Smile On

Well, hello there.

Time for another dose of Untrue Tales:

Keep Smiling page 7

So I've been catching up with Joss Whedon's latest doomed tv venture Dollhouse.



















Now that the show's been cancelled it's finally getting pretty good. Which is just a symptom of its cancellation really since they are now free to dispense with the stupid "mission of the week" mandate and concentrate on the good stuff.

The show was pretty much doomed from the get-go by that selfsame "mission of the week" format (hereafter referred to as MOTW). I recently watched the unused pilot which fox rejected in favor of the rejiggered MOTW, and it was miles better than the one that actually aired. All the Dollhouse conspiracy stuff is pretty interesting while pretty much every MOTW episode had been a big fat yawn. A lot of which is due to some weak writing, but after watching big blocks of episodes, I'm sorry to say that the lion's share of the blame here really falls squarely on Eliza Dushku's shoulders. She's really the weak link in this show that was created specifically as a vehicle for her talents. But, gee, it turns out those talents are pretty limited. In a show where she's supposed to essentially play a different character each week, and then eventually an entirely new character amalgamated from all her different imprints, our lead actress really seems capable of three basic character modes: tough talking chick with an attitude, bubbly airhead, or wooden uptight librarian. While the other actors manage to do some amazingly varied and subtle character work (Sierra and Victor are particularly agile at slipping in and out of their different personas), the show comes screeching to a halt everytime Echo is onscreen. It's a shame really, because in the last few episodes, Echo the character has finally started to emerge as something new and interesting, but Dushku just leaves us with an empty space. Oh well. All in all, I'm kinda glad the show got cancelled since some dark animal portion of my nerdbrain compels me to watch anything that Joss Whedon puts on screen and I'd rather he move on to something more solid. I must say I'm enjoying the wind-up to the big finale. As mentioned, since it's been cancelled all the good ideas that Whedon has been saving up are now coming fast and furious rather than being parcelled out between the dead spots of a longer run. I look forward to seeing how it all wraps up. That said, I wouldn't recommend the eventual DVD collection to anybody except the hardcore Whedonites who doubtless have no need of a recommendation anyway.

Finally finished reading Joe Eszterhas' autobiography Hollywood Animal this weekend.
























This came out a few years ago and I was waiting for the paperback, but a paperback never materialized. So I bought the hardcover for 5 bucks at the Strand bookstore this summer. I love the Strand bookstore. And I love lurid tales of Hollywood excess and this delivers the dirt in big honking shovelsful. I mostly enjoyed it, even though ol' Joe himself seems like kind of an asshole. Well, not even kind of. Just really an asshole. He has a very high opinion of himself. Also, he left his wife for her best friend while on a family vacation with the kids. Nice timing, Joe. At the end of it all, after fucking half the bimbos in L.A., drinking an ocean of liquor and smoking a million cigarettes, Joe gets cancer, finds Jesus, kicks the booze and the smokes, and lives happily ever after. Which is convenient for him. A big yawn for me.

Here's a sketch of old man Joe:
























Smoke 'em if you've got 'em!