Dollhouse está a chegar ao fim. No entanto, ainda tem muito para dar. Como tal, acompanhem-me nesta viagem pelos últimos episódios de Dollhouse. Teremos reviews, audiências, músicas, discussões, etc. Assim, veremos o fim de uma série que, apesar de ter tido os seus altos e baixos, entregou-nos episódios de alta qualidade.

Se ainda não viram o especial de duas horas que foi emitido na sexta-feira pela Fox, podem dar uma vista de olhos nalgumas coisinhas para abrir o apetite:

• Tudo sobre os primeiros quatro episódios da temporada: Vows, Instinct, Belle Chose e Belonging;
• O trailer do 5º e 6º episódios;
• Uma óptima entrevista com Joss Whedon sobre vários assuntos, nomeadamente o fim da série;
• E mais informações sobre os últimos episódios de Dollhouse no nosso guia de episódios da segunda temporada!

Esta fantástica entrevista que a Maureen Ryan, a “The Watcher”, do Chicago Tribune fez a Joss Whedon fala sobre tudo: o final de Dollhouse, o porquê do cancelamento, como foi trabalhar outra vez com a Fox e outras coisas mais sobre o criador de Dollhouse.

Os episódios finais

Ryan: I’m sad that the show is kind of in its final run. How are you feeling about where things are heading and the fact that it’s ending?

Whedon: Yeah, I’d put myself in the sad camp, but right now I’m mostly just… There are a lot of stories to tie up and a lot of things to pay off and we want to make sure we go out with a bang and so right now we’re working on the bang. So I’m just focused on making it all as intense as possible.

Ryan: Yeah well, I wanted to ask you about that ending. I mean, getting the second season was such a miracle. Did you come into Season 2 thinking, “Well, I have to have a possible endgame in mind in case we don’t get a Season 3?” I guess I’m wondering, when did you start thinking about the end of Season 2 or the end of the show?

Whedon: Well, you know, from the start. But that’s not to say that I was Mr. Doom and Gloom. I am, but that’s not evidence of it. As I said before, it’s the same way we did [things] on “Buffy” every year. You go in knowing how many episodes you’ve got and you make sure that you can have some sense of closure in that time if you don’t get any more. It’s how I’ve always operated. It makes this a little bit easier because we were headed for something of an ending, obviously. We would have gone a different route had they told us to, but we always had this one in our pocket.

Ryan: So where are you now with the actual writing and production? Last I heard you were filming Episode 11.

Whedon: Yes, now we’re onto 12 and prepping 13 [which is the series finale] and going over the script. It’s hard. There is so much that we as a staff understand and so many people that we [would like to revisit before the show ends], not just our regulars, but so many other characters and there are two timelines…. There is a whole lot of narrative. Right now, I’m just sort of trying to track [the last episode] from the point of view of somebody who hasn’t been playing with it all this time and make sure that it still makes sense.

Ryan: I’m glad you brought up the second timeline. There were scenes with Felicia Day from that future timeline that were supposed to be in the first episode of Season 2 — will those be seen before the show’s done and are you going to shoot more of that kind of thing?

Whedon: Definitely yes. “Come with me now to the time of Mag and Zone and tiny Caroline and we’ll see where their trip eventually led and what happened to everybody in that timeline.”

Ryan: So just so I’m totally clear on what’s going to be in the last episode: You had some stuff with those folks already in the can, and you are going to shoot additional scenes with those people?

Whedon: Yeah. We had always intended to return to them. I had shot some stuff for the first episode [of Season 2] but the first episode was long and crowded with information and so we shelved it. Then when we got to the last episode [of the series], we knew that we basically wanted to pick them up in the same place, so we made the completely artistic (and in no way influenced by our utter lack of funds) decision to use some of the footage we had already shot. Completely artistic.

We were using [the post-apocalyptic scenes] as an introduction to the first episode [of Season 2]. The scenes were sort of a wraparound and now we’re just using it as in introduction to the continuing story. We had planned to continue their story over the course of several episodes, but we were so busy trying to define the show in the modern day that we just never had the opportunity to sort of go there. But at the end [of "Dollhouse's" run] we definitely will.

Ryan: I’ll ask if the finale is called “Epitaph 2.”

Whedon: It is.

Ryan: Really?

Whedon: Yes.

Ryan: That’s wild. A fan had asked me to ask if it would be called that…

Whedon: Honestly, I just looked at [the script] this morning and it said “Epitaph Two, the Return.” We might end up calling it “Santa’s Bloody Hand” but that’s what it’s called right now. [Note from Mo: I've been informed by a "Dollhouse" source that it's actually "Epitaph Two: Return."]

A direcção da série e a influência da Fox

Ryan: Just talking about the bigger picture of the show and how it’s evolved, you have talked other times about the fact that you always wanted standalones as part of the “Dollhouse” mixture. And there have been some really good ones. So you’ve been on record as wanting a mixture of standalones and mythology, but I’m wondering if the current climate of network TV in general is just not going to be friendly to the amount of mythology that you would like to put out there and that people seem to respond to.

Whedon: It’s going to be friendly if the people show up. The problems that the show encountered weren’t standalone versus mythology. Basically the show didn’t really get off the ground because the network pretty much wanted to back away from the concept five minutes after they bought it and then ultimately, the show itself is also kind of odd and difficult to market. I actually think they did a good job, but it’s just not a slam-dunk concept. It wasn’t like our numbers were huge and plummeted. They were tiny and still somehow managed to plummet. We alienated both our viewers.

Ryan: In terms of the network backing away from the concept — you were able to kind of get back and do your thing midway through Season 1. How much of that was a factor in Season 2?

Whedon: Very much. I mean, midway through Season 1 [it was,] “OK, here is the show.” We got the espionage that the network wants, but it’s the questions about identity that we want. There are other things about the show that never came back and I didn’t really realize it until the second season, [there were] things that we were ultimately sort of dancing around.

The idea of sexuality was a big part of the show when it started and when that fell out, when the show turned into a thriller every week, it took something out of it that was kind of basic to what we were trying to do. And then also the fact that it was a thriller every week meant that we couldn’t go from genre to genre, which is really what I wanted to do. But we did manage to keep the questions about who we are and the interpersonal stuff and [there was] the amazing ensemble and everybody shining and doing cool stuff.

But there was… We always found ourselves sort of moving away from what had been part of the original spark of the show and that ultimately just makes it really hard to write these stories. It makes it twice as hard as usual. [Normally] you have that sort of kernel that you’re building on that’s completely solid. You know, “She is a little girl with super powers.” “He is a cranky doctor who always gets it right.” Whatever it is you sort of can build off that. When you’re trying to back away from your central premise at the same time as you’re making that [show,] it gets complicated.

Ryan: How do you think you backed away from it? Because she has had sex with clients, she even married a client. There have been some sexual components to missions. I’m just wondering if you could expand on that a little bit.

