welcome to the dollhouse

Ah, it's good to have a Joss Whedon show back on the air. No one beats Joss Whedon with his unconventional shows. First it was Buffy (and Angel by association), then Serenity, a sidestep with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and now Dollhouse.

Eliza Dushku plays a young woman called Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls." The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments (referred to as engagements). The new persona is not an original creation, however, but an amalgam of different, existing personalities. The end result incorporates some of the flaws, not just the strengths, of the people used as templates. The Actives are then hired out for particular jobs -- crimes, fantasies, and the occasional good deed. On engagements, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dorm/lab, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse." The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.
[Courtesy of Wikipedia's Dollhouse page]

Having just seen the pilot ep, my excitement for the series now knows no bounds. And apparently Joss Whedon has the next five years of the series planned out, so here's hoping it gets the full five years to complete the story and not leave us tragically hanging.

Incidentally, the theme song sounds awesome.