Fox closes "Dollhouse"; Whedon fans respond with a resounding "meh"

Faster than an infrared neurological personality upload, Fox has cancelled "Dollhouse" only four episodes into its sophomore season. And somewhere in rural Kansas, a solitary Joss Whedon fan is shocked.

"Dollhouse," the fourth series from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" mastermind Whedon, was seemingly always on the verge of getting axed. How it survived its first season -- after a dozen episodes of unappealing characters, limp plotlines, and a really, really annoying theme song -- for a second go-round probably owes more to Fox's lackluster fall schedule than any artistic merits the show mustered (and there were some.)

Don't get me wrong, I liked the show. It really picked up steam late last year with some nice twists, and solid character development. (For those who don't know, it hardly matters now, but the show was about a secret, somewhat shady organization that hired out "dolls," or people uploaded with speciality personalities who could fulfill any number of roles for anyone who could afford them. Thrown into the mix was Echo (Eliza Dushku), a doll who retains flashes of her former, troubled life, and covertly tries to bring the organization down. Actually sounds kinda silly when you hear it succinctly like that.) But the clincher for me was the unaired first season finale, "Epitaph One," which imagined a near-distant future in which the Dollhouse technology goes widespread, with half of humanity reprogrammed into soldiers by the world's governments, and the other half forming an underground resistance. In the pantheon of great Joss Whedon hourlongs, the dark, gripping "Epitaph One" ranks pretty high up there, and that's no small feat.

But it's also, in retrospect, now kind of a bummer, since it got me all hyped for season two. This season has actually been pretty dang good, too -- the tone of the show had settled down and focused, the plots better served the over-arching story, Eliza didn't seem nearly as lost as the show's lead -- but it was all for nothing. First Fox decided to pull the show for the entire month of November, replacing it with reruns of "Bones" and "House" (which, in what was probably the nail in the coffin, consistently got better ratings than "Dollhouse" ever did), and now this. Fortunately, the network is obliging the show's tiny fanbase by actually airing the rest of the season's eight ordered episodes (a non-douche move from Fox? Now there's a shocker.)

While it will be nice to get some closure on a show I was never all that invested in to begin with, I think I speak for many Joss Whedon fans when I say, maybe it's for the best. Maybe now he can be free to find a project that's a little more thought out, something that doesn't feel so haphazard and ungainly. Maybe he can finally put his stubborn allegiance to Fox behind him, and anchor his considerable cache of talent to a network that won't stick him with the dreaded Friday Night Death Slot. (AMC, maybe? They're doing good things, Joss. Or FX? It's just like Fox, only less vowelly.)

Any other Whedon fans out there with similarly mixed feelings about the demise of "Dollhouse"? Drop us a line.

-- Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com

Your favorite show: Is it safe?

The TV season is winding down like a 6-year-old with ADD coming off a sugar high, and we have a long, joyless summer of warm weather and family togetherness to suffer through. But at least we can take comfort in the closure of knowing which of our favorite shows have been officially renewed ... or kicked to the curb.

Networks are just about finished piecing together their fall lineups, and that means plenty of popping for all those on-the-bubble shows that had left us hanging.

For a full list of shows, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has probably the most complete, compact rundown you're likely to find. (It's also where I've been turning to for updates.) Here, however, are a handful of shows that I raised concerns about in a previous On the Bubble post, plus some others you may find surprising.

RENEWED

Better Off Ted (ABC)
Chuck (NBC)
Castle (ABC)
Cold Case (CBS)
Dollhouse (FOX) (Probably the most amazing pickup of the bunch. The show's dismal ratings haven't kept Fox from giving creator Joss Whedon 12 more episodes.)
Gary Unmarried (CBS) (We saw that double take. No, you're not imagining things. This crapfest has been renewed. Sorry, Boyd.)
The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)
Scrubs (ABC)

CANCELLED

Cupid (ABC)
Eleventh Hour (CBS) (Still no idea what this is. Anybody?)
Everybody Hates Chris (CW)
The Game (CW)
Life (NBC)
Medium (NBC)
My Name is Earl (NBC)
Privileged (CW)
Reaper (CW) (Uh, does the CW have any more shows left?)
Samantha Who? (ABC)
The Unit (CBS)

Any surprises? Disappointments? Devastated that we'll never find out who the hell Samantha is? Drop us a line.

-- Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... POP!

We've reached that point in the network television cycle: Time to decide which series will live, and (cue scary-voiced promo announcer dude) WHICH ... WILL ... DIE!

OK, that's perhaps a little too "Grey's Anatomy" overdramatic, but for some people this can be a tense time. Some people, for example, like fans of "Cold Case," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "The Game" or "Gary Unmarried," series that networks have yet to either renew or cancel. Such series are often charmingly referred to as being "on the bubble."

