Joss Whedon’s new show, “Dollhouse”, premieres in 5 days! Needless to say, Simeon and I will be trying to Hulu/Tudou/TVLinks this…
Joss Whedon, creator of the immensely awesome and successful Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, is back with this new science-fiction show. Here’s the synopsis from Wikipedia
In Dollhouse, Eliza Dushku plays a young woman named Echo, a member of a group of people known as “Actives” or “Dolls.” The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments. They’re then hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies, and occasional good deeds. On missions, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed “The Dollhouse”. The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.
Beyond Dushku’s character, the show will also revolve around the people who run the mysterious “Dollhouse” and two other “Dolls”, Victor and Sierra, who are friendly with Echo. Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal and under constant threat on one end from Paul Ballard, a determined federal agent who has heard a rumor about the Dolls, and an insane rogue Active on the other.
If you’ve liked Whedon shows (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) in the past, you will know that he often uses his shows to illustrate philosophical/sociological/psychological issues. This show is set to explore questions about what constitutes the ‘self’, and I am really looking forward to see how Whedon deals with issues of the self through this show. And don’t worry, I’ll be trying as best as I can to take illustrations from this show for our talk at the MBird Conference on “Grace and the self”.
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3 responses to “Whedon show "Dollhouse" premiers on Feb 13”
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I am really keen to see if Whedon makes any theological moves with the idea of self awareness, i.e., self-awareness as original sin which the “church” (people who run the Dollhouse) wants to prevent so as to exert total control over the Dolls. I anticipate that his treatment of self awareness would be more like Philip Pullman’s in the Golden Compass…that self awareness is ultimately good, but some power-hungry institution will try to quench and destroy it so people can/will never rebel. But it might be more complex than that. T minus 5 days….!!!!!!
Interesting, Bonnie! It reminds me vaguely of the Matrix (imagining the “dollhouse” and scenes where Handlers are in control, etc)… I think issues and questions of what constitutes “self” are pervasive in our society today. It’ll be interesting to see what the show is like and also to hear reflections on the Mockingbird blog (and at the conference, too)! Thanks.
Interesting. Bonnie, you would know the background better than I do, but it seems that humans have had a love affair with the ‘tabula rasa’ concept for centuries. If you get a minute, could you say something about what makes this idea of the mind as a clean slate so attractive? Is it pure Pelagianism (one creates their own destiny), or is there something more ‘gospel’ here that I’m not getting (one can be re-programmed)?