Enver and Tahmoh and Dichen, oh my!

Who are these folks with the funny names on the Dollhouse show anyway? A cute blurb found at Hulu.

Dollhouse: OK, I'll come back

Friday night was opening night for Joss Whedon's long-awaited new show, Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku and — hey, who IS that woman? — Dichen Lachman. OK, we didn't really get to know Dichen's character, but we (well, I) wanted to.

Bottom line: Too soon to tell. This one was high on exposition — introducing the Dollhouse, having a couple of things go horribly wrong, and dropping in a few other odds and ends to set the stage for future episodes.

But I'll come back. Anything with Whedon's touch is usually worth a little patience.

Buffyverse in tune

Time for an update on my journey through the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which began at the beginning of last year and has now reached the ninth week of Season 6. As any Buffarian knows, it's hard to go past the seventh week of the sixth season without commenting.

This is the famous "Once More With Feeling" episode, where Sunnydale breaks out in song. I don't have anything to add to the various ravings that place this at the top of the Joss Whedon Strokes of Genius list. Just wanted to toss in the observation: Now I get it! It's a deservedly legendary moment along the path. And of course reiterate how very stupid was Fox's decision to block theatrical screenings of the show. Fox has a well-documented track record of standing in the way of its highest-quality products so the public can't be exposed to them.

Oddly, it wasn't working to track the Buffy show and its spinoff, Angel, simultaneously. I couldn't keep up my interest in both shows at the same time - my interest slowed down for some reason - so about halfway through season one I went back to devoting full attention to Buffy. It makes it a little odd when there are crossover episodes and I only see Buffy's side of the story, but not terribly so. We'll go back later.

But "Once More With Feeling" - whoa. Not everyone has the greatest singing voice, but what fun! Especially after the dreary and depressing start to Season 6, this was just what the show needed.