Is "Dollhouse" Sexist? OR "Joss Gets Burned By Fox"

I came across this NPR article where female writers were asked to give their viewpoints as to whether or not the new TV "Dollhouse" from Joss Whedon is "sexist":

"...a welter of evidence suggests that Whedon is guilty here of the intellectual misdemeanor of wanting it both ways. Having indulged his desire to turn out a titillating, taboo-tweaking, publicity-gathering Fox-style escapism, he now finds this to be at odds with his reputation as a purveyor of positive feminist imagery in media and a supporter of human rights."
--Elizabeth Nelson

"I hate using the word "sexist" because it's overused and shrill, and, actually, it's not so much that I think Dollhouse sounds offensive to women; it's just that I'm sick to death of Whedon's "damaged female" shtick. He's done it and done it to death. It's become boring and unoriginal. Furthermore, he's gone back into his own damaged-female pond and cast Eliza Dushku (who played Faith, the ultimate damaged female, in Buffy) in the starring role! In essence, I'm not so much creeped out as I am totally bored, which is exactly why I deleted it from my TiVo wish list without watching a single episode."
--Stephanie Lucianovic

I think you can do a narrative about the exploitation of women and have it not be sexist. But when I watched the 2nd episode of "Dollhouse," which I enjoyed, this is the "Cliff Notes" version of the show that stuck with me:

"Women are rented out for sex. They have "no minds" except for the ones that are given to them. One woman is rented out for sex. After she has sex, the guy goes crazy and hunts her down for sport. We flash back to another time this mindless woman had her mind imprinted with unwavering trust for another guy. Then there is this girl with big cuts all over her face. We go back to the first girl, who has killed her pursuer and then clings to that other guy she was imprinted to trust. She has a childlike, blank expression on her face. I think she sticks her thumb in her mouth, but that was just a trick of the light."


I enjoyed the episode, but I enjoyed it the way I enjoy the movie "Grindhouse." You know, "Grindhouse" -- both movies -- is all about female empowerment. It is also about strippers and lap dancers. It's both. This may be an uncomfortable dichotomy for some. And for some, this dichotomy may fail miserably.

I think there is definitely an element of female exploitation in "Dollhouse" -- not just the one that Joss Whedon addresses because he is fighting against female exploitation. And I don't think that's so much Whedon's fault as it is a mix of the demands to make this sort of narrative "marketable."

Programmable sex dolls is a marketable concept for Hollywood. I'm sorry. It is. Eliza Dushku is a hot actress. When she wears layers, you know she is wearing layers because she's going to strip down at some point during the TV show. Which she did during this episode of "Dollhouse" -- I called it right at the beginning!

Echo sensuously strips down to the red tank top
under her shirt -- I called it!

If I had to guess, I would think Joss Whedon's not entirely happy about the way "Dollhouse" turned out, and/or how it was marketed by Fox. In a recent Rolling Stone article he pretty much said his experience on "Dollhouse" convinced him to quit TV and turn to producing independent videos for the Web. I think "Dollhouse" was, ultimately, a miserable and disillusioning experience for him. You don't announce in month your new TV show airs that you are "quitting" TV because of said TV show. It doesn't bode well.


That said, I still enjoyed that second episode of "Dollhouse." I don't give a crap either way whether it's sexist or not. But I probably didn't get out of it what Joss Whedon intended. And if he heard me pair this show with "Grindhouse" I think he would be physically sick. But hell -- Fox marketing did the same thing.

Grindhouse Style Fox Ad For Dollhouse and Terminator

What do you think of this Grindhouse-inspired ad for the Fox TV shows Dollhouse & Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Are they fun? Do they misrepresent the shows themselves?
Seems very 1970s/Wonder Woman to me.

Occasional Links: Mad Ideas, Watchmen, Star Trek, more

Current Internet-meme-du-jour, Carl Winslow.

Was this Dilbert cartoon from 2005 yet another Nostradamus-type prediction for our current financial crisis?


Steven Grant on Grant Morrison & Final Crisis:

"Anyway, at this point the one remaining major comics writer who has consistently clung to and through his work championed the cause of mad ideas is Grant Morrison, who packed FINAL CRISIS with more mad ideas per square inch than virtually all other "mad ideas" comics combined. Many of them are brilliant, in their context. But as I mentioned last week, it hits such a density it becomes a virtual black hole of mad ideas, with such a gravitational pull that story can barely escape it, and then only the edges of the story are visible. Story in FINAL CRISIS isn't story, as traditionally understood in western literature, and certainly not in comics; it's the event horizon of mad ideas."

Joss Whedon says there will be no Dark Horse comic book tie-in for his new TV show Dollhouse:

"You know, the science fiction of this is much more fiction than science. Ultimately it’s actors acting differently, which is not that - Something you really need to see drawn. There is, however, CSI comic books. So I guess everything could be a comic book. But I don’t feel it lends itself in the same way that my other fictions have."

Take a look at Donald Duck's Family Tree.



Would Alan Moore be cool about this Watchmen video game?

"I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who haven't read the graphic novel, but I can at least say that while Watchmen was all about miserable people dealing with their own personal crises, the game wisely takes place before the events of the book."

Oy.


Eddie Izzard set to appear in Day Of The Triffids remake for the BBC...with Jason Priestley and Brian Cox! Awesomeness!


CBS is streaming classic Star Trek (that's SHATNER TREK to you, none of that Picardo stuff) in HD on their website. Episodes include Turnabout Intruder, The Trouble With Tribbles, and Mirror, Mirror.

Just to show that fan discontent transcends just comics, pro wrestling fan takes the WWE to task and tells them to Stop The Crap. An interesting point made in the post?

"Want some free promotion? Get with the times. Allow us to embed your videos!"

A look at JLA T-shirts through the ages, with a focus on Firestorm. Found on the Firestorm Fan site, of course.
Finally, this Los Angeles promotional video from the 90s gives me hemorrhoids...and not in a good way!

I love the stuttering video effects in this. Made me want to smack that drink right out of Jack Wagner's hand.

Fringe's "Harvard" Really In Brooklyn

Hey, that "Harvard University" in an episode of the sci-fi show Fringe certainly looks familiar...

Oh! That would be because it's really my old alma mater Brooklyn College:


They always used to tell us that B.C. was really "a poor man's Harvard."

But we didn't have those fluffy letters floating in the air when I attended.

via Ditmas Park Blog

Superbowl Commericals

You see, I totally get the whole hubbub about Superbowl commercials now. They are largely designed and targeted for people who wouldn't even give a rat's behind about football. It's ingenious. They tune in for the commercials. Or just watch them on Hulu. And before I watch the Superbowl commercial on Hulu -- THEY PLAY A DAMN COMMERCIAL!

(note: these Hulu links may not work depending on where you live. If they don't, try YouTube. Though they are yanking some of these commercials off of YouTube. Because God forbid. You pirate. COMMERCIALS!)

Angels and Demons: "Oh crap, Ewan MacGregor is a priest! David! David, did you see this, he's a &%$#$ priest! David!"


Land of The Lost: Now I hate Will Ferrell all over again.

Heroes Football: The most inspirational fantasy/sports hybrid since NFL Superpro.

Alec Baldwin "Huluwood": Baldwin seems to be making a real cottage industry out of playing the evil but lovable gasbag, isn't he? Have you checked out his IMDB entry lately? Profile picture from ten years ago. "Raven haired, suavely handsome..." Who wrote this entry and when? Then this passage: "Unfortunately, Baldwin fell out with Paramount Studios over future scripts for Jack Ryan, and subsequent Ryan roles went to Harrison Ford. It was a minor blip on Baldwin's horizon, and he then contributed interesting performances as a lowlife thief pursued by dogged cop Fred Ward in Miami Blues (1990)..." Minor blip on his horizon? That ill-conceived decision blew his chances of being a dashing Hollywood leading man forever. And oh yes, the trivia section says he loves Cuban cigars: "Some guys smoke good Dominicans, other guys smoke great Jamaicans. I only smoke the best - Havanas!"

Heheheheh...CUBANS! That's a good cigar!
He's a gasbag, but we love him, and Liz Lemon would sorta totally do him, or at least, wouldn't completely vomit.


Transformers 2: "David! Transformers 2! With Shia! Shia's more serious in this one! This is like "The Dark Knight" of Transformers movies! David! Look at this!"

