bad TV is bad

[lolaraincoat]

So fishwhistle and I have been watching Season One of Dollhouse, in fact we just finished watching it, and it has inspired us to write haiku:

Oh, Joss Whedon, why?
Why why why why why why why?
Dollhouse is no good!

Eliza Dushku,
your bony body's a bore.
Please eat a sandwich.

and

Doleful reunions:
Actors from much better shows
wasted on Dollhouse.

The Eliza Dushku one would work as well for every other actress in series, but her name has the requisite number of syllables. I know the one who's playing the neighbor of the FBI guy is supposed to be normalish-shaped, but actually she's nearly as tiny as the rest of them, only bigger-breasted. I don't watch enough TV to know if this is the way women on TV are, or if it's just in Whedon shows that this happens. Don't answer that question, please: it's depressing either way.

But also Dollhouse made me think that a mash-up of Frankenstein and every zombie movie of all time ever, told more or less from the POV of the zombies, might work better if it weren't also intended as homage to those great TV series of yore, Fantasy Island and I Dream of Jeannie. The plane, boss! The plane!

It did, in fact, get slightly better as it went along. We'll probably watch S2 when it comes out on DVD. But we'll hate ourselves a little when we do.





.....

Comments

[laughingrat]

You could watch lots and lots of silent cinema instead. :-D

Your haiku are the first thing to make me laugh all day. \0/

[idlerat]

I'm watching Angel. I actually think it might be worse. Or maybe that's just my mood. And Angel does have about 1 good episode a season (well, I'm only 1/3 of the way through S2, but that's what it looks like so far...)

I don't get it about Fantasy Island, but I never watched it. I mean, I figure people got to act out their fantasies. But is there a Dollhouse equivalent to "the plane"?

Remember that really great S3 episode of Buffy where she's come back from being Anne and everything's all awkward with her friends and family till the zombies attack and it's hilarious and violent? So awesome. Why can't Joss be awesome? And finally, did you ever watch Firefly? It's much, much better than either Angel or Dollhouse.

[idlerat]

ps I haven't watched S2 yet, but Rivkat posted recently that it looked like Joss was doing his "Hamlet." Which - is that promising? I'm not at all sure I share her taste in TV, in fact I don't, but she's a smartypants...

[lolaraincoat]

Huh. Well, we haven't seen any of S2 yet, and actually I don't know Hamlet all that well, so I can't really answer that. Hamlet as in everyone ends up dead at the end? The unbroadcast last ep of S1 (which was actually pretty okay except for that you had to sit through 12 HOURS OF DRECK to get to it) would seem to rule that out pretty conclusively, but what do I know?

[idlerat]

Yeah, that's not what she meant. Laertes entered into it. I think you'd have to know something about *at least one of* Hamlet or S2. But nice try!

[lolaraincoat]

Oh, well, then ... I was kind of hoping that everyone involved in the show would die horribly. Especially the writers.

[idlerat]

:D

The thing is, it's evil. And so was _Serenity_. While _Angel_ is merely terrible. Hence my theory: Joss was turned, after the cancellation of Firefly.

[lolaraincoat]

I'd hate to blame poor innocent vampires for all this terrible film and television. I think Joss was replaced by a kind of Star-Trek-Mirror-'verse Joss, who can't write and can't plot anything and hates women. That's what I think.

[idlerat]

Yeah, the incompetence doesn't worry me as much as the evil. I don't think Serenity was woman-hating -- I think it was more evil on the Wolfram & Hart model.

And Dollhouse - it's not just the woman hating. It's more global. Women and men are both just toys.

Killing Wash, the conscience of Firefly, was the first decisive step in his Satanic pact.

[lolaraincoat]

Angel had its moments! damn few of them, to be sure. I liked the green-skinned show-tunes guy, though. Have you gotten to him? The worst thing about Angel was that David whosis, the lead, is an unbearably bad actor - or anyway that's how he seemed to me - and also did not bring me visual pleasure.

YES I remember that Buffy episode and YES IT WAS AWESOME. And yes Firefly was also awesome. The plane:Fantasy Island::The elevator:Dollhouse, there, that's my witty remark for January, thank you for asking.

[idlerat]

You and I have discussed our mutual dislike of David Boreanaz more than once, actually, but I'm surprised you thought he was the worst thing on it, since IMO the other actors make him look like a genius. It's just really badly written, like any other bad TV show, except for the occasional ep by Jane Espenson or Joss that sparkles. And skeezy race issues - shocking at times.

Oh well. There's no point complaining about most anything, is there, least of all Angel: The Series!

[lolaraincoat]

YES there is a point in complaining! The point is, it's fun. Here, look, I'll show you:

It's true there are many bad actors on Angel, but only one is the star. And the skanky race stuff, oy. It starts with the Wacky! Irish! Mystical! Guy! in the first few eps, as I recall, and then goes far, far downhill from there.

Now, see, that was fun. For me.

[idlerat]

I disagree! The awfulness of Wesley & Cordelia, when elevated to central character status, is SO MUCH MORE AWFUL. And Darla, dear LORD the Darla.

But the guy who plays Lindsey isn't bad - at least he's cast right.

And the much larger problem is it's not funny, it's dumb, and the characters have no character & the writers don't care about them.

Still not having fun must be doin' it wrong!