Live Blogging "Dollhouse"

Back with live blogging commentary as the second season premiere of Dollhouse airs on Fox! The standard warning about spoilers (lots and lots of spoilers) applies . . .

9:01PM - Topher just called (former) Agent Ballard "frenemy."  LOL!

9:03PM - Alexis Denisof's name just popped up in the credits.  So glad to see him on TV again!  Especially opposite Eliza Dushku.

9:05PM - They did not just make a Jonas Brothers joke.  Oh my.  And Amy Acker is deliciously twisted so far.

9:13PM - Grrrreat.  Rich dude's crazy wedding fantasy.  And wedding night fantasy.  Hope he doesn't have a thing for crossbows and hunting like one of last year's Dollhouse clients did.

9:15PM - So it's a job within a job for Echo, eh?  She's an undercover FBI agent playing her new groom for a fool because he's an arms dealer. And Ballard's the client?!!  Did he not quit the FBI?

9:16PM - I guess arms dealing means this guy packs weapons a lot worse than a bow and arrow.  Potentially big ouch!

9:21PM - Well, that implied kiss just made all sorts of fanboys in the Whedonverse happy.

9:23PM - Weiiiiird hearing former "Watcher Wesley" speaking with a flat Yankee accent instead of a British accent.  And how does the Dollhouse keep sucking in these good guys like Langton and Ballard?

9:28PM - Jamie Barber is looking awfully good in that button down shirt. Wouldn't have minded a multi-episode arc for him.  And either Eliza is wearing really high heels, or Jamie Barber is kinda short . . .

9:32PM - This glimpse into Topher's psyche is exactly the kind of development this show needed to hook audiences in.  And more kudos to Amy Acker for her acting in this ep. Wonderful depth and emotion.

9:37PM - The "you're human" and the "Roomba" quip make me wonder if wemight be seeing some robotics later this season?  Just a possibility.

9:42PM - Eek.  Bad time for a glitch.  Bad, bad time for a glitch.  I'm liking the new energy in this premiere.  The tension has been ratcheted up a few notches.  The stakes feel higher (if I may continue with the chain of cliches).

9:47PM - "Special Agent in Charge of Bugger All."  Sounds like a job title far too many people have at their respective companies.

9:49PM - Looking forward to the moment when . . . oh, there it goes.  The moment when Echo recalls one of her kung-fu fightin' imprints.

9;51PM - Considering the nature of so many of the jobs that they send the Actives on, Echo's not going to be of much use to the Dollhouse if pain makes her glitch.

9:59PM - The biggest problem that I'm spotting with the premiere is that right now I'm more curious about what's going on with the characters of Whiskey and Topher than I am about Echo and Paul Ballard.

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Live Blogging "Grey's Anatomy"

And now for some live blogging commentary on the sixth season premiere of Grey's Anatomy! Be warned, there will be tons of spoilers. . .

9:00PM - Saw these opening minutes through the online clip I posted last week, but I still love what Sara Ramirez does with her character's grief in these scenes.  And Chandra Wilson just said so much with just her eyes.

9:04PM - Argh.  After seeing this clip, I'm dying to know if the patient who just died on the table is George . . . or if George is actually still out in the world but about to die off-camera in some other way.  How much of a kick in the gut would it be (for the audience and the characters) to think George had died, then think he was okay, then find out they'd lost him anyway?

9:11PM - Loved that moment of quiet comfort between Owen and Cristina in the chaos and pain. Also love the callback to the theme of "my person" in this new context between Arizona and the mom and the mom referring to her son (calling back a "my person" thing between Cristina and Meredith in an earlier season).

9:14PM - MITCH PILEGGI!  In a suit!  In the hallway with Patrick Dempsey!  TOO MUCH HOTNESS FOR ONE TELEVISION SCREEN TO TAKE.  Sorry.  I just shouted, didn't I?

9:19PM - "George would give everything."

9:20PM - I know this is a universal given, but I love Miranda Bailey.  If I ever have to be hospitalized, she's the only one from Seattle Grace that I want to have as my doctor. And on another note, I'm so happy they finally let Mer and Der grow up last year.  That Mer will say to Derek that she just needs him to be there for her right now and not talk instead of flouncing off in a huff, getting drunk and sleeping with a random guy from the bar across the street.

9:24PM - "I bought you some time, but you need to plan." In all my shouty-ness, I forgot that Mitch Pileggi was at Seattle Grace for a reason.

9:30PM - Oh, Cristina. Repress and deny doesn't work for long.  Especially when you've just lost your fellow member of the Dead Dad's Club. Although I can see why she'd be tempted with Kevin McKidd around.

