TV roundup

• I'm gratified that Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is going to get a second season. I think that, after some initial missteps, it's become a hell of a show, a powerhouse whose surprises are, actually, surprising, and the unraveling of the show's mysteries over the past season has often been delightful. The premise of the show is, basically, that there are "dollhouses" that offer up fully-programmable human beings who will basically do whatever you want them to do. It's surprising that not a single episode so far has explored one of the most obvious applications of this premise--assassinations--and the show has played down the prostitution element, perhaps because that's just indefensibly exploitative and evil, instead creating a cast of fascinating, morally ambiguous characters but few good, likeable ones. Even the ostensible hero--an FBI agent played by Tahmoh Penikett, formerly of BSG--is not exactly sympathetic (and may be a sellout!). There are few outright heroes and few complete villains--Alan Tudyk's Alpha is an exception to the latter rule--and each mission usually involves putting the doll in question into the world with minimal supervision and, of course, without informed consent. They did sign up for the treatment but it's clear that they didn't know what that would entail. And even if they knew, one cannot sign away one's freedom, right? The show, uncharacteristically for television, does actually grapple with some weighty themes and arrives at some satisfying conclusions. In essence, the dolls eventually wind up reverting to their "real" selves, even though their brains are frequently being reassembled. Nontheists might not like the show's assertion that we're more than the sum of our parts, but the show does look (with some plausibility) at some of the seamier aspects of underground capitalism and tweaked scientific ethics, and it does add up to a fairly coherent damnation of them. The show could possibly become something of a hit--it taps into some very current anxieties about all of these things.
  
  I do wonder how this show will translate into a long-running series. I think it will be tricky to preserve the moral ambiguity of the Dollhouse universe after the argument has been made that it's not moral, but that ambiguity was one of the things that made the show interesting. I trust Whedon's judgment at this point--this is something well worth looking into.
  
  
• It's regrettable that Dollhouse made it but that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles didn't. At times during the last season, TSCC was some of the best entertainment around, but there was a lot of filler and a number of missteps during the last season, as well as an inability to understand what was cool about the show (and it wasn't the eponymous heroic mom so much as the robots!). However, it really started to gel during its last handful of episodes, by blending a fascinating mixture of robotic and human characters together in a rather strong narrative arc involving a robotic CEO from the future and her ambiguous motives toward judgment day. It's frustrating when promising shows get the axe, and TSCC could have been a really strong show, especially if they'd had the desire toward more ambitious storytelling. Oh well.
  
  
• It's unclear to me what's happened to 30 Rock, but the quality has gone down significantly recently. This past season often felt belabored and overthought, with the only real bright spot being the breakout success of Jane Krakowski as the Jenna Maroney. Jenna was something of a drag during the first two seasons--kind of an easy target, the dumb-blonde basketcase Norma Desmond wannabe--but in this season Krakowski infused her with a playfulness and innocence that has really made the character one that can hold her own with the likes of Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy and Tracy Morgan's, well, himself. This season was largely forgettable, though...not a single Greenzo amongst the episodes, and the episodes featuring Salma Hayek were a grave miscalculation (though the Generalissimo ep was rather funny.) . Hayek is a fine actress but not a gifted comedienne, and the elevation of Kenneth--to the point where nearly every episode has a storyline revolving around K--was another unwelcome development. Kenneth has his moments, but there's a danger of his being overused, and I felt like that happened this season. The show's neglect of Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger was another mistake, in my mind, as the show tended this year to be wacky and silly, and not biting and edgy, and Adsit is always good for some worldweary bitterness. In the season finale Jack tells Liz that TGS has two years of life left, max, which is an interesting observation to apply to the show about that show. I wonder if Tina Fey isn't feeling just a wee bit restless still on television, though I'm not sure she's ready to launch into the world of cinema, considering that Baby Mama was something less than a stunning success.
  
  
• And there's The Office, which was busy having a banner year mixing comedy with pathos. I'm not sure many people have noticed that Office is a downer show, especially this season. Both Pam and Michael had to abandon their dreams (actually, Pam had to do that twice, though the second time turned out all right) to face reality. The Office isn't quite as true-to-life or clear-eyed about the compromises of the cubicle life as its British progenitor, but it's surprisingly uncompromising for a U.S. television program, and while the Jim-Pam relationship never quite managed the emotional impact of it's British cousin, it's still better than virtually all sitcom romances. The Office is unquestionably one of the best shows on the air right now--especially in terms of consistency and quality--and it looks like smooth saling for the time being.