It was rather shocking to most, not least of all Joss Whedon, when Fox picked Dollhouse up for a second season.

It never really got the ratings needed to get picked up. They weren’t soooo far off, however, so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that it wouldn’t be picked up. It’s just that shows in this situation usually don’t. I think Fox was being penitent for having killed Firefly years ago.

We hadn’t watched it from the start, but had six or eight episodes already on our DVR by the time we started watching.

We plowed through them, and I was glad we watched it that way.

The first couple of episodes had a lot of background to lay down. Instead of having to wait weeks to start picking up the pace, we got there in a couple of nights.

Part of what started getting really good was Tahmoh Penikett’s character, the FBI agent, whose obsession with The Dollhouse began to ruin his career. He didn’t have the support of his co-workers and superiors, and he, eventually, is suspended.

Penikett is a personal favorite of mine, having portrayed Helo on the late lamented Battlestar Galactica. So imagine how pleased I was when I found out through an article by my friend, Jennifer Wagner, that not one, but two other BSG veterans would be making appearances on Dollhouse in its surprise second season.

Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama) and Michael Hogan (Col. Saul Tigh) will have guest spots this season.

Joss Whedon had this interview with Access Hollywood to talk, in part about Bamber’s stint on the show. Apparently, it was the mutual admiration society.

As well it should be.

I’m loving the DNA mixing between my favorite shows. This can only result in great things.

Bookmark It

As it is with every year, a whole bunch of science fiction-y shows were canceled at the end of the season, but I have to give it to the networks for trying a bunch of new ones next year.

It was so hard to keep track of the comings and goings during the upfronts, but SciFi Wire thankfully charted it all in a very understandable fashion.

The clear winner, IMHO, is Fox.

Sure, Fox canceled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, better known as TSCC because it’s a lot freakin’ shorter. But it did keep Dollhouse around for at least another 13 episodes. (Side note: This comic is probably a bit too close to reality for comfort when it comes to how the decision was made.) I’m thinking that Fox didn’t feel like incurring the wrath of the Whedonverse again, whereas TSCC ended at a spot that could full well be the series’ end. (Not that I wouldn’t have loved to see where it would have picked up in the fall.)

Fox also kept Fringe, which is one of my favorite shows. So the net gets brownie points for that. It’s also picked up Human Target and Past Life, each for 13 episodes and for midseason.

Human Target is based on a D.C. comic book and focuses on a guy who goes undercover, basically, as his clients whose lives have been threatened. It was written by Jonathan Steinberg, who was the co-creator of the late Jericho.

I’m not sure I completely understand the premise of Past Life, and the description on Zap2It didn’t help much, but from what I can tell, it’s about a bunch of investigators who solve crimes by dredging up their clients’ long-lost memories. Whether that means memories of dead clients or memories of past lives for solving cold cases or just stuff people have forgotten, I’m not quite clear on. I’m guessing it’s one of the first two, otherwise the whole “science fiction” aspect of it is lost on me.

NBC is second in the science fiction Olympics, though it canceled more sci-fi-ish shows from this season than it has old and new ones put together. Off the schedule: Knight Rider, My Own Worst Enemy, Kings (I still haven’t forgiven them for that decision) and Medium (which CBS decided to pick up).

But it decided to renew Chuck (midseason) and Heroes (really? Talk about a show past its prime, despite it having been around for only 3 seasons) and has three new shows, though two of them are summer series: Day One, The Listener and Merlin.

Day One sounds the most promising to me, what with its post-apocalyptic Melrose Place-ian-ish-ness. Of course, that means it stands an excellent chance of not succeeding.

The Listener is about a paramedic who can read minds, it seems. And Merlin – well, if you can’t guess what it’s about, you need to go back and read King Arthur.

ABC lost more than it’s gained, but it has one of the best sci-fi shows ever: Lost. This is the show’s last season, though, so hopefully one of the new shows will pick up the mantle. Canceled were Cupid, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars (which is the only one of the four I cared about; I tried to like Pushing Daisies, but it was just too precious for me).

But it has V, a remake of one of my favorite miniseries ever. I’m sorry the guy originally responsible for it isn’t involved, and I’d sure like to see Michael Ironside in it, but what is he now, 65, 70? I have great hopes for it, especially if they redo the hybrid alien baby and don’t use a really lame puppet.

ABC also is trying out Eastwick and Flash Forward.

Now, Eastwick is based on the John Updike novel The Witches of Eastwick, which was quite memorably adapted into a movie starring Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson. I tried reading the book at one point but it was a bit too dated and I just couldn’t hack my way through it. I’m willing to give the show a shot, though.

Flash Forward has a lot of promise, though, with a premise in which the entire world blacks out and glimpses 2 minutes and 17 seconds of an undetermined time in each person’s own future. It’s based on a book, whose author is even writing one of the episodes. It’s being written as if it will be five seasons of 22 episodes apiece and could become a worthy successor to Lost, if it catches on.

CBS gave up on two shows: Eleventh Hour and The Ex-List, but kept Ghost Whisperer and snagged NBC’s cast-off Medium. That’s all.

The CW kept Smallville and Supernatural. Though this season is likely to be the final season of SPN, that’s great news they decided to keep it on. But it killed Valentine and Reaper, the latter of which I mourn deeply. I still have three or four episodes on my DVR, so I still have more Reaper to see.

It’s airing the new show Vampire Diaries, though, which I’d imagine might be a good pair with SPN. It’s based on a pre-Twilight series of books, The CW would like you to know, thankyouverymuch. It’s about a girl who can’t decide between two vampire brothers – one good, one evil, of course. They’re battling for her and the souls of all the people in her small town.

