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Will Viewers Get Programmed For 'Dollhouse'?

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By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: February 13, 2009

After "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly," fans of Joss Whedon expect a lot from this writer/producer, whose latest project, "Dollhouse," debuts at 9 tonight on Fox.

Whedon has a built-in cult following and there's been Internet chatter about "Dollhouse" ever since the project was announced in 2007.

But it takes more than a cult following to stay alive on broadcast television, so this sci-fi fantasy will have to snare a larger audience that the "Buffy" geeks.

"Dollhouse" follows a new episode of that adrenaline rush known as "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Fox is going with Friday nights built around sexy, power puff gals who can kick butt.

There's Summer Glau as Terminator robot babe Cameron, and Eliza Dushku is Echo, an operative for the secret "Dollhouse" agency. Her memory and personality can be erased and reprogrammed for various missions.

Echo is one of several male and female "actives," or "dolls," who volunteered (apparently as a last resort to avoid prison) to work for this mysterious and possibly evil company.

They are hired out for covert operations, fantasies, good deeds, dates and even criminal activity. They are the most expensive escorts on the planet.

Once "dolls" are recruited, their original personalities are erased. They are given new identities and memories for each mission, including the personalities of people who are deceased. In between missions, the drones' minds are wiped clean and they co-exist in a simple, childlike state.

This may sound far-fetched and complicated. But in the sci-fi world, this premise is no more bizarre than "Fringe" nor is it as convoluted as "Heroes" or "Lost."

However, it does take about two or three episodes to get hooked. The premiere moves slowly, perhaps because one expects more pop and sizzle from a Whedon show. It also lacks the snappy banter that distinguished "Buffy."

Subsequent episodes pick up steam when Echo is sent out on missions where things go wrong.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Dushku said, "I love the first three, four, five episodes; the cool thing is the show gets better even from there. Joss is really a novelist and you have to give him chapters to tell the story."

Dushku, 28, and a co-producer of "Dollhouse," says Whedon, whom she has known for 10 years, created the show for her to explore "what it is like to be imprinted to be someone sexy or to be anything or to be objectified every week or multiple times a week and how that affects people. ... We're going to make people uncomfortable because that's sort of interesting to us."

Running the super-secret organization is a cold, calculating British woman, Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams). There's also nerdy software genius Topher (Fran Kranz), who programs the dolls.

Echo's "handler" and bodyguard Boyd (Harry J. Lennix) is an ex-cop who remains skeptical about the company's motives.

An ongoing story involves a nasty federal agent (Karl C. Agathon of "Battlestar Galactica") who is trying to bring the company down. And there's a rogue killer "doll" who has escaped from the house and is out to do harm.

MAHER UPDATE: Former WFLA, Channel 8, health reporter Irene Maher has a new part-time job writing a column for the St. Petersburg Times' weekly health page.

Maher, who was laid off after 23 years at News Channel 8, also is host of "Florida Matters," a new weekly public affairs TV program that airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on WUSF, Channel 16.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

"Friday Night Lights,"

9 p.m., NBC

If you're not into Fox's sci-fi blast, try this strong family drama about a rural Texas high school football team.

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