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Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind

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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
i luv eliza dushku, the bad slayer; and i luv that the plot device is a 5 min throwaway scene in neuromancer, when molly, the street samurai, talks about having "worked" to save up for her adaptations but the chip that was supposed to block everything out sometimes let the scenes leak thru ... brilliant premise

but i didn't watch it
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lawyergay
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
I will cop to liking Terminator and Fringe, but this? I mean look at that set. Clearly it was designed for repurposing in the mid-season debut of Star Trek: We're Not Really Even Trying Anymore.
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Perhaps Not
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
Yeah, I nothing but love JW's other shows, but this stank out loud. Whose idea was it to put Eliza Dushku, who has trouble with a single one-note performance in Buffy, at the forefront of a show that calls for a different role every week? Weirdly, the best Joss Whedon show of the last few years has been Astonishing X-Men. Interesting characters, great plot twists, fun dialogue, killer visuals... it's all there, and you can take it on the train without an iPod.
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Sproing
02/16/09

@Perhaps Not: Dushku did too much acting with her hands in a role/persona (high-stakes hostage negotiator) that called for stillness. I need to see her character perform in another "active" role before I make final judgment.
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Perhaps Not
02/16/09

@Sproing: Her line readings are terrible. They were bad on Buffy, too, IMHO.
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EaterLover
02/17/09

@Perhaps Not: I love that Dushku's interpretation of Echo's face after she's been wiped is, "hm, I'd like to get some oreos now." Her face is a one trick pony.
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Perhaps Not
02/17/09

@EaterLover: Now I'm going to go read my Keith Giffen JLI reprints, because you mentioned Oreos.

Hooray!
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Wendy_Kroy
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
I'm a huge, huge Whedon fan, and I thought Dollhouse was terrible. Buffy/Angel/Firefly were great because of intensely clever dialogue and likable characters. With Dollhouse, the dialogue thudded, and the characters were ciphers. Not even a shirtless Helo could salvage this mess (which isn't to say I didn't hit pause a couple of times during that sequence).
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ADismalScience
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
To be fair, premiering a sci-fi show the Friday before Valentine's Day? There are only so many bags of Cheetos and so many liters of cola.
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Belabras: now with Kung Fu grip!
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
Why does Whedon keep working with Fox?
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nirreskeya
02/16/09

@Belabras: I think it's some sort of codependent, abusive relationship.
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Dr. Spaceman, Esq.
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
Yeah, but what about online viewers, and young people without land lines and ...

/grasps at straws
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ZiggyStardust
02/16/09

@Dr. Spaceman, Esq.: I will be watching it online tonight-- totally forgot it was on Friday. I don't think I was home even.

Nice promotion, Fox!
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everfade
02/16/09

In reply to Joss Whedon Delivers On His Promise of Low Ratings
The people of our country have better things to do on Friday nights than watch some Dushku/Whedon crap. We have prescription pills to take and foreclosed homes to loot. Busy busy.
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TedSez
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
I was annoyed by all the promos in which Glau and Dushku kept saying something like, "Hey, look! We're hot chicks and we do stuff!"

Sure, it was true, but Buffy would never have sold herself like that.
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Kakapo
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
I liked it. His shows always take a few episodes to actually get really good because he sets things up slowly. I was pretty shocked that Dushku wasn't bad, either, although someone with a wider range might have been a better choice for a role that requires her to be a different character every week. Re Dismal Science's complaint, having the brain room out in the open doesn't seem particularly dangerous when a) the dolls or whatever know they're there to get some kind of regular "treatment" and b) their memory's can be wiped out with the flick of a switch.

Did they really schedule this out of order like they did with Firefly, by the way?
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Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate
02/14/09

