It won't be renewed. This is only more staged drama in order to instigate sales of the DVD box set of Dollhouse.

Fox the network don't get DVD sales. This is unlikely to be staged by the network for this reason.

Dollhouse should be renewed based on it's episode 6 and later performance alone. Beyond that Fox owes Joss, Dollhouse, and the fans for screwing them over for episodes 1-5, and a second 13 episode run (with an actual promotional campaign this time) would be a sufficient apology. Fox's treatment if all of it's sci-fi properties has me very close to eliminating the network/studio from my potential viewing options on a permanent level. There are so many other things to do, why should I put up with people that so obviously dislike us?

Have some hope. Don't give it up before it's gone.

Dollhouse...You have been FOXED!! I hate to get involved with a good show on FOX. It will be gone before its time

We at the wiki represent obsessed fanatics of the show. I ain't giving up. There is a month to go before a decision. If fox is indeed factoring viewership on DVR, Hulu, iTunes and amazon, the so called Nielson ratings are out the window, Dollhouse is high up on the list factoring in all the other things.
Join us at the wiki and support the show on Hulu, Buy the season. If you want this show to stay on, word of mouth doesn't hurt.

scottbert - Fox the network don't get DVD sales

2 words - Family Guy

It's easy to complain, but how many of you are actually doing anything about it?

Hi everyone,

I'm sure if you're reading this you're a fan of science fiction, what I'm not sure of is if you're aware of the great show Dollhouse, filled with original ideas, exciting moments, and stunning performances. Unfortunately it appears it's on the cusp of being cancelled. As fellow science fiction fans, I'm sure you agree that there's too little of the genre on the TV as it is. Please email the following letter with your signature and email address to:-

* If you're a Twitter user, tweet @FoxBroadcasting.
* If you want to email, email askfox@fox.com
* If you're on Facebook, join the FOX Facebook group and post a message.

"
Subject Heading: Continuing Dollhouse

Dear Sir\Madam

I am writing to you as regards your program Dollhouse and to congratulate you on your nerve in trying out such an innovative program. This clearly shows FOX takes risks that other networks would balk at. Conversely, it would be a shame for this program be canceled as it falters at the first hurdle. It would be difficult for me to readily get behind a program launch of yours in the future, simply because I would be wary of having my hopes raised and being enticed by a program only to be disappointed by its early cancellation.

If you give it another thirteen episode run in the fall, I am sure viewing figures will grow as word of mouth accumulates. I am sure you have received many of these emails, indicating the depth of feeling of 'Dollhousers,' all vocal supporters of both the program and your bravery in giving such an unusual program a shot. Not to mention it will save the time, effort, and energy of developing a new project for an under the contract actress who worked exceptionally hard to promote the show's first season.

Thank you for your time and patience in reading this email, and I hope I find you in good health.

Yours Sincerely,

If Mr. Whedon and Ms. Dushku would come out say WHY they thought it was important to air a show about programmable shiny happy people getting raped and whored out then maybe I could care if it got renewed or not. Right now, I'd love to see this show get cancelled. I've watched every episode, won't buy the DVD's just to see one more, and I think I've been suckered, but it was something to watch after Sarah Connor.

Didn't the creator of the series already give up on it? That's usually a bad sign.

Joss hasn't given up on the show at all, all he has said is that FOX is being a bitch and while they are extremely hopeful and wanting to continue realistically FOX is known for this so he isn't naive

I have to concur with Captain Jack. Why such a smart, sensitive man as Joss would get behind such a twisted, diabolical idea as the Dollhouse will forever stump me. I know he throws in criticism and questioning from the characters themselves, but the fact remains the actives go out and have sex with people they won't remember the next day. It's an absolutely repugnant concept that should not be treated lightly in any way. We can only hope it gets cancelled post haste and the man can get on to better uses of his creativity and time.

