Joss Whedon talks game-changer 'Dollhouse' episode
By
Jennifer Thomas
March 18, 2009
For weeks, the March 20 "Dollhouse" episode, "Man on the Street," has been hailed as the one that will impress you if you've been following the show; convince you to keep with it if you've been wavering and convert you if you haven't been watching. That's a lot of pressure to put on a single episode (and the ones to follow in the 13-episode season) so Joss Whedon explained in a conference call what it is about "Man on the Street" that gives "Dollhouse" more momentum.
In "Man on the Street," Patton Oswalt plays a lonely Internet mogul who hires an active (Echo of course) to play his wife. (Which begs the question, how long would the Dollhouse be willing to loan out its actives?) Ordinarily, you really can't buy love (although you can pay someone enough to pretend to love you), but in this case, you've got the ability to find someone who truly believes they love you. The episode also will see Agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) come face-to-face with Echo, a girl he only knows from a photo and a snippet of news footage, and we'll learn who attacked Sierra.
Whedon was asked whether hyping Episode 6 has had any negative effects.
Whedon: "There may have been a negative side of this. It may have lead some to think I'm saying the first five episodes are crap, which I don't believe."
Whedon described "Man on the Street" as a meeting of the minds between the creative team and the network.
"(The network) went, 'Oh yeah, we get that.' I wrote it faster than anything I've ever written. It was really a game-changer for us. The staff, cast read it and a lot of tumblers fell into place."
"Man on the Street" is an episode you could walk in not knowing anything about "Dollhouse" and walk out satisfied.
"It explains the premise," Whedon said. "It's really getting under the skin of the Dollhouse and Paul's character. We're coming at it sidewise rather than just showing an engagement and flipping in information around that engagement. It's very much full of the stuff (the network) was pitching, but also storytelling-wise, much more how I envisioned coming at it. It has got what I had hoped to bring to the others episodes that I felt like I didn't have opportunity to show as much."
Because "Dollhouse" is only a 13-episode season, there won't be as much exposition or delving into characters' back stories as might usually happen. Like why did Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix), who appears morally sound, take a job at the Dollhouse in the first place? (Obviously, his past can't be too squeaky clean.) Whedon brought up a line that was tossed from the script that Boyd says to Claire Saunders (Amy Acker): "None of us in here were next in line for pope."
And what about Topher? Does he ever leave the Dollhouse -- to practice his barbs in the mirror, perhaps?
"Not everybody has an apartment set," he said. "We're still interested in how they relate to our actives, but there will be a little bit about the private lives of our employees."
But there will be more development of the emotional side of "Dollhouse," both for Boyd and Echo and for Sierra (Dichen Lachman), who has one of the most painful set-ups as to how she came to the Dollhouse. Her backstory plays against Adelle DeWitt's and Topher's assertions that everyone in the Dollhouse started out as a willing participant and the question of what the dolls lives were like before they entered the Dollhouse.
Whedon: "Sierra's situation is by far the worst. The poor girl, she really gets put through it."
Then there's Paul Ballard who is a dog with a bone when it comes to his obsession with the Dollhouse.
"We don't really go back into his story in the first season. The first of so many seasons that there will inevitably be," Whedon added, tongue in cheek. "We're about to send him forward in ways he doesn't expect. There is a thorn in his side and we feel we can push it further and twist it and possibly puncture an organ."
One of the complaints about "Dollhouse" has been the difficulty in becoming invested in any of the characters. Whedon said more emotional storytelling is on the way.
Whedon: "The emotion of the thing is really why we're here. If we have to figure out a caper, that's work. But figure out something that causes one of them pain? That's fun. Everything is going to get much more tense for everyone."
For example, we know how Claire Saunders got the scars on her face, but not much about those good old-fashioned emotional scars.
Whedon: "I love that character. Not just cause it's Amy Acker, but because she wears misery and torture on her face literally. You'll definitely learn how she came to this fabulous career. In the last few episodes, we get to turn the Acker up pretty high."
One of the "Dollhouse" theories that has bounced around is that some of the staff members are actually actives themselves. And in a place like the Dollhouse, why bother with confidentiality agreements if you can just wipe your employees' memories? But it would be a major pitfall if more than one of the employees also was an active.
Whedon: "How many layers of unreality can you have? If we make this a lie within a lie within a lie within a lie, people are going to start slapping us. You need to have some touchstone of reality even in this world."
And what of that seemingly characteristic Whedon humor and dialogue that is mostly lacking from "Dollhouse"?
Whedon: "There is humor in the show. There is a lot of humor in the episode after 'Man on the Street.' ("Echoes,' which takes Echo back to her college campus.) 'Dollhouse' is not a comedy, it's not a typical, if there is a typical, Whedon show. It's not the light-hearted romp the other shows were. If people are feeling like it's too serious, either their expectations have to be changed or we need to lighten up a little."
All along, Whedon's concept of "Dollhouse" has been what he described as "Alias" meets "Quantum Leap," with Echo acting as a sort of life coach.
Whedon: "She's the person you absolutely need in your life at a certain moment. That could be something nice, evil or sexual. She wasn't meant to be just the one thing."
We also won't see too many Whedon alums aside from Felicia Day, (one of the potential slayers on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Penny in "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") who will appear in an episode later this season. But there is an actor Whedon cast who he said resembles Nicholas Brendon and whose character name is Nicholas.
"That was a terrible idea. I kept getting confused," Whedon said.
Not that he's ruling out some of the Buffy and other show alums showing up one day.
"I do like to see the gang, but have to establish the reality of this show first so it's not too jarring," he said.
And although the Dollhouse we know isn't the only one out there, don't expect to see the other Dollhouse operations playing too much of a role in the near future.
Whedon: "We didn't want to do the Wolfram and Hart gag, where we just use the same set and fill it with Italians. The economy has started to take a toll on the budget so, no, you will not see Dollhouse Tokyo."
