Fandom Links - 7.28.09

Wow, would you look at that date? July is almost done for already. It was kind of a long month for me, so it didn't fly by quite as fast as all the others have, but it still flew. Next time I blink Husband will be back in class and my TV shows will be back on and it'll be time for 'WriMo, and I'm already starting to think about Christmas knitting projects.

So what does all of that have to do with today's links? Dear reader, I am here to tell you: not a blessed thing. I will stop rambling about the obvious now and get to them. These are all videos, but I'll be kind to your bandwidth and only post the links:

First up is Participate: The Revolution of Fan Culture, a short documentary that features a certain ginger-haired geek demigod who has absolutely nothing at all to do with any of the links below. I'm watching it now, and it's nothing new, really, but it's still fascinating. And I'm wondering now how many participants in fan culture, especially the more obsessive ones, skew toward the Autistic spectrum. I wish I made that connection back when it was time to do my senior psych-soc thesis.

If the above only whetted your appetite for more of Teh Whedon, you can go watch the Comic-Con Dollhouse panel.

And if that only whetted your appetite for more Franz Kranz (Topher!), you can go watch him in this hee-larious trailer for his upcoming web series, Megabot, which takes a look at a Power Rangers-like group ten years later, when they're still stuck wearing their colored spandex and driving a giant robot, even though they kind of hate it and each other. NSFW without headphones.

AND if your main reaction to the DH panel was "Where's Miracle Laurie (November-Mellie!)?!" you can go watch her and James C. Leary (Clem!) in their trailer for another upcoming web series, a musical comedy about cab drivers in space, The Cabonauts. A little more SFW ...but I'd still wear headphones.

In which I bring you links, to TOH Audio and other nifty things.

So far, nobody seems to have any work for me today, which is actually good timing, since I've got to run some eBay and Buick-related errands this afternoon before we head out for an evening with Husband's mom and step-dad. Also, I have a headache, so I wouldn't be giving anybody my best work this morning.

But I took advantage of the rare slow weekday morning to catch up on the 157 blog posts that were queued up in my Google Reader, do some job hunting, and finish editing the audio for Ep. 2 of This Old Haunt, which is posted here.

And now, some links:


Mur Lafferty posted this link to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Authors, which I have not yet read, but which I will, and when I do I hope (expect) to be inspired (shamed) into being a more effective author.

Unrelated to that, I think I have a burgeoning girl-crush on Maurissa Tancharoen, a.k.a. "Captain Hammer Groupie #1," a.k.a. Joss Whedon's sister-in-law, a.k.a. DOLLHOUSE and DR. HORRIBLE writer. Exhibit A: She's hella funny (warning: contains language).

Exhibit B: She sings purdy. Right now I'm listening to this mp3 of "Remains", a song she and her husband Jed Whedon co-wrote for the unaired Dollhouse episode "Epitaph One."

And speaking of "Epitaph One," it has inevitably leaked into the intertubes, and some Googling led me to an ad-heavy but still watchable Youtube version here, which I'm going to watch right after I post this. Which would be... right now.

Dollhouse: a fixer-upper with plenty of potential

I realized today that I haven't gotten around to weighing in on Dollhouse which, being the long-time Whedon groupie that I am, might just be a sign of apocalyptic significance. Well, maybe not for the universe. Maybe just for the show.

I hope not, though, because I'm in the minority (based on everything I've read) of actually liking it. Granted, I don't love it, and that is disappointing. When someone gives you a shiny jewel, again and again, you become spoiled, and you expect--even feel entitled--to keep getting them from that person. So when that person instead hands you an unpolished, flawed, uncut diamond, you feel as let down as if they'd handed you a lump of coal.

But I do think that Dollhouse is merely a diamond-in-the-rough, and not the coal in our stocking that so many critics are making it out to be. The last two episodes in particular have shown sparks of potential, and if tonight's episode lives up to its previews, then this show definitely has the makings of something truly spectacular, if it's given the time and attention it needs to cut away the flaws and bring out its true shine.

Okay, enough with the diamond analogy. Here's what I think in plain English. Is the premise icky? Yes. Is self-professed feminist Joss Whedon a lying liar who lies because he came up with such an icky premise? I don't believe so. Portraying ickiness is not the same thing as condoning it, and the last two episodes have shown that this show definitely doesn't celebrate its own moral depravity. The fact that the Dollhouse and those who run it are depraved is the point, and I don't hold a speck of doubt that there will be consequences. There already have been, at the hands of Alpha, and in Echo's tendency to retain trace memories of her programming causing problems for her abusers. I can't wait to see just how far and wide those consequences will reach, and I hope I'll be given the chance.

Overall, I think it's a fascinating study, of free will, of how we're all programmed to an extent by our culture, by societal expectations, by gender roles, by advertising, by corporations large and small. Are the Dolls stripped of their free will if they volunteered? If their programmed personas consent to questionable acts, and find them enjoyable, is that wrong? If you or I consent to go into debt for something we don't really need because the advertising media convinces us, practically programs us to believe otherwise, is the media evil? It comes down to agency, and how much each of us have. It appears that the Dolls have none, and that's what makes them victims; but as "Man on the Street" showed, Echo wanted to complete her mission to portray the rich widower's deceased wife. Is Echo a special case, or do each of the Dolls maintain a trace amount of self-awareness that provides them with some agency in what they do? I don't know, but I'm enjoying being made to think about these questions, and I'm interested in what the show still has to say about them.

The main problem with this show, as practically everyone else who has written about has already said, is the difficulty we have in connecting with any of the main characters. We can have empathy for the Dolls as they struggle through their situations, but we don't know them, and therefore aren't really invested in what happens to them. The characters who run and operate the Dollhouse, we're getting to know, but we can't really like them, because they're bad people. There have been hints of exceptions, but only hints, and we have yet to be given any reason to care what happens to them, either. The one big exception, for me, is Echo's handler. He's morally gray in his decision to work for the Dollhouse and accompany Echo on her assignments, but his primary concern is protecting Echo, and he takes it--and her--seriously. To Boyd, Echo is a person, and he never forgets that, even when his superiors would have him do so. It reminds me of the Watcher/Slayer relationship, and of how Giles went off book to treat and care for Buffy like a troubled teenage girl, and not merely a tool at his disposal for killing monsters. Of course, if the rest of the Watchers Council looked like mysoginistic, rationalizing slave-drivers even as their reason for existing was to save the world from evil, how much worse does the Rossum corporation seem in comparison? A whole lot worse, that's how much.

And then there's Paul. I think my main problem with Paul is my own inability to stop thinking of him as Helo, but he's beginning to grow on me. As much as I love Tamoh Penikett, though, he doesn't really have the charisma needed to carry the show as its moral center, the only character who is both basically good and has agency and the capability for growth. There was also Mellie, but now we know that she, too, is a Doll, and that her crush on Paul and their subsequent short-lived romance is a lie.

And so: it's hard to love a show if you don't love its characters, which I don't, yet. But all in all, I think for what it is, Dollhouse is well done and worth watching, and whether it has only 5 more episodes or 5 more years, I'll be seeing it through to the end.

Okay, one thing before I disappear.

Dollhouse has a trailer. Say it with me now: Squee!

Peek inside the Dollhouse

A couple of links to some brand new Whedony goodness to start your day off right:

After Ellen has a look at the cast, which all by itself has me excited (do I need to warn about casting spoilers?).

And the Dollverse reports on Joss & Co.'s first day of shooting.

Yay and squee, etc.