Dollhouse: Omega

Tonight's episode of Dollhouse may be the last one to ever air, and it was also the first one I ever saw when it was actually on (stupid Friday night death slot), and let me just say: holy shit, dudes. The show has certainly come a long way from where it was back on that Friday the 13th in February. I remember enjoying the show, but feeling like it barely deserved to have Joss Whedon's name attached to it. Tonight, the status quo was altered, dark secrets were revealed, and the show's central question was addressed, but not through the character you would think it would be.

Where to begin? Well, first I have to once again acknowledge Alan Tudyk's incredible performance as Alpha. This week, we saw new dimensions of the insane post-composite event Alpha that we only saw for about 5 minutes last week, but we also saw Alpha as an innocent (?) active in his mind-wiped state (in addition to a rather sadistic imprint; I honestly don't know what the client's fantasy was, and I probably don't want to know). I guess he always was a little different from the other actives, but his weird attraction to Echo should have set off alarms in the minds of DeWitt, Topher, and his handler, especially after he kissed Echo while both of them were wiped (Echo's non-reaction was hilarious). In the present, the interaction of the 40-something full personalities in Alpha's head was very intriguing and creepy to watch, and his views on his awareness were terrifying to say the least.

Going back to the flashbacks, Joss and company revealed that yet ANOTHER character who we thought was a "real" person was actually a doll. I always thought there was something off about Dr. Saunders; she seemed to hate the Dollhouse, but she willingly worked there and actually came up with a plan to protect it a few episodes ago. But I never saw the fact that she was a doll coming (love the fact that her name was Whiskey). She was the Dollhouse's most popular active, but she was retired when Alpha cut up her face in a fit of jealousy(?) because he wanted Echo to be number 1. Not only that, but there was a "real" Dr. Saunders too, and now we know that, back in the second episode's flashback to right after Alpha's rampage, Topher wasn't referring to Amy Acker when he said that "Dr. Saunders' face looks like a jigsaw puzzle." Now that Victor has suffered a similar fate, is DeWitt going to make him a handler or something? Speaking of handlers, I don't think we've seen Echo's new handler since Langton got promoted.

On the subject of the other dolls, I have to wonder if there was a deleted scene involving Sierra and November in their imprinted state. I am aware that the purpose of the imprint scene was to put Ballard in a room with a blank November, but I would have liked to have seen what those two were up to. Anyway, Ballard made a pretty big decision tonight, and I am VERY excited to see how it plays out next year (assuming there IS a next year). It is strange to think about how someone like Langton, who despises the Dollhouse, could come to work for it. Now, through Ballard, we have an idea. Also, I have to wonder about Ballard's comment to the restored November (I hope she comes back, but I don't know how that will happen); she asked him who he was, and he said "no one." I think that we're supposed to take that as he doesn't want her to get involved with him because it would be too painful for him and too dangerous for her. But is it a hint that maybe Ballard is going to become an active?!

And now for the main event. The scenes in Alpha's "lair", as Caroline referred to it, were simultaneously creepy, exciting, and enlightening. The scene was supplemented by Ballard, Langton, and Topher researching who Alpha was before he became an active, and suddenly, the question of whether the Dollhouse can wipe away a person's soul in addition to his/her memories came to the forefront. The series has kept that idea in the background, but tonight, the series tells us that the answer is most likely no (I originally typed "definitely no", but that may not be the case, as I will point out in a second). Alpha was a criminal before the Dollhouse took him in. He was in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder, and how did he try to kill his young female victim? He sliced up her face. As a wiped active, he still had a propensity for taking women he thought were his and cutting up other ones, and with 48 personalities in his head simultaneously, he continued these practices, even though his own personality was NOT one of the 48.

And that brings us to the idea that maybe the Dollhouse is powerful enough to wipe away a soul. Or at least, they can make someone hate oneself, because the very first person Alpha killed by choice (his initial victims were killed because they were in his way) was HIMSELF. Alpha immediately destroyed the harddrive containing his real self. He was full of self-loathing, and he tried to impart similar hatred onto Echo's composite self, referred to as Omega, by putting Caroline into a random body and telling Omega that Caroline "abandoned" her body for money. However, Omega didn't buy in.

So once again, Joss Whedon has proven himself to be a master storyteller, even when working with characters who are either extremely morally lacking or are barely characters at all. I remember being ready to love whatever Dollhouse would prove to be merely because Joss was doing it, only to have my confidence shot by the first few episodes. But we must remember that the first seasons of Buffy and Angel contained some of the weakest episodes of each series (you have no idea how much I wish I could say the same about Firefly; by the way, do you guys think this episode had Angel and Firefly references when Topher said something about putting souls in glass jars (Angel) and putting fireflies (Firefly) in them?). I really hope this show comes back next year. There is one more episode filmed, but we won't see it until the DVD is released (Felicia Day is in it!), and there is this rumor, but the end of this episode showed us that there are many more stories to tell, and I want to see them.

One last thing: I really hope that Joss casts Jewel Staite as an active next year.

Up next: Clone wars...

Scrubs: My Moving On

After 8 seasons, Scrubs aired its final episode (in its original form; there is a chance it could come back as a sort-of-spinoff of itself next year featuring the new interns as the leads and characters like Turk, Carla, and Dr. Cox in background roles) last night. There were a few less-than-great episodes (I'm looking at you, "My Night To Remember"), and Season 7 was not up to par with the rest of the series, but overall, the show was a great comedy. It was one of the first half-hour comedies shot in single camera and without a laugh track, and it paved the way for shows like Arrested Development and 30 Rock. The series (sort of) finale won't go down as one of the best TV finales ever (I'd have to think about it for a few minutes, but off the top of my head, that award goes to Arrested Development or Six Feet Under), but it was a good enough send off of J.D., Dr. Kelso, and possibly the rest of the Scrubs cast.