Whedon: Well, it’s just in the sense that, part of what was going to be the show was the idea of who these people were — [part of it was going to be about] these clients and what their fantasies were, what they expected, what they wanted. You know, what do we get from each other in our most intimate relationships, be they sexual or [whatever else]. The interest in the client kind of moved away.

We weren’t going to tell little [client] stories. They were going to be scary, exciting or funny. They weren’t going to just be people ruminating. But these little stories inevitably just took on a thriller component, and if Echo is sleeping with somebody it’s to service something else.

Ryan: Was that moving away from that sort of thing at the request of the network?

Whedon: Yes, but you know… You got dominatrix Echo last season, which is kind of a joke. Luckily, it’s a good-looking joke, but it’s basically us just sort of throwing a bone to the concept [of Echo having a sexual engagement]. We’re not actually going to talk about what those things entail anymore than is [necessary] and then we move on to our thriller plot, which is… which works when it works. And I think some of the episodes coming up are ridiculously good, but I do think that was part of the problem.

Ryan: I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that Fox didn’t want more sex in a show.

Whedon: This is the thing that caught me off guard. First of all, network television has taken great treads backwards in terms of dealing with sexuality or the body or anything. I mean, now on cable everybody is prancing about naked and whatnot. On the networks it’s gotten different since I was last making TV.

Fox sort of has that reputation for sexy or edgy or blah, blah, blah, but they don’t actually want that and it frustrates me. It’s the classic American double standard –torture, “Great.” Sex, “Oh, that’s so bad.”

And but this was also more complicated because people responded to this [by saying], “This is trafficking. This is sex for money.” It wasn’t just sex. It was also the other implications of what was originally supposed to be somewhat more of a fantasy. The real world version of [this kind of activity] was I think what made the network really twitchy and I can’t really fault them for that. I just thought when I went in and pitched it …you know, it frightened me too [but I thought] we all got that that was what we were doing.

Ryan: Until you weren’t.

Whedon: Until we weren’t.

Ryan: Right. Well but I think that’s actually something I’ve really responded to in the show — “Dollhouse” did, to some degree, explore these ideas of exploitation and manipulation and I think and did so with some pretty intriguing female characters and male characters too. I mean, this wasn’t just her prancing around in a leather harness. There were some difficult questions about exploitation and the ickier parts of that.

Whedon: Exploitation wasn’t the whole theme. It was going to be a question of, how much of this fantasy will people let us have. Now, I didn’t make exactly the same show [that was pitched], but we did get to delve in the territory a little bit. The idea was always, how much of the fantasy will [viewers] accept and how much will they go, “You know what, this just is too much like real-world situations that are truly appalling and so I can’t let the fantasy happen.”

Because as I said before, when you’re dealing with fantasies, particularly sexual ones, you’re going off the reservation. You’re not going to be doing things that are perfectly correct. It’s supposed to be about the sides of us that we don’t want people to see. For me it was exploitation was part of it, but it was more about the idea of our identities and what we consider to be ourselves and how relating to other people affects that, how we incorporate other people in ourselves and how we project ourselves onto people and how everybody relates to everyone in their lives through the filter of their own beliefs, experiences and memories. That to me is kind of fascinating. What we think we want from each other when we say “I love you” or any of those other things is, I think, very complex and sometimes very depressing and sometimes kind of weirdly beautiful.

Ryan: I’m sure you’ve talked about this before, but there is obviously a parallel to creating these fictional stories for various mediums, which you do, and the creating of these realities and identities for the dolls. Was that ever part of the appeal of “Dollhouse” for you — that your job is about creating emotional states for the viewer and that’s not too far off from what is happening to the dolls or even their clients?

Whedon: Honestly, I didn’t really see the parallels between me and Topher until it was pointed out to me. I laughed and laughed. [The show] was created around the concept  of, “Who do they want me to be?” That was literally the question we were asking at that lunch [at which Whedon and Eliza Dushku hatched the show's concept]. When I broke down the idea for [Eliza] she said, “Well, that’s my life.” But then as I broke it down more, I realized, well, actually, it’s kind of mine too. It is sort of about the creation, but also the removable self. And the idea of becoming somebody else for a little while, which the writer gets to do all time if he is lucky.

Ryan: Do you feel like you got to say what you wanted to say with “Dollhouse”? Will you walk away from it thinking. “The stuff that really mattered to me got said”? Or will you think that it didn’t get said because of those constraints we were talking about earlier?

Whedon: Ultimately, I think we got to touch on the important subjects. The structure and the tone of the show changed, but the basic premise was there and the cast and the writers and everybody did phenomenal work. Although I definitely felt some frustration at the show having to find itself and America getting to watch while it tried, I’m really proud of where we ended up and in fact was very clear on the way in which this could continue in a new paradigm and work for everybody, should it go on.

Irá Dollhouse continuar noutro formato?

Ryan: Will it go on in any format of any kind?

Whedon: No, I don’t think so.

Ryan: No? Web series, a comic book, anything?

Whedon: No. I’m going to finish this. What’s interesting about it is there. I don’t feel like there is some unfulfilled thing that would be well served by [continuing the story]. If I make a Web series it’s not going to be owned by Fox. Let’s be very clear on that one. Or [owned by any studio or network] — that’s not a dis on Fox. But I’ll make [a Web series] of my own and I don’t think Eliza is dying to jump onto the tiny screen right now. And it doesn’t work as a comic [because it's] just people talking.

I’m not going to go and try and make a movie out of it because I’ve already made a movie where I had to explain who ten people who already know each other are. It was exhausting. So I think that we’ll just we’ll say, “Here is our best effort,” go out with a bang and then we will move on. I think what we will end up having done is sort of this very glorious 26-hour miniseries.

Actores convidados, novo estilo e valores de produção

Ryan: In terms of the second half of the season, will it be pretty much the roster of guest cast and main cast that we’ve already seen or will there be new folks coming on board?

Whedon: We will see some old faces including… Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what I should tease, but yeah, we want to wrap every one up. The problem we’re having right now with the thirteenth episode is we don’t have two pennies to scrape together and we have so many people to resolve, so some of the people that we have seen in recurring fashion or just really wanted to put in, we won’t be able to [include] because we ran out of dough.

Ryan: I just wanted to talk a little bit about the different production style that you went with in Season 2 to save some dough this season. Is that something that you’ve found that you want to continue with or was it not that big of a change?

Whedon: No, for me it was enormously different and I absolutely am thrilled with what we were able to achieve. Lisa Wiegand, our director of photography, just brought so much energy and so much texture. And working in HD beats the hell out of film as far as I’m concerned. It’s a lighter package. You move faster. It is not the future. It is the present and I can’t imagine shooting on film again.

Ryan: Really?

Whedon: Yeah, I mean, [what's great is] just the ways in which you’re able to manipulate the footage you have, the speed at which you get it and are editing it. You know that you can be handing it off as you’re shooting it. You look at a monitor while you’re shooting and you see exactly what is going to be on TV. You don’t see a grainy image and go, “Gee, I hope that works.” That’s very helpful. So we scored massively with our DP. She is tremendous, but the tech itself is also just [much better]. I just I don’t like moving slowly. I get bored and I think it affects performance and so it’s for me, this is the only way to go.

