Bye Bye Echo. We Hardley 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.

Usually series like Dollhouse end with no real resolution at all (i.e., Jericho) or a hurried and unsatisfying whip-whap-whup (i.e., the American version of Life on Mars).  Once in a great while, they actually get to finish what they started just as the creators intended, as seems to be the case with the wind-up of Lost.  But rarely -- ever? -- has an essentially failed show -- a show that had obviously failed before its first season was in the can -- actually finished stronger than it began.  Only after its fate was sealed and nobody at the network seemed to give a rodent's rear did Joss Whedon find his voice and move the Dollhouse concept forward, in a dark and relentless direction that left those boring and embarrassing "kick-ass or touching hooker of the week'"storylines in the dust.

You can read a bunch more on Contrariwise, out big-long-essay section. But briefly: Epitaph Two is great.  If only the rest of 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.