J.D. spent most of the episode trying to get the goodbye he felt he deserved from the staff of Sacred Heart Hospital, but while Turk and Carla each gave him their own special goodbyes, no one else saw the day as important in the way J.D. did. Elliot was sad she wouldn't be working with her boyfriend anymore, but they would still be together. The interns (Sunny and Denise were the only ones present, and I would really have liked to see Howie not care or Katie show J.D. her true self because she would no longer have to suck up to him) were somewhat put off by J.D.'s man-child ways, and most of the rest of the hospital staff went about their day as usual. Dr. Cox was his callous self, though he was appreciative of the gift J.D. gave him. And Dr. Kelso put everything in perspective for J.D. Kelso may be the character who has changed the most on the show; he began the show as a cold villain, and although he never lost some of his darker traits, they were explained, and his human side was shown. Anyway, he explained to J.D. that life goes on and one person rarely ever makes such a big difference to merit what J.D. was looking for. Then again, Dr. Cox eventually told us what he really thinks of J.D., and that, maybe, J.D. did make such a difference.

I really wish that I had actually said this to someone or written it in this blog (I joked to a friend that predictions that aren't made out loud or in writing are invalid), but I was thinking about what the Janitor's name could be, and Glenn was something that I considered. Bill Lawrence also created a cartoon called Clone High, and with the exception of Judy Reyes and Ken Jenkins, nearly every major Scrubs cast member contributed at least one voice. Neil Flynn voiced a janitor named Glenn in one episode who was the complete opposite of his Scrubs character; he was kind, helpful, and he actually cleaned up. Then again, Glenn may not actually be the Janitor's name.

Finally, the last scene, in which J.D. walked down the corridor and saw numerous former patients and co-workers, then saw a possible montage of what his life COULD become was very moving and uplifting (especially the scene with adult Sam and Izzie), though I will admit that my fiction-sadistic side came out when J.D. mused that maybe, just once, his fantasy could come true (I thought he was going to be killed by a car accident). Instead, we saw him drive off into an unknown future. As I said, not a perfect ending, but one that fit the show.

Up next: Send in the clones...

LOST: Change Begets Change

Next week will bring the Season 5 finale of LOST, and after that, only one season will remain. "Follow the Leader" was an episode that was about putting all the pieces in place for the season finale, but it was still an overall good episode. The scenes of Locke, Ben, and Richard were great, and watching Jack become a shadow of Locke's former self is an interesting turn for the character. My biggest complaint is that I was led to believe it would be a Richard Alpert-centric episode. In a sense it was, because he tied the two timelines together, but I was under the impression we would finally get a sense of how old he was (among other things; in a former post to this site, I put up a link to an article that gave a hint to a plot point about Alpert I've been waiting all season for; it may still happen in next week's episode, but the LOST producers have told us on many occasions that things would happen in a season only to have them pushed back or not happen at all).

The main purpose of this post is to reiterate what I said last time about how I hope that the survivors are unable to alter history and to give examples of where the various characters would be had Oceanic 815 landed safely in Los Angeles back in 2004. Jack seems to think that altering history will solve everyone's problems, but he forgets that although the miseries (and joys) that happened to them on the island won't have happened, all kinds of other miseries may occur. Kate realizes this, and I'm surprised she doesn't say more to Jack because she has so much to lose by altering history. Let's take a look:

Kate: She'll likely be in jail. She was being taken back to the States in chains by Marshal Mars. The big reason she was acquited when the Oceanic 6 returned was because Jack testified on her behalf that she did a lot of good on the Island and because the judge ruled that her "time served" on the Island was a sufficient removal from society.

Sayid: Probably still looking for Nadia. He was going to LA to find her, but she sought him out when he returned.

Charlie: Alive, but probably still a junkie. In fact, he may die from an overdose, as opposed to dying a hero.

Sawyer: Possibly in jail again. He was being deported from Australia after getting in a bar fight, and he probably went back to conning. He also would still have the burden of his parents death over his head because he wouldn't have finally met the real Sawyer.

Locke: Possibly dead from suicide, because he was extremely depressed after, once again, being told what he couldn't do and he never regained the use of his legs.

Boone and Shannon: Probably alive, but still really awkward from sleeping together.

Michael and Walt: Not getting along because they could never have bonded the way they did on the island.

Claire: Living alone in Australia after giving Aaron up for adoption.

Hurley: Living with his parents in their old house after giving away all his money (he may actually be better off from the alteration).

Jin and Sun: Probably estranged because they would never have been able to work out their troubles. Or Jin may even have died for trying to defy Mr. Paik.

Ana-Lucia: Alive, but still working for the airport and hating herself.

Libby: Um, crazy?

Mr. Eko: Doing stuff in America while still pretending to be a priest and blaming himself for Yemi's death.

Desmond: Still stuck on the island. He wouldn't be pushing the button, but his boat would still have crashed on the Island.

Juliet: This depends on how the event that made pregnancies a fatal disease came to pass. If it happened because of the Incident at the Swan, then she would be better off by altering history. If the event is unrelated to the Swan, she'd still be stuck on the island.

Nikki and Paulo: Hopefully in prison.

Ben: Dead because Jack never got to operate on him.

Daniel: Still alive, but also still crazy from his time travel experiments. Also, he would never meet Charlotte, the love of his life.

Miles: Probably no difference but for coming to the island.

Charlotte: Alive but still probably searching for the island.

Rose and Bernard: Rose would be dead from cancer.

Jack: Still fixing people in the hospital, but likely alone.

And none of them would know each other. Jack/Sawyer would not fall for Kate and Juliet. Kate and Juliet would not fall for Jack/Sawyer. Sayid and Shannon would not meet. Hurley and Libby, Hurley and Charlie, Michael and Jin, etc.

Up next: J.D. says goodbye...

RENT: No Day But Today

I finally saw RENT after it ended its 12-year run on Broadway when it came to Chicago. The show had a lot to live up to; it may be one of the most hyped and parodied modern plays there is. My closest exposure to it for a while was the "Everyone Has AIDS" song from the parody LEASE in Team America: World Police. Then when the movie was released in 2005, I remember seeing a trailer featuring the song "Seasons of Love". I remember really enjoying that song and having a curiosity about the show ever since. And while RENT isn't my favorite play, it certainly ranks up there on the list, and it is certainly an important play. In addition to being directed toward a much different audience than the "traditional" Broadway play, I truly believe that we wouldn't have gotten the incredible Avenue Q without RENT.

