Call the fire department; someone’s trying to burn down the DOLLHOUSE!

So, last night I watched the season finale of Dollhouse and it was really, really good. This show just premiered this season and I was surprised at how quickly and completely I got hooked on it. Unfortunately, the show has experienced low ratings and is therefore in the same boat as one of my other favorite shows (and the subject of my last blog post) Chuck. Dollhouse may very well be canceled and the decision as to whether it will return next season is still up in the air. Thankfully, like Chuck this show has a pretty militant online following. There seems to be a good amount of opposition to this show’s return though. There are definitely strong opinions on both sides. Much of it revolves around whether Dollhouse is a feminist show or not and whether the main character Echo (played by Eliza Dushku) is a strong female lead or a weak one. Blah, blah, blah; who cares? I just like the show.

One of the arguments (besides the feminism angle) that has been made against the show's return has to do with the story’s ability to maintain another season. This is one of those shows that relies greatly on back story. Like my current favorite show LOST, Dollhouse’s premiere basically dropped you into the middle of the story and as the show goes on it gives you brief little glimpses of the back story through flashbacks. Dollhouse relies greatly on this to keep the story exiting and interesting. But, some people have expressed the concern that Dollhouse’s creator Josh Whedon has essentially exhausted the back story and therefore, there would not be enough left to reveal about the characters or the mythos of the Dollhouse to maintain the show through a second season. I can certainly see the logic in this thinking and if Whedon and the others associated with the show don’t feel like they can make the show work for another season than they should pull the plug now. That would certainly be better than having it come back just to see it get canceled after a couple of episodes.
However, now that I have seen the finale I don’t really think that argument holds water. In this last episode of the season some new ideas were introduced and many things were left unresolved so I think there would definitely be enough material to produce another season. But, if it is not renewed at least it went out with a bang and those of us who were fans will remember it as an action packed show that kept us very entertained for at least twelve Friday nights.