With many series’ coming to an end and rumors of cancellations, I’ve recently been on the lookout for fillers and potential new obsessions for my TV schedule. A big fan of Prison Break’s first two series’ I’m pretty much looking forward to its end having seen it dragged out and bled dry like Rhianna on a date with Chris Brown. Allegedly.

Heroes, another favorite of mine initially, is also strongly rumored with the axe as its numbers start to dwindle. Even its star pairing Hayden Panettiere & Milo Ventimiglia have recently split up – now there’s a woman for you Chris, knock her about and she heals almost instantly; in fact she actually kinda likes it as it makes her ‘feel alive’. What with the cheerleader costume as well….sorry, getting carried away myself. He’d be a cracking new fella, ella, ella

I don’t even wanna start on the idea of The Cleveland Show – the Family Guy spin off which has already been given a season starting in the Fall on Fox. I mean, the Quagmire Show – yeah, the Stewie Show – yeah, the Evil Monkey Show even – yeah, dammit I’d love to see a Tom Tucker spin off; but Cleveland? Gonna take some convincing – gonna need Johnny Cochran on that one Seth.

So with a huge amount of anticipation comes Dollhouse, the new series from Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon and starring amongst others former Buffy and Alias hottie Eliza Dushku. Its kinda porn for the hoards of Buffy fans waiting for something to get their fangs into; or as I like to call them, Whedophiles.

The show premise is thus – Dushku plays a character called Echo, a member of a group of people called ‘actives’ or ‘dolls’ – hence the Dollhouse – which is a secret facility housing the group. These dolls are basically blank canvasses wiped clean of their personalities ( I know what you’re thinking and no, Keanu Reeves isn’t in it) so they can have other amalgamated ‘super’ personalities imprinted on them for various missions. These missions can range from simple romantic dates to full on kick ass crime fighting persona’s, depending on the clients requirements. As the story evolves however we see that Echo still has some memory of her pre-doll life which obviously has connotations for future episodes. The group is also being hunted down by a federal agent bent on bringing down the mysterious group, adding to the suspense.

Streaming last weeks Pilot episode I would say I’m pretty encouraged by what I saw. A good pilot always leaves you with more questions than answers, and there were plenty of ‘huh?’ moments which were open to interpretation; Abrams-esque. It’s also another example of increasingly interesting plot set ups following on from Lost, Fringe etc. Obviously throw in a bit of Eliza in leather biker gear and a shower scene and we’re happy enough. The only real question I would have would be, is Dushku talented enough to pull off a role requiring an adaptation to multiple personalities? We shall see.

The initial ratings for the premiere last weekend, like a breakout of American Football in a porn film, haven’t made particularly good viewing. At 4.7 million viewers it represents the second lowest premiere audience for a scripted series on a major network this season; however you can trust that the hoards of Whedophiles and those of us crying out for a new obsession will at least take the show into deep water. From there, its up to the writers to hook us in.

One final thing of note, The Simpsons have recently introduced a new opening sequence – it goes on for three weeks and features all your favourite twenty year old characters doing what you’d expect them to do. Meh.

Laters

Related posts:

1. Griff’s Nerdles Blog – Saturday February 7th, 2009
2. EyeOnAnime
3. The Dutchie Sessions
4. FAMILY GUY SPIN OFF!!!
5. Smoke Me A Kipper, Red Dwarf Is Back!