Posts Tagged: ‘Joss Whedon’
There have been some pretty strange reboot ideas floating around TV land of late, but this one just takes the cake: Warner Brothers and Atlas Entertainment are firming up plans to give ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ a 21st century update – without auteur Joss Whedon. Wait … what?!
‘Dollhouse’: Has the Whedon body count become predictable?
by Tracy V. Wilson | February 1, 2010
When I sat down on Saturday morning to watch the series finale of “Dollhouse,” I really had only one question on my mind: “Who’s going to die in this episode?” It was sort of the inverse to my thought at the end of the third-to-last episode, “Getting Closer”: “Oh, yeah. This is a Joss Whedon show.”
Days before “Dollhouse” signs off for good comes news of the resurrection of yet another short-lived late, lamented Fox genre series: the one-season wonder “Firefly.” Well … kind of, anyway.
“Dollhouse” has been having a lot of fun with little inside jokes and winks to the audience of late — think Victor’s stay at the Hyperion Hotel and Bennett’s desire to probe Caroline’s amygdala — but the most interesting Easter egg in last week’s episode came from what seemed like a throwaway line at the end of the hour.
Maybe it’s because yesterday morning, my co-workers kept insisting that it was absolutely vital that I watch Sunday’s season finale of “Dexter” as soon as possible. Maybe it’s because I can’t turn off my editor brain while watching TV, so I pick apart the patterns in just about every show I watch. Or maybe it’s because I expected things to go far, far worse than they did. Regardless of the reason, I wasn’t really shocked by the ending that Entertainment Weekly, New York Daily News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and plenty of other publications have all called “shocking.” Find out why (and read massive spoilers) post-jump.
It’s a good news/bad news kind of announcement: Fox is canceling “Dollhouse.” In spite of storytelling that picked up in the last half of season one, the show’s ratings have been poor, even with DVR results factored in. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. As if reports that Joss Whedon would be treating the season finale as a series finale weren’t enough, the show went on hiatus during November sweeps — presumably so it wouldn’t pull down Fox’s average. The good news (if you’re a “Dollhouse” fan) is that the network plans to air all 13 episodes of the second season after the show returns from its hiatus.
Get Your Instant Gratification On with Free Hugo-winning Stuff
by Tracy V. Wilson | August 10, 2009
Along with the Nebula Awards, the Hugo Awards are some of the best-known and most prestigious honors in the realms of science fiction and fantasy. The most recent batch of Hugo trophies was handed out last night at Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon. I usually wind up hearing about who won what after the fact, but since announcements this year went out via Twitter, I kept up with who was walking away with a retro rocket-shaped trophy in real time.
Last year, I watched and read (and loved) some stuff that wound up being honored at the ceremony. And, even more awesome, a lot of that is stuff you can experience right now, for free (or almost free). So if, for example, you’re currently laid up with a broken leg, you can get award-winning goodness delivered to you in the comfort of your own home instantly and on the cheap.
The first season of “Dollhouse” is out on DVD today, and included in the set is the unaired 13th episode, “Epitaph One,” along with other goodies. I’d been anxious to see “Epitaph One” for a couple of reasons. One was simple curiosity. After hearing that the episode was quite different from the rest of the season and was made on a fraction of a regular episode’s budget, I really wanted to see whether “new direction” and “less money” combined to make something amazing or something lame.
I’ve read a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about “Dollhouse” over the last few months. Posts at The Angry Black Woman and This Ain’t Livin’ refer to the show’s events as rape. Then there are the 25+ pages of comments at the Television Without Pity forums discussing whether the show is feminist. And now that the first season has ended, I’m finding the show’s events, which deal with a corporation that imprints human bodies with new personalities before selling their services to wealthy clients, hard to classify.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Sailing, Takes Me Away…To The Seychelles
- Cute Animal Tuesday: Black Vulture
- Traveling on the Orient Express
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- The Seven Deadlies: Pride Cometh Before the Brain
- Warhammer 40K: 25 Years of Orks in Space
- A Visit to the Tellus Science Museum
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
How-to Stuff
- How to Make the Most of a Gallery Crawl (When You’re on a Shoestring Budget)
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 43: Drag Queens: You Better Work!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 42: Road Trip!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 41: Celebrity Couples
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics

