A Vow to Joss Whedon

I finally just finished the second and final season of “Dollhouse,” and now I’m feeling some major guilt. I’ve always been a little slow on the uptake when it comes to Joss Whedon (who, in case you didn’t know, is the creator of “Dollhouse”). The only show of his I’ve ever watched in real time was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and even then it was only the first few seasons because my mom switched our service from cable to satellite and we lost the WB.

But in the last few years between Hulu, Netflix and assorted sketchy asian sites, I’ve been able to watch all of “Buffy,” “Angel,” “Firefly,” “Serenity,” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”, all of which are Joss Whedon joints. And he won me over; you can consider me a Whedonite because that man is a genius. The things that come out of his head are crazy detailed, imaginative, tragic and hilarious. And yet, until recently I had abstained from watching “Dollhouse,” mostly because Eliza Dushku kind of bugs me.

I think it’s the whole wounded bitch role she tends to get cast into—think Faith from “Buffy.” It’s a difficult part to pull off, and most of the time it just makes me cringe. You can’t act completely psychotic and then refer back to one traumatic event and expect to make a likeable or even well-rounded character, and when I think of Eliza Dushku, that is all I think of. Incidentally, this is also the reason I can’t handle Michelle Rodriguez: that bitch is allllllllways scowling.

After moving to Palm Springs in April for my first post-college job, I spent—who am I kidding? spend a lot of time alone (my nearest friends live in San Diego), bored (retirement community—yawn), and trying not to move too much (100+ degrees every day for months). This led—who am I kidding? leads me to invest days on end in various series on Netflix. Eventually I gave in and decided to give “Dollhouse” a try…and I loved it, Goddammit, I loved it. I even found Eliza Dushku likeable, because even at her baddassiest and bitchiest, she always went back to neutral. (I’ll explain that in a brief summary of the show a little later, but you should definitely check it out.)

The thing that kills me is that I knew I liked Joss Whedon while “Dollhouse” was on the air, and now it’s canceled. I should have trusted in Whedon’s insight and creativity enough to give “Dollhouse” a try, even if it did star Eliza Dushku.

So, here is my vow to Joss Whedon: Next time, I’ll trust you. Promise. Next show, or web short, or movie, or whatever that you come out with, I will at least try it out. Even if that scowling bitch Michelle Rodriguez is in it. Next time, your show will have one more in its audience, and hopefully next time it won’t end up canceled like “Dollhouse” or “Firefly.”