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Watching Dollhouse season two? Blogger Will Salmon is, and he’s still a believer [spoilers]:

Dollhouse episode 2.1 “Vows”

Dollhouse is back, back, BACK!! as Smash Hits may have said, had it ever covered queasy sexploitation sci-fi. Yep, year two of the miraculously not dead series started Stateside last Friday with ‘Vows’, an episode written and directed by Joss Whedon himself. Minor spoilers ahead, obviously.

Whedon has some considerable form when it comes to playing auteur, of course. ‘Hush’, ‘Once More With Feeling…’ and ‘Objects In Space’ were all his. Sadly, ‘Vows’ doesn’t quite live up to its predecessors. It’s not bad by any means, but the main plot – Echo marries an arms dealer in order to bring him to justice – isn’t explored enough.

It’s a shame, as this is the sort of knotty, morally ambiguous tale that Dollhouse was made to tell. Ballard, who spent all of last season trying to save Echo, is now forcing her to have sex with a killer. But this is barely explored, as the episode spends aaaaages in the Dollhouse itself, setting up subplots for the rest of the season. These include Echo’s growing self-awareness, the connection between Victor and Sierra, an inquisitive new senator, and giving big character moments to Topher, DeWitt and Dr Saunders.

Of these, Saunders’ breakdown is the most compelling, and not just because you get to see Amy Acker in a nightie. After last year’s revelation that she is an active, and the glimpses we’ve seen of her (final?) fate in ‘Epitaph One’, there’s an air of hopeless tragedy to her now. Some fine acting from Acker here and it’s a shame that her screen time is going to be limited this season.

So yay, Dollhouse is back, as awkward and entertaining as ever. But hopefully next week will step things up a gear.

This is a personal article by Will Salmon, one of our twelve bloggers. Are you watching Dollhouse? What are your hopes and fears for this new season? Your thoughts welcome below as always…