RENT is a retelling of Puccini's La Boheme; it follows the story of a group of artists and performers in New York City when AIDS was at the height of its notoriety (the disease is still a real problem today, but it doesn't get the widespread attention and fear it once did). Half of the lead characters have the disease, and part of the central premise examines how they all deal with living with AIDS. One person has all but given up on life, another is trying to do everything she put off in life, while another accepts fate and goes on with life. Even one of the unaffected characters has to learn how to live with the fact that he will still be living once most of his friends have succumbed to the disease.

The first act takes place over the course of an evening (Christmas Eve) and the second act follows the characters over the course of a year, from New Year's Day to Christmas Eve, as they try to be happy in their relationships, their jobs (assuming they have jobs), and continue living. Only one character has any measure of wealth at all, and he didn't earn it, he married into it. Another character is a lawyer, but she does public interest work that keeps her in Alphabet City with the artists and musicians. The two leads, Mark Cohen and Roger Davis, are an aspiring filmmaker and struggling musician who can never find success. They and they're friends are happy with being creative, as opposed to being "suits" like their former friend Benny, who married a wealthy girl and became the new landlord, but the life of an artist has its hardships.

The show has a racially diverse cast, uses plenty of foul language, and features a character who is a homosexual crossdresser, all of which are pretty rare in musicals, which tend to be a somewhat conservative medium. I was trying to think of shows that came before RENT that could be labeled as going against normal Broadway type, and all I could think of was Sweeney Todd (although, I'm not really a Broadway scholar), and although Todd uses course language, the plot of revenge and murder isn't too far removed from operatic plots. After RENT came Wicked, which had a lot of subversive messages underneath its family-friendly veneer, Reefer Madness, and Avenue Q, which can be seen on the other side of the coin of RENT. Each of them take place in run-down parts of New York City (Alphabet City for RENT and a fictional place that also uses one-letter avenues in Avenue Q), and each one is about trying to cope with life with little money. However, RENT represents the tragedies of life while Avenue Q uses humor to explain that life is hard but is also livable.

Up next: Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Dollhouse: Alpha

Of Joss Whedon's first three shows, the one that I miss the most is Firefly. It wasn't the best, but it had so many more stories to tell (and who knows, maybe it could have become the best). Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended satisfactorily; all its storylines were resolved and even though the last season wasn't the best, it was still a great series. Angel needed one more year, and it definitely deserved it (this isn't just me being a gushing fanboy, the ratings were there as well); Whedon and co. had every reason to believe they'd be renewed, and they began laying the groundwork for another season only to get cancelled and have to resolve everything within six episodes. But Firefly was killed before it could even begin; so many stories were left either unresolved (Book's origins, Inara's secret, Blue Sun's position in everythign, River's secret until Serenity was released) or untold at all. And worst of all, we were cheated out of one the best ensemble casts ever created (one of the few comparable casts is that of Arrested Development, which was also cut down before its prime). I am opening this post about Dollhouse with a discussion of Firefly because the episode "Briar Rose" showed us that not only is Alan Tudyk even more awesome than we could have possibly imagined, he also has an enormous acting range that would have been very compelling to see on Firefly.

Unfortunately, pretty much every goddamn entertainment reporting website/magazine/whatever revealed that Tudyk would be playing Alpha way back in March, so what was supposed to be a shocking reveal ended up being an affirmation. However, that didn't take away from HOW AWESOME ALAN TUDYK WAS as his character. And I don't just mean as the psychotic razor-wielding Alpha personality, but also as the stoned-out-of-his-mind programmer that he was impersonating. It was kind of like watching a stoned Wash (if there is a pun in there, it is certainly not intended) getting bossed around by Ballard. The "medicinal carrot farm", the buddy cop line, and the line about turning back after finding the entrace were all hilarious. And then he pulled out the razor, and he changed from being a hilarious Wash into a psycho who would probably scare away Jayne Cobb. I don't know what he wants with Echo, but I am excited to find out.

The other aspects of the episode that I thoroughly enjoyed were the scenes with Victor. Don't get me wrong, Enver Gjokaj and Diechen Lachmen have proven that they can act, but I don't find Victor and Sierra that compelling because they play new characters every week. I am invested in things that happen to them, like when Sierra was raped, but they aren't exactly characters. The reason I care for November is because we see her in the Mellie persona more than we see her as November, and I care about Echo because (1) we know about her past and (2) she is regaining her awareness. But tonight, I cared about Victor when his innocence made him a victim to Alpha and an accidental "attack" by Langton and Ballard. Also, his scene in which Laurence Dominic's mind was imprinted into Victor's body was fantastic. Gjokaj did an amazing Reed Diamond impression, and although I'd like to see Diamond himself come back (unlikely), I'd be interested in a plotline wherein DeWitt and Topher put Dominic's consciousness back into Victor and then Victor/Dominic escapes.

There's (sort of) one episode left this season, and it may be the final episode to ever air (there is another episode that will likely only appear on the DVD). This series has improved exponentially since its beginnings, and I will be saddened if it is cancelled. But there will be at least one more post on Dollhouse.

Up next: La vie boheme...

LOST: The Equation

One of last season's best episodes was "The Constant", featuring the character of Desmond Hume. I guess it's only fitting that the best episode of the season so far is "The Variable", featuring Daniel Faraday, who we learn is Desmond's (half) brother-in-law (we don't know who Penny's mother is, so I'm guessing that Daniel and Penny are only half-siblings). "The Variable" sets up the last three episodes of Season 5, potentially sets up a new spin on time travel in the LOSTverse, and reinforces the dichotomy between destiny and free will by both showing us a character who has converted from a believer in destiny to a believer in free will, if only because it will help bring back his lost love, and a character who believes in destiny so strongly that she is willing to sacrifice something very precious to her for the sake of her beliefs.

