The Positively Positive

Morena Baccarin in V “Pliot”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

It’s been a while since I saw the original series of this show so I didn’t remember a lot other than the fact that the Visitors came and eventually The Resistance was formed against them. I wondered what kind of changes would be made from the original and what part of the story would be the same.

This new version of the series has been made very relevant to current times, with references to the economy and even terrorism. FBI agents begin tracking a terrorist cell that turns out to be a cell of Visitors who have been hiding in our midst for years. When one of the FBI agents turned out to be a Visitor I was so surprised that I gasped out loud.

I enjoyed getting to know the various characters, from a mother who is part of the Resistance, her son who is enamored with the “V’s”, to the Visitor who disagrees with his people and is rebelling, to the priest who finds himself joining the Resistance.

The acting and writing so far are superb and I find myself very much looking forward to this series now.Overall a very strong pilot to what looks to be a good show.

Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj in Dollhouse, season 2, episode 4 “Belonging”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

When I first started doing this blog I had this naive thought that sometimes the hardest thing would be to find positive things to say about every show. As it turns out, the hardest thing about Dollhouse is finding too many good things.

If I were to talk about every moment that I liked in last Friday’s episode “Belonging”, I’d be here all day and this blog post would be a mile long. So I’ll just have to settle for giving a brief overview.

This week’s episode carried the main story arc of the series along while still feeling like a stand alone episode. I think that someone who’s never seen the show before could have still watched it and got a lot out of it. The entire of story of how “Sierra” came to the Dollhouse was shocking. Not that we didn’t already know (from last season) a little about the man who requested her nearly every week. No, I was actually surprised to find out that no one else in the Dollhouse seemed to know that he was, in essence, a rapist.

When Echo brings the painting to Topher, I thought that while he may not realize what had been going on, surely those above him did. So when Adelle brought the bastard into her office and told him off, I cheered.

Topher’s journey through the episode as he struggles with being forced to send Sierra back to the “bad man” was great to watch. This is the first time we’ve really seen what kind of person he is and I am beginning to like his character more and more.

The final scenes were a masterpiece as Sierra is sent back and Topher (apparently) suffers with what he’s been forced to do. The music in the background was so sad, going perfectly with the moment.

In the end Sierra gets her revenge, Topher is able to redeem himself (if only slightly) and all is put back to “normal” as Sierra meets up with her true love, Victor. Behind it all we see that Boyd has discovered Echo’s secret and rather than hindering, has decided to help.

Overall a very good episode, giving us a lot of background info on a few of the characters who have been mostly in the background up to this point.

More Dollhouse…

Dollhouse, season 2, episode 3 “Belle Chose”

John Cho and Joseph Fiennes in FlashForward, season 1, episode 4 “Black Swan”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

I’m still getting used to this show so I haven’t been reviewing it as much as some of the other shows I’ve been watching. This week’s episode had a lot of interesting stuff in it so I felt compelled to come up here and say something about it.

First off I am really enjoying what they’re doing with the music. Not only does the music help to tell the story, but the unique song choices are anything but boring. In the opening sequence we see yet another person’s story of what happened during the flashforward, all played out with Bjork’s “Oh So Quiet” in the background. On its own this song is very interesting, but paired with the eerie scenes of death and destruction it takes on a whole new meaning.

I also liked how the chase through the trailer park happened to the tune of a saxophone being played by a man on the steps of his small home.

It’s little touches like these which make me realize how much I am enjoying this show. We are delving further and further into the mystery and as we do so, we see more of what happened without really seeing why.

Ned’s storyline was fascinating to me as I thought for a minute there he actually was going to die and if he did, would that prove that people’s visions could be wrong? I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping  (along with the characters) that a few of the visions won’t come true – from Agent Benford’s marriage falling apart to Agent Noh’s death. But as Ned lived I guess we’ll have to wait and see if anyone can actually change their future.

I for one will be sticking with this show to find out.