Techland

I finally got to watch Friday night's Dollhouse yesterday. It's currently the only episodic television I follow, and I'm a little at a loss to explain its hold over me. But that's not stopping me from having opinions about it! To wit:

-- Obviously, there's a lot of sex stuff implicit in the whole Dollhouse premise. I'm starting to kinda wish that some of it had stayed implicit. For a light thriller-type program there sure is a lot of rape (as in Sierra and her handler) and prostitution (as in Echo servicing Generic Internet Mogul Guy) up in this piece. Creepy.

-- That said, I liked the G.I.M.G. He had style and confidence. His story was kinda sappy and implausible, and I didn't really get what exactly his Internet play was -- let's see a business plan, buddy! -- but you know, good for him.

-- Echo got the line of the night: "Porn!"

-- Are the handlers really that surprised that the dolls are capable of getting turned on? They lose their personalities, but surely all that sexual stuff is deep-level lizard-brain stuff.

-- Oh, Agent Ballard. Did you really not think about how illegal it is to walk into some rich dude's house and kick the crap out of his bodyguards without, say, a warrant of any kind? But on the plus side, that guy can sure handle a Tasing. He was up and interrogating again in minutes.

-- Great twist involving Ballard's Chesty Neighbor. They spent a little too long establishing her as a single sad sack w/ a self-esteem problem, but it was almost worth it to watch C.N. put that sick bastard Hearn down for good. Is she really a Doll? She's been on a mighty long-term assignment. If so she must have been imprinted with some top-notch casserole-making skillz.

-- The Chinese restaurant throwdown. Amazing choreography. I did start wincing after a while -- how much punishment are these people supposed to be able to take? -- but I can't say I wanted it to stop. They must have imprinted Echo with Ozymandias' brain-patterns from Watchmen. My only real quibble is that I don't understand why it happened. Couldn't they have had the exact same conversation they had without kicking the crap out of each other first?

-- Twenty dollhouses. I thought that was a red herring, but then Boss Lady seemed to confirm it later in the episode. Wow. According to our sibling-blog Tuned In, ratings for Dollhouse are climbing out of the cellar, so maybe we'll see all this stuff pay off after all.

-- I finally figured out what the Dollhouse headquarters reminds me of. Ever been in one of those high-level frequent-flyer airport lounges? The secret ones you have to pay for? Exactly the same look and feel. Hmmm. Maybe if I just got a few more miles on JetBlue ...