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Dollhouse
SERIES: Fox, Friday 9:00p (60 minutes)
Starring
Eliza Dushku,
Harry Lennix,
Olivia Williams,
Fran Kranz,
Tahmoh Penikett,
Dichen Lachman,
Enver Gjokaj, Amy Acker,
and
Reed Diamond
Echo (Eliza Dushku) and her fellow "actives" are implanted with temporary personalities and hired out by rich clients.
| GENRE(S): |
Action / Adventure,
Drama,
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
|
| CREATED BY: |
Joss Whedon
|
| FIRST AIR DATE: |
February 13, 2009 |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
Dollhouse is less about the ninja kicks and witty banter than it is about instant transformations, and about making the audience care about a character who's likely to behave differently every time we see her. That Dushku mostly pulls this off is a happy surprise, as is Dollhouse, which has survived "Firefly"-like trials of its own to get this far.
80
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
The shows are fun and exciting, Mr. Blow, perfect for a stay-at-home Friday night, having a few guys over for beers, or recording and watching when you wake up Saturday afternoon, after all that hard partying.
80
Salon Heather Havrilesky
Combining intelligent layers of mystery with sly dialogue and a steady flow of action, Whedon has crafted a provocative, bubbly new drama that looks as promising as anything to hit the small screen over the course of the past year.
80
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
There is genuine drama in Dollhouse--or, at least, all-engaging narratives of action-adventure.
80
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Dushku plows into her role with gusto. I've seen three episodes of this strange, mesmerizing show, and it has grown on me.
75
New York Post Linda Stasi
Good, dirty fun.
75
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
There are caveats, but they would trouble me more if the creator were someone other than Whedon.
70
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
All those ingredients make for a stew that, initially anyway, needs salt....Having seen two more promising later episodes, I say give Dollhouse time. And in the meantime, enjoy the set, the so-called dollhouse.
70
Time James Poniewozik
While it's haunting, cerebral and gorgeous, it's also a little cold, though the flashes of humor help. Like its actives, it's a marvelous piece of engineering. But I hope it develops a personality of its own.
70
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
Although Whedon infuses Dollhouse with an impressively detailed story line and social structure as well as nifty production values, the show lacks something for viewers to grab onto.
70
PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs
Even as Dollhouse sounds like other TV shows and movies, it is also utterly strange, its premise literally ridiculous and intriguingly metaphorical.
70
Slate Troy Patterson
Though the show is quick and exciting in its particulars, slick and captivating in its details, it is unfolding slowly as a whole, with perhaps one too many investigations, conspiracies, return-of-the-repressed traumas, and busy backstories curling leisurely into view.
67
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
Given the artfully vague hints of an intriguingly desperate past for Echo, as well as Whedon's track record, we ought to cut the show some slack. Let's see if Whedon can bring this doll to greater life.
63
USA Today Robert Bianco
The result is a show that his most devoted fans will debate and embrace, and a mass audience just won't get.
63
Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport
The first episode's biggest flaw is that it lacks humor, a hallmark of Whedon's writing. Thankfully, this is rectified in future episodes.
60
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
No doubt Dollhouse will make a good computer game, although it looks like one already.
60
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
Whedon is a vastly better storyteller than anyone involved in "My Own Worst Enemy," so Dollhouse can be very engaging, even if the premise doesn't make sense. Dushku isn't as versatile as the role demands--many weeks, the only difference in Echo's persona seems to be her wardrobe--but Whedon and his writers certainly are.
50
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
Joss Whedon is one of television's most talented visionaries, but his latest series--the highly anticipated midseason drama Dollhouse--is a major disappointment.
50
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
Ultimately, you'll want to think about Dollhouse more than you'll want to think about watching Dollhouse.
50
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Dollhouse isn't awful, but neither is it remarkably good. It's a passable hour of entertainment that shows potential to improve but flails and confuses (and occasionally bores) from the start.
50
Newsday Verne Gay
The pilot is, in fact, baffling, and needlessly so.
40
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
Dollhouse has an amusing premise, but the universe it inhabits in the early episodes is thin and bland.
30
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
Overcrowded with plotlines, high-tech gimmicks and ambition yet empty of emotional connection and purpose, Dollhouse tries so hard to be so many things it winds up being nothing much at all.
30
Washington Post Tom Shales
If Dollhouse, a pretentious and risible jumble premiering tonight on that most quixotic of national networks, were a piece of music, it would have to be some sort of funky-junky, hip-hop, rinky-tinky, ragtime madrigal.
30
Variety Brian Lowry
Dushku does wonderful things to a tank top, but her grasp of this vague, personality-changing character is a bit of a muddle. What's left, then, is a series with a hollow center that doesn't initially make you care about its mentally malleable protagonist.
25
Slant Magazine Len Sousa
Dollhouse is stuck between two worlds, unable to lead us from reality into fantasy.
20
New York Daily News David Hinckley
In a perfect world, Dollhouse would be a good show. It's not.
10
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
To the extent this sounds interesting, it isn't: Half the dialogue seems to have been written for barking dogs, the other half for mewling kittens, and the cast performs accordingly.
 The average user rating for this tv show is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 86 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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