Ryan: You touched on this briefly, that the idea for “Dollhouse” was to have an anthology feel, and I think there was some of that, to the extent that you had an “origin story” for Sierra one week then a mythology episode and then an Adelle story and things like that. Was that kind of part of the appeal of trying this concept out and would that be the appeal of any future work that you might do in the TV arena?

Whedon: It’s kind of my signature and it’s kind of my curse. My favorite thing is to shake it up, is to bring as much that’s different as I can every week — to get people to a different place. But television is largely designed to do the opposite.

Hit shows are basically designed to give people exactly what they expect, and that’s not to slam on every other show. There are plenty of shows that surprise you, that are humorous where you expect them to be maudlin or scary where you’d expect them to be romantic. But ultimately most people [watch] TV shows going, “OK, this is ‘Party of Five.’ I’m going to cry.” And I’m not really good at that.

I’m the guy who gets twitchy when shooting takes too long, who gets twitchy when he has to pull the same trick out of the same bag, because ultimately I’m interested in two things. I’m interested in entertaining people with stories and I’m interested in breaking those stories down and going, “Why am I doing this? Why are you entertained by this? What does this mean? Why?”

I mean, there has to be a reason behind the story, [something] besides the story itself. Even if I just want to evoke something that I remember. Even if it’s that small, there still has to be some reason beyond, “We need to squeeze out another 40 minutes of entertaining people.” It has to go further than that or I get not only bored, I get a little ashamed.

O futuro de Joss Whedon

Ryan: When I was soliciting questions for this interview, I kept getting, “Why isn’t Joss Whedon going to cable or just going off and doing his own Joss Whedon online portal or whatever?”

Whedon: Well I can answer both those questions — because Fox forgot to cancel my show. They looked on their calendars and went, “God, we were supposed to cancel this months ago!”

The Internet is something that I’ve been investigating heavily in terms of just squeezing out another project and in terms of doing a bigger-picture Mutant Enemy portal [Mutant Enemy is the name of Whedon's production company]. It’s not like people are running at me with money. It’s not like people are charging towards me with bags of money. The economy isn’t the best ever, but it’s my feeling that for a small investment, you could have quite an extraordinary return.

As far as cable, I’ve started taking a couple of meetings and stuff. I’ve definitely learned “Oh, cable and network TV are different.” [laughs] I’m not the brightest fellow and so I’ve just started to go, “Those guys can do whatever they want!”

Of course that is not actually the case once it gets up on the screen. The restrictions are fewer, but the process of developing it with a studio and a network, even a cable network, is still rough. It takes an enormous amount of time to run a show and to get it off the ground takes just a huge amount of steel. I’m interested in it. But for me, the Internet is slightly more interesting right now just because I feel like we have to get in there and start figuring out how to create entertainment without the networks and the studios, because they’re basically trying to figure out how to create and entertain without us.

Ryan: Yeah, I think you’re right there, but as you say, it’s not easy to kind of create a new model for how everyone gets paid and makes what they want to make.

Whedon: Yeah, but people aren’t going to make what they want to make anymore. That’s not going to happen. The rainbow, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow got smaller, significantly smaller. [Television is] less and less of a lucrative equation.

Residual checks that are so important to the writer, they’re coming in for “Dollhouse” and they’re pennies because they’re not re-running it. They’re just putting it on Hulu. So that whole system is crumbling and with the advent of the new technology, crews are going to get smaller and when things move to the Internet, there is no format where people make the kind of money they’ve made in television.

I think the idea is going to be to create enough jobs so that more people are working so that they can work on more things and that the middle-class writer can emerge and [right now that person is] sort of being squeezed out.

You know, we didn’t win the [writers'] strike. It didn’t go our way. The artistic community is more and more left out of the equation, so the trick is going to be finding out how to make the Internet work in such a way that people [can get by] because it’s not going to pay TV money. It’s not. In fact, people are going to have to be entering the business less with the idea of making a fortune and more of the idea of just making product, getting it done, getting it out there and then hoping that there is a way in which it can support [a creative community].

Ryan: You said something on Whedonesque recently, “Soon you shall know my next project.” Is that a specific show or specific company or endeavor?

Whedon: There are irons that are in the fire and when it’s time to pull one out and brand myself with it, I will, but there are a couple of different things. I’m still sort of trying to figure out which one is going to get the nod, but first I have to finish reading the script for [Episode 13] and make all the episodes.

Ryan: I certainly can understand that cable is not necessarily the land of enchantment where everything goes your way, but to me it seems like there might possibly be something for Joss Whedon there. I watch a lot of TV and I think the kind of stories that you want to tell — well, it seems to me that some cable networks are looking for boldness. Maybe I’m being naive.

Whedon: No, I think it’s absolutely… I think amazing work is being done right now. While I talk about Rome burning, I like Rome. It looks really pretty right now.

Ryan: I agree.

Whedon: “To be in Rome because it’s warm all the time…” The stuff that is going on in cable is really interesting and I absolutely think I would be interested in finding a home there. I still love the medium, but first, I need to sort of scale back for a little bit, also because I went from the show to the movies to the show without a break and I got tired. I need to shore up for a few months and chill so that I can come back hard because I’m pretty beat down.

And I’m not interested in boldness, FYI. I just want to do nudity because it’s all about the nudies.

Ryan: Of course. “They get to be naked!”

Whedon: “They’re cops, but they’re nude.”

Ryan: “And they’re singing!”

Whedon: No, no. I haven’t gone that crazy.

Dr. Horrible

Ryan: Well I have to say, if you’re feeling beat down, the perfect pick-me-up would be a “Dr. Horrible” sequel.

Whedon: Well, I’m sure I don’t have any interest in doing that.

Ryan: No. Why would you? Well, Jed said before and you have said that you want to shoot it next year. Do you have a more specific time frame worked out for when you would shoot it?

Whedon: What we need to do is get enough time to really solidify what we’ve got, really get the thing in shape and then it all becomes about Neil [Patrick Harris] and his availability. We’ve been basically telling him, “Do whatever you want,” which he clearly took to mean, “Do everything there is.” [laughs] But we were like, until we have a script, we can’t really think of a schedule or a venue or how we’re going to do this and what size it will be, if we’re going to get any kind of any kind of backing from a studio or an independent. None of those questions could be answered until we were holding a draft in our hands.

Ryan: And can I tell the world that it’s titled “Dr. Horrible 2: Electric Boogaloo”?

Whedon: Well, yes. That or “Live Free Or Day Out with Dr. Horrible.”

Ryan: So you don’t really have a title yet, I take it.

Whedon: We do. In fact, the project originated with me telling the other guys, “Here is the title” and them going, “Yep, that’s it.” But we’re not telling anybody. It’s kind of funky.

