Terminator, Dollhouse ratings continue to fall
by Doc on Mar.09, 2009, under Television
I wonder if we’ll be hearing the bad news soon. Seems that the ratings for sophomore series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and relatively new Joss Whedon effort Dollhouse, filling up Fox’s Friday night SF lineup, continue to slide in the ratings. Update 3/10: Apparently once you account for the DVR ratings, Dollhouse didn’t do so bad…
March 10th, 2009 on 2:11 pm
No compelling reason.
Dollhouse has no real likeable characters, short of Echo’s handler, and the only character who speaks in “Joss’ voice” is Topher, who isn’t a terribly likeable character. Echo herself?
Yeah, we can root for her, but she’s not really the “hero”.
I’ve watched 4 episodes thus far, and it still hasn’t figure out what it wants to be, besides Eliza’s “demo reel”. Yes, it’s Joss, it’s a slow build. But the individual episodes don’t really do much, and have gaping plot holes. In the hunted episode, why not give her better wilderness skills, if she’s supposed to be the outdoorsy type? Why not make her a master of antiquities, as well as a master thief, in the bank job? Heck, why hire her as a midwife? For what she costs, you could probably hire several.
Bits and pieces seem cool, but the show itself doesn’t know what it wants to be – that may be deliberate, but it’s a hard nut to crack. As an anthology show, different actors: maybe. As is? I doubt it.
March 11th, 2009 on 6:46 am
Re:No compelling reason.
While I agree that Dollhouse is a slow build, it’s growing on me. Every episode reveals major aspects of the Dollhouse, the technology, and the world around them. I agree that it’s a hard nut to crack – Jos seems to have made a lot of choices that are challenging, such as having the lead character completely amorphous, so that there’s almost nothing there for the audience to identify with (so we find ourself identifying with Boyd, her handler). And the show doesn’t have simply good/bad characters – everyone is doing things for their own motivations, which I find much more believable. In particular, who you’re rooting for changes contextually, so while you’re with the Dollhouse and the actives you’re rooting for them to complete their jobs successfully (and stay hidden), then when you’re with Agent Ballard you’re rooting for him to solve the mystery of the Dollhouse. But those challenging decisions also makes it (to me) very interesting to watch, to see how it all plays out.