Friday, May 15, 2009

Dollhouse Renewed


Somehow, against all odds, Dollhouse will return for a second season with another thirteen episode order. Before most of you rejoice and do your little snoopy dances to the theme song of Perfect Strangers would you mind if I asked you a question?

Why? Why is this the show that gets another chance? Why not Firefly? Why, despite it having the highest ratings of it's entire run, did Angel get canceled in it's fifth season? The ratings for Dollhouse went down, down, down dwindling week after week and completely bottomed in it's season finale and yet, here we are, all but officially guaranteed a year two. Even if you're overjoyed doesn't that seem, I dunno, strange to you? Little odd? Anyone? Bueller?

Alright. Rant over. So! What do you think will happen next? Where do you see a second season taking our theoretically intrepid (anti) heroes? In what ways will Echo continue to change? Will any of the other dolls exhibit similar behavior? Do you realize that none of the main characters officially died this year? That's practically unheard of on a Joss show! Will there be double or triple death in year two to make up for it? Who will live, who will die? The steering wheel is in your hands, where you gonna take me?

UPDATE: Castle has also been renewed. Sure, it's a bit of a derivative procedural but Fillion is fantastic in it as are his daughter and mother. So hurray to this news as well! Looks like it's a victory for two out of three Whedonversers. I don't suppose I could wrangle a third season out of a certain show starring a ballerina/robotic death machine, hmmmm?


You may resume your Snoopy Dance. Here, I'll even help.



Enjoy!

13 comments:

snowpop said...

shut. UP. are you serious? my shock is overwhelming. never EVER thought dollhouse would get renewed. could it be the execs at fox turned and saw a frumpy, boyish guy with a cute lisp and suddenly realized, 'HOLY CRAP - that's joss whedon! he's the shit so we better keep him around!!'?? could it be they've learned from their past mistakes?

i think it's more likely there's a browncoat somewhere inside fox studios casting spells.

Tara said...

I really can't believe what I missed today! I didn't even have a phone, it died early in the day. I almost choked when I saw Bitsy's post, for real!

Let's go FOX! Renew T:SCC while we're at it! Don't fuck it all up now!

ben said...

Not to say "I told you so..." but I've been in the ridiculously hopeful optimist camp the entire time. But I'm still hesitant to believe this to be an official confirmation until I see it in from Fox come Monday.

As for the "why" of it all? My theory involves Fox being run by different executives at this point. When Firefly was abandoned way before its time, the execs at the top of Fox were a completely different set of execs.

Also, Eliza was approached by Fox first... then she went to Joss and asked him to come up with a show. Firefly was completely a Whedon entity, whereas Fox is now contending with Joss and Eliza as co-producers and it was their idea to approach Eliza in the first place.

Something else to consider: the ratings don't mean as much as they used to. Or if they do, other things are starting to mean more. Dollhouse kicked ass with DVR and online viewing like Hulu and Fox on Demand. The presales for DVD and BluRay are pretty astronomical at this point. And fans did crash Fox's viewer call line on Thursday.

I loved the hell out of Angel and still can't understand why Firefly wasn't given a fighting chance, but things are different now and maybe Dollhouse owes some of that to its Whedon predecessors. But I'm just thankful that the voices of fans were heard, the original order of episodes aired [not including the studio-filmed "Epitaph One"], they aired in order, and the network was willing to give the show a longer run to further find itself.

Whoo.

nyrk said...

Sorry, too busy dancing. But what Ben said (minus the reluctant "I told you so". I don't do I told you so's ;)

nyrk said...

Also, I was hoping for the best expecting to see my hopes crushed mercilessly. So, I couldn't have told you so.

Anyway, Fox has done the impossible. Doesn't that make them mighty? Fox executives, big damn heroes? The world feels upside down, doesn't it?

Tara said...

The world is all askew, it's true!

I'm assuming that "I told you so" was for Bitsy and myself...since Michelle won this particular round. I'll get into that tomorrow. Tonight, I'll rest and dream of Joss further improving upon Dollhouse, now that he's given a chance.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Tara, wasn't that you on twitter last week - or maybe it was Bitsy - who told me that Michelle had give up hope?

So that means I won, cause I never, ever gave up hope for this show. ;) No really, though, I was the constantly eternal and irrational optimist here.

Also, what Ben said. This is a new set of Fox execs. Maybe they learned their lesson when they added up all the money that was lost when Firefly wasn't renewed.

As for why Angel wasn't renewed, I don't know. All I can say is, that although it wasn't very long ago, it was still like a different time. Ratings were the key to everything, and once a show hit is 100th ep and could go into syndication, the networks could stop caring as much and just sit back and collect their checks.

I was just happy we got that fifth season of Angel, so I didn't let myself get too upset back then. (Although I still don't like to talk about the Firefly days cause it brings on a migraine, even now.)

Right now, I'm just thrilled we got our second season. And if Dollhouse gets to its 100th ep, well . . .

*happy dance*

elainecleo said...

Ditto what Ben said, times are different and I think FOX did not want to make the same mistake they did with FF. I could not be happier, well yes I could they could renew T:SCC. I just love Summer Glu.

Unknown said...

As much as I am thrilled the excellent Dollhouse (and soewhat lesser so Castle) are being renewed, it is still infuriating to me that the best show, by far, amongst this lot, T:SCC is being abandoned, despite it also having a rabid follwoing and good DVR and streaming #s.

Michelle said...

Dana, I couldn't agree with you more. Terminator is amazing and I'll be angry if/when it doesn't get renewed.

The_Brain said...

I still have hope for TTSCC, but for now all is right with the world, Dollhouse is renewed !!!

Kaaren said...

Yay! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Unknown said...

In my opinion, Dollhouse being renewed is a shift in TV from ratings being the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, to taking into account DVR viewings, DVD sales, iTunes and online watching. TV is becoming a thing of the past, and people are finding other ways to get their visual media. TV, and FOX have to keep with the times.