dollhouse: epitaph two, the return

Thus marks the end to yet another Joss Whedon show. Oh, the promise it had with its super-cool premise, before too many cooks with all sorts of ideas overspiced and ruined the broth.

Perhaps if Whedon had been left to his own devices, the show might've turned out better than it did. Which leaves the question, is there a future for a Whedon project on network TV?

But industry speculation aside, Epitaph Two rounded off the series with an imbalanced perspective, and way too many twists that I simply cannot buy, even stretching my belief of the story to it's fuller extent.

(Here be spoilers.)

I liked seeing Tudyk's Alpha, until he turned out to be a hippie active version of Adele. Then he just became a useless five-second subplot.

Killing off Paul Ballard was totally just to give Echo some sort of emotional moment. And also putting him in her head? That puts all sorts of weird scenarios in my head. What's she gonna do, date herself?

Topher's EMP was seriously way too deus ex machina for me. I can just imagine the creative process to it: "Shit. The show's been cancelled. Hey! How's about Topher creating a magic bomb that resets everything?"

This episode turned out to be pretty disappointing all in all. That said, the series wasn't totally without merit. I mean, I did follow it through for a reason. And a big reason is Enver Gjokaj. No matter what persona he took, whether it be Adele's British honeypot, Victor the blank doll, Anthony the man, or (my personal favourite) Topher Brink, Gjokaj totally killed the role. Plus I love his chemistry with Dichen Lachman. Too bad he was so often underplayed.

Olivia Williams grew on me as easily the most complex character on the show. Evolving from the cold bitch of the Dollhouse to the nurturing shepherd of the lost dolls, Williams' Adele provided an interesting perspective to the story. Her scenes with Fran Kranz's Topher in the Epitaph episodes were heartbreaking, and gave a more humanitarian side to Topher too.

Despite its disappointments, I still believe in Joss Whedon. So. Here's hoping he'll find a better home for any future projects he should choose to venture into (Like USA with its outstanding choices of White Collar and Burn Notice and In Plain Sight :) where he will finally be able to develop an outstanding series with people and stories we can all fall in love with.