Today’s Guest-clacker, Alaina O’Connor, is a freelance writer/blogger obsessed with science fiction, especially science fiction television. Her love for all things geeky goes back to when she was a kid growing up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. From there she sought out anything and everything related to science fiction television. Her favorites include: Farscape, Babylon 5, the X-Files, SG-1, Doctor Who, Lost, BSG and everything in the Whedonverse. Currently, she’s writing for allmovie.com and tvguide.com and working on revamping my blog unchartedterritories.wordpress.com.
Last Friday’s episode of Dollhouse marked the end of yet another Whedonverse show that was barely allowed to survive. All of the events leading up to the finale felt rushed, almost to the point where it became a chore trying to keep up with all of the exposition and plot points the writers frantically pieced together in the final episodes of the series, but I was pleasantly surprised how it all played out.
With “Epitaph Two,” you really got a chance to see where Joss’s vision for the show was headed. Had it been stretched out over another two seasons or so, Dollhouse could have been his masterpiece. The finale was exciting and also bittersweet. This time around at least there was a resolution to his story, as convoluted and rushed as it was, but upon reflection on his previous shows this raises the question: Is the Whedonverse cursed?
After I watched the Dollhouse finale I went to my DVD shelf and looked at the season one box set and felt a wave of sadness wash over me, not just because the show is over, but because of the overwhelming sense that the Universe is plotting against Joss Whedon. Of course the awesomeness that is Joss started in 1992 with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie), the campy version of the soon-to-be cultural phenomenon. Where the idea failed as a feature film it thrived as an hour long dramedy of sorts melting together horror elements with teen angst. Arguably, it was a time where a show like Buffy was unique among the mid-90s fodder. The show ended its run after season five, but lived on (for two more seasons, anyway) on UPN, while spin-off vampire drama Angel continued on the WB for a fifth and final season. This was the peak of Whedon’s relationship with the networks and it was all down-hill from there.
Angel in particular got the short end of the stick. The show aired during Buffy‘s fourth season and outlasted it by one season, but never really got the same kind of respect as its predecessor. I don’t know about you, but I always felt Angel started off as a noir-esque detective show, and then got murky and dramatic in the middle seasons with the return of Darla and all the weirdness with Connor. But by season 5, just as the show found its stride with the takeover of Wolfram & Hart (and honestly, they should have gotten there much sooner) and the addition of everyone’s favorite vampire punk, Spike, it was canceled. Now, I know Angel lives on in comic book form, but to me that’s more of a consolation prize.
In the middle of all of this, Whedon’s sci-fi western, Firefly, ran on FOX with only eleven of the fourteen produced episodes to actually air. Through a tireless campaign by the “Browncoats” Joss got the chance to wrap-up that story as a feature film, sort of. Admittedly, Serenity was a fun movie and a triumphant moment for all the self-proclaimed Whedon fans, but let’s face it, it didn’t do that well at the box office and we have yet to see a Serenity 2. This may be due in part to the fact that the kind of storytelling Joss does can only be told episodically. He’s the master of characterization and mythology which is difficult to duplicate in a 90 minute format. Which leads us to the tragedy that is Dollhouse — another brilliant concept that was perhaps too cerebral for the masses.
So the question remains, what’s next? I fantasize about a new era of Whedonverse shows with the staying power of Buffy, the moodiness of Angel, the coolness of Firefly, and the depth of Dollhouse on a network that will appreciate the Master.
What do you guys think is going on here? Is it this the post-Buffy Whedonverse curse? Is it the nature of network television today? Should Joss stick to a web series (considering the success of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) or should he migrate over to cable (rumor has it he met with execs at FX)? What do you want to see for the future of the Whedonverse?
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on Feb 05, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
I still mourn Firefly.
I think you are missing the obvious answer here. There’s no Whedon curse. The simple fact is that the audience for the Whedonverse shows isn’t big enough to be on a major network. I’m sure a lot of people agree with you that Angel had some gas left in the tank, but still, between Buffy and Angel, that was a very long, successful run. But it was a successful run on the little networks, where the bar was considerably lower.
At the end of the day, being on one of the big four networks requires certain numbers. Not being able to get those numbers doesn’t make Firefly or Dollhouse a bad show. It makes them bad big network shows. Your point about Dr. Horrible fits in there as well. Yes, it was very successful. For a webseries. Had they tried to broadcast that on one of the big networks, it too would have been a disaster.
So, the simple answer is that the next Whedon show would be best served showing up on cable. What we’ve seen from Firefly and Dollhouse suggests that there is an audience that can support what qualifies as a successful show on cable. And as crappy as it might be, those numbers, more than how good, bad, or cerebral a show is, are what will determine how long it stays around.