9:32PM - Good job by the director of photography and the cameraman for shooting around Ellen Pompeo and Chryler Leigh's pregnancies without making it ridiculously obvious that that's what they're doing.  RIP George O'Malley.  *sigh*

9:46PM - This show does grief like no other show does grief.  Between people's reactions to George's death and Denny Duquette's death and Ellis Grey's death, they've delved into just about every emotional reaction you can go through and put it right there on the screen to see.  It hurts to see Bailey's fire gone and that dead look in her eyes (no pun intended).

9:49PM - Wow. I hope Arizona didn't need her head . . . seeing as the Chief just handed it to her.

9:54PM - Did Derek just unceremoniously kick the newlywed cancer patient out of the house and into his trailer?  I would so have problems with that.

9:55PM - Oh no.  This scene is not going to end well for Owen, is it?  George's mother is going to kill him.

9:56PM - I thought George's mother was going to realize that Owen gave George the idea to join the army and was going to lose it on him.  The accident survivor brings up another thought-provoking question that's so often debated though -- can medicine go far?  At what point does the quality of life drop so low that it's more of a curse to keep a person alive than it is to let them go?  Talk about a weighty issue.
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10:04PM - *sniff*  Don't want Callie to go to Mercy West. Am coveting that black dress she's wearing though. Holy cow.  Did anyone else just have a heart attack when they saw that car coming at the Chief's car?  No one else is allowed to die in this ep, dangit!

10:10PM - Oh, the irony of the Chief having to go to Mercy West after his accident.

10:13PM - Cristina is so the last person to try to work through PTSD issues with Owen. Hmmm . . . this season is going to be interesting if we're going to get much more of a peek at what goes on at Seattle Grace's rival, Mercy West.

10:20PM - Pop Wench Joia and I used to joke that, on Star Trek: Voyager, you could tell the state of the ship by the state of Capt. Janeway's hair.  If the 'do was dishevelled, then the ship was damaged and in trouble. Bailey serves as the same kind of barometer for Seattle Grace.  If Bailey isn't happy or at least okay, then the hospital is in trouble and someone needs to figure out what the problem is!

10:22PM - It's fun seeing McDreamy and McSteamy bantering like the old friends they are, but I just can't quite seem to buy that they'd be able to go back to being best friends after Mark slept with Addison. Friends, eventually, but best friends?  I don't know . . . trust is kinda important.

10:31PM - Hello McSteamy in the shower!

10:34PM - "Girls talk. You might want to consider that the next time you criticize my Post It."  Burn Karev!  And go be nice to Izzie already.  You knew she and George had a connection before you married her.

10:41PM - And that little speech, folks, is why he's McDreamy.

10:44PM - I wonder how Katherine Heigl felt giving this speech about George being gone when she is such good friends with T.R. Knight. I always like Izzie a little bit better when the edge from her (literal) trailer park upbringing comes out like it did just now when she was confronting the woman George saved.

10:50PM - Kevin McKidd just gets better and better on this show.  Owen's not always my favorite character, but McKidd makes him so multidimensional and dark and good-hearted that you can't help but root for him.

10:52PM - Loving the voiceovers from each of the characters as the show draws to a close.  Love getting the little peeks into each of their heads and where they all are now.  And I'm glad that someone (Derek, in this case) saw that Bailey needed someone and listened to her.  Just listened to her.

10:57PM - I seem to vaguely remember hearing a spoiler about the hospital merger but evidently I wasn't paying much attention to it because I totally forgot that until the Chief said the words. It'll be very interesting to see where Derek's character goes this year, especially since he'll probably have to carry more of the storyline due to Ellen Pompeo's maternity leave (congrats to her and her husband on the birth of their baby girl, by the way) and Katherine Heigl's five-week-leave from from filming.

So Pop Wenches readers, what did you think of the Grey's Anatomy season premiere?

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Live Blogging "Flash Forward"

With all the new shows and new seasons of returning shows starting up, the Pop Wenches thought we'd try something new (for this blog anyway) and do a little live blogging commentary on a few shows.  First up, the new ABC show FlashForward!  Spoilers up the ying-yang, needless to say . . .

8:00PM - Clearly Joseph Fiennes and a whole lotta ppeople are having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think Dude Smushed in his Car and Flambeed Dude get to claim the top of that list.

8:02PM - Is anyone else thinking that it's weird hearing Joseph Fiennes speak without a British accent? Oh look!  It's Brannon Braga's name in the credits.  Hope this show is better than the last incarnation of Star Trek television series he worked on was. And what kind of jobs do JF and wife do to have a gorgeous house with a backyard with that view??!

8:05PM - More Star Trek adjacent goodness in the form of John Cho. And "Islands in the Stream" for a first dance at a wedding?  Oh hell no!  Love the Lost callout in the form of the Oceanic Airlines billboard in the background.

8:08PM - Here comes our glimpses of the flashbacks!

