And as much as it sounds like Echo's going to be discovering the joys of agency (it's like Ibsen! updated!), for me, starting from a baseline of Exploited Female for your central character is problematic.

This, exactly.

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Problematic in what way? Or rather, from what level I suppose?

(I'm not being awkward - just curious)

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Particularly since he's created such strong women characters before, I think you'll see people feeling betrayed.

If people feel betrayed by the iconography of a television show... I don't think the creators should care. I dunno, I'm not really concerned about whether it's awarded the same number of feminist points that Buffy (somewhat inexplicably) got.

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sounds a lot like Molly's backstory in Neuromancer?

YES! Yes, that was exactly my thought.

Also: the name of the show screams exploitation. The Big Dollhouse is an exemplar of the women-in-prison movie and in the movie Walk on the Wild Side the Dollhouse is the whorehouse. There may be boy dolls but that isn't the implication of the title. Doll Squad wasn't about GI Joe.

True. However, I confess that my first thought was of Ibsen. Which isn't to say that everyone's first thought is going to be of Ibsen, but I think it likely that Whedon was as conscious of that resonance as he was of the pulp porn resonances, and probably enjoyed the juxtapostion. You're quite right that it's a very different paradigm from that of BtVS - but that hopefully doesn't mean it isn't about empowerment - rather that it's going to be about gradually gaining self knowledge and achieving said empowerment, as distinct from having it randomly thrust upon one.

I'm not expecting it to be any more exploitative than Alias, in actuality - and I confess that I thoroughly enjoyed Alias, for all its various flaws. (I'm not proud of being distracted by Sydney in a sexy outfit and sassy wig, but...I'm weak.)

What I'm wondering is how the audience is supposed to engage and give a damn about Eliza's character, since it sounds like the premise is that she doesn't have a character. That's going to be fun for Eliza as an actor, but it's going to be damn tricky to engage the audience's affections if your gateway character is returned to blank slate every episode and has her personality reset.

However, if anyone can make us give a damn, it's Joss. (...just in time for Tim to kill her!)

...also, I'm interested in finding out about the supporting characters. That's where it's at, for me - getting a good ensemble together. Eliza is a cracking actress (and I'm not just saying this because of how unspeakably hot she is. Although I'd be lying if I said that said hotness didn't colour my perspective somewhat) and I'm interested as all hell in seeing what she comes up with - but I'll be wanting an interesting ensemble too, insh'allah.

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I guess it remains to be seen if they start off from Exploited Female, or Exploited and female.

Joss has done some interesting things with female roles. I don't have enough information to be scared of anything yet.

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I think some of the ensemble detail is out on the interweb already, Fay - I'll dig.

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Tim answers three questions from TimMinear.net -- a.k.a., me.

Smashing. Something new to link to.

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Here is a post that explains my trepidation with this premise:

Either Joss Whedon has discovered a hitherto entirely un-evidenced capacity for self-examination, and this is the most meta show ever conceived, or it's exactly what it looks like. It's everything that was ever wrong with Firefly and Angel and even Buffy all rolled into one horrible package. It's like--like--if he was thinking to himself, Self, isn't it a terrible shame that River's child-like confusion and horrific abuse history and Buffy's control by the Watchers and Inara's space-whore-ness had to be divided up among three characters? Wouldn't it be great if we could roll that all into one big ball of my issues with women? And put it on Fox?

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What I'm wondering is how the audience is supposed to engage and give a damn about Eliza's character, since it sounds like the premise is that she doesn't have a character. That's going to be fun for Eliza as an actor, but it's going to be damn tricky to engage the audience's affections if your gateway character is returned to blank slate every episode and has her personality reset.

But part of it is that she's starting to gain awareness, correct? I think the other blank slate characters could be very boring, but Echo is supposed to be unique because she's starting to remember stuff. TO me, it reminds me most of La Femme Nikita, but with only a certain percentage of ass-kicking.

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I don't have enough information to be scared of anything yet.

I have enough things turning me into a seething ball of feminist rage right now without borrowing trouble before anything even hits my TV screen, therefore I am cautiously optimistic.

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