Daniel's return at the end of "Some Like It Hoth" was an event I had been looking forward to since Sawyer told Jack that Daniel had left the DHARMA Initiative. Of the three new regulars introduced in Season 4, he was by far my favorite, and I have been looking forward to a Daniel episode ever since his notebook revealed that Desmond would be his constant in "The Constant". Although not all our questions about Daniel have been answered (what was he doing in Ann Arbor?), his first full (and probably last) flashback episode certainly shed a lot of light on him, even when some answers about his past were purposely kept vague (my theory on why he was crying about the remains of Oceanic 815: his mind had been warped by his experiments, and his future consciousness was telling him to be sad because he would become friends with the passengers, but his present consciousness didn't know they were actually alive).

His return to the Island was marked by a very different outlook on the time-displaced characters' ability to alter the timeline. In the beginning of the season, he established the idea that they were helpless to change anything, because anything they do in the past is what already happened (I don't know why, but I find this so easy to grasp, but I am almost incapable of explaining it). However, he now believes that he can change the events of the Island to prevent Oceanic 815 from crashing. Why does he want to do this? To save the life of Charlotte Lewis. Personally, I really hope that this isn't the case; I don't personally believe in destiny, but at the same time (1) I think that if time travel were real, this is how it would work (the past is the way it is, and if someone were to go back in time, it is not as if they are creating a new timeline in which they appear in the past, which is distinct from the "original" timeline in which they didn't appear; they ALWAYS showed up in the past), and (2) so far on the show, various things have come to pass BECAUSE the characters tried to alter history. When Sayid and Jack tried to prevent young Ben from growing up into evil adult Ben, they caused a chain reaction that directly created evil Ben. And Daniel did exactly what he swore he wouldn't do; he told young Charlotte to leave the island and never return in an effort to save her life. Never mind that his warning was the VERY REASON she chose to return.

And then there was Daniel's fate. He died in an effort to alter time. I am very upset that he is dead (as I said, between him, Charlotte, and Miles, he was by far my favorite), but the events of his death spoke volumes about how much people like Eloise Hawking believe in the necessity and existence of destiny. She encouraged him to go back to the Island knowing that she herself would be the one to kill him. Now that's devotion. Daniel tried to convince the other characters that humans are variables in the "equation" of life, but so far, it seems that the exercise of "free will" only leads back to the path of destiny. Then again, Eloise Hawking pointed out to Desmond that if something changes the path, the universe "course corrects", and even though Charlie eventually died, Desmond delayed it. Maybe Desmond can fulfill Daniel's hopes after all...

Up next: A leaf on the wind becomes a monster of a Doll...

The Venture Bros.: Thematically Speaking

If I had to sum up the theme of the series in one word, it would be failure. Which is weird because the show succeeds brilliantly at portraying the "beauty" of failure (as the creators like to say). Like real people, the characters on the show all have flaws, but the narrative dwells on the flaws and failures. Even the characters who are halfway competent (few and far between) are defined by what they do wrong, rather than the great things they do. Prof. Impossible is a great scientist, but his inability to love his family defines him. Jonas Venture, Sr. was a great scientist, but he messed up Rusty big time with his devotion to his work and his bizarre partying. And Hank and Dean have such a warped world view that they can barely function in society.

Rusty Venture is the quintessential failure on the show; he comes from a long line of great super-scientists, but he inadvertantly destroys more of his father's inventions than he creates himself. He is a terrible father (though as we eventually learned, neither was his father), and he is pretty much a bad person in general. He is greedy, rude, lazy, and somewhat cocky. Yet we still love watching him because (1) he usually gets his comeuppance tenfold and (2) it's funny to watch such an utter failure act like he's king of the world. Venture's nemesis, the Monarch, can barely run his evil operation. He doesn't command a lot of respect (he dresses like a giant butterly), he equips his lazy henchmen with non-lethal weaponry, and he engages in numerous supervillain cliches, such as giving grand speeches (monologuing to you Incredibles fans), and loves a good (and escapable) death trap. I think that for a while, Dr. Girlfriend was supposed to represent his failure to find a "real" woman because of her very deep voice, but now that she is seen as the hottest woman in the Ventureverse, I guess that has changed. Speaking of Dr. Girlfriend and her power over men, Phantom Limb, one of the series' most dangerous villains, lost everything partly because of her. When the Monarch won D. Girlfriend back (that itself has to be a pretty bad shot to the ego) because Limb was unable to relax, he gambled everything in a Guild coup to get her back, and lost when the Monarch and the Ventures teamed up to defeat him. Brock Samson is obviously a capable fighter, but he has control issues. If anyone attacks him, he goes absolutely ballistic and can't stop fighting until everyone in the room is dead or badly injured. When spooked, he can't distinguish his friends from his enemies, as seen when Hank woke him up during an intense nightmare. Over the course of the series, he has slowly become more sane and collected, making him one of the most balanced and grounded characters on the show.

The show certainly has other themes and motifs. Decades enter the show through various characters; many people in the world of the show seem to be transplanted from various decades in 20th century America. Hank and Dean talk and dress like they're from the 50s, using words and phrases like golly and neato. Brock dresses like the 70s and listens to a lot of 70s era classic rock, whereas Pete White embraces the 80s. Triana Orpheus represents the grunge of the 90s. Speaking of time periods, the space race is parodied in the show and is also pointed to as being a failure. In the 50s and 60s, Americans believed that, by the end of the century, we would have colonies on the moon and everyone would have hoverbikes. In the world of The Venture Bros., a lot of that stuff exists. It is really crappy, though. In an early episode, the Ventures are called up to a space station built by Jonas, Sr. that is malfunctioning. Most of the space-age inventions on the show barely function, and people are completely dependent upon this faulty technology (in a late Season 3 episode, there is a great exchange, wherein one character asks another to get a dictionary, only to be scoffed at because the internet made dictionaries irrelevant, only to discover the answer to what they are looking for was found in the dictionary).

Finally, although this isn't a theme, the show has a very strong continuity and storyline, and I'd like to address where the story may be going for a second. The third season was extremely plot-heavy (strangely, the direction many people thought the show was going to go in after the Sesaon 2 finale didn't actually happen; present-day Phantom Limb only showed up in one episode, and I'm very curious to see what he's been up to and why the Monarch hasn't been hunting him down), and the finale not only changed the status quo, but set up a bunch of new story lines for the next year. I don't want to ruin too much, but it looks like the Guild will have some competition next year. I for one am very excited to see what happens to Team Venture next.

