Dollhouse 2.02

I caught up with the second episode of Dollhouse last night. (Hulu is wonderful. No more need for my VCR, and no need to buy a DVR.)

I have to say that the first half of the episode clearly demonstrates what's wrong with the series.

First of all, the teaser opens up with Echo being a mom. *rollseyes* Great. I actually tried watching it on Saturday, then saw that, then was glad that Hulu froze on me. I didn't bother to watch it again until a day later. Yes, the scene did at least start with Topher discussing what a breakthrough it was, but I guessed right as to what he was getting at. That breakthrough could possibly tie in to a larger theme/story for the whole season, but for now all it really does for me is tell me that the episode is going to be about a hysterical mother.

And that gets us to problem number 2. The show is about changing Echo's personality from week to week. We know this. And so when Echo gets into an emotionally charged situation, it's hard to really sympathize with her because we know that the person she thinks she is, isn't really her, and she's going to go back to her blank slate at the end of the episode. So she lost her baby, boo hoo, it's not really hers!!!

And the third problem, specific to this episode, they shot the first half ot he episode as if we didn't know what was going on. As if we didn't know "Get rid of her, I'll take care of the baby" meant that the client changed his mind and didn't want her to pretend to be a mother anymore. They had her running around thinking she was going to be killed, and her baby harmed, and I was thinking to myself how ridiculous it was. At some points I almost laughed, I wanted to laugh because I knew what was going on, but it was filmed so straightforward that she was in terror, that I just felt bored and insulted.

Thankfully the midpoint of the episode hit, and she was running around as a blank slate, but with her motherly protective instincts still in place. The episode was finally interesting, and was enjoyable from that point on.

I'm giving Joss the benefit of the doubt, and am going to keep on watching this, but I sincerely hope the show doesn't have too many episodes like this one.