SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read if you are not caught up with Dollhouse!!!

I like Joss Whedon on most days. His shows are witty, nonsensical at times, and usually very well done. Truth be told, I never got through Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- but only because my former roommate took the DVDs home last year. Yes, there's an Internet, but I'm just too lazy. Besides, Buffy's "sister" weirded me out. Firefly is amazing. The only issue there is its short life. I never saw Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog . . . yet. You can peacefully rest knowing that it's on my do-to list when I get fed up with studying.

And then there's Angel. Probably the only show where I got so fed up with the thick plot I skipped Faith's return and Cordelia's magical pregnancy. I did notice Cordelia slowly being written out, and the camera angles that favored her figure so she didn't look pregnant. But when it got to the point where a conflict in one episode still wasn't resolved ten episodes later, I knew there was some sort of problem. The episodes lost their need for the viewer to feel closure and satisfied at the end of the day. And it bugged me so much that I skipped two story arcs. I still understood what was going on, but I don't like the long arcs. One thing at a time, Joss. One thing at a time.

I was very disappointed with Dollhouse this weekend. At first, I was excited. Echo was on her own in the world, she meets a Spanish woman who seems to be in the same pickle, and they are befriended before getting separated. SUDDENLY! Adelle DeWitt is demoted, Echo is a nurse and training to release the rest of the Dolls, and Topher masters remote wipes andthensome. THEN Adelle gets her old job back by being the Queen Bitch of the House, and Boyd and Ballard are in cahoots. In one episode! But I suppose the only problem was Adelle's demotion. There was mega-potential for more character development, particularly humbling development, and it wasn't there because she rose too soon. Echo returns and is put in isolation.

And because there were two episodes again this week:
BAM! Echo's headaches increase. She's in isolation to make Ballard squirm. How his squirming is harming Echo is not answered. WHAM! Alpha is on the loose again and is killing Echo's clients who truly love the person Echo becomes. KAPOW! Echo's out of isolation and helps the explanation to Topher that she is now self-aware and the Chair will have nothing to say against it. PEW! (missile launch sound) Alpha's in the building and fighting Ballard. And through this craziness, Topher figures out Rossum Corporation's Master Plan. Scary. BUT THE MADNESS NEVER ENDS!!!

The flaw here: Joss Whedon went too far too fast. What uncomfortably fit in two episodes could have easily squeezed into at least four maybe more. My guess is he doesn't know when FOX will cancel this show, so he wants to get it cancelled at a good place in the story. But that's just a guess. I did not like Dollhouse this week. It was way too fast and there was way too little development. Better luck next time, Mr. Whedon. Much better luck next time.

Flaw Finder

Believe it or not, I there is one thing I do not like about Joss Whedon. No, it's not his sarcasm. I LOVE the sarcasm. If you do not like Joss Whedon, it is probably because you do not find humor in sarcasm. I hear he's really sarcastic on the set of his shows, but its the humor that brings everyone together. Good chemistry.

Sarcastic humor aside, the single thing I dislike about Joss is the thick plots. If the plot is so thick you have to explain the entire season episode by episode to a newcomer, then something is wrong. TV shows should work to keep everyone up to date on the latest happenings and what has happened. If they fail to do that effectively, then you're just catering to your current viewers.

Example: Angel. This is, I admit, the only Joss Whedon I watched all the way through besides Firefly. But I did skip a ton of episodes. Why? The plot was too thick and each episode didn't really solve anything -- they usually made their situation worse. Finally, it got to the point where I skipped a bunch of episodes (I missed Faith's return, apparently). Then I think I skipped some more until Jasmine came along. I figured that was a good restarting point. But even then, the plot was uber-thick. I very much liked Season 5 when Angel's gang runs the new Wolfgram and Hart. It was episodic, it was nice. You could tell the budget was limited because they barely went anywhere other than the office building, but I still liked it.

And now I'm getting sad because Dollhouse seems to be following that same trend. I still <3>

This has been an early morning rant by yours truly.