Up next: How we gonna pay...

Dollhouse: Self-Preservation

So Dollhouse keeps getting better, and although I still think that "Man on the Street" is the best episode of the season, "A Spy in the House of Love" was a close second. In addition to presenting various revelations, the episode moves two characters in new directions. The structure of the episode was very interesting, as the first act showed Topher discovering the existence of the mole and followed Echo as she saw pieces of various events which led her to ask Topher to imprint her with a personality that will allow her to help find the leak. The next four acts each started with one of the four main dolls getting imprinted with a personality, and followed them through their engagement.

November had the Mellie imprint uploaded again, and she was sent back to Ballard's building. Ballard discovered the Dollhouse's surveillance equipment in his appartment and got paranoid, so now Mellie will be the Dollhouse's last remaining way to monitor his activities. (Un)fortunately, the mole chose to make contact with Ballard again, but this time through November. Ballard got (minimal) new information about the Dollhouse, but the price was learning that the girl he was starting to fall for didn't really exist.

Sierra was imprinted to be a spy with a mission to infiltrate the NSA, who we learned employed the mole. Echo was also imprinted with a personality to catch the mole, but she became an interrogator. Victor was out on a routine engagement, but it turned out to not be so routine after all. It turns out that Adelle is lonley (as is Dr. Saunders, but her refusal to leave the Dollhouse may also be based on fear as well as her supposed lack of friends), and she has been engaging Victor to satisfy her in the way that only a perfect doll can. Victor is sent to some random woman's house so that his handler won't know who the real client is, then he takes off in a little sports car and provides Adelle with everything she needs.

I said a few weeks ago that having Ivy, Topher's assistant, be the mole would be the obvious choice (though because the "obvious" choice is rarely the actual culprit, she was the seemingly obvious choice), and it looks like Whedon and company agreed. When she was "revealed" as the mole, I was a tad disappointed, but when the real mole was uncovered, I was certainly surprised, and a little sad that a certain character likely won't be coming back any time soon (looks like I was right about something else I said a while back, and although he/she is out of play for now, I do think that the writers left a small door open to allow for his/her return). But Echo's ability to request to help out while in a wiped state has finally proven to Adelle that she is special and definitely worth keeping around. She has plans for Echo, and I am very excited to learn what they are. Also, Langdon is moving up in the hierarchy in spite of his hatred of the Dollhouse, which may allow him to take the place down some day...

I also have a new crazy theory about the goings-on in the Dollhouse. When Topher discovered the mole, Dominic told the imprinted Sierra that Topher was able to decrypt part of the chip, but not all of it. I realized that they would need to imprint her with the ability to have the skill to decrpyt the remaining part, and if that was true, why couldn't they imprint a programmer for the dolls themselves. What if Topher is a doll?! How would they know who to trust when recruiting "geniuses" to act as programmer? I'm sure they could lure people in with the promise of such astounding technology, but what guarantee would they have that somone with loose morals like Topher wouldn't sell them out?! How many of the janitors and security people can be trusted? What if the Dollhouse is staffed by dolls?

Up next: The art of failure...

The Venture Bros.: The Way of the World

In the world of The Venture Bros., things like supervillains, secret agents, and the undead are so commonplace that they have their own unions, in a sense. The world is divided into heroes and villains for the purposes of knowing who should be fighting against who, but this delineation failed to take morality into account. There are "heroes" who are just as immoral as the villains, and many of the villains are only villainous because that is their job.

Perhaps the most ingenious creation of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer is the Guild of Calamitous Intent (which came four years before Joss Whedon's Evil League of Evil in Dr. Horrible), which serves as the supervillain bureaucracy. The Guild trains and assigns "arches" (short for archenemy) to heroes. The purpose? I'm not quite sure, but it is probably to (1) give villains a legitimate job and (2) to give heroes someone to be heroic against. The Guild specializes in appropriately tailoring arches to heroes in order to avoid mismatched level of aggression/intelligence and making sure that the hero-arch relationship remains in a stalemate. The purpose isn't for one to kill the other, but for the hero and villain to continue fighting in an endless game of sorts. This situation doesn't really work with the Monarch, though, because he truly hates Dr. Venture, or at least he convinces himself that he does. His failure to kill Venture isn't based on Guild rules; rather, it is incompetence that prevents him from reaching his goal (once again, more on that in the Themes post). During Season 3, when The Monarch is reassigned to other heroes, he kills them because he wants to work his way back to Venture.

The Guild functions like most real-world bureaucracies: there are extensive rules and by-laws that members must follow, it provides its members with healthcare and dental (the only reason The Monarch joined), and it sends form letters to heroes when the hero is to be assigned a new arch. It even has a town for its members to live in if they don't have their own bases (I think that is a parody of Mark Millar's comic book Wanted, not to be confused with the film adaptation). I'm unclear as to whether or not the Office of Secret Intelligence (O.S.I.) is aware of the Guild's presence (in a flashback to Brock's early days in O.S.I., they were still trying to gather proof of its existence), but I'm pretty sure that they do. However, the Guild has become such an ingrained part of society that O.S.I. cannot take it down without causing serious chaos as a result.

Speaking of which, O.S.I. is a G.I.Joe parody. Their purpose is to act as a protective force in the world, but they are just as violent and crazy as the people they fight. Most agents aren't particularly bright, and they aren't honest either. In the same episode as referenced above, they sent Billy Quizboy on a mission to discover whether a certain person was a Guild member (as we all knew, the target, Phantom Limb, was a high-ranking member). They sent Billy in on a mission he wasn't prepared for and lied about putting a wire on him. Furthermore, they basically kidnapped and conscripted him into service.

