I Totally Skipped Dollhouse
Feb. 16th, 2009 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marydellSo when I read about Dollhouse, the new Joss Whedon TV Adventure, I was not enthused, because it's supposedly about a hot girl who has no personality of her own, who becomes different people based on the needs of the current adventure. Which is a pretty textbook male fantasy, and if we're going to explore it I'd rather see a reality show about Japanese fantasy sex clubs, because those are cool.
Alias embraced this concept by dressing Sydney up in hooker clothes all the time, but she had her own personality, so it was a contrast thing, in which the fantasy object was really a sweet, complex person with a family, who will kill you 18 different ways.
So, the other thing this concept immediately reminded me of was Molly in <i>Neuromancer</i>, who used to work as a "meat puppet," being given to clients who would do nasty things to her that she wouldn't remember, except that one time she "woke up" in the middle of a session and she killed the hell out of the client because he was cutting her up or some shit like that. See, it was just one conversation in a book I read 20 years ago, but it was VIVID and has stayed with me, and Molly was SO AWESOME. So I don't want to see a lameass rip-off of the same concept that's crossed with a lame-ass rip-off of Alias.
So I skipped it. Judging from my flist's reactions to the show, I totally did myself a favor, because it's bad, bad, bad, and also has more of Joss' annoying old-school Orientalism, which I managed to deal with in Firefly by coming up with my Theory of Chinese People in Firefly* but just don't feel like dealing with any more.
Yay, me! Reading 2-line descriptions of show concepts does pay off.
*Theory: there are a lot of Chinese characters in Firefly. They just aren't played by Chinese actors.
Alias embraced this concept by dressing Sydney up in hooker clothes all the time, but she had her own personality, so it was a contrast thing, in which the fantasy object was really a sweet, complex person with a family, who will kill you 18 different ways.
So, the other thing this concept immediately reminded me of was Molly in <i>Neuromancer</i>, who used to work as a "meat puppet," being given to clients who would do nasty things to her that she wouldn't remember, except that one time she "woke up" in the middle of a session and she killed the hell out of the client because he was cutting her up or some shit like that. See, it was just one conversation in a book I read 20 years ago, but it was VIVID and has stayed with me, and Molly was SO AWESOME. So I don't want to see a lameass rip-off of the same concept that's crossed with a lame-ass rip-off of Alias.
So I skipped it. Judging from my flist's reactions to the show, I totally did myself a favor, because it's bad, bad, bad, and also has more of Joss' annoying old-school Orientalism, which I managed to deal with in Firefly by coming up with my Theory of Chinese People in Firefly* but just don't feel like dealing with any more.
Yay, me! Reading 2-line descriptions of show concepts does pay off.
*Theory: there are a lot of Chinese characters in Firefly. They just aren't played by Chinese actors.
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Date: 2009-02-17 03:56 am (UTC)As I said elsewhere, "I'm not watching Dollhouse because I don't want to get so pissed off I can no longer watch Firefly."
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Date: 2009-02-17 05:33 pm (UTC)