward a bit more. One thing though, I never thought I'd say it, but I'm finding myself liking Terminator the best of the three big Friday robot/programmed people shows. With my crazy BSG/Weadon fandom, I never thought that would be possible

March 21, 2009 9:17 PM
lambytoes
Reply

I am finally fully invested in the show. For Firefly it was "Our Mrs. Reynolds" so I wasn't completely in love upon first watch of that either. Here's hoping it gets a full 7 year run!

March 21, 2009 10:37 PM
jords
Reply

Lambytoes, ITA. It normally takes a few eps of ANY show for me to declare undying love, and Joss's creations are no different. While Buffy had me pretty much at the pilot, Angel didn't really hook me until "Rm w/ a Vu" and Firefly also had me at "Our Mrs. Reynolds". I really liked "True Believer" but "Man on the Street" was blow-your-mind awesome.

Joss, I know money is tight, but if I hold a bake sale can you please show DH:Tokyo? And if you show Ballard shirtless every ep, think how far you can stretch the wardrobe budget!! (Yes, I went there.)

March 22, 2009 9:19 PM
Nicola
Reply

I am also a fan of Joss' work (long time buffy/angel fan but I loved firefly the best)so after the first couple of eps of Dollhouse I was starting to worry so I went back and watched them again. I have to say, they were heaps better the second time through. I don't know if I was too bombarded with new info the first time around or if I just liked them better once I grew more attached to the characters but whatever it was from the second time I watched the pilot I was invested. There are layers and 'clues' in the first couple of eps that I just didn't appreciate before and with the 6th ep I am completely hooked. I highly recomend a second viewing from the start. Sadly I live in Australia so my viewing doesn't count but I really hope fox doesn't bail on this show before it gets a chance to really shine. Please people, keep watching! I am sure we won't be disapointed.

March 23, 2009 10:28 AM
Suzane
Reply

I lurved this episode!!!! This is the one where I go all in, it had so, so, so much going on, plot, character, fight scenes. I haven't loved a show this much since Firefly went off the air, I have to say.

March 23, 2009 7:59 PM
thomas
Reply

I guess I'm the only person who didn't think there was a jump in quality? Don't care that annoying neighbour girl is a Doll. Don't care about Echo being hijacked because it was so goddamn blatantly obvious for episodes that someone inside was sabotaging. Don't care about the Detective beating the shit out of everyone. Blah. I liked episode 2 way more.

Loading...

Add a comment

BLOG ARCHIVES

The Telefile

October 2009

33 Entries

September 2009

66 Entries

August 2009

58 Entries

July 2009

72 Entries

June 2009

71 Entries

May 2009

50 Entries

April 2009

57 Entries

March 2009

66 Entries

February 2009

52 Entries

January 2009

56 Entries

December 2008

51 Entries

November 2008

71 Entries

October 2008

88 Entries

September 2008

86 Entries

August 2008

120 Entries

July 2008

115 Entries

June 2008

90 Entries

May 2008

44 Entries

April 2008

30 Entries

March 2008

27 Entries

February 2008

30 Entries

January 2008

44 Entries

December 2007

31 Entries

November 2007

66 Entries

Blog Categories

Awards

29 Entries

Character Corner

75 Entries

Cool Stuff We Need

7 Entries

DVDs Unwrapped

4 Entries

Everybody Dance Now

23 Entries

Fall TV

5 Entries

I Hate Procedurals

5 Entries

IMDb Fun Times

2 Entries

Irrational Exuberance

188 Entries

Judging Strangers

145 Entries

Let's Go to the Video

129 Entries

Notes and Comment

22 Entries

Olympics

25 Entries

Picks

7 Entries

Producers Speak Out

11 Entries

Show vs. Show

5 Entries

Soap Auditions

10 Entries

Stars Making News

64 Entries

That's F&*!ed Up

98 Entries

The Biz

131 Entries

The Forgotten

7 Entries

The TCAs

5 Entries

Today's TWoP News

162 Entries

Top of the TWoP

5 Entries

True Confessions

5 Entries

Tubey Awards

13 Entries

TV on DVD

8 Entries

TWoP 10

69 Entries

TWoP On The Town

4 Entries

TWoP To The Rescue

15 Entries

Very Bad Things

38 Entries

WGA Strike

32 Entries