Dollhouse – The Target

Dollhouse – The Target sure looked a lot better than the first episode based on the promo and the gallery of pictures that Fox would host, so I was ready to put the first episode behind me and get excited for the second one.  The problem is that after watching The Target I do not think I am any closer to liking this show, but at the same time I do not think I am any closer to removing it from the DVR just yet either.  Dollhouse is like a reverse jigsaw puzzle in that each one of the individual pieces looks really cool and exciting, but when they are all put together the final picture is just a bit blah.

So this episode brings a bit more excitement to the table as Echo receives an imprint that allows her to be a companion to one of those super outdoors hunter types.  Guess what?  The outdoor hunter type ends up wanting to hunt Echo just like some bad show from the 80s.  I really hate this throw away plot that we have seen a million times already, and done a lot better.   Richard the avid outdoors man takes Echo out to a remote location and after a wonderful night with her explains that she has a five minute start and he will start hunting her.  He poisons her mid way through the hunt, which seemed a bit out of character honestly, but this poisoning allows Echo to has flashes of some of her old imprints.  Is Echo special in this sense, because at the end of the episode after the wipe she does remember a gesture and saying from Richard?  After Richard is taken care of, we learn this was not what it seemed on the surface.  The episode though does allow us to learn a few pieces of the background story which is the best part of the show so far, it is a shame that I am really excited for the flashbacks only.  Agent Ballard gets an envelope that gives him a clue to the real identity of Echo, we learn a bit about how Boyd ended up becoming a handler in the Dollhouse, and the big one is that we learn about Alpha who did bit of crazy killing at the Dollhouse and putting those scars on Dr. Saunder’s face.

The only thing that even remotely makes the weekly plot palatable is at the end where we understand that maybe Richard was not just a random client that was looking for Echo for this outdoor trip but part of a larger storyline with Alpha (Alfa).  Even with that though I still was not a fan at all of the weekly storyline, can I get a ninja assassination or something equally exciting?  Whedon has such a great imagination this rehashed stuff makes me think that he put all the focus on the background story and thought that the weekly story was not that important.  The best scene for me though is with Ballard in his office when his collegues are asking if he has seen a house made out of candy in the woods, that made me laugh.  I also have not become invested in Boyd yet and that is really a concern for me as it seems that he has a very large part to play in putting both the weekly and the background story.  Well I do like Fran Kranz as Topher more and more each week, he is that creepy geek, well at least I hope that is what they are going for with him. 

Dollhouse does try and push the envelope in showing precision mutilated naked bodies, but it is overboard for me (and that is saying a lot).  I do not need to see that many mutilated naked bodies each week, we get it, this guy is dangerous, yes the “Actives” are as helpless as a naked newborn babies, the point is not lost on me, but the amount of screen time is.  The Alpha story line could be interesting, but we just do not know yet, and it is what is really carrying the show at this point.  I do like the little comment where Boyd asks why the actives do not have some default programming that is combat ready and the answer is shown to us in all the killing that went on.

A lot of people think that this episode is a step up from the first episode, which is it, but it is not a big enough step in my opinion.  I really hate to say it, but it boils down to this…currently Dollhouse is just not that cool.