The people who are trying to save the show are overrating it and acting like victims. Here is why Joss can't win; The plot to uncover the Dollhouse is extremely boring (just like uncovering Zeira corp in T:SCC). The only thing Eliza Dushku has going for her is her legs. I feel bad seeing Karl Agathon in the show. Joss only has one success: Buffy was good. However, Dollhouse is still a production from the writer & network responsible for screwing up Alien 4, derailing the entire series to the point where they won't resurrect (haha get it?) it. Serenity was also a disjointed mess of a movie that had too many concepts. Joss Whedon is good when he is making FUNNY shows with crazy events and dialogue with SFX/Magic. He should be taking over Bones and putting witches in it or directing a new Stargate. The locations, present time period, and other premises of Dollhouse, don't quite suit his writing style.

Dollhouse is a concept that always required longer than a season to develop. If it's ended, I will still enjoy reliving the 'window into the world' we will be left with, but no one will have gotten a sense of that world.

IMO the show deserves another season. Am I a Whedon fan? Yes. But does that mean I am blindly following? No. I am a Superman fan, but I can still criticize Smallville.

If Dollhouse were an awful show, with nothing keeping me excited every week, I would not be enthusiastic.

But as it is, every single episode leaves me wanting more. More more more!

Fox owes Whedon some respect. He gave them Buffy, he gave them Firefly... you would have thought they would understand what a huge mistake it would be to not trust him.

SAVE DOLLHOUSE! PLEASE!

"By Captain Jack Harkness at 10:38 AM ON 04/16/09

If Mr. Whedon and Ms. Dushku would come out say WHY they thought it was important to air a show about programmable shiny happy people getting raped and whored out then maybe I could care if it got renewed or not."

Someone with a Torchwood username complaining about rape in Dollhouse is the height of hypocrisy (given the fact that Torchwood treated rape as comic relief in its first episode, and ultimately treated the rapist as heroic)
Dollhouse is delving into the moral implications of its concept, the spiritual costs of "programmable shiny happy people getting raped and whored out" is what its about

i read these comments with much interest and found to my surprise as a diehard fan, that i echoed (haha) some of critics views as well, but hadn't admitted it. such grusome themes should NOT be treated lightly, and i think i watch in anticipation for joss and co. to sink their teeth into the meat of what they have taken on here. in response to the critics and to fox, look at buffy! there never was a sillier, more bubblegum surface of a show. yet in the 7 seasons it survived, the show dipped down into oceanic depths. the nature of evil itself. love. family. beautifully and so surprisingly dealt with. no one expected such a 'silly' show to do this, hence joss's cult status was born. now everyone is expecting brilliance straight from the gate, the stakes are higher and the themes of dollhouse are yes, perhaps even more disturbing than buffy, because we assume vampires aren't real, and we know, on some level, that mind control is. the discomfort i feel with the 'compromising positions' the activies are in, is what makes this show viable. it needs time and space, and our patience and support, to develop and come through. joss's work has all proven him to be an artist on solid moral ground. he will not disappoint us here. he has raised the bar. we just need to give it/him/them TIME, i.e. another season, to develop. don't give up on the dollhouse. you won't be sorry!

p.s. great letter and tips XFever. i will definitely write and tweet and facebook and keep the good faith. thank you

the show is boring in my imo and the ratings are abysmal from waht im hearing....sounds like fox has reasons to cancel this show.at least more than firefly..at least that show was entertaining with crappy ratings.

Networks are in a tough spot in terms of the DVR world. Networks put little weight on those numbers because people skip commercials. You skip commercials, you can't sell advertisement.

People who are criticizing the show for depicting human trafficking: that's precisely the point. Just because a work of fiction tells a story about a horrible act doesn't mean it condones it.

If this show makes you uncomfortable? Good. It's supposed to be uncomfortable to watch. It's supposed to make you think. It's not a feel good show. The show isn't saying, "Human trafficking, yay!" It's pretty clear the Dollhouse is not a moral concept. And the actors, writers, etc all find it an uncomfortable subject mater, but they're trying to tell a story about the people involved. They are definitely having discussions about this behind the scenes.

There aren't many people I'd trust to make a show about human trafficking. Joss is one of the few I would trust to handle it. I think he and all the writers/actors doing a great job with this concept. I'm hopeful for a second season.