Ryan: Damn you.

Whedon: All the sudden I’ve gotten kind of coy.

Ryan: Well, I look greatly forward to finding out the title and laughing and crying and cursing you if you make me sad. But regardless, it’s going to be Neil and all the rest of the folks who were in the first one?

Whedon: That would be the plan. Obviously things change, but the plan would be to get the old gang back together.

Ryan: Plus Sue Sylvester. That would be my ideal villain for next time.

Glee

Ryan: Just briefly, can I ask you about directing “Glee” — when does that occur?

Whedon: That will happen let’s see, late February I’ll start prepping. I’ll shoot it in March.

Ryan: Do you have any say in picking songs?

Whedon: No, no. And you know what? I shouldn’t, because every time a song comes on I go, “Man, I would have never thought of that.” I haven’t spent much time around popular music. I tend to listen to the things I listen to. I grew up listening to show tunes and Neil Young and some other stuff. I think those guys are kind of genius at it and you know, this is not “Joss Whedon’s Glee.” I’m just a shot monkey.

I fantasize about it about it. Don’t you? Don’t you ever think “Oh, you know what? I’d love this character to sing that song.”

Ryan: Of course, yeah. Would you have any influence on casting?

Whedon: Again, these guys seem to know what they’re doing.

Ryan: Right, even as a shot monkey though you would get a say, right?

Whedon: Well, the director sits in on the casting sessions, yes. But the show is not huge with guest casts. [They get] somebody like Kristin Chenoweth, but you know, it’s not like you’re going to have people reading for the part of Kristin Chenoweth.

A compra de Terminator

Ryan: So reviving the “Terminator” franchise, how is that going?

Whedon: We’re still negotiating. They’re playing it cool. They haven’t contacted me in any way yet, but you know, I think that’s just an opening gambit. You know, they want me to come back [with a higher bid for the franchise] and I’m probably going to go up to $12,000.

Ryan: Wow.

Whedon: Yeah, you know, there is give and take.

Ryan: And you have to spend money to make money.

Whedon: Exactly. I just think that I could do a really good “Terminator” movie, kind of on a smaller scale while somebody else actually makes the big ones. After I give them the $12,000, I’m not going to have as much left to make the movie as I’d hope.

Ryan: So you’ll have, like, $800 to make the movie.

Whedon: Yeah, but it will all be on the screen. I can really make it look like $850.

O horizonte é o limite

Ryan: Last question. Is there part of you that’s going to be glad to move onto new opportunities and new things?

Whedon: You know, the thing that I do to waste time is think of things I want to make. That’s how my mind is employed. So I’m going to get to make at least a couple of them next year and that’s very exciting for me. I have more things to say.

Actually, I don’t have more things to say, but I have more stories to tell in which I say the same old things again.

Fonte.

Episódio: Belonging (04/13)
Escrito por Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon
Realizado por Jonathan Frakes
Data de emissão EUA (FOX): 23 de Outubro de 2009
Actores convidados: Vincent Ventresca, Keith Carradine.

TRAILER
Trailer de “Belonging”

REVIEW
Review de “Belonging”

MESA REDONDA
Review de “Belonging”

MÚSICA
Música de “Belonging”

AUDIÊNCIAS
Audiências de “Belonging”

EPISÓDIO
EZTV

LEGENDA
Inglês – addic7ed.com
Português – Legendas Divx

A Mesa Redonda sairá muito brevemente.

Episódio 4: Belonging
Escrito por Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon
Realizado por Jonathan Frakes
Actores convidados: Vincent Ventresca, Keith Carradine.

O quarto episódio da segunda temporada de Dollhouse diferencia-se dos anteriores por uma simples razão: qualidade. É excelente. Se os outros (principalmente o segundo) até tinham boas ideias, mas não as conseguiram implementar da melhor maneira, ficando aquém do esperado, este Belonging ultrapassada as nossas expectativas e mostra-se o episódio de Dollhouse mais emotivo até à data.

A história anda toda em volta de Sierra (Dichen Lachman), como ela chegou à Dollhouse, como conheceu o homem que a pôs lá, como perdeu a sua liberdade e, no fim, como confronta Nolan (participação de Vincent Ventresca), embora não tenha acabado da melhor maneira. Para o sucesso deste enredo contou muito a fabulosa interpretação de Dichen Lachman que esteve simplesmente brilhante.

Mulher: I don’t think I have reason to live if I can’t have one of your paintings for myself.
Prya: Wow, you must have a really boring life.

Belonging não podia ter um título melhor, visto que até isso nos faz pensar. Afinal Sierra pertencia a quem? A Nolan? Ele queria-a para ele, mas nunca o conseguiu. À Dollhouse? Chegou a altura e tiveram que abdicar dela. A conclusão a que cheguei foi que Sierra pertencia a todos menos a ela própria.

Dou os meus parabéns aos argumentistas porque, não só o diálogo foi muito fluído e interessante, como a estrutura do episódio foi exemplar, manipulando a perspectiva do espectador em todos os acontecimentos. A realização de Jonathan Frakes, que fez um trabalho impressionante, deu-nos alguns dos melhores planos que já vimos na série: o cenário inicial da praia, os planos de Sierra, Topher e Boyd a prepararem o enterro de Nolan, o plano das inscrições de Echo na sua câmara mas principalmente o plano de Sierra a contrastar com o quadro mesmo a seguir à morte de Nolan.

Este episódio realmente colmatou muitas das falhas que a série costuma ter. A principal, na minha opinião, foi a emotividade que o episódio teve, transpirando empatia, raiva, incredulidade, pena, indignação por todos os lados. Dollhouse nunca fez sentir tanto, mesmo nos seus melhores episódios. Sempre teve aquele sentimento de não estarmos bem a clicar com os personagens. Isto certamente não acontece aqui, com Sierra a levar-nos numa montanha russa de sentimentos.

[Echo aparece inesperadamente atrás de Topher, assustando-o.]
Topher: Oh… You got to stop doing that or I’ll make you wear a bell.

Mas nem tudo foi Sierra. Topher (Fran Kranz) também teve a oportunidade de brilhar. Também gostei imenso da interpretação de Fran Kranz que, tal como em Vows, mostra que a sua personagem é muito mais interessante quando não é usada somente como comic relief. Não que eu não tenha aprendido a gostar das piadas de Topher, ou que elas não tenham melhorado durante a série, mas a personagem pode ser muito mais que isso como se pode ver neste episódio.

Victor (Enver Gjokaj), Boyd (Harry Lennix) e Adelle (Olivia Williams) também tiveram os seus momentos. Gostei imenso de ver o lado badass de Boyd, fiquei curioso em relação ao que é que a Adelle fez para o Mr. Harding (participação de Keith Carradine) lhe dizer “Victor’s the least of your indiscretions. I think we both know that.” e usar isso como chantagem, e vimos um pouco do trauma de Victor levando a crer que ele se virou para a Dollhouse porque não conseguia viver com aquilo que fez. Será que isto significa um episódio de Victor num futuro próximo? Esperemos que sim. O Ever Gjokai já o merecia.

