Blu-Ray Review: ‘Dollhouse’ season 1

The Show:

Can Joss Whedon put out anything that isnt absolutely amazing and addicting? I dont think so and he scored gold with ‘Dollhouse’ even though there were rumors it might meet an early doom. Finally season 1 has come out so I could see the unaired eposide 13 ‘Epitaph One’ and the unaired pilot titled “Echo”.

Eliza Dushku plays Echo, a resident of the Dollhouse, whom upon request can be taught anything and immediately have their minds wiped of all memories from different “missions” or “engagement”. Sort of like how they hack into the minds in the ‘Matrix’, members of the Dollhouse are essentially just drones who have signed a contract for one reason or another to live and take part in the process as an “Active” or “Doll”.

The way it works is basically this; a very wealthy person comes and requests certain tasks to be done, anything from needing a lover for a night to a hostage negotiator for their kidnapped child. The brass that runs the Dollhouse then pick out the perfect Doll for the job and upload the right imprint/imprints for them to complete the task and after its done their minds are wiped clean. When not on missions they essentially just wander around the Dollhouse living a mundane existence but having no memories or DNA they dont seem to mind.

Each Doll is assigned a handler who is in there to protect both the active and the dollhouse. Echo’s handler Boyd Langton, who is played by Harry Lennix, is new to the whole process and his morality wins out over the money and the jobs at hand. He quickly becomes very protective of Echo and soon realizes that there is something very special about her.

I wont go into full spoiler detail of the show but eventually Echo starts to regain some of her memories from missions, and from her previous life which leads to a bunch of trouble for her and her handler. The show is fantastic and I am glad that it got picked up for its 2nd season. Joss Whedon is a mastermind and ‘Dollhouse’ just proves it that much more.

The Blu-Ray:

The discs arent action packed with additional content that we didnt get to see during this past season, but they do have the 2 additional episodes which I talked about previously. There are only 3 commentary tracks on the disc and only one of them really made me want to listen to it. The track for “Ghost” features both Whedon and Eliza Dushku as they talk about both the show and things going on outside of the show. These arent your typical fun Whedon commentary tracks and you will quickly realize that.

There is a pretty good documentary on the making of ‘Dollhouse’ that I definitely recommend watching to get a grasp on the actual dollhouse, each casting choice and a few other things.

The Audio on the blu-ray sometimes comes off a bit flat almost like it the sound guys were in a different room than the scene was taking place but it isnt constant. Sometimes the sound is absolutely perfect, and sometimes it sounds muffled. The picture is a crapshoot and its difficult to tell why that is. Whedon is known for many different lighting styles and that could have alot to do with it. For the most part the picture is pretty fantastic but there are some scenes that just seem entirely too dark.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 (if the bonus features had been better it would easily score a 5)