Ok for those who are dissing the show because of the whole "pimps and whores" thing, that isn't what the show is about. It isn't endorsing that. It is saying that this could happen in the future with technology, and it poses the question of right and wrong. Which I think the show has proven that it thinks it is wrong. It is show that should make you think about that prospect, and you should be disgusted because that would be horrible it that really did happen. The show is suppose to insight thought and debate on the topic the show isn't pro mind erasing.

These comments for people wanting Dollhouse to be canceled, and citing glorified rape and memory wipes for that, have obviously never seen more than five minutes of the show... towards the early middle part of an episode.

Most of the shows pull an emotional string in me as you root for the dolls to figure out their situation, and as you realize yourself that what sounded like a cool idea is actually pretty damn cruel. The show itself portrays the idea of the dollhouse as being quite unethical (if you felt nothing once you realized their whole "escape" two weeks ago was just a plan to remove any subconscious "glitches", then you have no humanity).

I would like to say watch the show before you complain, but this is the Internet, and people don't do such logical things. I do know, however, that the supporters far outweigh the handful of detractors I've encountered in numerous places, which I can only assume are being trolls for the sake of it.

You detractors might as well lash out against the old Hallmark "Race for Freedom" for slavery ideals, or Hotel Rwanda for human rights issues. The dollhouse is about how this manipulation is wrong, and the unfortunate people who have gotten themselves involved, and the lone ranger Ballard out to stop it.

is it too radical for us to consider that we are all mind-controlled slaves?!?!?! by culture, social conditioning, tv shows(!) media news. consumerism. etc

for a tv show on a major network, to call our attention to this fact, IS radical. i'm waiting for joss and co. to take after billy wilder, who said, 'subtlety is fine. just make it obvious.' sock it over the fence, dollhouse. we love you.

While I watch the show and would continue to watch it if it survives to its final season I must say that it is not an Earth shattering show by any means. Sorry. All this "godlyness" being heaped upon Whedon is not just uncalled for and unwise, its downright offenssive. These are Television shows people, not life saving medicine. Lets grow up and realize that. Dollhouse in its vainglory is nothing more than a gussied up version of La Femme Nikita with Dushku only slightly less attractive than the taller more senusous Peta Wilson. The idea that it gets props from HULU, Fancast, DVR recording and whatever is great but Nielson should still matter, after all it is THE standard, so her throwing that out like it is obsolete is her naivete. Anyway, what ever happens to this show, I am not wasting my energies to fight for it. If it survives it should be on its merits like any other show. If its good enough it will, if not it won't. Ces't La Vie, I've got my ticket to Zen and I am on my way either way.

Nodding to antipyrene, I gather my coat about me and head off into the night to brood. I hate it when other people are right.

Having had enough time to brood however, I have to say in Torchwood’s defense, that the point of their first episode was to show the power of the alien artifacts under their control such as the glove that resurrected people from the dead, the scanner that could transfer entire hardback books into digital books, and the spray that could control people’s minds (the date-rape drug). They showed Owen using the spray, yes, then they showed Jack taking it away from him, making a big point that it was wrong, locking it up, and it was never used in the show again. I think that’s important. And yes, Owen became a hero in the show. Well, Jack started out as a con-man in Doctor Who and became a hero in that show, then got his own show. Angel became a hero, and got his own show, too. Spike became a hero and was on Buffy and Angel. Oh, even the most beloved Doctor Who stole his TARDIS from dry-dock and ran away from his own people so that makes him a thief at best but he’s a hero that saves people, isn’t he? I think the word we’re looking for here is REDEMPTION. That’s what makes good drama.

So Dollhouse “is delving into the moral implications of its concept, the spiritual costs” – yeah, right. The only character inside the Dollhouse with any soul left at all is Boyd who freely admits they’re all “pimps and murderers.” The rest of them are as dead inside as the dolls themselves. Every week I see a show with human trafficking and whoring and I have yet to see them make a point about it. I know it’s a bad thing, I want to believe that Joss and Eliza think it’s a bad thing, but I’ve yet to see on my screen one good reason to believe that’s what they think! All I see is that woman running the place taking in suitcases full of money week after week and dolls keep getting whored out again. Moral implications in this show? Spiritual costs? I don’t think we’re watching the same show.

the dollhouse is a brutal metaphor for much that we are left to brood upon, captain jack. as vampirism was a metaphor for MUCH to brood about in buffy and angel. the seedy dark bad neighborhoods of our collective unconscious. an artistic description of such is NOT approval of it. uncomfortable? hell yeah.

let's not kill the messenger.