O enredo secundário pertenceu a Echo e à evolução que ela está a ter no seu estado Active desde Omega. Ela está a ler, faz inscrições na sua câmara, parece ter alguma espécie de plano e o seu objectivo é que todos os Actives “acordem”. Mas, mais que isso, estou bastante interessado no que é a Storm que ela tanto falava.

Boyd: You know how to dissect a body.
Topher: That was in school. And why do you?

Como já disse, adorei Belonging e certamente acho que foi dos melhores episódios que Dollhouse nos deu, mas… houve algumas inconsistências algo inadmissíveis. Então o Topher é todo contra colocar alguém na Dollhouse contra a sua vontade, mas se essa pessoa for esquizofrénica então tudo bem?!? Ainda por cima manda a Priya sozinha para confrontar o Nolan? Não lhe podia, pelo menos, ter ensinado karaté? O que é que ele pensava que ia acontecer? Que ele a deixava sair pela porta da frente ou que se iam reconciliar e começar aos beijinhos e amassos? E porque raio é que no fim a Priya volta para a Dollhouse? O Boyd e o Topher não podiam simplesmente manda-la para o mesmo sítio que o Nolan foi? Não teria muito mais lógica que ele fosse com ela? Foi ela que quis (duvido porque ela só teve a ideia de não se lembrar do que fez quando já estava na Dollhouse) ou o quê? São estas coisas que contaminam um episódio que fora isso foi perfeito.

Concluindo, Belonging é indiscutivelmente o melhor episódio dos quatro que já vimos esta temporada e está exactamente dentro daquilo que queremos ver Dollhouse fazer. Muito bem estruturado, escrito, realizado e interpretado, tocando em aspectos fulcrais do que uma série como esta deve falar e com mais emoção do que alguma vez vimos nesta série. Não espero nada menos vindo dos próximos episódios que vêem por aí.

Dollhouse, série criada por Joss Whedon, criador de Buffy, Angel e Firefly, para a Fox, foi cancelada.

Na sequência dos maus resultados conseguidos por Dollhouse nas audiências, a Fox decidiu não encomendar episódios adicionais da série, como já era esperado, e avisar os produtores para estes darem um final satisfatório à dita.

Independentemente da notícia, a Fox afirma que vai emitir todos os treze episódios de Dollhouse.

O plano para emitir os episódios é o seguinte:

4 de Dezembro: The Public Eye, Part 1 (1×05) & The Left Hand, Part 2 (1×06)
11 de Dezembro: Meet Jane Doe (1×07) & A Love Supreme (1×08)
18 de Dezembro: Stop-Lost (1×09) & The Attic (1×10)

2 semanas de intervalo

O horário dos últimos 3 episódios será o habitual: 21h-22h.
8 de Janeiro: 1×11
15 de Janeiro: 1×12
22 de Janeiro: 1×13

Apesar do anunciado cancelamento da série, o Dollhouse PT não vai acabar. Contem comigo para acompanhar os 9 episódios que faltam assim como todos os detalhes e notícias referentes à série.

Vendo as coisas pelo lado positivo, estou mortinho por ter o meu DVD ou Blu-ray com a série completa, todos os 26 episódios de uma série que, apesar de nem sempre ser como desejávamos, foi diferente de tudo o que alguma vez vimos na televisão.

A nossa menina Dushku foi a capa de Outubro / Novembro da revista americana Complex para quem fez uma sessão fotográfica deu uma entrevista. Se a entrevista tem um tom casual e está um bocado desactualizada, a sessão fotográfica não podia ser melhor: diferente e atrevida. Também podem ver um vídeo behind the scenes.

Sessão Fotográfica

Vídeo

Entrevista

You just started shooting the new season of Dollhouse. How’s it going so far?

Eliza Dushku: I got married, consummated my marriage, and had my honeymoon—all yesterday! Today me and the hubby are beating each other down and breaking things. A lot going on, a lot of brawling. Jets and exploding Tahoes and me against a hangar full of giant stunt guys.

That’s a big week.

Eliza Dushku: Only when I come into my trailer do I, in secret, peek at my bruises and bangs. [Laughs.] ’Cause while I’m out there I’m like, “I’m good, let’s do another one!”

What’s the biggest difference between last season and this one for you?

Eliza Dushku: We’re back because of the love of fans and people who found and stuck with the show. Critics and viewers saw something really special, and the fact that we’re back just confirms that it’s all real. Now we have a chance to go deeper and really look closer in the beast.

Where were you when the show got renewed?

Eliza Dushku: I was in Uganda with my mother—who is an African politics professor—and some of her students. We were learning about some of the child soldiers from the war in Uganda and looking at building a trauma center for the rehabilitation and integration of these poor child soldiers. I’ve always had a plan B in terms of my life and my career. I love acting and producing, and I love this business, but at the same time my world is live-or-die based on if I’m on the hottest show. So I live my life, travel, and see what else is out there for me to be a strong part of, you know?

So you’re saying Dollhouse fans really fucked it up for Ugandan child soldiers?

Eliza Dushku: [Laughs.] C’mon, man, I’m a multitasker. If I can be four personalities in a day I have the capacity to be a few places, emotionally, at once.

Speaking of multiple personalities, it seems as though you’re able to handle different types of roles with—wait for it—aplomb. Yeah, I said “aplomb.”

Eliza Dushku: Well, I grew up with three big brothers, and I had a different personality for each one. I was a precocious kid and figured out early on how to be chameleon-like. I had one brother who was the wild child—kind of street, a rapper, a Beastie Boys kind of bro—and with him I would have to get into that tough-guy routine. I had another brother who was very nerdy and super-creative and I could put on my Dungeons & Dragons cap with him. Then I was also mom and dad’s sweet little girl—with a rough side. [Laughs.] I think I thought I was a boy until I was like 10 years old. My mother used to try to put me in flowery dresses and couldn’t. And now Joss, incidentally, can.

Is it true that a lot of Dollhouse is somewhat autobiographical for you?

Eliza Dushku: Yeah, just in the sense that I had a crazy mother who would travel with my brothers and me all over the world. From when we were young, she used to chaperone groups of students and bring us along. She raised us to listen to people’s stories and to go to places and talk to people who could really only be found in their native environment, so we went there. Again, you learn an adaptability that comes from those experiences. So I think that’s something I’ve always done, and when I met Joss he would sort of pick my brain and watch that.

Where does the sexy dominatrix stuff from the show fall in there?

Eliza Dushku: When I was in Amsterdam, at 15, walking through the Red Light District, sort of curious and out of place.

Whuh? How did you wind up in Amsterdam’s Red Light District at 15?