So that’s it. Of course, there will be some shows on SyFy, USA, FX, AMC and a whole other slew of acronyms, but these are the big five, so to speak.

Which shows are you looking forward to, and which ones will you miss the most?

Bookmark It

OK, I guess the TV seasons before most people had televisions were worse, but this season was for the birds, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The four major networks (that’d be CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – sorry CW) lost an average of 16 percent of viewership in the coveted “demo” – adults 18-49. That includes DVR use.

Fox was on top, followed by CBS, ABC and NBC. But “on top” still includes a steep drop.

Why is this?

A whole mess of things.

First off, a lot of people are watching online – legally and illegally (Hulu an example of the former, BitTorrent an example of the latter). I know some folks who don’t have televisions, even, and only watch what they like online.

Second, a lot of people watch on DVR, but not within that 7-day window included in ratings. For example, my husband and I haven’t watched Season 2 of Damages yet. The entire season is sitting there on our DVR. We just finished up the entire first seasons of Dollhouse and Better off Ted in a few days in marathon viewing sessions. (I’ll be writing about BoT in a couple days). I still have episodes of Reaper, the season finale of Supernatural and Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad on my DVR, waiting for me to have a chance to sit down and watch ‘em.

Then there’s the whole DVD experience, too. A few years ago, we caught up on the first two seasons of Alias by borrowing them from the library. I’ve been watching Season 1 of Torchwood on DVD, a Christmas present.

The ratings were as of Wednesday night, which marked the “official” end of the TV season. Did you even know that? Didn’t think so.

There is no such thing as a TV season anymore. We just were treated to a third season of Burn Notice this winter, and another one is coming this summer. Some shows never start until “midseason” (24, American Idol, Lost). Others bounce around the scheduling calendar (Battlestar Galactica, Kyle XY).

Yet the ratings system, other than adding the DVR and DVR+7 ratings into the mix, hasn’t changed in forever.

It’s time to change. We’ve lost too many good shows (Jericho, Kings) to the poor way ratings are measured. All the networks own multiple stations now; if the ratings for Kings are too low for NBC proper, why not send it on over to USA or even SyFy?

C’mon. The Nielsen ratings are so … 1980s.

Bookmark It

The official announcement won’t come until tomorrow, but The Hollywood Reporter says Fox has ordered another 13 episodes of the low-rated sci-fi drama, Dollhouse.

At the start of the season, I was a bit take-it-or-leave it about the show. But as the season progressed, it got far more complex and, frankly, sinister. I still haven’t seen the season (not series!) finale, but I’ll be watching that tonight.

I loved that Joss Whedon brought in Wash from Firefly to be Alpha. I’ve mourned Wash’s death ever since he was impaled in Serenity. And I love that Alpha is basically bat-guano crazy because he’s in love with Echo.

That goes back to the whole idea they explored with Victor and Sierra a few episodes back, where even when they were in their blank state and even when they were given some of their own memories, Victor stuck by Sierra and cared nothing for his own life, only for helping her.

The idea that love knows no boundaries and can break through all barriers is actually rather lovely, particularly for science fiction.

What will next season bring? Not sure, but it should be interesting. I wonder, however, if the unaired Episode 14, Epitaph One, will kick off the second season, and we’ll find ourselves in a post-apocalyptic world.

That’d be pretty cool.

So, Fox, will we finally learn the fate of TSCC tomorrow?

Bookmark It

Liking Dollhouse was predetermined for me. From the brain of Joss Whedon (Firefly, Buffy), a sci-fi look at a shadowy organization that keeps a cadre of men and women in a “tabula rasa” state until they’re needed for any one of various missions for “clients” and then programmed with the necessary personality and skills.

It also co-stars Tahmoh Penikett, late of Battlestar Galactica, as the FBI agent who is trying to find the so-called Dollhouse to rescue all these poor innocents who’ve been forced into what he believes to be a life of prostitution.

After watching a few episodes (bless the inventor of the DVR!), I do like it, but I’m sad to report that Agent Paul Ballard wasn’t that far off when he feared the Dolls were unwilling prostitutes.

First off, we know that when one Doll managed to overcome his “programming,” he went all ninja on the staff and Dolls and killed many. He does not appear to have even tried to hurt Echo (played by show star Eliza Dushku), however. The little bit I’ve seen so far seems to make it apparent that Alpha is trying to push Echo to break out of the mold and escape the tabula rasa state.

Why Echo? Only time will tell, I suppose (yes, I’m fully aware the season – perhaps series – has ended and this question may have been answered, but I’ve only seen three or four episodes so far, so bear with me).

What we do know about her at this point is that her real-life name is Caroline and she kinda sorta volunteered for the Dollhouse, though she wasn’t given much of a choice because of something she apparently did that she’d get in trouble for if she didn’t join the Dollhouse.

But we had that episode where Alpha hired that psycho guy to teach her to bowhunt, have sex with her and then … bowhunt her? WTF is all I have to say about that. And then there’s the one where Echo had to save the prima donna diva with a deathwish from both her crazed fan and herself. In that one, the singer basically wore a bra and panties on stage and Echo wore a dress that, if it had been any shorter, would have shown Echo’s … lady parts.

My husband likes this show, did I mention?

I really enjoyed the episode, though, where Echo was wiped clean via remote.

The series has a lot of promise, and I hope that Fox finally decides to renew it, though I doubt that’ll happen. Why did Joss Whedon decide to go with Fox, again? That worked out, exactly how for him in the past?

I just would like a little less prostitution.

Bookmark It