we're all so sick of waiting
Nov. 1st, 2007 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reflectedeveI, um. Huh.
I don't really know what to think? I mean, I miss Joss' shows, all three of them, and Eliza Dushku played my favorite role out of all of 'em. I've missed her. My first reaction was Joss + Eliza = SQUEE!
Not sure what I think about the concept, though. After all my irritation with bad female characterization . . . Dushku's character in "Dollhouse" sounds dangerously like a woman with no personality. Maybe that would interest me if that didn't happen to a lot of female genre characters anyway, all the time; having an excuse for it wouldn't make it fresh, wouldn't make it any less frustrating.
I couldn't stomach a show that plays with a female character as, well, a doll, with that as its nifty psychological appeal. I'm sure the show will be about how horrible it is to play with people as dolls; but frankly, at this point? That's not enough. I wouldn't want a "dark" show like that right now, without the catharsis of seeing the woman break free of dollhood. If the show aims at giving Echo agency, as well as messing with the nature of identity, that could be great. Maybe. Otherwise, it'd just be too damn depressing, too metaphorically close to home.
The trouble is, it's been awhile since I really trusted Joss to do a good job with problematic subject matter. Buffy gets hailed as a great feminist success, but it had a lot of problems, and this one doesn't sound like any sort of guaranteed improvement. (People talk about Joss writing great female characters, but all I have to do is think about Fred from Angel, and I'm really worried.)
sometimes she will be completely elegant, completely naive, completely helpless.
Is it me, or are there alarm bells ringing somewhere?
I guess I'll just have to see. I wish he'd drop some of his comic commitments, anyway, because gods know he's pretty much proved himself incapable of juggling too many projects at once.
I hope I'm just being paranoid and jaded, and that this show will turn out to be filled with squee after all. (Would you believe me if I said that I still consider myself to be a Joss Whedon fan? I mean, I watch/read/at least partly enjoy just about everything he works on. I dunno.)
I don't really know what to think? I mean, I miss Joss' shows, all three of them, and Eliza Dushku played my favorite role out of all of 'em. I've missed her. My first reaction was Joss + Eliza = SQUEE!
Not sure what I think about the concept, though. After all my irritation with bad female characterization . . . Dushku's character in "Dollhouse" sounds dangerously like a woman with no personality. Maybe that would interest me if that didn't happen to a lot of female genre characters anyway, all the time; having an excuse for it wouldn't make it fresh, wouldn't make it any less frustrating.
I couldn't stomach a show that plays with a female character as, well, a doll, with that as its nifty psychological appeal. I'm sure the show will be about how horrible it is to play with people as dolls; but frankly, at this point? That's not enough. I wouldn't want a "dark" show like that right now, without the catharsis of seeing the woman break free of dollhood. If the show aims at giving Echo agency, as well as messing with the nature of identity, that could be great. Maybe. Otherwise, it'd just be too damn depressing, too metaphorically close to home.
The trouble is, it's been awhile since I really trusted Joss to do a good job with problematic subject matter. Buffy gets hailed as a great feminist success, but it had a lot of problems, and this one doesn't sound like any sort of guaranteed improvement. (People talk about Joss writing great female characters, but all I have to do is think about Fred from Angel, and I'm really worried.)
sometimes she will be completely elegant, completely naive, completely helpless.
Is it me, or are there alarm bells ringing somewhere?
I guess I'll just have to see. I wish he'd drop some of his comic commitments, anyway, because gods know he's pretty much proved himself incapable of juggling too many projects at once.
I hope I'm just being paranoid and jaded, and that this show will turn out to be filled with squee after all. (Would you believe me if I said that I still consider myself to be a Joss Whedon fan? I mean, I watch/read/at least partly enjoy just about everything he works on. I dunno.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-01 11:52 pm (UTC)Well, to give him his due, Joss actually ran shows with lots of female characters . . . which shouldn't be revolutionary, but kind of is, particularly for genre shows. And I enjoyed many of them, particularly towards the beginning of his shows. Though I agree that the quality of his female characters (and the shows in general) deteriorated immensely towards the last few seasons of Buffy and Angel.
Oh, I think Joss'll have a ball with it. It's wacky, experimental, and stars a vulnerable-yet-kickass girl (not so much a woman, I'm thinking).
But I'm right there with you, quietly chewing nails.
Good to have some company, anyway. ^^ I'm certainly interested to see how this goes.