Eliza Dushku: The family had gone to Ireland for the holidays and we were flying back and two of my three brothers and I wanted to go to Amsterdam for the New Year and my birthday. My mom always raised us to feel like if we could afford a plane ticket, we can pretty much land in any city and just go exploring.

I feel like a lot of the characters you play have this bad-girl persona. Do you feel like you get typecast a lot?

Eliza Dushku: Sure, but at the same time I obviously know how to play that and that’s an easy default place to go for me. A lot of that came from growing up and adolescence and finding myself. As an actress in public school in Boston, I was ostracized by kids in school. So immediately, on top of the tomboy thing, I developed this sort of hard-as-nails body armor, you know? When I went out to do Buffy, that was just out of high school, and it was such a safe place for me, living in leather pants and beating anyone’s ass that tried to give me lip. [Laughs.]

When you’re out on the town and you see obnoxious starlets, do you ever think, “I could really beat the shit out of her”?

Eliza Dushku: I try not to judge—I’ll admit I’m guilty at times of watching and being fascinated, though. I’m watching a train wreck! [Laughs.] If anything, especially in the past couple of years, I try to be a more compassionate person. This business can hit you at a million miles an hour, and people don’t know their ass from their elbow or what to do with themselves. People make mistakes and get crazy. I know I did.

Looking at some of the projects you have down the line, what’s going on with the film Valediction?

Eliza Dushku:Valediction is wrapped and gonna be coming out—it’s a really great little movie. It comes in the 2010 slate of projects. I have stuff that I’m developing and negotiating, and I’m focusing on the new Dollhouse season. We have some exciting announcements coming up. The producer element is definitely something that’s driving me a little bit harder. It has me inside the machine. This business is a crapshoot, and now with this added role, I’m getting my hands in it more.

You have the Robert Mapplethorpe biopic that you’re producing too, right?

Eliza Dushku: Yes, yes. It’s awesome.

And is that just because you want to see a lot of naked guys?

Eliza Dushku: [Laughs.] Where does your head go? No, it really is deeper than that. It’s about self-discovery and self-reflection and breaking the mold of what society and media tells us we’re supposed to be interested in and what we’re supposed to be attracted to…versus what we’re not. That’s interesting to me.

And you’ve got a video game in stores, which I have a feeling might mean more to our readers than a Mapplethorpe biopic.

Eliza Dushku: I do! It’s called WET, as in “wetworks” [a euphemism for assassination]. I play a gun for hire, like a working-class Lara Croft. She’s all padded up, a Jack Daniel’s-drinking badass. That just proves again that it’s sort of a fun and kamikaze place for me to play.

The gameplay looks crazy.

Eliza Dushku: Yeah, it’s pretty rad. It has that ’70s Tarantino vibe to it.

Does it weird you out that people are gonna be googling “Eliza Dushku Wet”?

Eliza Dushku:Why? What’s weird about that? [Laughs.] It is what it is. That’s what my grandma used to say, great words to live by.

It has a lot of swearing in it—the game, not your grandma’s saying.

Eliza Dushku: My character has a bit of a truck driver/sailor/killer mouth, no doubt.

What is your favorite swear word?

Eliza Dushku: I’m pretty loyal to the F-bomb.

Yeah? It’s a classic.

Eliza Dushku: It is, and yet so modern!

I keep hearing you say that you’re a tomboy, but you certainly don’t look the part.

Eliza Dushku: Hmmm, you don’t see me on weekends. Do you want to? [Laughs.]

A thousand times yes. So do you consider yourself an outdoorsy person?

Eliza Dushku: I am, I am. We’ve [Ed.—meaning Eliza and her man Rick Fox. Seriously.] been in Malibu on the weekends this summer and I love the ocean and being outdoorsy. Football on the beach and tackle football in the grass. I love sports. Playing and watching them.

It seems like you’re in an interesting place in your career; film actors are appearing so much on TV now, and that’s already your world. Not that you haven’t done film stuff, but you’re such a dominant force on TV. Do you think the reemergence of the medium is putting more weight on what you’re doing?

Eliza Dushku: I mean, I wasn’t going to come back on a show that wasn’t meaningful. That was absolutely the reason why I had to come back, if I was coming back, with Joss. If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage, and that man truly makes the TV that I wanna watch. And that is actually sociologically important, thought-provoking, and legit.

Joss is like a demigod in that world. What’s a good embarrassing anecdote about him?

Eliza Dushku: We danced for like six hours at a Kanye party one night in New York, and the man just brings it home. We call him Crazy Legs. He goes for it, man, he is not scared.

Is it good dancing? Or is it just crazy dancing?

Eliza Dushku: He has to be one of the best dancers in the world. I’ve never seen anything like it. If he wasn’t so busy, I’d drag him to one of those America’s Got Talent-type shows, because he would shock and stun the world. The guy’s got moves.

How has being in show business since you were 17 affected who you are as a person right now?

Eliza Dushku: There’s so much I’m grateful for, and in other ways it’s probably driven me a little bit loca. I mean, it’s a strange sort of phenomenon, especially in the past 10 years, the way the media and celebrity have changed. But it’s my life, and I wouldn’t try to mess with it. I mean, it’s certainly something that I can sit and think about—but now, at this point in my life, not for more than for a couple of minutes. And then I just dive back in, head first. It’s all I know.

What do you hate most about Hollywood?

Eliza Dushku: What do I hate most? Driving. Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive. Actually, it would probably be the way the media neglects to put important issues in the foreground because they put too much importance on the entertainment world. I regret sometimes that so many world headlines are generated from the celebrity world, because there are all these other things that are…

So you’re saying you hate me.

Eliza Dushku: No! I think it’s all relevant. There’s a place for everything. But when what’s happening with Jon & Kate Plus 8 is more important than women and children being slaughtered in the Congo…I mean, I know actors say that and I’m just another actor talking about it. But think about the perspective that shows.

Does it bother you when actors just say that while you’re actually there? Other people say those things as platitudes, so does that kind of weaken your argument, even though what you’re saying has weight behind it?

Eliza Dushku: Well, anyone can go there. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. No, anyone cannot go to the Congo; people could get slaughtered. [Laughs.] But there are means and ways to contribute to your own education and the education of others. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I wish there was more will.

Well put! That’s a pull quote if I ever heard one.

Eliza Dushku: Thanks!

You seem like an adventurous person—when’s the last time you got really nervous?

Eliza Dushku: I get nervous a lot—pretty much on a daily basis. But I think the more you lean into that nervous feeling, the faster you can get your head out of it, actually. The nerves will dissipate after that. Like yesterday, they had me running across the roof of this Tahoe onto another truck. And yeah, the truck had pads on it, and it was just to get a shot of me flying through the air, so from the ground, I was like, “All right, this doesn’t look so bad.” Once I got up there, though, it was a big gap. The stomach definitely drops a little bit—plus there were like 60 people watching and Access Hollywood or someone was there. No time for fear. I think back to True Lies in those situations—fear was just not an option. I’m super-competitive, plus adrenaline is my drug of choice these days. So I just tightened my boots and jumped.