8:09PM - My theory after seeing JF's flashback?  An enemy country figured out how to aerosolize LSD and everyone just had an acid trip for the ages.  Ouch.  It sooooo sucks to be Flambeed Dude.  And that view of the 101 freeway in Downtown LA?  Trust me, that's not much different from how it looks in real life during peak commute hours . . . or Friday nights as everyone heads out to the Hollywood clubs.  Not liking the helicopter crashing into the building and shades of 9/11.

8:15PM - Wow.  They just had an Asian male character be assertive on television without him being a martial arts master or or an Asian mobster.  Don't see that happen very often.  Kudos to the writers already!  And a kangaroo in the street??  Talk about a Quantas WTF?

8:20PM - Desperate Housewives ad on the wrecked bus in the background. Real subtle cross-promotion ABC. *eyeroll*  And if Olivia (Sonya Walger) is a surgeon, I guess that explains the beautiful house.  And where's her surgeon's mask if she's operating?  Heck, none of them are wearing one.  Does blacking out make one forget about the danger of infectious diseases?

8:24PM - April 29, 2010.  So I wonder what kind of FlashForward promo stunts will be held on that date. Heck, ABC did candy bar giveaways a few years ago in cities around the country for a summertime Lost ARG . . .

8:29PM - The Walt Disney Concert Hall smoking in the background outside the window.  Not a Gehry-designed building! Don't mess up one with acoustics that amazing!

8:32PM - LOL at the poor FBI director(?) with the vision of himself on the crapper.  Will there be a new class sytem because of these visions?  Those who had cool visions and those who had lame ones?

8:38PM - And now we're getting into the whole issue of whether the future is already set in stone or whether following these visions is going to make that exact future a reality.  Always an interesting dilemma and one I'm sure they'll revisit many times during this show.  They've already put out just enough of a tease through Mark's (Joseph Fiennes) vision that I'm curious to see where this story goes.  Way to go with getting me hooked on another show!  Wonder how many Pop Wenches readers are feeling the same way?

8:41PM - And now the religious angle . . . from the character who was having decidedly premarital sex when the blackout hit. Interesting writer's choice/juxtaposition.  And from the character who was literally ready to commit suicide.  Very, very interesting.

8:48PM - V promo!  I still remember being totally creeped out by a very famous scene in the original V television mini-series.  *shudder*  Not crazy about Morena Bacarin with short hair.  She's a gorgeous woman, but much more so with long hair (see her as Adria in the last two seasons of SG1).

8:50PM - Etta James' "At Last" for Mark and Olivia's wedding song?  Either it's bad music or predictable music for weddings?  Oh, Olivia!  This would have been an excellent time to lie, lie, LIE about your flash forward!  She just confirmed (of course) Mark's worst nightmare.  Again, the question of self-fulfilling prophecies raises it's ugly head.

8:53PM - Well hello Jack Davenport!  You look much better here than you did in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  And why do you get to keep your British accent when none of your fellow FlashForward cast members do?

8:54PM - Okay, I'm getting creepy, not-a-normal-kid vibes from Mark and Olivia's daughter.  Anyone else feel the same way?

8:56PM - Seeing the one person who didn't pass out gave me the creeps too.  Why isn't he(?) freaking out that everyone around him has passed out for 2:17 seconds?  I'd be running around doing Freaked Out Jazz Hands!

8:59PM - Dominic Monaghan!  Dominic Monaghan in a suit looking quite good.  Knew he was joining the show thanks to spoilers and his TCA appearance, of course, but still can't wait to see him.  I'll be tuning in to FlashForward again next week -- will you?

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TV Cancellation News: The Sarah Connor Chronicles gets terminated

Bad news for Terminator fans: It looks like FOX's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has officially been canceled (at least according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello). It seems a bit premature, considering the fact that Terminator: Salvation will be out later this week. But even though I was a fan of the series, I will admit that it had a tendency to be fairly inconsistent -- maybe things would have been different if we'd had more episodes like the last season finale.
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Should FOX executives be crucified for this move? As much as it pains me to say it, I don't think so. I would have loved to see Terminator continue for another season, and some are speculating that it could in the form of DVD movies. However, let's not forget that the show did get another chance after a first season hampered by an industry-wide writers' strike. This was not another situation (a la Firefly) where the show's episodes were consistently aired out of order. Maybe it has been prematurely canceled -- this is something we may never know. But the fact remains: the show got two seasons, which is more than most well-liked, but poorly-rated shows tend to get.

Another thing I've noticed is that many fans are railing against Dollhouse as if that show really had anything to do with Terminator's cancellation. And I don't get it, even though I was a Terminator fan first and didn't even like Dollhouse much until its sixth episode. Though Dollhouse has a polarizing effect on viewers, and though many say its Whedon's weakest show, it does happen to have fans. And it's still a triumph for a poorly-rated science fiction show to be saved for at least one more season.