There are also other teams that run around the Venture-verse with their own motives. Once again, most of these organizations fall on one side of the spectrum or the other (in the abstract at least; both the original and current Team Venture are supposed to be heores, but both are certainly less than heroic). Molotov Cocktease is a mercenary who claims to have no affiliation (and a late-third season twist will probably elaborate on her motives in Season 4), but these neutral people are few and far between. There are other organizatons like the Guild, but they have been basically muscled out by the Guild and/or destroyed by the efforts of O.S.I. and the original Team Venture. The original Team Venture was an organization devoted to protecting people and furthering scientific endeavors. In addition to the superscientist Dr. Jonas Venture, the team is composed of numerous superhero archetypes/parodies, such as the Action Man (Captain America), Otto Aquarius (Aquaman), Humongaloid (Ant-Man/Giant-Man), and Col. Horace Gentleman (Allen Quartermain). The current Team Venture, led by Rusty Venture, is more concerned with making money and adventuring that protecting anyone, but I don't think viewers would have it any other way. After all, much of the humor is derived from watching Rusty's moral bankruptcy, Brock's brawls, and Hank and Dean's absolute cluelessness. Finally, Dr. Orpheus heads the Order of the Triad, a magical trio devoted to upholding the integrity of reality and protecting people. However, the three members are middle-aged and cannot always make it to practice, which leads to poor performance in the field.

Up next: Interlude...

The Venture Bros.: Go Team Venture!

One of the best things about The Venture Bros. is the impressive cast of characters. Creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer increase the world of the Ventures every season, and yet they are still able to, for the most part, keep the main characters in focus (in the third season, the focus shifted somewhat from the Venture family to the world itself, but more on that in a later post), and although not every minor character is fully developed, most of the principals are developed well beyond the initial jokes that introduced them.

In the first season, most of the characters were defined by comic book and/or Saturday morning serial stereotypes. Hank and Dean Venture, the titular brothers, are extremely naive and innocent, and they speak with a 1950s sitcom vocabulary (gee whiz). Their father, Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (though he doesn't actually have a doctorate degree) is a "super-scientist" who is following in the footsteps of his great father, Dr. Jonas Venture. The Drs. Venture invent things like robots, death rays, hover bikes, shrink rays, and experimental supersonic jets. Or at least, Jonas invented them and Rusty sells them to stave off bankruptcy. Rusty tries to pass himself off as a great scientist and humanitarian, but he is really a heartless bastard who will do pretty much anything to make a buck. He once held a yard sale for supervillains where he sold a lot of his dad's old inventions. Their bodyguard Brock Samsom is an invincible muscleman who always finds a way to save his "family" from impossible odds. Brock can singlehandedly take down an entire room of people trying to kill him without getting a scratch. He cares for the Venture boys, but when enraged, he can't control who gets the brunt of his anger, and his friends know to steer clear. On the other side of the law, The Monarch, the archnemesis (in his eyes) of Dr. Venture, has a rather silly origin story that is (somewhat) familiar to comic book readers. As a child, his parents were killed in a horrible accident, and he was subsequently raised by monarch butterflies. He honors his adoptive family by dressing as a giant butterfly. He hates Dr. Venture with a passion, but can't really explain why. His parents were rich, and he inherited a huge trust fund, so he doesn't have to work, so half the reason he acts as a villain (I will get into the show's hilarious construction of villains in the post about organizations) is because he has nothing else to do. He is dating a (very deep-voiced) woman known as Dr. Girlfriend, and has an inexhaustible supply of incompetent henchmen.

There are numerous supporting characters on both sides of the "fight" (though very few are exactly good or evil). Dr. Orpheus is a necromancer who lives with the Ventures, and he has a penchant for being overly dramatic. In the second season, he forms a group called the Order of the Triad with a Blade-like character who refers to himself as a blacula hunter and an alchemist (known as The Alchemist) who is researching an AIDS cure. Peter White and Billy Quizboy are old friend of Rusty who tried to start a technology business, but ended up living together in a trailer in the desert. White is an albino who is obsessed with the 80s, and Billy is a man who never hit a growth spurt and has a giant head. The two of them often show up to try and make some money off of the Ventures' predicaments. Two of the Monarch's henchmen form a bit of a comedy team; they tend to comment on stuff going on around them (and they become self-aware of their near-invincibility in the third season) and engage in nonsensical debates (such as arguing over whether Lizzie Borden or Anne Frank would win in a fight, or whether smurfs are mammals or egg-laying creatures). Molotov Cocktease combines elements of Marvel's Black Widow and inappropriately named Bond villains. She and Brock have an intense love-hate relationship that involves them trying to simultaneously fuck and kill each other.

This will be extended upon in the themes post, but while the various characters have their different motives, they are all united by one thing: failure.

Up next: The bureaucracy of good and evil...

Two Rather Unrelated Worlds

I had planned to just do a series on Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. because it tied in with the comic book posts I just did (which had a lot of TV posts interspersed). Venture is a show that parodies things like Johnny Quest, Marvel and DC comics, music, and pulp novels. I still plan on doing a post series on Venture next, but I saw the play RENT for the first time this weekend, and I really enjoyed it. I then realized that it is, in some ways, the opposite side of the coin occupied by Avenue Q (or really, Avenue Q is the opposite side of RENT because RENT came first), and I thought of my comparison of Runaways and Young Avengers. I thought that I had as good an opening as any to talk about the play.

Up next: Go Team Venture!...

Young Avengers: The Next Generation

I don't know if I've ever expressed this sentiment on The Other Worlds, but teen drama, when done well, is very entertaining. More times than not, teen drama is done poorly, overflowing with melodrama and forced sentiment (Smallville the Buffy movie), but when done right, it is incredible. The television Buffy, Veronica Mars, Runaways, and Robert Kirkman's Invincible are all great examples. After I got into Runaways, the same friend who turned me on to that series told me about Young Avengers, another Marvel Universe teenage superhero team. The two teams have so much in common, yet are very very different.