I hear what you're saying: "But those shows don't HAVE any fans." Fair enough. You'll hear no weeping in the streets if, say, "Surviving Suburbia" bites it. Nor will there be a sharp uptick in calls to the suicide hotline if "Eleventh Hour" gets axed. (I'm not even sure what "Eleventh Hour" is. A sitcom about wacky clockmakers, maybe?) Most of these shows are the bottom-of-the-barrel dreck that never should have been on the air in the first place.

But some of the bubble shows (you can see the complete list of renewed/cancelled/on the bubble shows at EntertainmentWeekly.com) don't deserve to be caught in such ignoble limbo — and by that I mean I like a few of them, and want them to stick around.

Shows like ABC's "Better Off Ted," which is no "30 Rock," but it sure ain't "Samantha Who?" (another bubble show, by the way) either. After a slow start, the world of this sitcom — a Halliburton-like mega-corporation that specializes in inventing pep pills, rocket packs and eight-legged chickens — has gotten dense and rewarding, as the characters have grown more and more likable and sympathetic. How can you not feel for Linda, the head of product testing, who feels so trapped in the soul-deadening office environment, where profit is always valued over the individual, that she sits on a stool in front of the motion-sensing towel dispenser in the ladies room, lithely waving her hand as yards and yards of paper snake out onto the floor? Or poor research scientist Lem, who can't sit in a room by himself for too long because the company also made the lights motion-sensing to cut costs — but the lights don't notice black people.

The cast is strong across the board (including "Arrested Development's" Portia de Rossi as the stern, power-hungry boss) and the writing seems to get stronger every week. ABC teamed "Better Off Ted" with the similarly silly workplace comedy "Scrubs," and the two make a perfect pair. But with the fate of "Scrubs" also up in the air (star Zach Braff says he won't be back for another year, and creator Bill Lawrence has been dancing around any firm commitment, but ABC is interested in a ninth season) the future of this really-quite-good sitcom is looking less "Ted" and more dead.

Then there's "Dollhouse," which truthfully I only want to like more than I actually like. After all, it's Joss Whedon, and when a dude creates three of your favorite shows ever, you tend to give him benefit of the doubt. But so far the sci-fi fantasy show — about a secret organization that can wipe your memory and upload new ones, making you into a soldier, a hooker, a rodeo clown, whatever — has been enjoyable only in fits and starts, and has yet to make me care about any of the characters. How can you care about a lead character, after all (in this case Eliza Dushku's Echo), who changes personalities every week? If you can't pin down who she is, you can't get invested. But several of the now 10 or so episodes have been gripping, inventive affairs, showing plenty of that Whedon charm. Next week's episode is the season finale, and most likely the series. Can't say I'll miss it if and when it's cancelled, but it would be nice to have a little more time with it, discovering its secrets (and seeing Dushku in more dominatrix outfits ... reeowr.)

Any shows on the Entertainment Weekly bubble list you'd like to save? Let's hear it.

— Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com

Is Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" worth a visit?

As a loyal Whedonite, I'm sure I'll be tuning in to Joss Whedon's new sci-fi drama "Dollhouse" when it debuts tonight. But I can't say I'm really looking forward to it.

This is the first new TV show from the "Buffy" mastermind since "Angel" was staked by UPN five years ago. Whedon's kept busy in the interim — writing comic books, working on the now defunct "Wonder Woman" feature, creating the wonderful Internet sensation "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" — but this return to his medium of choice is good news for his legions of fans.

So why aren't I more excited? For starters, the plot of "Dollhouse" is just plain bizarre. A group of beautiful young people get their memories and personalities erased by a shadowy, secret organization, then new personalities are uploaded into their brains according to the whims of the agency's uber-rich clients. One day a "doll" — such as series star Eliza Dushku as Echo — could be a hostage negotiator (as in tonight's pilot), the next she could be a high-priced escort. Why the clients don't just pay for REAL hostage negotiators or REAL escorts is anybody's guess.

But what's really getting me down about "Dollhouse" are the advance reviews. Not good. Says Variety's Brian Lowry: "Attempting to unravel this convoluted package suggests that by the time 'Dollhouse' finds itself, there won't be anybody but hard-core Whedon worshippers left to play with."

Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker gives the show a B-, and says he worries about the concept being able to support a weekly series. Yet he's still willing to give it a shot. "Given the artfully vague hints of an intriguingly desperate past for Echo, as well as Whedon's track record, we ought to cut the show some slack," Tucker writes.

So how about it, fellow Whedon fans? Are you going to give "Dollhouse" a chance? More importantly, will anybody else? My biggest worry, given the mind-bending plot and the Friday night timeslot, is that if I do start enjoying "Dollhouse," it's just going to get axed anyway.

"Dollhouse" airs tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox.

— Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com