For all you know, Dollhouse will ultimately yield a poor profit for FOX (I'm sure they'll be watching those DVD sales this summer) and wind up getting canceled as well. So let's not turn this into a war. As a creative person, I'm extremely disappointed to hear about Terminator's cancellation, and I genuinely sympathize with the show's actors and production team. But even though we hate to admit it, TV is ultimately a business. And since this is not a colossally cruel cancellation of Firefly proportions, we can't be surprised (though we can still be disappointed) by this news.

[Entertainment Weekly]

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Living on the Fringe

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Tuesday's Fringe finale, "There's More Than One of Everything," along with general spoilers for the show's first season.

The finale for Fringe's freshman season included a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy; breaches of the wall between our world and an alternate reality; and a couple of people whose bodies were cleanly, fatally and disgustingly severed when these breaches sealed around them. The most shocking moment of the episode though, was a brief look at a plain tombstone bearing the words "Peter Bishop, 1978-1985."

Peter Bishop is, of course, the character played by Joshua Jackson — a character who is a 30-year-old man who is very much alive, not a dead seven-year-old child.

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Early in the season, I thought the writers had given too much away when they had Peter's father, mad scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), tell Peter that he was special. While I haven't followed Fringe fanatically (I tend to watch the eps on Hulu when I have a moment), the bits and pieces we were given about Peter's childhood seemed to back up my earlier assumption. The story of Peter's severe illness as a child and his near death in an icy lake, coupled with his father's comment about Peter being special led me think that he'd been treated with the experimental drug cortexiphan in the same way Olivia had been dosed with it.

While cortexiphan treatment may still be a possibility, the tombstone and the episode title — "There's More Than One of Everything" — point to the Peter we know being an "import" from an alternate reality, possibly the same reality in which the mysterious William Bell (Nimoy) currently resides. The same reality to which Olivia was taken at the end of the finale. A reality in which the World Trade Center still stands tall in NYC, but the White House has been destroyed.

Over the course of the first 20 episodes Walter and Peter Bishop have slowly developed a father-son relationship (with Peter usually taking the paternal role), albeit one that's frequently contentious. Uncovering the hows and whys of Peter's story next season sets up a rollercoaster of a storyline.

During the first half of this season, I was waiting to see if Fringe would find its legs. The initial eps were okay for a new sci-fi show, but I kept waiting for the writers to show me something that didn't feel like it had been lifted from The X-Files. Right around mid-season, the show hit its stride and has been ratcheting up the stakes for its three main characters every week. Fringe has become addictive sci-fi television and fall's season two premiere can't come fast enough.

Watch the season one finale "There's More Than One of Everything":

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Dollhouse finale closes doors, opens others

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Friday's Dollhouse finale, "Omega."

The final episode of Dollhouse Season 1 (possibly the last episode that will ever be shown on television) aired on Friday night, bringing the first installment of Joss Whedon's latest project to an end. It's no secret that I've been pretty supportive of Dollhouse, starting out as someone who felt pretty ambivalent about the premise, until I decided I was in love with the show by its sixth episode.

So how did the finale add up?
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Okay, I'll be honest — as much as I've grown to love Dollhouse over the past few weeks, the finale was a bit of a mixed bag. I think this is partially due to pacing. Whedon clearly wanted to answer some questions and open up some new ones in this finale, which wasn't a bad idea on his part in the sense that the show does have a bit of a conclusion in case it goes off the air... but can also go on if it gets renewed. This is all completely understandable when you consider what happened to Firefly back in the day.

So let's just break things down into the following categories.

The Good:

•  Alan Tudyk, playing Alpha, continued to show off his brilliant acting chops playing an active with 48 different personalities coexisting inside his mind. This was probably pretty difficult to play, and very unlike Tudyk's usual type, so it was still a treat to watch after last week's episode.

• The Whiskey storyline was an interesting one. As hinted at last week, it turns out that Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker) was previously a doll named Whiskey. After her face was slashed, the original Dr. Saunders' personality (a kindly old lollipop-dispensing gentleman) was downloaded into her, making her the character we see on the screen today. It was interesting to see some of her self-loathing come through after realizing she was previously a doll, and it was also interesting to see her ask Topher why he programmed her to hate him. I couldn't help wondering what Topher's relationship with Whiskey was back in the day. Did he know her before she was a doll? Will we ever find out what Whiskey's past really was?

• Echo showed some more self awareness, even after Alpha downloaded 30+ different personalities into her to turn her into "Omega," another potentially psychopathic active who could serve as his counterpart. This didn't work out as Alpha planned, and Echo actually seemed determined to get her original personality (Caroline) back into her body.

• Ballard signs up to work for the Dollhouse (supposedly — more on this later in the post) and does this in exchange for Mellie's freedom. A nice moment, since I have a sneaking suspicion that most dolls don't really get to leave the Dollhouse after five years.