Most members of the Young Avengers are somehow related to members of the Avengers, Marvel's premier superhero team (within the story; I'd say the most well-known team to our world is the X-Men, but the Avengers are the mainstream team within the Marvel Universe, as opposed to the X-Men, who are feared by most humans in the story). In 2004, comics writer Brian Michael Bendis took over writing for The Avengers, and the first thing he did was dismantle the team in his Avengers: Disassembled storyline (a play on the rallying cry "Avengers assemble!"). In the story, three characters, Ant Man II, The Vision, and Hawkeye, were killed as a result of a mental breakdown suffered by the heroine Scarlet Witch, who had powers that could alter reality. The team broke up in response, and the New Avengers eventually rose from the ashes. But before they reformed, a group of teenagers began mimicking the appearance of four of the original Avengers and tried to fight crime. Iron Lad, Patriot, Asgardian (later Wiccan), and Hulkling wanted to follow in the footsteps of their fallen heroes. Later, they were joined by Stature, the daughter of the late Ant-Man II (the only Young Avenger who is actually related to the Avenger he/she is honoring), Speed, and Kate Bishop (the only character who has no relationship to any Avenger).

That there is one of the biggest differences between Young Avengers and Runaways: the Young Avengers honor and look up to the adult heroes who came before them, whereas the Runaways are inherently wary of authority figures. The Young Avengers are a much more traditional superhero team; they wear costumes, use codes names, and are relatively more powerful than the Runaways (though the Runaways are more resourceful). That doesn't mean that the Young Avengers don't have problems or varied personalities and motives. Bishop is very gung ho about being a hero based on her sheltered upbringing. Stature is rebelling against her superhero-hating mother and step-father, and identifies with her father. Speed isn't exactly as moral as some of the team's other characters. And Patriot... well, let's just say that he has problems that many role models have in our society these days. As for Wiccan and Hulkling, they share a secret that can make them social outcasts due to public opinion in our country. And yet these people with different outlooks on life and morality choose to work together to help people who can't help themselves.

There are only 12 issues (and 1 special) of the actual Young Avengers series; at this point, most of their appearances have been in other books. The writer, Allen Heinberg, does a lot of TV writing, and is known to be a bit of a perfectionist. This makes the issues very well-written, but it also causes delays adn his other committments have prevented him from continuing. Sadly, because the team has been so involved in events of the Marvel Universe, the team is in a much different place than they were when Heinberg left, and some of his hinted at plotlines may no longer be feasible.

One such plotline invovled the search for Wiccan and Speed's true Avengers predecessors. As I said, only Stature is related to the Avenger that she is honoring. The next closest is Patriot; at first glance, he looks like he is referencing Captain America, which is true, until he reveals that the famous Captain America is not who he is imitating. In fact, the US government experimented on black soldiers before perfecting the super-soldier serum that was administered to Steve Rogers, and Patriot's grandfather was the only surviving test subject. Speed takes after Quicksilver, but he took up that mantle after he had learned the truth of his lineage. Wiccan's original name was Asgardian because he dressed like Thor, Hulkling took after the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Lad after Iron Man. Iron Lad was the most removed from the Avengers (aside from Bishop, who later took up Hawkeye's mantle), but was still related to the Avengers in some way. Much of the plot of the series revolves around finding out the true origins of the Young Avengers, and the team learns that they are much more tied to the events of Avengers: Disassembled than anyone could have thought.

So far, there have been two crossovers between the Runaways and the Young Avengers (I have only read one), and there are more than a few parallels. The first crossover featured covers with like characters on them (each team has a magic user, each team has an alien, each team has a robot, each team has someone without any actual superpowers), and each team is rebelling in their own way. However, as I previously stated, the Runaways are rebelling against all adult control, whereas the Young Avengers rebel against adults who want to stop them from being heroes. The Young Avengers rebel to prove themselves. The two books hit many of the same themes because adolescence affects everyone in similar general ways, but the two books differ in the paths the characters take.

Up next: Parodies and flip-sides...

Dollhouse: Blue Sun Rising

I promise I will get to my Young Avengers posts that I promised soon. But there's been so much going on in television that I cannot ignore it. Last week, we had the end of Battlestar Galactica and the first episode of Dollhouse that laid the groundwork for the overall mythology of the series. This week, the curtain got pulled back a little farther, and we learned a little about an evil corporation that is (probably) funding the Dollhouse as well as the reason Caroline was forced to become Echo. Also, while last week's episode was the first one to show Whedon's trademark emotional center, this was the first episode to show off his trademark wit.

First of all, the title of this post is a Firefly reference; Blue Sun was the mega-corporation that was partially responsible for the tests on River Tam, but due to the early cancellation, we never really learned anything about them. It looks like this time around, Whedon is wasting no time in bringing the sinister Rossum Corporation to the forefront (though I really liked how, in Firefly, even though we never formally met Blue Sun, there was plenty of evidence of its existence throughout the series). Rossum is a drug manufacturer that is performing all kinds of unorthodox experiments. Caroline was an outspoken opponent of Rossum, and when thesy caught her breaking into their labs, Rossum shipped her off to DeWitt, where she became Echo. Based on the little we saw, Rossum is clearly evil, but I really hope that Whedon finds a way to partly justify what they are doing or show that things aren't exactly what they seem. The "evil corporation" thing is much too simplistic for a Whedon story; one of my favorite Whedon quotes is that the best villains are the ones who are partly right...

Elements of this episode kind of reminds me of Buffy's "Band Candy" episode and Angel's "Spin The Bottle" episode (and kind of Buffy's "Tabula Rasa", but that one was much more emotional in regards to the relevant elements); this episode dealt with a drug created by Rossum that broke down mental processes and turned people into goofy children. Topher and DeWitt's reaction to the drug was, in my opinion, the best because those two really went all out with the lunacy. I think that DeWitt's Brit-bashing comments and trampoline adventure were brilliant in their simplicity. Boyd and Dominic also had great moments (though I think Dominic's best line was when he was still sober; after Victor had a special agent personality imprinted, Victor started ordering Dominic around, which pissed Dominic off to no end).

The drug's effect on the dolls, on the other hand, caused them to "glitch", and they started remembering past imprints, events from their inactive states, and, in Echo's case, her life before the Dollhouse. Echo's journey into Rossum in the present mirrored her last experience before joining the Dollhouse, and her inability to fully remember everything yet still know what she was doing was creepy to watch, but will have interesting effects on her character if the effects don't wear off.

