FOX will announce its 2008-09 schedule at its upfront presentation to advertisers on Thursday (May 15), but fans have already been anticipating Dollhouse and Fringe for months.
Created by J.J. Abrams with frequent cohorts Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Fringe is expected to have a place on the fall schedule, launching with a two-hour pilot believed to be budgeted in the $10-million range and directed by Alex Graves (Journeyman). The cast of the X-Files-esque drama is led by relative newcomer Anna Torv — hoping to catch a little of the magic Abrams gave to Keri Russell, Jennifer Garner and Evangeline Lilly — but includes familiar faces including Joshua Jackson (Pacey!!!), John Noble (Denethor!!!) and Lance Reddick. Viewers will likely have to wait a little longer for Dollhouse, which seems destined for midseason. Joss Whedon is writing and directing the pilot, which brings Eliza Dushku back to primetime. I’ve read the script for each pilot. Keeping in mind that between rewrites, casting and directing choices original pilot scripts can be as different from the eventual pilot as night and day, here are a few first impressions:
Fringe Written by J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
What It’s About: When something disturbing, unexplainable and just a bit icky happens to the passengers on an international flight, FBI Agent Olivia Warren (Torv) begins an investigation that leads her to Dr. Walter Bishop (Noble), a renegade scientist whose unorthodox experiments into fringe phenomena led to arrests and eventually institutionalization. Warren can only get Bishop out with the help of his estranged son Peter (Jackson), a young man with a genius IQ, but questionable morals and motivation. The son isn’t ready to reconcile with his father, the father isn’t ready to be reintegrated into the outside world and Olivia isn’t ready to serve as babysitter, but they form an unlikely team. How does the airplane tragedy relate to The Pattern, a spate of unexplained occurrences sweeping the world? And what does any of this have to do with the mysterious Prometheus Corporation, one of the world’s most forward-thinking companies? And what do we make of Broyles (Reddick), the head of the Homeland Security’s newly formed Fringe Division?
How It Reads: The script I read feels like an early draft. It’s rife with typos and comes in at more than 110 pages, far longer than any two-hour pilot could handle. Once 20 pages of the script are trimmed, I’m assuming the pilot will play far better. The script has an X-Files meets Altered States meets Alias vibe that’s immediately familiar and comfortable. The actual plot of the pilot could probably have fit into a standard hour, but Abrams and Company are making the effort to give the material a global scale and the script plants at least a half-dozen potential running mysteries that will allow Fringe to have both serialized elements and also freak-of-the-week plots. The set-up of these three individuals against a vast corporate/government conspiracy has been fruitful for Abrams in the past and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t work here. While Abrams has always been able to write carefully delineated female characters, Olivia is initially the weakest link in the show’s core trio, another strong, career-minded female whose personal life threatens to undermine her professional prospects. The inevitability of a strained will-they/won’t-they romance between Olivia and Peter already has me rooting for an expanded role for Astrid, the FBI underling to be played by Jasika Nicole.
How It Might Play: For FOX, the best thing about Fringe — other than getting into the J.J. Abrams business, of course — is that the series has the potential to partner with almost any established show on its schedule, depending on how they spin it. It’s the story of two bickering partners solving crimes and flirting? Team it with Bones. It’s the story of a brilliant and eccentric man with limited social skills? Let’s match it with House. It’s about a strong, single woman doing whatever she has to do to save the world? Sounds like a match with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. While I can’t speak for Torv, the other lead roles seem perfectly cast, though Fringe isn’t going to be sold as a star-driven show. It’s going to be sold as FOX’s attempt to reclaim the X-Files demo that the network has jeopardized with the swift cancellation of too many shows from folks like Whedon and Tim Minear. The script lends itself to a large-scale pilot and it should leave viewers knowing exactly what to expect in the episodes to come, which is more than can be said for…
Dollhouse Written by Joss Whedon
What It’s About: Echo (Dushku) is a Doll. She’s a young woman imprinted by a group of shady scientists as a blank-slate-for-hire. Depending on how she’s programmed, she can be a glorified prostitute, the ideal wedding date to make your ex-girlfriend jealous, a butt-kicking bodyguard or a sympathetic confidante. She can be anything you want. And she’s not the only Doll in the Dollhouse, a vast holding facility overseen by Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams). When Echo hasn’t been imprinted by programmer Topher (Fran Kranz), she’s supposed to be a blank slate, but Topher and Dr. Claire Saunders (Amy Acker) are beginning to notice signs of learned behavior from Echo, signs of memory. If Echo’s becoming self-aware, that might be the break to help Paul (Tahmoh Penikett), a federal agent trying to get to the bottom of the Dollhouse urban legend.