The Bad:

• Alpha basically did end up being a bit of a stereotypical psycho, despite Tudyk's brilliant portrayal. Instead of turning into a monster because of the Dollhouse, he was "evil" from the very beginning as a convicted felon named Karl William Kraft. It's fine and all, but I just wish it had been more complicated that. (On the other hand, this episode did not end with the death of Alpha. So who knows what else could happen if the show does manage to live on?)

• Despite Echo's moment of self-awareness, something still feels off about the Echo/Caroline characters. I'm not even sure if Eliza Dushku is to blame for this because Caroline was played by another actress in this episode. But I still find Whiskey/Saunders, Sierra, Victor, and other characters so much more compelling.

The... okay, what's that supposed to mean?

• What on earth happened to November/Mellie and Sierra's bounty hunter plot? A few blogs were circulating pictures of the two out on the prowl, but television audiences were left hanging. Was this because Whedon wanted to squeeze a few other things in?

• The final moments of the show were definitely rushed, and this is where that pacing issue seems to come into play. So as I mentioned, Ballard seems to have pulled a Boyd, and will be working for the Dollhouse. Now it's likely that he wants to work on destroying the Dollhouse from the inside. But then why would the Dollhouse staff fall for this schtick when they know Ballard wanted to bring down the Dollhouse a mere episode ago? And if Ballard does believe in the Dollhouse now, why has he had this change of heart?

• Another puzzling thought, and maybe I'm wrong about this — but could Ballard be signing himself over as a doll? (I can't fully understand why he would do it if that's the case, though I could maybe think of a reason here or there). I only ask because after he asks Mellie for her real name before she leaves the Dollhouse, he just tells her that he's "nobody." Is that the end of Paul Ballard?

• Why does Echo go back to being a doll, even though she was all gung-ho about getting Caroline back into her body? I imagine she'd be strong enough to fight back and ask for her original personality back.
  

The moments mentioned in this final category aren't all bad, but they certainly do raise a lot of questions about what comes next for the Dollhouse. And it's sadly likely that we will never find out. But if that does turn out to be the case, I do hope we'll get more answers on the DVD — and it will be interesting to see if "Epitaph One" (the thirteenth episode that FOX decided not to air) will answer any of these questions as well even though it seems that it works as more of a standalone. 

For now, I guess we'll just have to wait and find out what lies in Dollhouse's future.

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Scrubs: JD's Finale

Warning: This post will contain some spoilers for last night's Scrubs season finale, "My Finale."

So as previously mentioned, last night was the season (possibly series) finale of Scrubs. (I love how most people — myself included — are assuming it's the end of the show when we really haven't been given any concrete idea of its future).

The episode continued with the plotline introduced in Tuesday night's episode: JD would be leaving Sacred Heart to go work at a hospital closer to his son. So as expected, the episode largely focused on JD's desire to say goodbye to the people he worked with (and finally get some recognition/affection from Dr. Cox).

I'll be honest — while there were a couple of minor flaws here and there, I teared up.[bxA]

Scrubs has had its ups and downs over the past couple of years. There were times when plotlines got even zanier to the point of being unfunny, and this might have been the result of creator Bill Lawrence's frustrations over how the show was treated during its seven years on NBC. (Still not much of an excuse). But the show did return to form (for the most part) this season, and we got to see the very human sides of its characters once again.

And I think that's why I found myself tearing up during the episode, even though a part of me felt it could have been a little shorter, or could have focused on other characters if it was going to be that long. The characters on Scrubs have always been a little hilarious and over-the-top, but they're also characters I feel I've gotten to know really well over the last eight years. The audience has seen these people start out as fresh-faced interns in a hospital, who eventually move on to take on major leadership roles. We've also seen them start relationships, get married, have children — and while Scrubs is basically a comedy, we've seen them tackle tougher issues like the deaths of family members and patients, and their worries for their children. Cliched as it sounds, every time I watched an episode of Scrubs, I felt as though I was catching up with some old friends.

So I enjoyed last night's finale for the sense of closure I received. Whether or not the show does return in some form (under the same title, or as a spin-off series featuring the new interns), it was our last chance to say goodbye to JD — a character I loved during the early years and was glad to love again this season. His narration and ridiculous fantasies were the heart of the show, and a huge reason why I got hooked on it to begin with. And it was nice to see JD get his closure too from people like Dr. Cox (even if he was "tricked" into admitting how much he liked JD) and the Janitor (Glenn Matthews? Or Tommy?)

