Added by Neil Daniels | 28 February 2010

By the time the first half of the second series (these mid-season breaks Americans are fond of are very annoying!) of Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE had finished airing on the Sci-Fi channel in the UK, it had been announced that the show had been axed with just 13 episodes filmed for the second – and what consequently became the final – season. The end. Well, it was a great idea but unfortunately the execution was not so great.

 

It did show that Eliza Dushku has improved massively as an actress since Buffy and it was the perfect vehicle to show off her improved thespian skills. Similarly to Sarah Connor Chronicles and Heroes (the former has been cancelled and the latter is surely going to get cancelled soon,) I felt Dollhouse had too many sub-plots and secondary characters and not enough emphasis on the central premise, which seemed to move at snails pace. The first few episodes of season one were pretty bad but it did improve dramatically as the season progressed. The ratings in the USA were terrible and it’s another TV failure for Mr. Whedon though I suspect it won’t acquire the same cult fan base as Firefly or Angel.