# Dollhouse (2009)

> A wiped young woman is rented out as a blank slate personality by a secret underground corporation, and begins to suspect something is hidden beneath her programmed identities.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/13944

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 25
- Episode runtime: 44 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: science fiction, drama, thriller
- Created by: Joss Whedon
- Network: FOX
- Cast: Eliza Dushku, Fran Kranz, Olivia Williams, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, Tahmoh Penikett, Harry Lennix, Matt Keeslar
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135300/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, morally unsettling, melancholic, sardonic, tense

## What critics say

Viewers broadly rate Dollhouse as a positive, imaginative science fiction series whose premise is rich, though its slow start and messy ending are commonly noted.

## Synopsis

Dollhouse (2009-2010) is a American science fiction thriller series created by Joss Whedon for FOX, a short-lived two-season serialized drama that was canceled after its second season. Eliza Dushku plays Echo, an Active whose mind has been wiped and imprinted with a new persona for each engagement, sent out from a secret facility by a shadowy operation run by Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams). Fran Kranz plays Topher Brink, the brilliant technician who programs the personalities, while Tahmoh Penikett plays Paul Ballard, an FBI agent who begins to investigate the organization. Each episode builds around a new client assignment, with Echo slipping into a different role and the people who wanted her to be that person pulling her deeper into a larger conspiracy. The engine of the show is the tension between the disposable identities and the question of whether anything of the original self survives beneath them. Set in a near future of cyberpunk cities and corporate power, the series blends procedural case work with a growing mythology. Its tone is eerie, morally unsettling, and sometimes playful, with a sharp sense of identity as a commodity. Fans of Westworld, Altered Carbon and Battlestar Galactica will find resonance in its blend of sci-fi concept and human drama.

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