I do wish other characters had more screentime. We never saw Doug — who I feel only had one or two episodes worth of screentime this season — and Carla wasn't in the episode as much as I would have liked. But I do admit that her scene with JD was one of the best, subtle emotional moments on the show. When JD asked her why she never gave him a hard time when he started out, her simple response of "You were Bambi — someone had to teach you how to walk" got me to shed my first tear. It also reminded me how special the relationship between JD and Carla has always been even without Turk in the picture.

Purposely sentimental as it was, I also admit I really liked the moment when JD walked through the halls of Sacred Heart one last time and saw the faces of all the people he had encountered over the years. We got to see people like Laverne again, and we even got to see characters like the elderly patient from "My Old Lady" asking him if he "ever went on that picnic." It was a fantastic way to give a shoutout to the sitcom's past episodes without turning it into a schmaltzy clip show.

All in all, it was a good way to bring the Scrubs saga to an end. Spin-offs are fine and well (though I doubt I'd watch them), but I do hope they're done airing Scrubs after this. The show did return to form this season, but there's no need to drag it out either. Bill Lawrence did recently blog about how last night's finale was a series finale no matter what, even if the show does "go on," and while I'm down with his sentiments, I think we had a good eight years. That being said, I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

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Alan Tudyk 'brings it' on Dollhouse

Warning: This post will contain spoilers for Friday's episode of Dollhouse ("Briar Rose").

It wasn't exactly the best kept secret in the world. Everyone seemed to know that Alan Tudyk (aka "Wash" on Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity) would be appearing on Dollhouse. And most people were pretty sure they knew what character he would be playing. It turns out that all the buzz was correct — but that didn't stop Tudyk from making the impact he did when he finally appeared in Friday night's episode, "Briar Rose."
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Tudyk is best known for his comedic talents, which definitely shaped his character on Firefly. But soon after Dollhouse first got on the air, fan sites began posting that Tudyk would be playing "Alpha," the rogue active who escaped the Dollhouse following a violent killing spree. Tudyk played my favorite character on Firefly, so I was excited by the thought, though I couldn't help wondering how he would be able to play such a disturbing character. Turns out, I really had no reason to have any reservations about this bit of casting.

Tudyk didn't immediately appear as Alpha in "Briar Rose" — in fact, he was first introduced as Stephen Keppler, the man largely responsible for helping build the Dollhouse. Tudyk drew on his comedic chops and played Keppler as a ridiculous, slightly over-the-top stoner agoraphobe. He did such a fantastic job that I actually began forgetting the Alpha spoilers, and began wondering if another actor would indeed be playing the part. Then I found myself trying to figure out why he was acting this way — maybe he just didn't remember being Alpha.

Anyway, it all ended up being part of a twisted plan to get into the Dollhouse, courtesy of slightly-crazed (suspended) FBI agent Paul Ballard. And when Tudyk made the switch from twitchy stoner to malicious killer, I was floored. The man can act. I actually found myself feeling pretty terrified as soon as he took on the Alpha persona, which completely made up for the fact that the Internet "spoiled" the whole thing. It's going to be interesting to see what happens next week during the Dollhouse finale. The preview made it look like we'll be seeing some Natural Born Killers-style plotline, but either way, I have a feeling Tudyk — who can easily take on more non-comedic roles — will be selling this part incredibly well.

Before I go, I'd just like to add some more highlights from "Briar Rose":

• Actor Enver Gjokaj (who plays the active "Victor") continued to prove how fantastic he is at taking on new roles every week. This week, we got to see Gjokaj act like the Dollhouse's former head of security Laurence Dominic (previously played by Reed Diamond). And I swear, I felt like Reed Diamond was talking to us during the entire scene. Of course, it just figures that the episode ended with innocent doll-like Victor getting slashed in the face by Alpha... so who knows what we'll be seeing of Gjokaj after this.
  

• Another interesting reveal: Dr. Claire Saunders is a doll, whose code name happened to be "Whiskey." I'm not sure how much more we'll be finding out about her circumstances, but it was a neatly done, subtle reveal in an episode that was otherwise heavy on allegory (not a bad thing in this episode's case).

• The fight scene between Ballard and Boyd. Yes, there were a few stupid moments, but I honestly didn't know which character to root for. Both men are sympathetic, but both are flawed in their own ways. Another plus? The fight scenes on this show continue to make me uncomfortable in the sense that they actually feel real. Dollhouse is a dark, morally-grey, gritty world — and I'm glad the fight scenes reflect that so well.

And that's all for now. More to come after the Dollhouse finale next week!

[To get some of Tudyk's own thoughts about Dollhouse, check out this Entertainment Weekly exclusive.]

[Photo: FOX]

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Can Heroes truly redeem itself?

Warning: This post will eventually contain major spoilers for last night's Heroes season finale, "An Invisible Thread."

