Joss Whedon has done it again. From the creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Serenity comes this amazing new show, Dollhouse. Its about this organization where volunteers have their minds wiped clean, and depending on the client's needs, they have differnt personas imprinted on them to suit different assignments. It could vary from being the perfect lover, to an assassination job, to being a bodyguard or a safe-cracker, all depending on what the client needs.
The 'Actives', as they're called in the show, are people who have volunteered five years of their lives to the Dollhouse, in exchange for a gigantic paycheck and solutions to all their problems. People who feel that they have no where else to go come to Dollhouse and give up those years, while not truly knowing what they're signing up for.
The Dollhouse is a very serene and tranquil haven for the Actives. It is designed to be extremely soothing, to allow the Actives to have zero conflict and shock when they're in the mind-wiped state. They even have yoga sessions on the patio upon the pond. And the best part is, they all shower together, male and female, cause in their blank state they supposedly have no desires or emotions. An erection or two subsequently proved them wrong.
It's a very dark show and it explores issues on moral ethics and identity. Can who a person is be changed just because she doesn't have memories of who she was? Or is character and personality something that goes deeper than surface consciousness? The beautiful and terrifying part about this is that the Actives truly believe they're the person they've been imprinted with, which makes them completely honest and real. This raises the question of how real they are, when they have been programmed to be real.
