Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, TINK

The irony, I must say, is delicious.

Little did Joss Whedon know that his little catchphrase will become such an apt description for his latest breakaway hit/flaming wreckage of a show. But Dollhouse can be perfectly described using that little snippet of clever dialogue. The show, which aired its final episode last week, had a bumpy, uneven, harrowing ride through the world of broadcast television suffering threats of cancelation, actual cancelation, resurrection and a final cancelation once more.

I first heard of Dollhouse, back when its inception was first announced, as any other Whedonite would. By stalking Whedon with a telephoto lens reading about on a website. We all know the story, two old friends have lunch, catch up, one gets up to take a leak, thinks of a brilliant show starring the other while answering nature’s call. The rest, is history.

This is where Magic happens

The concept, and this is something I still believe, is brilliant. People wiped of their personalities, for whatever reason, are imprinted with fake yet full personalities complete with abilities as custom made to order what-have-yous. The show was set to explore what makes us us, the true meaning of “personality” and “identity” in a way Buffy could only scratch. Does a person who is a different guy (or girl) every week truly have a self? What happens when the different personalities start clashing (as glitches in the system are the bread and butter of sci-fi tech-oriented shows like this one was shaping up to be). What about the morality of imprinting these living dolls? Is it wrong to people? How would this affect the people in charge? The people being imprinted themselves?

This, too, is a TV actor’s dream come true. I am not a TV actor, but I’m sure playing the same part for several years can get tedious and boring – David Tennant left Doctor Who for these reasons, as did countless others before him. This part, however, lets you be someone else every week. You get to shift things around, you get to completely showcase your range. Unless, of course…

Ahem...

… You have the range of a ferret.

Look, I’m not here to bash Eliza Dushku. I’m really not, I like her and Faith was awesome. But the honest truth is, she has no range. She does one thing. She does it well, but she only does one thing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Others have made a career out of doing one thing well. The bottom line is – this part was too big for her. The whole point of the Dolls in the Dollhouse was that you become someone else every week. What we were treating to week in and week out is a “someone else” who’s really an ass-kicking bad girl. Sure it may be an ass-kicking bad girl Lawyer, or School Girl or Scuba Instructor, but the bottom line, it was the same character in a different outfit. We basically got Faith/Tru/That chick from Bring It On again.

What makes this so incredibly frustrating is that each and every other actor on the show was good. Especially the other dolls. Take any one of them and put them in the starring role, and this would have been a show worth tuning into. Each one of these actors has proven themselves on more than one occasion that they are capable of shifting personalities, of doing exactly what it is that the show’s concept dictates. This shows, as the show’s best episode were the ones with minimal to no appearances by Eliza Dushku, and you can clearly see that towards the end it wasn’t really about her anymore.

All in all, Dollhouse was a brilliant concept. We got to see that throughout the show, in snippets in between the more mundane “engagement of the week” episodes. The last several episodes, once the show had already been canceled, showed you exactly what kind of toys Whedon had to play around with, and I, for one, would have loved seeing each of these get its due time and space, rather than the rapid-fire burst we got to see them in. Dollhouse will forever be remembered as just that – a fantastic concept that suffered a horrible execution due to a main actress that simply could not hold the show together. It’s a shame, but live and learn I guess.

So long, Dollhouse. I will say you will be missed, but that’s not really the case, is it. Here’s hoping the remake in 25 years will be better.

I think we can all pretty much agree that Lost is one of the best shows on television right now. Everything from its excellent writing, to its talented cast of characters all the way through the high production value. The show has had its downs, sure, not every episode is spectacular, and the third season did have a little trouble getting off the ground (the initial 6-episode “Jack, Kate and Sawyer Show” is a black mark in Lost’s history). Lost is also unique in the fact that we know the writers are working towards a definite ending, and that ending is coming nearer and nearer.

I think Lost is responsible for an invigoration of television. It rejuvenated serial storytelling, and brought back something that many story-loving viewers were missing. It’s not that there were no good shows on TV, but most of them seemed to go on an episode-by-episode basis. A “monster of the week” thing, like Charmed or Buffy. Granted, these shows still had an overarching storyline, but it was not key, and you could tune in to an episode here and an episode there.

With Lost, that’s not the case. You just can’t miss an episode. Miss an episode and you miss an integral part of the story. Now, Lost is not the first show to have serialized story telling – Alias did it, 24 did it, both ran before Lost first aired. But Lost was the first to do it exceptionally well (Alias was great up until the 3rd season, and 24 was always more about the gimmick), and also it seemed to touch everyone.

With Lost’s rich cast of characters, there’s something for everyone. So some may be watching to see the overall mystery of the Island, some watch it for the medical drama of Jack’s flashbacks, some to see Sawyer’s latest con. The reasons are varied, and the writers and producers of the show know this, so they never make it about one thing in particular. It’s about the whole experience, nothing gets done half-assed.

Which is why I think Lost may have, inadvertently, killed television. It has set the bar so unbelievably high, that it’s gonna be very, very hard to top it. Can it be done, yeah, I guess. The right writer, with the right idea could always think about something crazier. But no matter what insane plot someone thinks of it will always from now till the end of time be compared to Lost. If you use strange sequences of numbers, flashbacks, monsters, islands, characters with daddy-isssues – all these things will send the skeptic viewer into a “but when they did on Lost”-rant.

So, we’ve got about 2 more years of “pure” television. 2 more years before Lost becomes that golden show every single creator in the business want to surpass. I’m having a hard time imagining the TV world post-Lost, with all the questions (hopefully) answered and all the mysteries quelled. Will this world have better TV due to writers trying to out-do the greatest show to ever air on television? Or will it instead just feature endless knock-offs of eclectic characters stranded in various exotic locals haunted by things that go bump in the night?

Time will tell, but for now – bring back Lost already!