Bye Bye, Echo. We Hardly Knew Ye.

So Dollhouse finishes up with an episode that's a sequel to a year-old episode that never actually ran on FOX.  And if there was ever pure evidence of an idea wasted by ... what, network timidity?  The shortfall of a creative vision?  Or just the structure of American television itself? ... this is the one.

Wonder what would have happened if FOX had been able to accept the idea of, say, a one-season show -- thirteen parts with a stunning opener, an unexpected twist every week, and a killer closing that didn't allow for a second season or sequels?  You know: a story.

Instead, at least according to Whedon, the net forced a rewrite and reshoot of the pilot, played it out of sequence, and broke the back of the progressive concept in exchange for putting Elisha Dushku and her cohorts in really short skirts and silly melodramas for the whole first season. And very soon, very easily, nobody cared anymore. 

It's a bit of a mystery as to why FOX brought Dollhouse back for a second season at all.  Maybe they saw the error of their ways; maybe they simply didn't have anything else in the hopper that was worth a go at the time, and thought Whedon could put the pieces back together.  Ultimately, of course, he couldn't: by the time Echo had become the supercool Women of a Thousand Brains and the true, horrible plan of the Rossum Corporation was fully understood, the cancellation order had been issued, and the audience and moved on.

But the thing is ... it should never have happened.  This story -- at least what we saw of it, right up to the very end -- was perfectly structured for the "British Model."  One season. Maybe two, tops.  Beginning.  Middle.  And a stunning End that actually works. 

So to hell with FOX for screwing the pooch in the beginning, and kudos to same for letting him finish it as it should have begun.  Epitaph Two, the series finale showed us what might have been.  Elisha was never more fierce and beautiful, Whedon’s dialogue never sharper.  Everybody (except maybe poor Summer Glau, who got killed a few eps back) got a chance to shine, and Topher --Fran Kranz -- who started this show as almost pure comic relief, the most smart-assy Whedonesque voice of all, ended as the strongest and most sympathetic player in the bunch (if you blinked you missed him in Donnie Darko; he was wonderful and completely overlooked in The TV Set, a great movie about making a bad TV series – whaaa? – and next he’s doing another Whedon project, a feature called Cabin in the Woods, with – among others – Amy Acker!  Yay!).  Young Adair Tishler, last seen as the power-hunting li'l girl on Heroes, does an amazing, wise, spooky job as "Caroline" stuck in a tiny body (thirteen years old, but does a very convincing ten or eleven).  And also: thanks to whoever brought Alan Tudyk back, even for a few scenes (what, like he wasn’t busy enough with V and Sundance and all?) and gave Felicia Day, sweetheart of the internets, yet another small exposure in the wide world of TV (FOX is clearly Felicia’s friend; she was even more charming than usual in a recent turn on another FOX series, Lie to Me, not to mention that hot-hot pictorial – along with awful copy – about "Twitter celebrities" in the current Vanity Fair.)

FOX had a couple of tough years in there, post X Files.  Except for Bones, they couldn't seem to make any of the right decisions for Rush-type programs, and the disappointments that were Fringe and yes, poor Dollhouse, were the bottom of the trough, so to speak.  (Don’t mention 24.  Please.)  But now there’s the aforementioned Lie to Me and even more recently The Human Target, and things are looking up -- just a little.

You can read a bunch more on Contrariwise, out big-long-essay section. But briefly: Epitaph Two is great.  If only the restof Dollhouse had been half as challenging, exciting, touching, or just plain cool.  You can catch the finale right here on Hulu, and on Fox as well.  It's good stuff, especially if you saw the prequel, Epitaph One, floating around the net or hiding on the Season One DVD.  Either wait, it's worth it.

Too bad it was too late for Joss Whedon and Dollhouse -- not that a season either way would have mattered; it's more like the timing was always off, from the very beginning.  Still, it's a shame: it could have been so cool.