and yet has some grotesque blind spots that he keeps going back to.

I have no idea who is or is not a feminist in real life. (I'm not even sure I know how one defines "feminist" these days.) I think that most writers have those kind of blind spots. Some are just more noticeable than others.

I do wish that Joss would talk less about being a feminist in interviews. Because, personally, when he talks about empowering women, I feel burdened (by my annoyance).

Oh hey. Maybe that's what he meant.

Yeah. That's why her death irked me so much, because it was an agency free zone for a character who shouldn't have gone that way.

I didn't so much mind that she had no way to save herself—to my mind a human vs. Great Old One cage match only has one possible outcome. And a bit of crying and whimpering is certainly understandable when you're being devoured body and soul. I think the thing that was off-putting to me was all the guys swearing devotion while gathered around her bed, like Joss had been chomping at the bit to stage a production of La Traviata.

Things got better once Illyria made its entrance.

I guess what I should have said is that Tim has fewer blind spots in his recent writing than Joss has in his. I just was mad enough about those blind spots to put it in a more inflamatory way than perhaps I should have. But I do think there will be much less ick in a Dollhouse with Tim in control than a Dollhouse with Joss in control.

Is Joss gone? I know Tim's been named executive producer, and someone mentioned showrunners leaving, but Joss wasn't showrunner on later Buffy or a lot of Angel, was he?

I'm thinking if Tim is showrunner, it's going to be much like previous Tim/Joss shows. However, I think where things ended up at the end of the season are WAY more interesting than where they started, and I also can't help but wonder if this is where Joss wanted it to be before Fox started "improving" on it.

I'm fairly sure that Joss is still there. I have no idea whether or not Tim's change in title translates to him being Dollhouse's showrunner.

Also, being a feminist isn't a contest.

Ding ding ding! Yes.

Or, as they say in the biz, show, don't tell.

Or as they say in the fandom, "If I didn't see it on screen it didn't happen."

I love Joss like I love chocolate and/or red wine (not usually together, because that way lies migraines), but I couldn't watch Dollhouse, because...well, no. Just no. It pains me, because I'm a completist, but just no.

Tim, what happened to that Preacher Man show you were pitching. Okay, that's way far from the right title or description, but you know what I mean. My long-buried fundamentalist is longing for it.

Joss:

“I think with this show, I want to say to the people who have, you know, felt a connection with me, that maybe you want to back away and avoid eye contact,” he said. “That maybe there’s something horribly wrong with me, and this is my very poetical way of expressing that. I think of it as a work that actually frightens me at times in a way that my shows seldom got to. At the same time I have that sort of jolly love of everything that’s going on and have to be reminded that what I’m doing is reprehensible. So it’s a mature work in the sense that I grew up and went insane.”

whoa

Discussion of those comments is probably better suited to Jossverse, no?

Perhaps, but since people were discussing Whedon's feminist cred here I thought it might be pertinent.