MovieChat Forums > Dollhouse (2009) Discussion > Was this Whedon's best?

Was this Whedon's best?

posted 10 years ago by mtedmonds
30 replies | jump to latest

I say yes!!!

What do you think?

I love Buffy. It truly does represent TV at it's best. However, over the course of the series many episodes and whole seasons really weren't that great in retrospect. I still think The Body is the single greatest episode of TV I have seen ever. Conceptually, Buffy was pretty basic. It shined due to excellent character development and had the benefit of 7 seasons to grow. Dollhouse was much more original conceptually, and covered so much more ground in a much shorter time frame with the same great writing and character development.

Angel was good. I just never could completely get into the series. It had a couple great seasons and a couple poor seasons IMHO. It just seemed all over the place to me conceptually. Again, there was the same great writing and characters, but a lot of the time the execution fell flat. So again, I would say Dollhouse managed to cover much more ground in less time and had a drastically more complete story. Where did Angel really leave us?

Firefly could have and should have been Whedon's masterpiece. Most of us know the story of why it's not. The groundwork was there for this to be the best action scifi show ever. it simply didn't last long enough to get there. So again, Dollhouse represents a much more complete story with equally great writing.

I haven't seen any of the Avengers, Agents of Shield stuff so can't compare it.

To me Dollhouse represents the pinnacle of what TV can be. It had a bold and original concept with great writing and character development and a fully realized story. I realize it had it's share of flaws, but I think as a complete package, it represented the best of what Whedon has done.

What do you think?

[–] PreachCaleb 10 years ago

I've never been able to decide which show is his best; they all have their strong points and are pretty different from each other.

I can honestly say Buffy is my favorite, but Dollhouse was phenomenal. Every twist and turn and character arc was incredible.

Its themes of what does it mean to be a person were insightful and heartbreaking at the same time.

Straightedge means I'm better than you.

[–] Revler 8 years ago

1. Dollhouse

2. Buffy (TV)

3. Firefly

4. Tru Calling

5. Angel...blah

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

Joss didn't do Tru Calling.

And Angel was a phenomenal show. At times surpassing Buffy.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] Revler 8 years ago

You are right, I thought he was involved. Eliza Dushku had a 3 show deal with fox. I am not sure if it was simply to act or also produce, since she was a producer for Dollhouse and Leap Year

[–] TheOriginalFakeShemp 10 years ago

It's a tough question, which of his series are the best, but I believe I concur in at least that IMO Dollhouse is the best. Firefly was great and amazingly unique and who knows what it could have done had it received a fair shake, but I find myself rewatching Dollhouse for probably the fourth time and I've probably only watched all of Firefly twice, as well as Serenity. But who knows? I came late to the game, I watched Dollhouse as it aired, only watched Firefly for the first time a couple of years ago and only then at a friends suggestion as I've never been a huge SciFi fan. I personally like Dollhouse and Firefly way more than BTVS, and I never watched any of Angel. In fact, I only watched BTVS for the first time on Netflix a couple years ago and only then I made it about four seasons before I tuned out. I was very resistant to Whedon's work prior to Dollhouse; a girl I dated in high school was a huge BTVS fan and never shut up about it and it turned me off to his work early on. Had I never watched Dollhouse I might never have given Firefly a chance.

[–] Alpha86 10 years ago

Buffy is his best. Firefly had the potential to be his best.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] maxpierreburke 10 years ago

Angel is his best show imo

[–] chris-wulfers 10 years ago

Dollhouse was pretty good. I had put it off for a while because the concept didn't sound very interesting to me. And then I gave it a shot on netflix and I was hooked. It doesn't resonate with me as much Firefly, but I do think it's an exceptional show.

I feel like Whedon is on Agents of Shield in name only. If he is writing every episode, then he's definitely mailing it in because he's busy with Avengers.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (15363496) 10 years ago

I checked this week and he is not writing the episodes, Jed and his wife are and it shows.

[–] Watch_And_Learn 10 years ago

I haven't seen all his work but most of it, and I will say yes anyway since Dollhouse is one of my favorite tv show. There are very few tv shows that I've seen that are as interesting as Dollhouse...I can only think of Battlestar Galactica (for the philosophy in most episods), Lost (for the theories and the revolution it was for tv, incredibly moving, suspenseful and powerful), Twin Peaks and recently The Leftovers (both these shows are very powerful in term of feelings, they make you sad and nostalgic). All these tv shows also have flaws but for me the best tv shows are not those who have no flaws, there are those who have so much strenght that you will forget have the flaws and just enjoy.

I liked Firefly a lot but Firefly is not as good as Dollhouse imo. Firefly is an extremely well written and executed tv show, but this is pure entertainment and this will not make you think or feel many emotions...Dollhouse is all that too but also very clever tv, and it is too bad the risk didn't pay.

It's hard to understand how most people will consider Avengers as great movie and Dollhouse as average tv show...Avengers is formated blockbuster like every Marvel movie (quality movies most of the time, well made technically, but nothing new and nothing that you will remember for long) while Dollhouse is not only quality but also so refreshing and well thought. I guess most people prefer pure entertainment to 'thoughtful' entertainment. I prefer things that entertains you while you watch them and then make you think when it's over. That's why I prefer Dollhouse to Firefly (even though I really like Firefly) and Cabin in The Woods to Avengers (even though I quite like Avengers).

[–] skoobydoo6789 10 years ago

Out of all of Joss Whedon's work, I've watched Dollhouse, Agents of SHIELD, Firefly, Serenity, & the Avengers movie along with reading one of the X-Men graphic novels that he wrote. There are other stuff that he has worked on (but was uncredited for said work) that I really enjoyed like the scripts for Toy Story 1, Atlantis The Lost Empire, X-Men 1, Captain America-First Avenger, and Thor The Dark World. I have never really watched either Buffy nor Angel despite the good things I heard about both shows. After watching it over the summer, I would definitely say that Dollhouse is one of the best tv shows that I've watched so far. It does a great job getting the viewers to think about what's going on.

The Avengers and Agents of SHIELD were the main reasons why I started to check out other movies and tv shows that were created by Joss Whedon. Glad that I did since I'm now a fan of Dollhouse, Firefly, and Serenity. I love the concepts of Dollhouse and Firefly. So I can see why people love those shows. Because of that, I'm less likely to watch Fox since they cancel awesome shows.

If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)

[–] userrrrr 10 years ago

no but its fantastic. my only problem with it is the constant bombardment of ridiculously bad mopey indie rock songs at the end of just about every episode, and oftentimes during episodes. insta-mute. when the first episode aired i had hope that there would be better music since they had front line assembly playing in the club scene, but, no.