When the news first broke that Joss Whedon was selected to direct Marvel’s superhero movie, The Avengers, I had a few thoughts.
First was “Awesome!” The second thought was, that it was about time that Joss got his big break and given a chance at something very tentpole!
But I had noticed a vocal section of fans out there that didn’t seem too enthusiastic about Whedon being chosen to helm The Avengers. I know we all have our perspectives on things, but I also suspected that maybe these grumblers were those who never watched or didn’t like Whedon’s previous genre of work and never had the chance to experience what he can do with his subtle, exquisitely timed sense of humor and his sheer insight into how he approaches character development.
Joss Whedon’s humor rides this fine line of blatantly sardonic and dry that slides in there and smacks you upside the head and for me, is definitely something to appreciate. And how he delivers plot content using an ensemble cast is an art form, in and of itself. But unless you’ve seen any of the TV series he’s helmed, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Angel, or Firefly or Dollhouse, you might not have known that. And I can’t fault anyone for that. (FYI: Did you know he was the story editor for the Roseanne TV show?)
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I’m watching the mass media plowing along and pouring accolades all over the Joss Whedon helmed movie, The Avengers. As many are coming to understand, and many of you will as soon as you see his newest movie, Joss Whedon is pretty good with character group dynamics. It’s this strength that makes his stories shine above the many others.
This got me to wondering how folks would have received Joss’s pet network project, Dollhouse, if he had approached it slightly differently and would it have survived for more than two seasons. I ask that because the series was a very character rich sci fi series that Joss pulled together with Eliza Dushku and with how Joss handles group ensembles should have been a win-win for everyone.
Well, it was for his hard-core fan base. But in general, Dollhouse had other issues in trying to appeal to the TV masses. Well, that, and FOX reordered a few episodes… again. (Yea, I know. I’m going to try not to go “there.”)
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Dollhouse starred Eliza Dushku, Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett, Enver Gjokaj, Dichen Lachman & Olivia Williams with the occasional and beautifully delivered guest appearance of Alan Tudyk as the insidiously evil Alpha.
The premise of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse was about a secret organization that had programmable human agents for hire. The trick being that these agents were mindless child-like humans between assignments and then when a client needed a task, the organization would program one of their “dolls” with the required skills and send them out on assignment.
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