I agree that he’s probably going for a feminist statement. Even if the show were to get cancelled before Dushku starts taking a more active role, isn’t it pretty clear where the moral lines are drawn? The creepiness that Gab referred to strikes me as very much the point of the show. I suppose it would be possible to watch Dollhouse and just think “Oh man, that technology would be so AWESOME!” But it would be difficult.

I sort of stole the “backlash” bit for her implement, too- it’s the skull of her “dead” master with his soul preserved in it, but he gets angry at her sometimes (giving a minus to my dice rolls) and her spells don’t always work (or, conversely, he may give a random boost of encouragement in the form of an extra damage die or spell that turn). Only after telling the rest of my group did the similarities between my character and _Mystery Men_ occur to me (because they brought it up)- but I suppose it may have been a subconscious thing.

Sorry, OTI owners, I have totally commandeered the comments here with my enthusiasm for those books and my D&D campaign…

The thing I like best about the series is probably the way death and necromancy work. All of the scenes where an Abhorsen goes into the river death are amazing, and the use of bells (who have their own personalities and are capable of creating backlash against the user) as necromantic tools is a nice touch.

I have played both a prefab Call of Cthulu game and a prefab Deadlands game that involved church bells raising the dead. It’s a fairly common idea, but a cool one.

The fact that you made a DnD character based on the concept of an Abhorsen is just awesome.

Which relates to…

@Sabriel- I love the first book, but I must say… The other two I found rather lacking, especially since she was barely in them- they thus lacked her (and therefore, by degrees, your?) awesomeness, and the other characters weren’t quite as compelling to me so quickly as she had been. But I have a DnD character based on the concept of an Abhorsen (i.e. a necromancer that does good things), and she’s pretty rockin’, herself.

Both episodes have so far hinted at a much larger story than “Dushku of the week” and in fact, we’ve already gotten bits of that “banter” and relationships between characters – in fact, that this is apparent DESPITE the assumption otherwise is a major plot point that I can already see coming up 2 episodes in.

Hopefully Whedon managed to squeeze in enough sex appeal and awesome explosions so Fox doesn’t pull the plug too soon, and we’ll see where this goes. I doubt Echo is a good little Doll for long.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/05/dollhouse-fans.html

My random thoughts that do not contribute to this conversation:
- Tahmoh Penikett’s character is like Agent Mulder, but much more annoyingly stubborn and less intelligent.
-Echo’s role-per-week thing reminds me of Agent Bristow on Alias…and that sort of had its appeal, right?
-I hate Topher. But I guess it was either the route of the smartass annoying young kid or the stuck up scientist with a British accent who freaks out if you touch any of his stuff.
-Alpha seems like a Gollum meets Sylar thing. Either way, what nightmares are made of. Couldn’t he at least have worn some pants in what I thought was his scene? Hairy.
-If I had ever seen Dark Angel, I’d probably want Dollhouse to turn into that.

I’m done dropping names and characters of other shows now.