DIY T.V.: Dollhouse

By the way, the Dollhouse episode last night was so boring I kept forgetting to pay attention.

1.  We GET IT!  Echo's a person, even if/when she's a blank slate.  Please stop pounding that in. 

2.  Stop with the procedural stuff.  Abused woman/kidnapping- blah.  Psycho boyfriend- blah.  Art heist- blah.  Personally liked the Fritney Fears body guard thing, but I know a lot of people thought that was blah, too.  And next episode is another procedural?  UGH.  

There isn't any investigation, so it's not CSI-fun.  There isn't any crazy over the top crime, so it's not Law and Order-fun.  Echo doesn't have tons of personality, so it's not Psych-fun, or even Medium-fun.  Echo's methods aren't that interesting, so it's not Burn Notice-fun.  

This cast of characters is not made for a good procedural, so PLEASE STOP concentrating on that aspect of the series.

3.  But keep the action.  Sure, I suspect a lot of the action scenes (ie, the pilot-opener motorcycle race) were demanded by the network.  But they're A GOOD IDEA.  Because when the main character isn't someone you (can) know all that well, emotionally hard-hitting scenes are near impossible- so awesome physical stunts are a must.  This past episode didn't have as much cool action as the others, and it felt the weaker for it.

4.  Throw Echo into the world!  SHE isn't interesting, because there isn't all that much "she," so Echo is only interesting in how other people react to her.  SO HAVE HER REACT WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.  Locking her in a (stolen) art gallery isn't fun.  Putting her in the midst of other people who know each other IS interesting though.  She can get into fights, and we can get the emotional stuff from the people around her. 

*She's the catalyst to stories, not center of those stories.*

5.  I don't know about the FBI guy at all, so I couldn't care less about him.  Something should be going on his life that's MORE important than the Dollhouse case, so that he feels more like a real, fully-fleshed person with his own life- and to create some tension.  

Because even though people are nasty to him all the time, his life doesn't have all that much conflict.  He wants to investigate the Dollhouse, so he does.  BORING.  And non-sensical, as is.  I suspect there's some boring backstory that will give the reason why the Dollhouse is important to him but backstory isn't all it's cracked up to, either.  Past is prologue, blah blah.  He needs a more dynamic life NOW, not some dynamic past we just missed seeing.

In short: the lives around Echo have to be more interesting, the stuff Echo does has to be more interesting, but Echo's emotional state isn't going to be all that interesting, so worry less about it.