browncoats

I spend a lot of time alone.

Ok. This is one of those instances in which I think that I am not odd. That I am, in fact, like a lot of other people. But my problem is that I also spend a lot of time observing that I am alone. That’s key. Most people don’t think about it^sd But I do.

Anyhoo, while alone, I spend a lot of time doing things to occupy my time so that I don’t feel so alone. One of those things is writing^sd2. But the major one is watch TV.  Well TV shows. Or shows, that at one point, aired on the television channels that you know and love.

Let me backtrack for a minute. Because this post is, in fact, an example of an evolution. Or something. 

About two years ago The Dutchman introduced me to the brilliance of Firefly. Though he didn't know it at the time, this did three things. 1) Made me rewatch Buffy. 2) Turned me into a Joss fanboy 3) Gave me the idea to name my first daughter Inara.

...

Ok. He probably could have guessed #3. But that’s not the point. I became a Joss fanboy. Which heightened to a fever pitch around the time before Dollhouse started. Notice that I said before. Because when the series started I watched ever episode with antici

pation.

But it really wasn’t a good show. At least for a while. I mean, I recently rewatched the entirety of Dollhouse (during the hiatus) and most of the first season is comically bad.  I mean, its great to watch while you’re drinking^sd3. But other than that…the episodes don't work. Especially w/r/t the greatness that the show has become^sd4.

I know what your thinking right now. Well, you’re probably thinking two(ish) things. 1) wtf is ditriech doing writing?^sd5 and 2) what does this have to do with anything. This is the Beirut song of the weekend. Not the Beirut ditriech rambles on about tv shows of the weekend.

I assure you I’m getting to the latter point.

The reason why I^sd6 was excited about the new Whedon venture is the premise. The same as Firefly^sd7.  A western. But in space. Fucking awesome idea. Dollhouse’s is _even better_

Dollhouse premise: “Ok. So there are people who get their mind wiped. And can be whatever you need them to be. For a price.”

That’s a great premise. because when you hear it you think two major 1) if you can afford to pay for this what do you really need? 2) Is this nothing more than a really great brothel? because most guys just generally want sex.

Then you want to see what Joss does with it. Ok. That’s not technically true. I think that you’d want to see how any great show runner would deal with this^sd8. Because if you had this premise, you’d want to see how they’d reconcile these things.

Whatever the reason you’d first tune into this show as a casual fan, you’dve stopped watching quickly. The first 5 or 6 episodes were pretty bad. Ok, that’s an overstatement. The first 4 were bad, 5 is where it started to be a decent show. But, where it got great was 01x08.

The title of 01x08 is “Needs”. And it is, by far, my favorite episode of Dollhouse. In fact, it may be one of my favorite hour 42ish minutes of TV ever. And I’m going to tell you why^sd9.

Needs completes a mini arch in which the Dolls are glitching. Meaning, that something in their former lives, generally, was messing up them being a doll. Like it was infiltrating the “imprints” or personalities that they were assigned to do for a particular, uh, shift.

It’s really hard doing this show without spoilers. Especially this ep. And I'm going to spoiler something after this here jump. But it’s worth it.

Anyhoo, theses glitches convince the dollhouse upper management to allow certain dolls to fulfill their needs.

To be honest, when I first watched this episode, it didn’t really register. But when I watched it a second time^sd10 I noticed what this episode was doing. Ok, well, to be honest, I guess that all the episodes were kinda doing this. But this one was the most overt.

“Needs” is showing us that even if you completely, and I mean completely, wipe someone’s mind, there are some things we don't lose. Ever. These are the things that make us human^sd11. Well, not just human. These needs make us who we are. Not us as in a group of people. But us as individuals.

What I mean is that even if my mind was wiped, my doll version would probably still show a predilection toward the internet and drinking. It’s part of who I am at my core. And that’s what this show was about. It is about who we are as people individually. And what, if anything, can take that away from us.

The song that plays during the climax of this episode is “Lonely Ghosts” by “O+S”. And, is hauntingly beautiful. Also: this week’s BSOW. I mean, I would go on about how this song is pretty much perfect and all. But I’ve gone on enough about Dollhouse. So just listen and draw your own conclusions.

O+S
Lonely Ghosts
O+S

----

sd: but I bet you do now!

sd2: Something that will become more evident over the next moth or so. Probably.

sd3: Not that I do much without drinking. Well work. Most of the time. I think. I don’t know. I’m pretty drunk most of the time.

sd4: Seriously, one of the best TV shows I’ve watched in very long time the last 5 or so eps. Which is why I now think all sci fi shows need an end date

sd5: And why can’t he do more? Ok, fine. You twisted my arm. I’ll write about TV now too. Happy?

sd6: Seriously one of the best show’s I’ve ever watched. And if you’ve never seen it we probably shouldn’t be friends. Or we should, so I can show you how awesome it is. Something.

sd7: see sd4

sd8: To be honest, I didn’t know what a show runner was/did until Dutch introduced me to Firefly. But I really want to see what someone like JJ Abrams or Shawn Ryan could have done with this premise. Not that I think it would be better. But because I enjoy other things they’ve done and it would make me happy.

sd9: what? you thought I wasn't?

sd10: I’ve noticed that I typically watch everything twice. At least. Which is totally new and different for me, because I rarely watch things more than once.

sd11: Which, honestly, is what the show is about. What is human? How are we humans alike? And what makes us different? It, actually, should probably been seen as a counterpart to BSG.
 

In what is hopefully the last season I will actually have to run such an exercise, I've decided to take the whole season of college football and fashion it into an evil, socialist playoff system in which the conferences on welfare can rise up from their bootstraps... wait a minute, nevermind.

Anyhow.