TV Eye

Eliza Dushku stars in Joss Whedon's new action/drama, Dollhouse.

Oh sure, everyone wants to hear the dirt, the chisme, the skinny behind Dollhouse, the anticipated new drama from one of TV's most respected creators. But after watching the first two episodes of Joss Whedon's first network show since Firefly, I've found all that behind-the-scenes chatter virtually useless. It doesn't explain why the show is good and why Dollhouse is so worth watching.

Whedon is a consummate storyteller. The creator behind cult hits such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly (and its 2005 feature film spin-off, Serenity), and the recent online sensation Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Whedon has made a career creating worlds that cover familiar territory but with a fresh perspective. In Buffy, he reconstituted vampire lore as well as the trials of adolescence. In Firefly (and Serenity), he made an intriguing brew blending the Western and sci-fi genres. In Dr. Horrible, he took the medium that Hollywood is still scratching its head over – the musical – and made it do his bidding, creating a humorous soap opera about a guy trying to make his mark in the world – in this case, to be the most evil mad scientist that ever was.

In Dollhouse, Whedon creates a world from scratch. Well, almost. Some might make comparisons to The Stepford Wives (1975), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), or Memento (2000) – films in which memory is identified as the root of what makes us human, and the loss of it is seen as something highly suspect, tragic, or antithetical to the human experience. On TV, amnesia has long been the go-to trope in soaps, while the use of it in prime time (especially comedies) is as a short-term tangent. Currently airing on ABC, Samantha Who? is a comedy about a woman who tries to make amends when she discovers what a horrible person she was before a near-fatal head injury wiped her memory clean.

The titular Dollhouse in Whedon's new drama is a deceptively peaceful place where individuals are sent to become "actives" – that is, sentient beings who have been stripped of their original personalities in order to be imprinted with the skills, abilities, and personalities of someone else. Affluent and powerful clients can custom order actives for whatever they need or desire: the perfect party girl for a lost weekend; a calming, hemp-wearing midwife; or the quarry for an expert marksman with a sadistic streak. All it takes are a few well-placed electrodes, a special chair, and a computer geek (Fran Kranz as Topher Brink) who has no qualms about his role in this elegant form of human trafficking. While Brink's boss, the officious Adelle Dewitt (Olivia Williams), claims, "we help people," Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix), the handler assigned to Eliza Dushku's active named Echo isn't so sure. Langton and Brink debate the ethics of their work, while outside forces, including an ostracized FBI agent (Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard), are obsessed with proving that the Dollhouse is not an urban legend.

Proficient at playing the tough girl, as she did so well when she first worked with Whedon on Buffy, Dushku delivers that familiar face while demonstrating she has the chops to deliver more, a good sign for a series with the potential for a long range of situations to explore.

"With a TV show, you get to examine a story," Whedon said in a Feb. 1 TV Week article. "In some ways, [it] is the most rewarding kind of storytelling – when you turn something over in your palm and look at it again and again and find new things to say about it." Whedon's devotion to good storytelling, his humor, and his ability to allow larger issues to bloom in seemingly innocuous contexts are his stock-in-trade as a writer, and they add up to the reason why he has attracted such devoted followers. Those fans were appalled when Dollhouse was relegated to a Friday night time slot. However, Whedon is not bothered, knowing his fans will find Dollhouse. It's more important to attract new viewers. To that end, Whedon is hopeful about the Friday night placement: The pressure to be a hit is much lower there, and the word is out that Fox will let the series run its entire 13 episodes, giving it a chance to gain traction.

Ladies and gentleman, program your DVRs, because this is one series you do not want to miss.

Dollhouse premieres Friday at 8pm on Fox.

As always, stay tuned.