Pepsi MacGruber: Well, we all knew having Richard Dean Anderson make an appearance on this SNL parody was inevitable. Anderson looks now the way Adam West looked like in 1986. Do the math.


Pepsi Max: You see, this is the sort of commercial some "men's rights" group should target as making males look like dumbasses. Pepsi Max is like the Ax Body Spray of diet colas. I mean, it won't necessarily get you laid, but it's Manly.

Year One: Will Michael Cera's unique brand of sweet, self-effacing, and neurotic humor work in a non-stop comedic romp through Biblical history? And, most importantly -- will Biggus Dickus make an appearance?


Star Trek: (takes in a mouthful of oxygen) "DAVIDDDDDD!!!!!"

BSG: The Roving Eye Of Apollo

One more Battlestar Galactica post, and I'm done. I promise.

Follow Apollo's eyes on this DVD cover:



via Photoshop Disasters

Starbuck "Castrated," Says Dirk Benedict

The new Big Hollywood blog is good for, apparently, watching old sci-fi TV stars get a soapbox and go completely ape-shit.

First there was ultra Right-Winger Gary Graham from "Alien Nation," and now we have Dirk Benedict from the old "Battlestar Galactica" series (as well as "A-Team"!).

Here are quotes from Benedict's blog entry, "Lost In Castration" --

"For the re-imagined terrorists (Cylons) are not mechanical robots void of soul, of sexuality, but rather humanoid six foot tall former lingerie models who f**k you to death. (Poor old Starbuck, you were imagined too early. Think of the fun you could have had ‘fighting’ with these thong-clad aliens!) In the spirit of such soft-core, sci-fi porn I think a more re-imaginative title would have been “F**cked by A Cylon.”"

And,

"One can quickly surmise what a problem the original Starbuck created for the re-imaginators. Starbuck was all charm and humor and flirting without an angry bone in his womanizing body. Yes, he was definitely “female driven,” but not in the politically correct ways of Re-imagined Television. What to do, wondered the Re-imaginators? Keep him as he was, with a twinkle in his eye, a stogie in his mouth and a girl in every galaxy? This could not be. He would stick out like, well, like a jock strap in a drawer of thongs. Starbuck refused to be re-imagined. It became the Great Dilemma. How to have your Starbuck and delete him too?"

Unlike his original BSG co-star, Richard Hatch, Benedict is not going gently into that good remake:

"”Re-inspiration” struck. Starbuck would go the way of most men in today’s society. Starbuck would become “Stardoe.” What the Suits of yesteryear had been incapable of doing to Starbuck 25 years ago was accomplished quicker than you can say orchiectomy. Much quicker, as in, “Frak! Gonads Gone!”"

In case you've missed it, there is lots of penis references in his post.

"Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Hans Solo as Hans Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman."

Well, we've got another villain for the collective blog zeitgeist. Best of all, he has that big cigar as a prop.


Related post: Clint Eastwood's "Pussy Generation"

Battlestar Galactica: When Ad Placements Go Wrong

Have you ever watched an unfortunately-timed ad after a certain key scene on a television show?

This Battlestar Galactica clip has just that. It's a 3+ minute clip, but the ending is so totally worth it. One of the most creepy things I've ever seen, like something out of the mind of Kubrick (or early Peter Jackson). I almost vomited, so you know this is choice.

SPOILERS in the clip, so if you don't want to be spoiled for BSG, don't watch. Also, sort of NSFW.



Via

Ridley Scott Sez:
The Sci-Fi Genre Is Dead

As reported by Times Online:

At the Venice Film Festival for a special screening of his seminal noir thriller Blade Runner, Sir Ridley said that science fiction films were going the way the Western once had. “There’s nothing original. We’ve seen it all before. Been there. Done it,” he said. Asked to pick out examples, he said: “All of them. Yes, all of them.”

All of them?

Scott went on to say that no science fiction movie was ever better than Stanley Kubrick's "2001."

I can kinda see where he's coming from. But to discount "The Matrix" as not being original? I dunno.

Also, I kinda hate when directors who are well-known for a particular genre movie publically announce that all other subsequent movies in that genre are unoriginal. I mean, that's rather conveeeenient. Where's the love, Ridley?

Also, reports of the Western's death has been rather premature.