What’s the worst you’ve ever been injured?

Eliza Dushku: I cracked a couple of ribs on True Lies when we were doing that scene with the Harrier jet. I landed, I shot out through the glass of the deck, and I cracked my ribs.

Damn, pretty impressive.

Eliza Dushku: I think those were the only bones I broke working—I mean, I cracked my toe, I broke my nose, I chipped some teeth, and I burned my hair. But that’s not broken bones.

I had a hangnail once.

Eliza Dushku: [Laughs.] How’d you handle that?

It was touch and go for a while, but I had some good people. I went to the ER and handled it.

Eliza Dushku: I think most recently I, uh, ate a hard nut and it chipped my tooth.

Ayo! Have you ever had a $5 footlong?

Eliza Dushku: I have not, but there’s always tomorrow! One day at a time.

You’re adventurous, but not that adventurous.

Eliza Dushku: If someone came up to me and offered, I would give it a try.

Well, you can get on craft services about that.

Episódio 3: Belle Chose
Escrito por Tim Minear
Realizado por David Solomon
Actores convidados: Liza Lapira, Michael Hogan, Joseph Sikora, Arye Gross

Belle Chose foi mais um episódio standalone de Dollhouse. Foi uma péssima opção fazer os primeiros três episódios da temporada com tão poucos avanços na mitologia. Se Vows colmatou essa falha com bom diálogo e com a evolução da relação entre Paul e Echo e Instinct com a sua engenhosa premissa, Belle Chose não teve a mesma sorte. Em segundo, estava à espera de muito mais da dupla que nos deu um dos melhores episódios de Firefly, Out of Gas.

É demasiado óbvio o porquê deste episódio ter sido produzido como o segundo da temporada, pois é aqui que Paul (Tahmoh Penikett) é confrontado com a sua primeira missão como handler de Echo (Eliza Dushku). Não entendo a razão da Fox trocar os episódios. Foi absolutamente desnecessário e até confuso.

Paul foi mesmo o melhor do episódio, com mais uma excelente interpretação de Tamoh Penniket. Ele simplesmente acertou em cheio em tudo o que fez: no desconforto com que vê Echo, a menina dos seus sonhos (Man On The Street) que jurou proteger (Briar Rose), nua, na forma como demonstra o alívio por ir interrogar um serial killer em vez de continuar a missão, no desprezo que mostrou no seu diálogo com Terry e, por fim, em todos os momentos que passou na discoteca onde foi buscar Victor (Enver Gjokaj), que também esteve em grande.

O episódio não começou mal. O início foi óptimo com dois enredos a serem definidos: a missão romântica de Echo, que iria testar a aptidão de Paul como handler e a de Terry, que iria explorar a mente de um perturbado serial killer. Estava tudo a correr bem com Terry a ser interrogado até que o tio dele o ajuda a fugir. A partir daqui o episódio parte para os caminhos mais idiotas. O enredo de Echo existiu apenas para passar o tempo até ela ficar com a personalidade de Terry, misturando os enredos da pior forma.

Nota-se que até tinham as ideias definidas, mas, como não sabiam o que fazer com elas, em vez de as continuarem a explorar, decidiram que a segunda parte do episódio iria assentar na acção e na busca pelas vítimas de Terry. Graças a isso, o episódio acaba exactamente no mesmo sítio onde começa e não passa de mais uma missão da semana que não acrescenta nada à série e pouco acrescenta às personagens.

Adorei o comentário do Topher (Fran Kranz) sobre a limpeza de memória do Victor: “He’ll be an empty-headed robot wandering around Hollywood. He’ll be fine”.

Resumindo, Belle Chose começou bem, mas escorregou a meio e tornou-se apenas mais um episódio de Dollhouse para esquecer. A sua razão de existir é simplesmente encher até que Joss Whedon decida começar a desenvolver o arco principal da temporada. Para além disso, estava à espera de muito mais e melhor de Tim Minear e David Solomon.

“Soul People” por Maimon And The Mongoose Band
Flashback de Priya a conversar com uma amiga e a vender arte na praia até Nolan aparecer.

“Piano In Partyland” por APM Music
Flashback de Priya a falar com uma famosa que gosta do seu quadro.

“Piano Cocktail” por APM Music
Flashback de Priya a conhecer Echo na festa do Nolan, Nolan a falar com o Harding sobre conquistar Priya e Victor a fazer de vendedor de arte a perguntar sobre a pintura de Priya.

“Drones” por Jed Whedon
Flashback de Priya a ser levada para a Dollhouse; Sierra / Priya chega a casa de Nolan.

“Travelling Woman” por Bat For Lashes
Sierra volta para Victor; Echo encontra um cartão de acesso e guarda-o no seu livro.

O episódio emitido ontem, sexta-feira, dia 9 de Outubro, foi o último episódio de Dollhouse a ir para o ar antes de Dezembro. Na sequência das más audiências que Dollhouse tem tido, a Fox decidiu tirar a série do ar até Dezembro onde irá emitir dois episódios seguidos por cada sexta-feira.

Esta decisão foi baseada nas fracas audiências obtidas pelos três primeiros episódios de Dollhouse (1.0; 0.9; 1.0). O episódio que passou ontem obteve um 0.8 na demo 18-49. Mesmo que suba para 0.9 nas finais (que é o que importa), é a pior audiência registada pela série até ao momento.

Há quem diga que este é o último prego do caixão no inevitável funeral da última série de Joss Whedon. A verdade é que parece que a Fox está a tentar despachar os episódios e, em condições normais, eu diria que sim, mas a série já trepou buracos bem fundos. Quem sabe se não consegue trepar mais um? O que é preciso para isso acontecer? Bem, para começar, boas audiências nos seis episódios que irão ser emitidos em Dezembro.

Joss Whedon respondeu à notícia no Whedonesque com a sua habitual boa disposição dizendo que, pelo menos assim, ficámos com o lead-in mais compatível de sempre.

(…) Howzabout that schedule? Well, I’m not as depressed as everyone else. We weren’t about to rock sweeps anyway, and though there’s a chilly November, December is CRAZY. It’s like an Advent calendar of episodes! We get November to try to spread the word (which I’ll be leaning on Fox to do, though it’s hard to imagine them doing as good a job as the WhyIWatch guy) and then December is pure gluttony. Plus the episodes line up extremely well in these pairs, and we’ll have an absurdly appropriate lead-in.

Back to breaking Tim’s episode. Keep the faith, peeps. I’ll bring you news (and hopefully a little humor, I mean would it kill me to punch these up a little?) when I can. -j

No lugar de Dollhouse serão emitidas repetições de House e Bones.

