Dollhouse might get cancelled. I’m depressed about this because I really do love it. I’m not the biggest Joss Whedon person, but this show is kickass. Brilliant performances by versatile actors and a unique and intriguing storyline that clearly isn’t going to get the airtime it deserves. Fox continues to be the douchiest of networks, to no one’s surprise.
Now that that complaint is out of the way, I want to talk about the show a little bit. Because there are some things that I’ve been wondering about.
First thing: after Epitaph One (the best episode of the series, IMO), I have some questions about what it means to be alive in the context of this show. In that episode, there was a little girl character (spoiler alert) who wasn’t really a little girl, she was the body of a girl imprinted with someone else’s mind. And at one point the little girl said something like, “I got dumped in this body and I want out.” I was interested/confused by this. My understanding of this show was that when a person gets imprinted with someone else’s mind, it is just that – an imprint. Not really the person. You don’t actually take the essence of a person out of them when you take their brain scan and stick it into another person. The doll might act exactly like the person they’ve got imprinted on them, but they aren’t actually that person. What I’m confused about is whether or not the writers of this show believe that, or if they’re making a statement about the nature of humanity and saying that there is no essence and identity can be manipulated because we are only animals believing deluded into thinking we’re unique.
There was another episode where an old woman died, but before her death she’d had them take a brain scan of her and said that if the circumstances of her death were kind of weird, they should imprint her mind onto a doll and find out what happened. The whole episode, everyone was treating Echo like she was actually the old woman. Which made sense I suppose, because she thought she was, but the weird thing to me was that all the other characters seemed to believe that she really was the old woman, just in Echo’s body. So what I’m wondering is, is the point of Dollhouse just that humans are alive or exist only as what other people believe us to be? If I died, and someone took a brain scan of me and put it into another person, am I still alive?
I personally don’t believe that would be true, but that’s because I believe in an eternal soul. I know it’s just a TV show so it doesn’t matter, but it’s interesting to consider.
The other thing was something from the episode last week. We found out how Sierra came to be in the Dollhouse… it was pretty messed up and terrifying, but the ending was satisfying. What I thought was interesting was that no matter what the imprint on her was, she still remembered that she loved Victor (one of the other dolls). In any state of mind, she remembered that feeling. I don’t have any profound thoughts on this, but I do find it interesting and kind of wonderful. And sort of contradictory to the other thing, if you think about it too much. Which I do. Because that’s how I am. Anyway.
I hope it doesn’t get cancelled. If it does, I hope we get a movie. It’s possible.
Posted by sarahactually 