Dollhouse / My Favorite SCI-FI Shows / Overview: SCI-FI TV Shows in Alphabetical Order

dollhouse, Star Trek, Firefly, Babylon 5, Star Wars, Stargate

Last rewatch: 16/4/2016 - 12/6/2016

Plot (IMDb): A shadowy organization uses mind-wiped humans known technically as "actives" and colloquially as "dolls" who are imprinted with false memories and specialized skills for various tasks on behalf of paying clients. When they are not on assignments, they live in an underground "Dollhouse", a facility that protects and provides for their needs, including food, exercise and sleeping pods little bigger than coffins. One of the dolls, a young woman called Echo by her handlers, is slowly becoming aware of herself and what is going on. Meanwhile, at least two different people on the outside are trying to bring down the Dollhouse, one by finding Echo and the other by using her.

Dollhouse premiered on FOX on February 13 2009 and was cancelled in Noveber 2009. The last episode aired on January 29 2010. Dollhouse was the second TV show where Eliza Dushku played the lead role. First in 2003 she turned down her own Faith show as a spin-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to star in Tru Calling, which also lasted 2 seasons with also a total of 26 episodes.

Dollhouse probably wasn't meant to be aired on a network like FOX. It would have been better off on cable, USA or Showtime, because of the adult content. Dollhouse had low ratings in it's first season but FOX, after the Firefly debacle, probably didn't have the nerve to cancel it after it's first season and granted it another season. The second season, which is in my opinion much better, still did not get good ratings, only dropped further, which was to be expected. Alexis Denishof (Angel) and Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) were added to the (recurring) cast, although the budget that Joss Whedon got was cut, Joss Whedon said that it wouldn't affect the quality of the episodes.

The first season, at the start, I think the show started out a bit uneven, but in my opinion this soon changed, soon the dolls weren't only used as sex dolls and we got a good TV show with some great characters. Beside Eliza I really was a big fan of Fran Kranz' character Topher Brink and Summer Glau, like usual, in the second season was a fun to watch and let's not forget Amy Acker as Dr. Claire Saunders.

I really think it's a shame Eliza Dushku wasn't able to become a big TV star with long running TV show(s). I really liked her as Faith on Buffy, as Tru in Tru Calling and as Echo in Dollhouse. The last one perhaps was her best performance. I'm still hoping someday soon there will be another show where in Eliza stars...as lead, and hopefully it again will be SCI-FI.

Dollhouse definitely has rewatch value and as I am writing this I'm hoping that I can rewatch this sometime this year or in 2022. But there are a lot of shows to rewatch and so little time with all the new shows coming up.