Joss Whedon Doesn’t Answer My Questions

Buffy creator Joss Whedon got on the phone with journalists on Wednesday to talk about his new series Dollhouse and though he spent a good amount of time responding to questions, he didn’t really answer them.

The show, which got off on the wrong foot with the network, hasn’t done much to draw in an audience on Fox. The numbers have increased in recent weeks, particularly when you add in the DVR viewings, but Dollhouse still isn’t the hit anyone thought it would be.

Maybe that’s because it’s not the show we thought it would be, or even the show Joss thought it would be.

“When I pitched, [Dollhouse],” says Joss. “Mine was it’s Alias meets Quantum Leap. I thought of her more than anything as kind of life coach, as a kind of the person you absolutely need in your life at a certain moment who will either change you or comfort you or take your life to the level that you want it to be. And that could be something nice, evil, sexual. It could be any number of things.”

Life coach? Sorry, but I’m not getting that. And like a lot of people, I understand a rich guy hiring an active for something kinky or even illegal, but why would anyone hire an active to be a midwife, or a hostage negotiator. If actives are programmed with the combined personalities of others (sort of a mixies version of Quantum Leap) why not just hire a real expert? It makes no sense.

When Joss was asked about this point he responded, “I still have no problem with the idea that somebody very rich and very far off in the mountains would hire the perfect midwife because the birth of my child. . . you don’t want a thinker.”

Huh? As a woman who has given birth, I DO want a thinker handling my baby, not some robot who is programmed by a computer to do what she thinks is best.

The biggest complaint I hear from everyone who has seen the show is that it’s missing Joss Whedon’s signature wit. That pop-culture, word-play kind of banter is what made Buffy a classic and it’s completely missing from Dollhouse. It’s such a big issue that it was the very first question asked by TV Guide’s Matt Mitovitch. How did Joss respond to that?

“There is humor in the show but the fact of the matter is this is not a comedy. It’s not the lighthearted romp that the other shows were. It wasn’t designed to be a comedy. It’s not going to play that instrument. You have to do different things at different times. If people are feeling like it’s too serious, then either their expectation has to be changed, or we need to lighten up a little. But, yes, I don’t think they’re ever going to see the same sort of long, six page runs of just pure humor. This is not that show.”

Lighthearted romp? Buffy was a lighthearted romp? Okay, Angel maybe, but Firefly? I must be using a different dictionary because I don’t see those shows as lighthearted or romps! No one is expecting Dollhouse to be a comedy, but we do expect the kind of banter we’re used to from Joss and we can’t help but be disappointed when it’s not there.

In Dollhouse’s defense, even if Joss agreed with the issues thrown at him, there’s nothing to be done about it now. The show is already in the can and can’t be changed – one of the big disadvantages of finishing production before the show goes to air.

Still, Joss says that the second half of the short season will surprise viewers, as he feels they finally found their groove with this week’s episode “Man on the Street.”

“What happened with “Man on the Street,” was really, it just came to me as a concept really quickly. I pitched it to the network and for the first time, there was a real simpatico. They went, “Oh, yes, we get that,” and it was a very simple thing.

And then I wrote it faster than anything I’d every written. It just poured out of me. It was like all of that brewing that we’ve been doing became the soup of that episode and so it really was a game changer for us on set. The staff and the cast read it and a lot of tumblers fell into place. It was a big moment for us. It was a moment that we felt like we found a level and we were really proud of it. So I figure that other people may feel differently, but we walked away from shooting that episode going, okay, we just added a layer and we feel pretty excited about it.”

I’m not sure that what Dollhouse really needs is another layer but I’m willing to put my thoughts on hold until I see the end result of this game-changer episode. Certainly, seeing Echo playing a Stepford wife to a rich internet mogul is easier for me to buy than past personas, so there’s that. Joss also promises that we’ll get more into the seedy back story of how some of the dolls came to be.

“We’re dealing with people who have power and are abusing it and people who don’t and are trying to regain it and the ick factor gets very high. It seems to get high with Sierra quite a bit, but what actually happened to her is just as appalling as anybody’s story. She really gets put through it. But it’s not something we feel that we can shy away from without being a little hypocritical.”

Dollhouse with a dark side? Now you’re talking. I’d be much more interested in watching the show if it was about human trafficking, mind control, the whole dark side of human nature. Give me more of that and less of Echo as butt-kicker Barbie and I’ll stay tuned for the rest of the season.

In the meantime, is it too early to talk spin-off?

“Dollhouse Miami,” laughs Joss. “It looks like we, glasses off, have got a doll.”

Watch Dollhouse on FOX, Fridays at 9:00 after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Greg Gayne/Adam Taylor/Isabella Vosmikova/FOX