The Pretender and Dollhouse

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's new show on Fox. Eliza Dusku stars as Echo, a programmable person who has a different role every episode. The series has come into its own, but the first few episodes reminded me of The Pretender.

The Pretender was a series that aired from 1996 to 2000. The voice-over in the opening credits is the best explanation I can offer for what the show was about:

There are Pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be. In 1963, a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod, and exploited his genius for their research.

Then one day, their Pretender ran away....

In every episode, Jarod takes on various occupations--doctor, lawyer, detective, teacher, pilot--to help people while he evades people from the Centre and tracks down his family.

The Pretender and Dollhouse follow different characters and have different premises, but their episodes have similar structures. Secret organizations whose control is slipping. Lead characters who take on new roles to solve a problem. The cool thing for the viewer is seeing these characters doing something different every week. The difference is, Jarod keeps his personality.

Jarod grew up in the Centre so even though he's socially awkward, his personality is intact. He knows who he is and he knows what he's doing. Echo, however, has her mind wiped after every engagement. She's a blank slate programmed with a new personality for each task. It was difficult watching her at first because she had no character growth. How could she, when there's always a reset button pressed after she's done for the day? The first few episodes of Dollhouse were mediocre because Echo's character didn't change. She was stuck in a repetitive cycle.

But now Echo is retaining pieces of personalities when she shouldn't be able to, and that's what makes Dollhouse interesting. It's funny in a way, because Joss Whedon has said in various interviews how he doesn't like "reset television" where characters do not change from episode to episode (see here, here, and here) but Echo is the ultimate character in reset television. She can't change because of past experiences because she can't remember them...but in a classic Whedon twist, she's starting to. The character who doesn't have a personality suddenly has memories of what she's done and what's happened to her. It's no coincidence her name is Echo.

Cross-posted on the ning.