Club Jade

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, and Entertainment Weekly confirmed… Dollhouse has been cancelled by Fox. The network will air the remaining episodes in December. Here’s Joss Whedon’s statement on Whedonesque:

I don’t have a lot to say. I’m extremely proud of the people I’ve worked with: my star, my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you’ll agree in the coming months. I’m grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again.

I’m off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking. Possibly that relaxation thing I’ve read so much about. By the time the last episode airs, you’ll know what my next project is. But for now there’s a lot of work still to be done, and disappointment to bear.

Thank you all for your support, your patience, your excellent adverts. See you again. -j.

Whedonesque is arranging a thank you to the cast and crew.

Victor, Echo, November, Tango, uh-oh?

Internet buzz has been going around the announcement from FOX that the season finale of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse would be May 8, with the 12th episode, “Omega”. But the buzz was about them not showing episode thirteen: “Epitaph One” – did FOX screw Joss Whedon over again? Producer Tim Minear explains it that “Omega” was meant to be the season ender, and “Epitaph One” is meant for DVD, as part of the need to fulfill a thirteen episode deal. Learn more about the saga behind how the news of Epitaph One’s broadcast epitaph happened.

The new show, Dollhouse, created by Joss Whedon and starring (and executive produced by) Eliza Dushku, turned in lower-than-expected ratings for its premiere on Friday.

• Sci-Fi Wire take a negative tone on the news: Worst ratings for a drama premiere this season, except for NBC’s Crusoe. But it did better than Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which led it in, but had low ratings for its switch from Monday to Friday.
• TV Week points out the positive on the same news – it did better than previous FOX friday shows, like Don’t Forget the Lyrics. Hollywood Insider also waxes positively about the numbers – will the Friday timeslot actually help the show?
• Buzz among the Whedonites? Mixed – some were bored, some enjoyed it, and most are willing to give it a few more episodes to make up their mind. Let’s see if FOX will give the viewers that chance. Ken Tucker at EW starts to rethink his grade of the show – did he underestimate it?

But more importantly, those promo bits of having Summer Glau (Cameron on Terminator) and Eliza Dushku (Echo on Dollhouse) talking about the similarities in their roles – just seemed kinda weird. Maybe it’s just Summer in her Cameron makeup just seems weird to me. An interesting concept: the commercial breaks were preceded by a quick message letting your know how long they were (60 seconds, 90 seconds) – great for Tivo and DVR playback – you know exactly how long to zip forward!

And for the ladies: Guess who spent more of the first episode showing off their well sculpted body? Eliza Dushku was in a slinky dress at the beginning, but Tahmoh Penikett went all-abs for more screen time.

Still haven’t seen it? You can watch the first episode, ‘Ghost’, on Hulu.

Battling for genre Friday viewers, FOX has the premiere of Joss Whedon’s new show Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku, tonight (9PM Eastern & Pacific), with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as the lead-in (8PM Eastern & Pacific). But hey – that’s the same time as the back-to-back episodes of The Clone Wars (9PM Cartoon Network), but luckily before Battlestar Galactica‘s new episode: “No Exit” or the new episode of Psych. Get your DVRs and VCRs ready!

So here’s what they’re saying about Dollhouse:

• io9′s Charlie Jane Anders, after having seen 3 episodes, says: “I’ve already totally fallen in love with this show. I was excited for it before I saw it, and now that I have, I am filled with a fevered desperation to watch a hundred more episodes. I wish I had a half-dozen DVD box sets of this show.” (and disagrees with the point on the interwebs say that the second episode may be better than the first).
• Ray Richmond of the Hollywood Reporter sums it up as: “Dollhouse” fascinating, but tricky to embrace: [Dollhouse] might be seen as a futuristic merging of “Buffy,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” though in this context the latter would be more like “perpetual conflict of the repeatedly rebooted brain.”
• Entertainment Weekly gives it a B-, worrying about the concept and not having a consistent hero to root for each week, if the protagonist is playing a new role each week – but is willing to give Eliza and Joss a chance. Elsewhere on EW, someone muses on giving the show a Friday night timeslot – good idea or bad idea (Hey – FOX had both The X-Files and Firefly starting on Friday nights?).
• Tom Shales of the Washington Post calls it “a pretentious and risible jumble” that “begins to play like a Flomax commercial”.
• Mark Perigard at the Boston Herald thinks the show is broken, but can be rebuilt with some minor improvements. Amy Amatangelo gets a little interview in with Dushku on the show and her other projects.
• USA Today sums it up with “The result is a show that [Joss Whedon's] most devoted fans will debate and embrace, and a mass audience just won’t get.”
• Z at the Baltimore Sun searches for a feminist theme on the show, but comes up feeling that it is nothing but Friday-night fantasies of teenage boys.

Eliza Dushku talks to SciFi Wire about the negative rumors surrounding Dollhouse.  Since there are many spoilery bits in the story, in short, she says that the Friday “death slot” no longer matters in a DVR world. (ed. – They’ve changed the ratings system?  I didn’t know that.)  And the reshooting of the pilot and retooling of the episodes was strictly a creative decision when Joss realized the show worked better as an action series, than a film-noir style.

Knight Rider might or might not be in a bit of trouble.  Production has been shut down short of the number of anticipated episodes.  But it’s not cancelled.  Apparently, renewal will depend on how the remaining episodes do.

The new Lost cast photo is making some people nervous about the fate of one character and speculative of the symbolism.  Hey, it worked for Battlestar Galactica.  E!’s Kristin does have a sneaky peek video to share, as well.

He has a seven-episode commitment from Fox for a brand-new show, Dollhouse. And, get this – Eliza Dushku stars. Of course, it is a sci-fi show on Fox, so start looking for the reports of its demise starting tomorrow.