Dollhouse Cancelled; Millions of People Completely Unphased
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 11, 2009
After two very uneventful seasons, Joss Whedon’s latest foray into the world of television is over. According to THR, Fox has decided to cancel Dollhouse. The show, which is currently filming its 11th episode of its second season, is expected to finish its 13-episode run.
Despite the ratings bump Dollhouse received due to DVR viewing, ratings in its second season have been less than impressive. The show beat the odds after a lackluster season one, after which fan demand was the propellant for a second season pickup. And in season two, fans didn’t exactly show up in support — and now the show, which stars Eliza Dushku as DNA-altered woman who gets implanted false memories for various missions and tasks — is done.
Our friends over at Hitfix have gotten their hands on the schedule for the remaining episodes, seen below:
Dec. 4 – 8:00PM-10:00PM (Episodes 5 & 6)
Dec. 11 – 8:00PM-10:00PM (Episodes 7 & 8)
Dec. 18 – 8:00PM-10:00PM (Episodes 9 & 10)
Jan. 8 – 9:00PM-10:00PM (Episode 11)
Jan. 15 – 9:00PM-10:00PM (Episode 12)
Jan. 22 – 9:00PM-10:00PM (Episode 13 / Series Finale)
According to the THR report, show creator Joss Whedon is staying on board in order to give the show “a proper ending with a big finale.” Over at Whedonesque, they’ve received his official statement. And as expected, Whedon will very quickly be queuing us in to his next project before Dollhouse makes its big exit. He says:
“By the time the last episode airs, you’ll know what my next project is.”
We will continue to wait and see where Whedon lands next. As for my thoughts on the cancellation of Dollhouse, I can’t say that I’m surprised. Joss Whedon has made a career out of making solid shows that are successful in short spurts. And for a show with such a lack of substance — because lets face it, there wasn’t a ton of story there — getting all the way to the end of two seasons isn’t such a bad thing. Fans should accept that they squeezed as much life out of this concept as possible and that Whedon, as always, will land on his feet and have another “cult hit” in the not to far future.
Are you emotionally impacted by the Dollhouse cancellation?
Read more articles by Neil Miller
Comments
November 11th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
This Article Requires:
One (1) comment about how Fox (or Faux) is a terrible station and can't give Whedon a chance.
One (1) comment about how Joss is a hack and how glad said commenter is about Dollhouse's cancellation
Millions (1,000,000s) of comments arguing both this points
November 11th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Holy crap. Will the Fox reign of terror never end? Must they cancel the only good shows on their lineup?
November 11th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Terrible show. Glad to see it go. Time to put something better on.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
yeah, i'm so tired of feeling like i'm missing out on a good show whenever dollhouse advertising comes on or a blog makes a reference. I've given it a bunch of chances and I have to say it just didn't seem like a good idea from the beginning.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Apparently I'm the only person sad to see it go. I've actually really enjoyed the show and thought they played with the premise pretty well. Some of the standalone episodes were pretty crappy (the Echo-is-a-hired-mom one comes to mind) but I liked the stories where we started to get the big picture of just how crazy the parent corporation is.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I'm not particularly surprised to see it go, and emotionally impacted? Not as much, because I've hardened myself against being upset when Fox cancels shows. It's not worth going through Firefly-withdrawal again. And yeah, Dollhouse is lesser Whedon. But still. But still – any Whedon on my TV is better than no Whedon. And this gets rid of one of the few sci-fi shows on right now that's even trying to deal with a) science [as opposed to trappings like aliens or space travel] and b) the deeper implications of science. I don't think Dollhouse stuck to that as much as it could've (partially because Fox kept pulling back from the more extreme things Joss wanted to explore, and keep it more action oriented), but unless V can fill that void, and I haven't caught up with it yet, I think that's an overall loss on the TV landscape.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I'm a fan of Dollhouse, but I'm not surprised, and I haven't been tuning in much this season. Perhaps Whedon should do mini series. Bet he'd do well in that.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Never been a big fan of Whedon's, his series are at best “ok”, and at worst simply boring. While Firefly was watchable it never caught on with me as say Farscape or BattleStar Galactica did. He concentrates too much on looks and not enough on substance and character develpement, apart from the stereotypes.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
You didn't watch the show too much then. Dollhouse had a hell of a story line if you paid even half attention to it and plenty of substance with the ethical and moral issues it faced. Not to mention Dollhouse had more character development I've seen in a long time in other show out there. BTW it wasn't her DNA that was altered, further showing your lack of knowledge of the show. Congrats.
November 13th, 2009 at 5:23 am
You didn't watch the show too much then. Dollhouse had a hell of a story line if you paid even half attention to it and plenty of substance with the ethical and moral issues it faced. Not to mention Dollhouse had more character development I've seen in a long time in other show out there. BTW it wasn't her DNA that was altered, further showing your lack of knowledge of the show. Congrats.
January 10th, 2010 at 6:46 am
Compare the character and plot development of this to the character and plot development of Battlestar Galactica. No contest. This show seemed to be a shallow dip into a few moral/ethical concepts and a very shallow development of characters. I am enjoying the end of season 2, but just found myself a little bored by Dollhouse.
And I can't be dismissed by a 'you lack deep thought' comment because I loved all of the complex issues that BSG so skillfully developed where the characters were inextricable from the plot. That's brilliance. Joss Whedon is creative and I would love to see what he can do with increased technical skill to develop his good ideas.