The Dollhouse and selfhood
Joss Whedon, who wrote two of my favorite TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, has a new show coming out, starring Eliza Dushku, who played Faith in both Buffy and its spin-off, Angel. It’s called Dollhouse and is apparently about government agents who can have their memories repeatedly wiped and their minds reprogrammed for specific jobs.
Knowing Whedon there will be some psychological depth to the show, or at least a good attempt at it (the episode where Buffy has to deal with her mother’s death is an amazing piece of drama). The title that reads “But can you wipe away a soul” suggests that the plot will involve questions revolving around what the true self is, stripped of memories and learned traits. The character of Buffy had repeated bouts of having to find herself in the midst of the calls of duty, destiny, and prophecy, and this is a theme Whedon has handled well in the past. It’s going to be interesting seeing how Whedon handles the same topic on Dollhouse. I don’t have a TV, but I’ll watch it somehow. For the philosophy, of course, although Ms. Dushku is unquestionably worth watching for other reasons.
Here’s the trailer:
7 Responses to “The Dollhouse and selfhood”
About this entry
You’re currently reading “The Dollhouse and selfhood,” an entry on Bodhipaksa's blog, bodhi tree swaying
Published: Nov 07 2008
Surely this just a shallow remake of Joe 90 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_90)!
As they say, Western civilization is merely a footnote to Thunderbirds.
I have a friend who was a student of film and now has his own company. As one who is trained in filmcraft, he’s a fan of Joss Whedon and over a period of about a year or so, He showed me both buffy and angel. It was quite a ride.
If you haven’t see Firefly, I’d highly recommend it. It’s a sci-fi show with a heavy and obvious dept to the western genre, and the dynamics of the individuals involved are very reminiscent of Buffy. You have a disparate bunch of people thrown together, including a “beauty queen” (Cordelia, but grown up and majestic), a character who you can never trust (like Spike), a warrior-goddess (like Buffy), an older man who reads books — The Book, actually, and his name is Book as well — and who has a mysterious past that’s out of keeping with his bookish nature (like Giles). There’s also the cute but not conventionally pretty girl who’s good with technology (like Willow) and who is in love with a man who’s kind of inept with girls and not much cop at the fighting (like Xander). There’s an extra character — the captain, Mal Reynolds — because the Buffy character has been split into a male and female component (Mal and Zoë), and Xander’s character is somewhat duplicated in the form of Hoban “Wash” Washburne, who has Xander’s geeky boyishness. I’ve just given away Joss Whedon’s secret recipe — I hope he’ll forgive me.
There are only 14 episodes, because the idiots at Fox didn’t realize what a great show it was, and because they messed up the launch, neglecting to show the pilot and then showing the first few episodes in the wrong order. They didn’t even show the last few episodes. Despite that, the show has a cult following, and last time I checked on Amazon the DVD set had well over 2,000 reviews with an average review of five stars. It’s not to be missed. Oh, and there was a movie version, which was pretty damn good.
I forgot one character, River, who at first I had difficulty connecting with Buffy but who I now think is the equivalent of the mystical side of Willow. Notice how they both have “organic” of “hippy” names. River has psychic powers and also some pretty impressive physical powers as well. So I think that Willow’s practical and technical side became Kaylee (the girl-next-door engineer) while her more magical side became River.
The vampires become the Reivers, who are disfigured cannibals living on the fringes of inhabited space.
End of comparison. Firefly is a much more grown-up show than Buffy, but also shares its humor. I hope that Dollhouse has some of that humor as well — in fact I don’t think that Whedon could avoid introducing elements of humor.
I’ve seen it and enjoyed it much and it was unfortunate that it was cut short. I didn’t think about the connection with Buffy.
Did you know that there is a Journal dedicated to Buffy? I haven’t looked at it yet but the contributors are actual scholars.
I’m glad to hear you’ve seen Firefly. I wish there was more TV as good as this.
I hadn’t heard about the journal! I guess that’s http://slayageonline.com?
At the moment I’m discovering Star Trek: Enterprise, which came out when I was a grad student and wouldn’t have had the time to watch TV even if I’d had a set. In many ways I’m enjoying it more than any of the other series.