Sexta-feira, dia 4: The Public Eye, Part 1 (1×05) & The Left Hand, Part 2 (1×06)

Sexta-feira, dia 11: Meet Jane Doe (1×07) & A Love Supreme (1×08)

Sexta-feira, dia 18: Stop-Lost (1×09) & The Attic (1×10)

Para mais informações vão ao Guia de Episódios da Season 2, sempre actualizado, aqui no Dollhouse PT.

espaço

espaço

Dollhouse desce duas décimas em relação ao último episódio que foi para o ar há duas semanas atrás. O futuro parece negro.

Episódio: Belle Chose (03/13)
Escrito por Tim Minear
Realizado por David Solomon
Data de emissão EUA (FOX): 9 de Outubro de 2009
Actores convidados: Liza Lapira, Michael Hogan, Joseph Sikora, Arye Gross

TRAILER
Trailer de “Belle Chose”

REVIEW
Review de “Belle Chose”

MESA REDONDA
Review de “Belonging”

MÚSICA
Música de “Belle Chose”

AUDIÊNCIAS
Audiências de “Belle Chose”

EPISÓDIO
EZTV

LEGENDA
Inglês – addic7ed.com
Português – Legendas Divx

Na nova rubrica semanal do Dollhouse PT, a acompanhar os episódios, teremos três grandes nomes da comunidade cibernética televisiva e de cinema portuguesa. Carlos Couceiro, criador e administrador do Hotvnews,  ZB, criador e administrador do TV Dependente e Pedro Maciel, colaborador no TV Dependente e responsável pelas críticas a Dollhouse nesse mesmo estabelecimento.

espaço

1. Citação preferida do episódio.

Carlos Couceiro:
Topher: Sure enough that I have serious ethical problems trying to wake him up.
Boyd: Topher has ethical problems. Topher.

Pedro Maciel:
Adelle: You’re quite certain of this?
Topher: Sure enough that I have serious ethical problems trying to wake him up.
Boyd: Topher has ethical problems. Topher.
Pela ironia.

ZB:
Echo: “Ok, so I probably never should have taken this course to begin with, but I figured it was mid-evil lit, not advanced evil, how hard could it be? So I skipped intro to evil or whatever, but how is it that I get an F, when this guy that we’re reading, Chauncey, can’t even spell?” Não tem impacto algum na história, mas é simplesmente hilariante.

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2. É raro o Enver Gjokaj ter tanto tempo de ecrã num episódio. O que achaste da sua interpretação?

Carlos Couceiro: Gjokaj é, a par de Lachman, um dos mais versáteis membros do núcleo principal e voltou a confirma-lo neste episódio.

Pedro Maciel: É raro mas não devia ser. Ele consegue dar-nos uma boa interpretação e ser assim o melhor do episódio.

ZB: Acho que o actor já provou que tem talento suficiente para ter mais tempo de ecrã. O mesmo em relação à Dichen Lachman. Ambos deveriam ter papéis de maior destaque. A série só teria a ganhar com isso.

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3. Belle Chose teve bastantes cenas a puxar para o cómico. Qual a tua preferida? Achaste que se adaptaram bem ao tema do episódio? Será que Dollhouse devia usar uma abordagem mais negra como, aliás, tem feito até agora?

Carlos Couceiro: Joss Whedon sempre soube dar comicidade às suas séries sem lhes roubar o negro. Um exemplo perfeito disso é o desconcertante Hush, para mim o melhor episódio de Buffy, por conter comédia, drama, terror e romance, numa bem empacotada embalagem. Ivy: “First Paul is going to take you on a spree.” Echo: “Shopping or killing? Joke.”

Pedro Maciel: Acho que tudo o que é forçado é mau e, muitas vezes, o diálogo mais leve é forçado na tentativa de criar o riso. E comigo não resulta. Acho forçado porque a caracterização das personagens não vai nesse sentido. Claro que toda a situação de Vitor na discoteca tem piada e aí justifica-se esta abordagem mais cómica. Mas tirando estes casos especiais, acho tudo muito forçado quando tentam pôr o Paul, o Boyd ou a Adelle a dizerem uma piada. Não liga com as personagens. A abordagem negra surge com os temas que vão aparecendo naturalmente. É o normal evoluir da série.

ZB: A minha cena favorita foi quando a Echo espeta o lápis (caneta?) no pescoço do professor. Fez-me lembrar a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” e o humor negro que lhe era intrínseco. Acho que “Dollhouse” tinha bastante mais a ganhar se recorresse mais ao humor negro do que ao querer fazer do Topher um comic relief, algo que, como já toda a gente parece que viu menos os responsáveis da série, simplesmente não funciona.

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4. Estavas à espera de melhor da dupla que nos trouxe Out of Gas em Firefly?

Carlos Couceiro: Esperava algo mais do que um filler e foi o que recebi. Contudo, estou algo desiludido com o modelo inicial destes episódios. Afinal quando a produção da temporada arrancou a equipa criativa já devia ter consciência que não iria ter mais do que estes treze episódios e que devia aproveita-los para desenvolver os muitos arcos individuais e colectivos que continuam em aberto.

Pedro Maciel: Nem de melhor nem de pior. Não ligo a quem escreve um episódio. Por vezes (depois de ver) sou capaz de ir ver quem escreveu e realizou. Mas neste nem foi o caso.

ZB: Pressuponho que a dupla seja o Tim Minear e o David Solomon. A resposta é não. Todos têm dias bons e dias maus. Espero algo mais quando o episódio é escrito ou realizado pelo criador da série, neste caso do Whedon, pois é ele que tem a chave para todos os elementos e é ele que sabe realmente retirar dos mesmos 100% daquilo que se quer. Por muito bem que uma sala de argumentistas funcione, ninguém sabe melhor o que quer que a série seja que o seu (ou seus) criador(es).

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5. O que achaste de melhor e pior no episódio?

Carlos Couceiro: O melhor foi sem dúvida a desconcertante interpretação de Gjokaj, que oscilou brilhantemente entre um jovem frágil e manipulador e um cruel e obviamente desumano psicopata. A participação de Michael Hogan, ainda que breve, também merece o seu destaque. So say we all! O pior talvez tenha sido o algo monótono encontro entre Echo (Kiki) e o Professor Universitário. Contudo acabou por valer a pena graças à troca de inprints (Victor como Kiki =D).

Pedro Maciel: Melhor: Victor! Pior: Tudo o resto. Episódio muito fraco este.

ZB: Melhor – A versatilidade do Enver Gjokaj. Pior – O desaproveitar do talento do Michael Hogan.

“Going Up?” por Stephan Sechi
Terry arranja os “manequins”.

“Twee For Two” por MusicBox
Ballard leva Echo / Kiki para o guarda-roupa.

“Keep My Heart” por APM
Echo e o Professor Gossen dançam.

“Let It Go” por Megha Maan
Victor / Terry procura por uma nova Sheila.

“House Of Dolls” por Torin
Topher tenta apagar as memórias de Victor.

“A Lady Sleeps” por Bobby LaVell
Echo / Terry esfaqueia o Professor Gossen.

“Remedy” por Little Boots
Victor / Kiki dança numa discoteca; Ballard chega para o ir buscar.