@Kakapo: Oh say it ain't going to be a repeat of Fox's mistakes with Firefly. That's just going to make me bitter. Firefly was so awesome, Dollhouse doesn't have me in it's grip yet, but it's Whedon- so it will.
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Bitrex
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
The thing about Battlestar Galactica is while it's a fine show - it's not science fiction. It's a human interest drama that happens to take place in space - the setting just allows the writers to explore human interactions in ways that wouldn't be possible if they set on a present day Earth constrained by real world rules. Human looking robots, FTL travel, why everyone sticks to the floor on a spacecraft in deep space, the whys and hows of all this are never really explored in any depth because it's unnecessary for what the show wants to be. Fantasy fiction, space opera, call it what you want, but there ain't any science involved. Even Issac Asimov stated in an interview that he was never particularly interested in robotics or computers, and didn't have an understanding of how computers worked (forgivable, as computer science was in its infancy when he wrote most of his greatest books). The technology was just a vehicle to get at other things. There has, however, been a great deal of what I'd consider true "science fiction" written, by authors like Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, etc. that in my opinion makes the human aspects even more interesting when the hows and whys ARE addressed. Unfortunately, it seems for a number of reasons that films or TV programs which actually conform to the constraints of the real universe are felt to make for bad television.
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Pope John Peeps II
02/14/09

@Bitrex: Every science fiction writer says that sort of bullshit. Asimov was utterly full of crap. A story about a girl who gets attached to a robot, and a robot who gets attached to a girl is not really a story about people. It doesn't investigate the human condition. It's a story.

As for BSG, it's a shitty drama set in space, where the characters develop at the mercy the plot and the writers' desire for yet another fucking mutiny. It's ridiculous and cliched and since it's based in space, that makes it sci-fi.
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Bitrex
02/14/09

@Pope John Peeps II: Speaking of the mutiny plot, this time around it was to the point where I would have loved for Gaeta to put Stardoe, Squarejaw Adama, and Cragface Adama out an airlock. Of course they have to write it up so that a character that's actually somewhat normal and interesting gets popped at the end (maybe because Allessandro Juliani couldn't wait to be done with the series) so Squarejaw Do-Rightly and Crazy Blond Canadian can do their pistols-in-each-hand thing and live forever. Half the main characters now are sexy fembots, the other half are completely annoying pastiches, and I just can't bring myself to fucking care anymore. I intend to only watch the rest of the series three times.
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Sproing
02/14/09

@Pope John Peeps II: All stories by humans investigate the human condition.
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Pope John Peeps II
02/15/09

@Sproing: Spoken like a person who doesn't write or understand any stories at all.
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Pope John Peeps II
02/15/09

@Bitrex: You know, after about the FOURTH SEPARATE MUTINY NARRATIVE, I kind of fucking think the BSG writers are almost insultingly retarded.
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sarrible
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
Richard, there is no shame in loving Battlestar. It's awesome. And Tahmoh Penikett is, God, the hottest thing I've ever seen coming out of Vancouver.
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Pope John Peeps II
02/14/09

@sarrible: He has a face that looks like one of those dried apple carved faces.
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sarrible
02/14/09

@Pope John Peeps II: Who's looking at his face?
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SinisterRouge
02/14/09

@sarrible: Besides. His face is fucking great too.
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Pope John Peeps II
02/15/09

@SinisterRouge:

Spoken like an eighty-year old new england apple-carver.
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Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
Oh I did enjoy Dollhouse last night. I sense the Joss Whedon-show trend, where it needs 3-4 episodes before everything meshs into perfection, but I did like it alot!

Did you recognize Fred (from Angel) as the doctor?
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TableNine
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
I actually really like Terminator and am glad to see Summer Glau in a new series.
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ADismalScience
02/14/09

In reply to Friday Nights: Good For All Nerd Kind
But Dollhouse was terrible! It was over for me the instant Echo looked upstairs from the exercise/lounge area and the FUCKING BRAIN ROOM WAS RIGHT THERE WITH WINDOWS AND EVERYTHING.
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eatsshootsleaves
02/14/09

@ADismalScience: Meh, I liked it. I think its premise is intriguing enough that I'll keep watching until it hits its stride (which I think it will).
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Pope John Peeps II
02/14/09

@ADismalScience: So you're watching a show about mindwiped assassin people and complaining about the Feng Suei? You need to reprioritize your tee vee criteria, methinks.
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ADismalScience
02/14/09

@Pope John Peeps II:

But one of the key components of the show is that this a highly secret operation! From both the mindwiped assassins and everyone else. I have a really hard time suspending disbelief about all the other nonsense if the absolute basics scream at me. You're really going to put fucking windows on your mindwiping room above where the blank assassin people work/hang out?
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eatsshootsleaves
02/14/09

@ADismalScience: Well, they're not really "people" if they don't have any personality or motives. They're basically living computers. What does it matter if they see people getting their memories wiped?
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