“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” says Echo and that’s funny because. . . well. . she hasn’t. She’s actually been doing this for about two hours. The “life” she speaks of is simply an imprint that’s been embedded in her brain so she acts, talks and thinks like whomever the client wants her to be. Kind of fun, in a Fantasy Island sort of way, that is until someone gets hurt.

Dollhouse is the much talked about brainchild of Buffy creator Joss Whedon and there in lies my first problem. Being a fan of Buffy and of Firefly, I went into Dollhouse expecting a certain style and I came up empty. Most notably missing from the Dollhouse pilot (the second one shot) is Whedon’s signature witty banter and wry humor. I saw a few lame attempts, but not one word of this script came close to the brilliance that is Buffy. Maybe it’s not fair to compare a person’s work to their earlier successes, but people are going to do it, so let’s face facts, Dollhouse isn’t Buffy. I kept thinking Alias or Dark Angel but Eliza Dushku simply isn’t pulling it off.

Continue reading the review at SFUniverse.com