After the premature demise of Nurses, the show that wasn’t, FOX’s guilt and/or lusty adoration for Eliza Dushku prompted them to sign a fancy development deal with the actress to ensure that she would indeed come back to television in a show tailor-made for her. Naturally, she turned to her former Buffy-boss, and all around TV sensei, Joss Whedon for advice on the proper next steps. The mind of Whedon churns faster than you or I could ever comprehend, so in a matter of moments, he decided exactly what her show should be: a science-fiction drama about “human chalkboards” created and helmed by him.
TV Week has this to say about the show: “Dollhouse stars Dushku as Echo, one of a group of secret agents living in a futuristic dorm. Each has the ability to be imprinted with custom personalities and abilities for special assignments. When they return, their newly acquired memories are wiped. The show follows Echo as she takes on a variety of assignments—some romantic, some adventurous, some uplifting, some illegal—and gains awareness of her role and confinement.”
Has the battle between serial and non-serial drama ever been clearer on a single show? Dollhouse screams for rich, elaborate, drawn-out storytelling, but the main characters’ mental conditions almost forbid it. It’s brilliant and dirty exciting for any fans of Whedon, Dushku or good television in general. Even more exciting: the show could be debuting as soon as spring 2008 with FOX committing to at least seven episodes. That means that endless speculation and worrying about the show actually coming to fruition isn’t necessary. I always get confused when shows are given an episode commitment before the network ever sees a finished pilot or even a script, but as a friend pointed out to me, “It is Joss. He don’t do pilots.”
In the meantime you might wanna dance to this little mashup we did with the Buffy titles:
Buffy The Slayer & The Angel of Death
This excites me…a lot.