Three years ago, a new TV show about "ordinary people" with superhero powers made its debut. The show, simply titled Heroes, was an instant hit. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing the cast members on magazine covers or talk shows. Internet forums would be packed with excited posters moments after an episode aired. Geeks and non-geeks alike were in love with the show — and for good reason. It was fun, and while it was also action-packed for the most part, it had carefully built-up storylines that had audiences wanting more.

I was in love with Heroes during that first season. It was appointment TV for me, and I even made a point to rewatch episodes online with commentary once they were done airing. But then season 2, also known as the show's second volume, happened. Episodes either dragged or had too much happening in them at once. The introduction of new characters did not go as smoothly as one would have hoped, despite the fact that well-liked actors like David Anders and Kristen Bell had joined the team. And then the writer's strike occurred, giving the showrunners very few opportunities to fix their mistakes. Creator Tim Kring actually issued a public apology via Entertainment Weekly, stating that the show would be better during its third season.

Well, last night that third season came to an end, and I'm sad to say — it's really hard to figure out whether or not the show has any hope for going back to its glory days.[bxA]

Last night's season finale served as the conclusion for the show's fourth volume, "Fugitives." The volume, which was meant to reset Heroes, had its high points, but still remained a bit of a mess. The season finale was no different.

The episode, "An Invisible Thread," focused on characters' attempts to fix a problem started by Nathan Petrelli — a US senator with an ability to fly. Despite being "one of them," Nathan started the volume by telling the President about people with powers, resulting in a government-backed effort to round up these "heroes" for the sake of public safety. Even though Nathan seemed to realize the stupidity of his actions by last night's episode, his motivations still seemed murky to me especially since he was pretty open to the idea of everyone on the planet possessing powers (during Volume 3). Though Nathan was always one of the more interesting characters on the show, his character was poorly written this season, making it very difficult for me to enjoy the finale.

I'm just going to fast forward a bit to the end of the episode, which was really the only part where things actually happened. Nathan is finally killed by Sylar, who now possesses the ability to shapeshift. Nathan's brother Peter, who was in the room with the two of them at one point during a confrontation, has picked up this ability to shapeshift through Sylar. After shapeshifting to look like the President (one of the cooler moments on the show, I'll admit), Peter drugs Sylar. And then in one of the weirdest moments ever on the show, Nathan and Peter's mother Angela teams up with Noah (aka HRG) to get psychic Matt Parkman to turn Sylar into Nathan. Sort of.

Basically, Parkman convinces Sylar that he is Nathan. Sylar therefore shapeshifts to assume Nathan's form, along with his memories. He truly believes that Angela and Peter are his mother and brother, and he is now ready to tell the President to end his manhunt. This is the "brilliant" solution Angela and Noah come up with to end the madness.

On one hand, this means we get less Sylar from now on. I've been waiting for the character to get written off the show (which he should have been at the end of the first season). Even though Zachary Quinto played the part very well, the character — who made things so interesting during Season 1 — had become boring. Making an all-powerful, probably-immortal character stay on a show for so long can really suck the life out of it.

That being said, I fear that this isn't the end of Sylar, as the show indicated during its final moments. The episode (like the show's other finales) ended with a sneak preview of Volume 5, which is supposed to be titled "Redemption." In it, a distracted "Nathan" begins to show bits and pieces of Sylar's personality, which really gives me the sense that we're never going to be rid of this character. And if that's the case, things do not bode well for Heroes.

Heroes was never a perfect show — even in its heyday, it was obvious that the show borrowed heavily from other source material. But the writers used to do a wonderful job of repackaging familiar themes and making Heroes a compelling show. That spark seems to be gone now, even with the bizarre ending at the end of yesterday's episode. Maybe it would have felt more shocking or interesting a couple of seasons ago, or if the writing leading up to the episode had been a lot tighter. Sadly, at the end of the day, it was a lackluster finale.

I'll give Heroes one last try next season to see if the show really does return to form, as its creators have been promising for so long. But if it doesn't, I might just end up giving it up and rewatching the Season 1 DVDs from to time, to remember it more fondly.

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Keep Dollhouse out of the attic

Warning: This post will contain spoilers for the latest Dollhouse episode, "A Spy in the House of Love."

As previously reported, the future of Joss Whedon's latest FOX project, Dollhouse, is a little uncertain at the moment. In fact, many are saying the show is as good as gone. It's unfortunate that such news and rumors have started circulating this week of all weeks, as Friday night's show was one of the best episodes to date. Dollhouse began picking up rapidly with its sixth episode (which Whedon himself said would serve as a turning point), and this week's episode had a compelling mixture of action, betrayal and incredible reveals.
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Here's what we witnessed this week:

1. Mellie/November reveals that she's a doll to Agent Ballard. While we already knew this, the moment itself was pretty shocking (and heartbreaking for Ballard who will have to keep pretending that nothing has changed).
2. Adelle is not above using a doll (Victor) to fulfill her own needs, even though she's not likely to do it again.
3. Echo is somewhat aware of her doll status — she actually asks Topher to make her "different" to help the Dollhouse catch a spy in their midst.
4. Security Chief Laurence Dominic is the aforementioned spy, an NSA agent keeping tabs on the Dollhouse. By the episode's end, he's sent to the "attic," which basically means he's had the mindwipe to end all mindwipes.

