Tag: TV

Dollhouse Riffs, TV1 Comment

Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #5: Belle Chose et le Désordre des Choses (The Disorder of Things)

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Belle Chose Dollhouse’s third episode into the season explores the issues of performance and gender.  Entitled Belle Chose (French for “Pretty Things”), the episode begins with a bizarre performance of sorts.  A weird male, in a nondescript room that appears transplanted from a mini-mall, is talking to a group of immobile women.  The women are posed like mannequins yet they look very realistic.  Only when one of the women try to escape the clutches of this demonic incarnation of George McFly, does the viewer snap out of the Uncanny Valley reverie. Terry Karrens (Joe Sikora), the George McFly look-alike, loses … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #5: Belle Chose et le Désordre des Choses (The Disorder of Things)

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Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #4: Season Openers

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Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse opened with the episodes “Vows” and “Instinct,” bringing new faces like Jamie Bamber and Alexis Denisof.  The season also began with a critique of two idols within the conservative mindset: marriage and motherhood. In “Vows,” the Dollhouse organization imprints Echo with the personality of an undercover FBI agent.  In her assignment, she married a wealthy amoral arms dealer played by Jamie Bamber.  Bamber (Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica) uses his authentic British accent.  His good looks and easy-going charm create a false front to his nefarious activities.  He is not above selling dirty bomb components to terrorists … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #4: Season Openers

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Guild Musings: Musing #1: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

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“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” – Gil Scott-Heron Note: To avoid confusion, italics will differentiate the Guild (show) from the Guild (group of characters). Two episodes into its third season, The Guild has become an Internet phenomenon.  The show follows the comic misadventures of various gamers associated with The Knights of Good, a guild in a MMORPG [Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game].  While the game they play involves mythical creatures, fantastic quests, and cool costumes, the shows follows their day-to-day lives.  In another nod to the MMORPG, the players do not address each other by their real names … Continue reading Guild Musings: Musing #1: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

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The Art of Reviewing: Jeremy Clarkson

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Source: The London Times Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society.  During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit.  Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. Jeremy Clarkson.  Depending on whom you talk to, mentioning his name usually follows adulation or vilification.  The tall, shaggy-haired presenter of Top Gear and Driving columnist for the London Times, brings a sensational edge to the staid world of automobile reviewing. Prone to bombastic statements, dismissive of anti-pollution legislation, and a worshipful … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Jeremy Clarkson

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Vineland and the Pynchon Canon: A Critical Appraisal

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Introduction: “The bums lost.” The Big Lebowski: Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski? The Dude walks out and shuts the door. The Big Lebowski: The bums will always lose! Brandt: How was your meeting, Mr. Lebowski? The Dude: Okay. The old man told me to take any rug in the house. The Big Lebowski (1998) – Los Bros. Coen In 1990 saw the publication of Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon.  The novel concerned the … Continue reading Vineland and the Pynchon Canon: A Critical Appraisal

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Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #3: “Epitaph One” and the mutability of the Dollhouse Canon

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Los Angeles, 2019: Another ‘Verse.  Another Vision.  More Human Than Human. L to R: Scut Farkas, Little Miss Sunshine, Codex. Apocalypse Now That’s What I Call Entertainment The TV series Dollhouse faces a unique canonical situation with “Epitaph One.”  The episode was produced but unaired, while the series was renewed for another season.  With Season 2 unseen and speculation rife, with a series finale full of cliffhangers and unanswered, where does one place “Epitaph One”? The title name winks at the possibility of the series ending.  The episode’s narrative and setting allude to finality.  Set in the year 2019 in … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #3: “Epitaph One” and the mutability of the Dollhouse Canon

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Critic’s Notebook: Whedon, Pynchon, and the Flexible Canon

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In the next few days, I’ll be posting another Dollhouse Riff.  Riff #3 will focus on the unaired episode “epitaph one” and how it relates to the Dollhouse Canon.  I will also write a Critical Appraisal of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland.  For years, Vineland has been relegated to second banana status in the Pynchon Canon.  With the publication of Inherent Vice, the Pynchon Canon requires that we re-examine the works and their critical status. Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: Whedon, Pynchon, and the Flexible Canon

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The Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching

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“I missed the season finale to Dancing with the Stars!  Damn you, crystal bucket!” One of the benefits of the Internet and blogging is an opportunity to write for other ventures.  If you don’t know already, I am also a regular contributor to Blogcritics.org. I recently had another opportunity present itself with the website The Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching. On the Driftless Area Review, I’ve written “Dollhouse Riffs,” essays discussing the more controversial thematic elements of Joss Whedon’s new series, Dollhouse. With the renewal of Dollhouse, I’ll write more thematic essays for Season 2. Continue reading The Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching

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Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #2: Bodies, Souls, and the Big Bad

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“When you will have made him a body without organs, then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions and restored him to his true freedom.” Antonin Artaud, “To Have Done with the Judgment of God” (1947) “The Earth is a body without organs. This body without organs is permeated by unformed, unstable matters, by flows in all directions, by free intensities or nomadic singularities, by mad or transitory particles” Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (1987) Malcolm Reynolds, Angel, Buffy, Joss, and River In the Whedonverse, there are the Big Damn Heroes and the Big … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #2: Bodies, Souls, and the Big Bad

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Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #1: Dollhouse, the Dollhouse, and “freedom”

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How free are those that control Dollhouse, compared to the dolls? Topher and Sierra’s “play date” occurred under the nose of Adele.  Adele, smartly, lets it pass.  Without it, Topher would be driven nuts.  Or is this “play date” used as an opiate, a distraction for Topher.  Is Topher also a doll?  (A theory forwarded by my girlfriend.  I think there is some merit to it.) The play date creates a carnival atmosphere, a great leveling that occurs between the powerful genius and the pliant doll. A similar leveling occurs when Victor is programmed to help Miss Lonelyhearts, in this … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #1: Dollhouse, the Dollhouse, and “freedom”

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