My appreciation of Dollhouse falls resoundly in the fact that it is the antithesis of what Joss has always done in the past--shows that rest on the foundation of cohesiveness. Buffy had the Scoobies, Angel had his investigative team, Firefly from the beginning was a "team" effort. They all counted on, trusted, and relied on each other. Dollhouse counts on the fragmented personas and morally devoid elements of the characters, whether by nature or by science. Is it disturbing? Absolutely. Does it make the viewer uncomfortable? For sure. But then again...those same things were said about Buffy and Angel and the violent tendencies that came from both shows, not to mention the overt sexuality that was also involved. Dollhouse is certainly not the first show to depict human trafficking and rape...but, it's the first one that does it in a way that forces the viewer to "feel" it, instead of just making it a sidebar that is easily brushed off and relegated to background noise, as is done on 99% of the crime dramas seen on TV today.

I hope they renew it. It would probably get better ratings on a different night, though. I have seen every single episode, but I have never once watched it on TV because of the scheduling. I always watch it on Saturday on Hulu.

There're some great insights into the show in this comment thread -- I'm really glad I read it! -- and into the challenges Joss is facing in trying to bring this off.

Captain Jack Harkness, I think your moral concerns are marvelous and I'm glad you have them, but I don't quite understand why you aren't picking up on the horror (and of shocked recognition) that clearly many of the rest of us keep on feeling as we watch the show. Are you trying to distance the entire problem because it rightly offends you so much?

Do you think, for example,when the head executive of the dollhouse is so outraged when a handler takes sexual advantage of his own active that she has had him mercilessly "executed." Then we learn that she herself is guilty of using one of the dolls as a sex-slave and a fantasy object. Doesn't that carry a wallop of a moral judgment? She is conflicted and self-hating and implacable. Topher's undeveloped moral sensibility is just waiting to explode within him.... These "grown-ups" are twisted children masquerading as competent adults.

Yet we also see Adelle sobbing, because she knows she can't go on with this and yet it means she can't allow this side of herself -- the side that needs companionship and love -- to be paid attention to at all in the "real" world. I think you have to trust the moral instincts of the show.

(Spoiler) In a similar way, from reading other comment threads I think a lot of viewers missed a big part of the impact of the conclusion of the Season in "Omega." Paul Ballard chooses to free Mellie, and not Caroline, because he recognizes that his love for her is something real and because he has come to forgive her for having been used as a doll. He perceives in her that inward beauty that he had fallen in love with in the first place and he realizes that she had been victimized. It's the very old "prostitute with a heart of gold" motif. Because he has grown enough to know he loves her, and that there is a person there to love, he sets her free.

He was at his very worst, morally, when his scorn for her allowed him to treat her as a sexual object and to hate her. Of course, that was only part of the story. He also had to "use" her and maybe that is part of why he was able to transcend his former judgment of her and rise to a genuine act of understanding.

Mellie had always felt that Caroline was her rival for his affections. In letting Mellie go, she was winning the ocntext, even though she may never know it. He was also choosing reality over a fantasy-dream, his personal fantasy-dream of rescuing a girl he only knew from her photograph.

In a second season, I'd bet Mellie is NOT out of the picture at all.
And by the way, it is Adelle who appreciates that this is an act of genuine love on Paul's part as she watches him do this....

When he doesn't "ask for her number, either, that's the biggest moral victory of all. He has the advantage over her because he knows so much more than she does, even about her. That is why teachers or therapists can't sleep with their own young students without it being exploitation and taking advantage of them.

These aren't simple characters...or problems. I've been so compelled by this show that I've tried to set out my own explanation of what I think Joss is doing and why it's high art -- and why it's intensely moral art. (I'm a retired professor myself.) If anyone's interested, it's over at a blog run by some of my former students, www.thelandofunlikeness.com.