It was a whole lot of stuff to take in, but the pacing was solid and suspenseful — a sign that the show really has hit its stride. I didn't expect to see a lot of these revelations so early in the show's run, but I'm glad to see that Whedon was willing to put them in. The sense of mystery still remains, but those of us watching have also been rewarded for sticking with the show so far.

As I've previously stated, the first few episodes of Dollhouse did not make the show an easy one to fall in love with. The Dollhouse universe is very different from Whedon's other creations. Thanks to the majority of the characters' mind-wiped or evil tendencies, viewers do not get to watch instantly-lovable characters like the protagonists (and even some villains) in Buffy, Angel, or the preemptively-canceled Firefly.

But the latest episodes, this one included, have finally started to show that these characters do have more layers to them than we initially realized. Even mind-wiped characters like Victor and Sierra are increasingly compelling, and while I admit that the show's star — Eliza Dushku — does appear to be the cast's weakest link for the most part, she was great in last night's episode.

It's hard to say who should really be blamed for Dollhouse's messy start. One could blame the executives, or Whedon for not doing a better job of following up on his vision. However, it's still too early to decide whether or not the show will ultimately be a success. FOX should take note of the fan forums and sites that have been buzzing since Friday night, and give the show a little more time to prove itself. If given a chance, it seems that Dollhouse has the potential to develop into a brilliant sci-fi series.

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Out of the House: Kal Penn

Warning: This post contains a major spoiler for last night's episode of House. Scroll away if you want to avoid it!

Last night's episode of House M.D. featured the "departure" of Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn), a character who had been on the show since late 2007. Penn was one of three actors (including Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson) who joined the cast to play members of Dr. House's new diagnostic team.

But last night, Kutner was written off the show in a rather shocking manner. And Kal Penn has given his explanation for leaving in this interview with Entertainment Weekly.[bxA]

I have to admit that Penn's reasons for leaving are definitely interesting and worth mentioning. After getting involved with the Obama campaign last year, Penn will actually be going to work in the White House as the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. While he isn't exactly quitting acting, he's definitely taking a break from it to focus on this new position. This isn't the first time Penn has worked outside show business. Early last year, he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught a course on "Images of Asian Americans in the Media." So you have to give the guy props for his willingness to take a pay cut and try working in other areas that mean something to him.

But that brings us to the issue of last night's House, which I — like many viewers — have extremely mixed feelings about. Penn's Kutner was an extremely likable character, quite possibly the most positive character on the show. And he was probably my favorite person on House's new team. But early in the episode, his character was written off when he is discovered in his apartment after an apparent suicide.

Suicide is no laughing matter, and in that sense, the show dealt with it well. The characters, much like the viewers, expressed their shock and disbelief as they tried to figure out why Kutner would take his own life. A heavy sense of grief pervaded the episode, and we got the sense that Kutner's suicide will have some repercussions on the rest of the season.

But something about the suicide felt a bit off. And maybe we're supposed to feel that way — after all, showrunner David Shore told Entertainment Weekly that he didn't really want anyone to see it coming (which is sadly often the case with real-life suicides).

Since this is fiction, and a TV show where a well thought-out arc can always be appreciated, I guess the thing that troubles me the most is the fact that Kutner was ultimately a tragically underused character. We did get various glimpses of his personality and background at times — as Wilde's character pointed out last night, he was an eternal "man child," with a fondness for Harry Potter books. In recent episodes, we saw he had an amusing superstitious streak. And he was also the most House-like character, clever with wild ideas, but minus the curmudgeonly demeanor. While he did have a darker side due to a tragic childhood where he witnessed his parents' violent deaths, he was also optimistic. As he once said, a person in his situation had nowhere to go but up.

This is ultimately all we really knew about Kutner while he was on the show. He never had any major story arcs like Wilde's "Thirteen" or Jacobson's Taub, and aside from his family background, we didn't know much about his personal life. Case in point, Kutner's character supposedly had a girlfriend (Nicole Brewster), who was really only mentioned in FOX's online memorial for Kutner.

Even though Penn did not receive word about his new White House position until early this year, it seems he gave the writers a fair warning that he was seriously considering a switch to politics. And if the writers knew about this for a while, they really could have spent more time giving the character more extensive story arcs. They didn't necessarily have to write anything hinting at Kutner's suicidal nature, but it's a sad state of affairs when a character that has been around for nearly two years only makes a significant impact on a show once he's been killed off.

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