Dollhouse Open Thread

Who's been watching Dollhouse? That's Joss Whedon's new show about... well... it's sort of high concept, and takes some explanation. (Unlike, say, Hart To Hart, which you could sum up as "husband and wife millionaires solve murders in their spare time" or According To Jim which can be described as "sucks" or Sabrina The Teenage Witch, a show which requires no further description.) Let me just quote the Wikipedia entry, since that covers it nicely:

Eliza Dushku plays a young woman called Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls." The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments (referred to as engagements)... The Actives are then hired out for particular jobs -- crimes, fantasies, and the occasional good deed. On engagements, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse."

I only half paid attention to the first episode, where Echo was sent out as a hostage negotiator and rescued a little girl from some real dastardly characters. Seemed kind of cool and I liked the idea of Echo going out every week as a new and different badass to put the smackdown on some douchenozzle who had it coming. But then I watched the second ep: Echo was sent out on assignment to be little more than the client's fuck toy for the weekend. The Dollhouse, it seems, is just a high-end, high-tech whorehouse. If you need a highly-skilled hostage negotiator, they'll provide one. If you just want a partner for a long weekend of sexy times, they do that too.

And that latter scenario becomes seriously problematic when you take into account the Actives have no real consent. They've merely been programmed for attraction to their clients. (And yes, it could be argued that the Actives volunteered to work at the Dollhouse; though I'd counter that Echo was given the choice of working there "voluntarily" or face something much worse, and again we're taken back to the question of whether she's really in a position to say no at all.)

So, what's the deal with the show then? Whedon is a self-described feminist, and someone who once talked of "the very casual, almost insidious misogyny that just runs through so much of [Hollywood] fiction." I wonder why he's created a show that seems, on its surface, to embody that "insidious misogyny" he so loathes.

As Liss said in an email earlier "I'm wondering if the show is an allegory with the potential to be a strong commentary on the rape culture, but so far most of the emails I'm getting (even from Whedon fans) seem to regard it as a load of ick." Are we, the audience supposed to root for the scientists and handlers who've wiped Echo's memories, as they do their level best to keep her from harm? Or are we siding with the FBI agent intent on rescuing Echo and presumably bring down Dollhouse? And what about Echo's newest handler, a man with serious moral and ethical qualms about what his employers are doing?

Honestly, I don't know where the show is heading or what Whedon is (or isn't) up to. Your thoughts?

(I meant to add these links in when I wrote this post, but completely forgot. Thanks to natbsat for the reminder. Episode one is here. Episode two here.)