As for Ballard, he didn't get much screentime this week, but we learned that not even an attack on Mellie (can I start calling her November yet?) and a suspension won't deter him from pursuing the Dollhouse. In fact, it has strengthened his resolve. Why is Mellie (November?) being extracted? I would think that now, more than ever, DeWitt would want her in place to monitor what he was doing. Oh well, now we'll get to see how she interacts with the other dolls. Hopefully, the series has run through its purely stand-alone episodes (although, there was still some arc stuff in the first five), and from now on, we'll get episodes like this and last week's.

Oh, and is anyone else wondering where Alpha is?

Up next: That's not our name, by the way...

Dollhouse: The Purpose

Um, wow? I have certainly enjoyed the previous five episodes of Dollhouse, but "Man on the Street" really took things to the next level. At long last, this finally felt like a Joss Whedon show. We now know for certain that there is a bigger meaning to the Dollhouse than just dealing in the fantasies of the super-rich. We don't know what that purpose is yet, but we certainly know it exists, along with Dollhouses in 20 other cities aside from Los Angeles. This episode was packed full of stuff, from hints about who is pulling the strings to effects that non-actives can have on the dolls.

First of all, the sanctuary of the Dollhouse has been shown to be anything but this week. Dr. Saunders discovered Sierra has had sex in her inactive state, and it turns out that someone has been raping her. But even more importantly to the overall story, there is a mole inside who reprogrammed Echo before her encounter with Ballard. Yes, they finally met this week, and the encounter was spectacular. Wait, that should say that BOTH encounters were spectacular. At first, it looked like Echo's mission-of-the-week would involve being the wife of an internet billionaire, but that mission was quickly scuttled when Ballard burst in and forced Langdon to whisk Echo back to the Dollhouse. Echo's belief that her "husband" made it big with porn never ceased to be hilarious. But the ensuing conversation between Ballard and Patton Oswalt's character was incredible. Oswalt admitted that he was seeking a fantasy, but told Ballard that his quest to free Caroline was also based on a fantasy, in addition to justice.

After we watch Ballard's relationship with his neighbor Mellie develop, we get a second meeting between Echo and Ballard, and this time, she has been imprinted with a kick-ass personality who is supposed to take him down. Unfortunately for the Dollhouse, they have a mole, and Echo was reprogrammed to tell Ballard to lay low for a while. Could this have been a calculated move by the Dollhouse to get him to back off for a while? Ballard obviously poses a threat because they have had TWO dolls tasked to keep him busy (fool me once Joss Whedon, shame on you, but fool me twice, especially after reading that two actors were "originally set" to play dolls before removing those characters from the story, then shame on me). But if the Dollhouse really is as powerful as Echo says it is, how could Ballard be a threat? And what would they gain from telling Ballard that the fantasy business is the means, but not the ends of the Dollhouse? Anyway, my guess is that, if there truly is an informant, it is Topher's assistant. I realize that she is the obvious choice right now, but I have no idea who else it could be. Maybe Dr. Saunders? But perhaps the most interesting development is the idea that the Dollhouse can be used for good in rare circumstances...

This episode absolutely rocked on multiple levels, and I have never been more excited to see the next one.

Up next: The next generation...

Battlestar Galactica: This Island Earth

To quote Six Feet Under, everything ends. And so, after over 5 years (remember, Season 4 was split over two years and the miniseries pilot aired a year before the series proper began), Battlestar Galactica has finally come to an end. The show has come a long way from where it started back in 2003. The miniseries was a response to 9/11. The series debuted in 2004, the year of the serialized hour-long (LOST, Veronica Mars, and (I can't believe I'm about to type this) Desperate Housewives). Over its 4 or 5 years, the series would examine our world through the trials and tribulations of the crew of the Galactica, including an excellent Iraq War parallel that cast the show's "heroes" as the Iraqis and the show's "villains" as the Americans. Then, halfway through Season 4, on a show that was all about depressing bleakness, the bottom fell out: Earth, the planet that the remaining 50,000 humans had spent years searching for, in hopes of finding a new home, was discovered. But it was a nuclear wasteland, and had been for millenia.

Since then, we witnessed people lose all hope, we saw a mutiny, and we saw a woman betray everyone she once loved to help her new master. Last week, Adama decided that Hera, the hybrid baby, was worth rescuing. Something about her was special, and if humanity wanted to survive, they would need to get her back. So how does it all end?

The two-hour final episode basically has two parts: the battle and the aftermath. The battle was absolutely incredible; Ron Moore obviously spent a lot of money for this episode, and although the CGI on the show has never been cinema-quality, everything still looked damn good. I still think Baltar's last-minute change-of-heart about fighting was slightly out of character, but I'm glad he was there, and he was finally able to show everyone that his preaching skills were useful for something (and he finally admitted that he probably is insane). In other parts of the battle, Boomer and Athena had their final showdown; I knew that things would come out the way they did, and while that result feels better, I almost wish that the one who died survived and the survivor had died, just for the tension it would have created. Then again, that desire went out the window when I thought that Helo died (and as much as I love Helo, I kind of wish he had died to make Athena that much angrier). And then there was the Tyrol incident. Poor guy can't catch a break. First, his true love turns out to be a cylon sleeper agent. Then he starts getting depressed and wants to attempt suicide. Then, after marrying another woman, he goes through the hell that was New Caprica. After that, he learned he was a cylon, and his wife kills herself because of it. Or did she? We know the truth about that, and that bit of information led to a result that could have ended humanity and the cylon race right then and there.

The aftermath section, on the other hand, was more about tying up loose ends and showing where everyone would go on to do once the fighting was over (somewhat similar to Six Feet Under). I believe it was necessary, but it dragged a little in some parts. And the absolute last scene was ridiculous. But still, it was great seeing the various characters planning the rest of their lives.

Oh, but what the hell was up with Starbuck? A reviewer from the Onion AV Club postulated that she was an "angel", like Head Six and Head Baltar, that everyone could see, who had been sent to lead everyone to where they needed to end up. I guess I'll go with that one for now. Oh, and how was she the "Harbinger of death" that would lead everyone to their end?

Not every question was answered, but after the dust all settled, I was very happy with the way Galactica ended. There were a few dips in quality, but it has proven to be one of the best science fiction series I've ever seen. Hopefully, the spin-off Caprica will be just as good.

Up next: That's not its purpose...