Archives for posts with tag: Topher Brink

Sacha's Ted[#214 on my Buffy/Angel ranking
of all 254 episodes from both series]

Ted, like Ford in Lie to Me, has negotiated an extension of his existence without regard for a soul. While Ford was willing to trade his soul for a corporeal continuance as a vampire, Ted took another avenue. Back in the 1950s, he programmed what he could of his being into a robot to extend his existence through artificial intelligence, yet as Buffy has warned us with vampirism, this does not equate to extending life. The core of the being, the soul, departs, and though all the wiring and circuitry, be it neurological connections or actual wires, remains, the essence of that person is gone.

Robot Ted is similar to a vampire in that he appears human but lacks Read the rest of this entry »

This Doll was one too many for Mr. Lousy. For Raúl, she was an emotionally wrenching composite of characters with a mystery at the center of her being.

In today’s edition, Raúl will continue to respond to Mr. Lousy’s dissatisfaction with the Joss Whedon series Dollhouse. I have already addressed one complaint, uneven episodes; now, I shall proceed to a second problem: the proliferation/surprise revelations of Read the rest of this entry »

Whiskey after the Apocalypse. It’s all really going somewhere. Sometimes you have to look at the forest instead of the trees. The episodes are uneven, but the series is not.

I insisted that Mr. Lousy watch Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse this summer, and now my recommendation has been called into question. I am here to respond in part. I take complete responsibility for the recommendation and do not rue making it, though I do have some new thoughts after viewing it sort of in tandem with Lousy, though for me it Read the rest of this entry »

Dollhouse doesn’t have a lot of good times. Let’s celebrate this one, even though it’s provoked by the accidental and possibly catastrophic release of a chemical agent that has the potential of a weapon of mass destruction.

In working my way through a second viewing of the series Dollhouse, I believe I have now reached the point at which Mr. Lousy and I can finally now watch episodes in tandem.  This might be just the right spot for our summit.

“Echoes” is one of my favorite Dollhouse episodes.  I won’t say favorite because I’m re-evaluating as I make my second trip, and I don’t want to be presumptive, especially about my own tastes.

I know the episode has notoriety for its humor: everyone goes on a weird drug trip and it’s hilarious.

True and not true.  There is a lot more going on besides straitlaced control-freaks flipping out on something between highly potent weed and LSD.  The weaving of the comic, the tragic, character revelation, and partial exposition proves that the series could produce not only a fantastic episode, but also an episode that would move the Read the rest of this entry »