I’ll also take issue with the comment that Dollhouse was “perhaps too cerebral for the masses”. What does that mean? The masses are just too stupid to comprehend Dollhouse? Come on now. It wasn’t that clever. Or that all successful shows are made for morons? I don’t think you have to look that hard to find “cerebral” shows that are doing just fine.
Look, there’s Lost. Are you going to tell me that Dollhouse is more cerebral than Lost? Or, should we all just assume that since House is so successful, it must be written for morons? The too cerebral argument is just another lame excuse for the fact that nobody watched the show.
Yes, Dollhouse was too cerebral for the masses. Not in the sense that you need to be really smart to watch it, but it deals with complex issues. Especially in the early episodes, every character on the show was a muddled moral mix, from the employees who basically deal in slavery, but even the dolls who abandoned their lives instead of dealing with their life problems head-on. In season 1, were Topher and Adelle villains? Sort of… but not really. It involves a lot of nuance instead laying things out in black and white.
That said, your Lost analogy is a good one. Lost also managed to have a complex set of relatively nuanced characters and a convoluted plotline, while retaining viewers. Dollhouse lacked the initial punch that Lost had (its early episodes were among the best on TV), and never got the momentum and viewers it needed to stay afloat on network TV.
“Muddled” is a good description, to which I would add clunky and self-indulgent. Even people not phased by the supposedly cerebral aspects of the show can be driven off by unsympathetic or unlikable characters long before the reported improvements in the second season. Personally, I found it brushed up against complex philosophical and ethical issues, but didn’t have anything new or interesting to say about them, other than what the viewers filled in for themselves. But to be fair, I didn’t make it to “Epitaph One.”
I agree wholeheartedly that this show is “too cerebral for the masses”. It’s not that people aren’t capable of thinking while watching tv…it’s that they aren’t motivated to do so. We live in a dumb culture. We care more about what celebrities wear than pretty much everything else. Lost is a HUGE exception to the rule, and it’s viewership has declined most of the way through…in other words, once required to think, more people bailed out. People only want to watch CSI/House type things (smart, but wrapped up within 60 mins) or reality TV.
I think Whedon still has enough of a fan base that he could be very successful on cable. I think he’d find himself a lovely home with either FX or Syfy.
Compared to “Firefly”, “Buffy” and “Dr. Horrible”, the show simply wasn’t up to par. It just wasn’t that good. To be honest I found it to be a chore watching it. “Drive” was also a bad show, our beloved Captain is now working on “Castle” and I love that show.
I think it doesn’t really matter. Joss will do another show and hopefully the idea for it and the whole thing will be better than this.
It was a really bad show in large parts, with some good episodes in between if you ask me.
Look at it this way: with the end of “Dollhouse”, Joss is free to do another show that possibly will be just as good as his really good ones, not as mediocre as “Dollhouse”.
To me it was just like watching a real good player play for a real bad team. Or on a team that didn’t had a chance to win (so I don’t badmouth the other writers, which I don’t want to). It’s like Dirk Nowitzki on the Mavericks. Or if you want to pick a non-german player, take LeBron.
Joss’ next show will hopefully have the potential to attract the masses. I don’t think he has to go to cable to do that. I think that would be like giving up in a way. I think his work has the potential to shine on a major network. He proved it before, he should keep trying, especially because there’s nothing in his material that really needs cable from the FCC standpoint.
I’m looking forword to his next project just like I do with every Edgar Wright or Jason Reitman movie.
When it comes to Joss Whedon, I’m one of those Browncoats what will probably beat that dead horse until I die. You know, basically annoy the hell out of everyone who knows there is probably no way in hell that “Firefly” will ever live again.
I love “Castle” a ton, but if I lived in a magical world of unicorns and wishes that came true, I’d trade it for reuniting the old team aboard Serenity in half a heartbeat.
Correction: “…I’m one of those Browncoats who will probably beat that deat horse…”
Damnit, Jim. I’m a doctor not a proofreader!
Funny.
I know what you mean about Firefly. When I saw the Castle photo of Halloween Mal, I nearly swooned!
I agree that whedonverse, though loyal, is quite small. joss needs to stick with cable tv or not at all. i fell in love with dollhouse and i’m incredibly sad that it was rushed to an end that was very conveluted. i’ve been reading season 8 and Omnibus of the buffy comics and they are very fun and well done. Because joss takes time deveolping his voice in shows (time that networks refuse to give him), comics are a good venue for him. i’m enjoying reading them because buffy lives on.