How It Reads: A good pilot should do one of two things: It should either lay out the blueprint for the rest of the series or it should intrigue you so much that you can’t wait for the second episode. Fringe falls into the first category. It leaves almost nothing to the imagination in terms of what’s coming next. Dollhouse falls into the second category. Whedon’s script builds into a mystery that’s as much philosophical as science fiction. The introduction to the show’s universe is immediately disorienting, but also enthralling, as Whedon mixes elements of the conspiracy thriller with what threatens to become a profound meditation on identity. Dollhouse comes across as darker in tone and slower in pace than anything Whedon has previously attempted and while there’s humor sprinkled throughout, the sensation at the end is one of overarching menace and also sadness. The pilot script concentrates on only three or four main characters, though several others are introduced in passing, and it offers no stand-alone elements. After reading the pilot, I’m ready to go on the journey with Whedon even though I can’t figure out what the week-to-week plot of the show is going to be.
How It Might Play: Since Desperate Housewives and Lost made the major networks want to dive back into the serialized drama business, viewers have made it clear that they’re cautious about starting a show that might get cancelled mid-story. Dollhouse feels like the sort of show that might have been better suited for FX or HBO or Showtime, where Whedon’s devoted audience could make a show a hit. But Dushku had a talent deal at 20th Century Fox TV and with FOX and this is totally her vehicle, the sort of role that most young actresses would kill for. Since Echo is constantly being other people, Dushku is in position to go from action star to sex kitten to child-like innocent in the course of a dozen pages. It’s Dushku’s show, but the pilot suggests potentially meaty roles for Williams, Kranz, Acker, Penikett and Harry Lennix, as Echo’s trainer. While recognizably Whedonesque, Dollhouse finds Joss going in different direction, one that may be less quippy and less plot-driven than some might expect. The fans will still love it, I suspect, but will Dollhouse be able to find an audience beyond the Whedonverse? I’m not sure. So this could be one of those "Enjoy it while you’ve got it" gems.
In other words, they are both horrible and will be canceled quickly.
FOX should have stuck with what worked–New Amsterdam.
Dollhouse sounds wonderful for thoughtful intelligent viewers, of which there are vanishingly few. So Fox will kill another Joss show. Sigh.
Yah, it’s a shame for Whedon, if only he wrote stupid, audience friendly shows, then he (and we) wouldn’t suffer constant cancellation.
ANDREA
Are you fucking insane? new Ansterdam was so fucking terrible i had to stop watching half way through the second episode.
Dollhouse sounds cool, but why does whedon keep going back to fox? Surely he has learnt his lessson. Other channels must be foaming at the mouth to get him on board.
I’ll take one episode of new Whedon on the air. I miss his excellence, so I’ll hope for the best and soak up all I can.
And for anyone who’s going to post along the lines of “I won’t watch until it gets picked up for season 2” so that you don’t get invested in a new show that’ll be canceled… don’t be that guy. That mentality drives me nuts – as it actually directly leads to cancellation when ratings are low.
Why the hell would Whedon want to work with this network again? This has “Wonderfalls” written all over it – Brilliant show with a fantastic female lead on a show that the network doesn’t get, so it gets scrubbed after three or four episodes.
“Dollhouse” should have gone to a platform where network expectations aren’t going to be unrealistic to meet. F/X doesn’t have much going on, why not use that Fox product – give it a concise 13 episode arc of a season and keep it on the air when only three or four million tune in each week.
Boo it does sound as though Dollhouse has potential to be cancelled. But I am going to put a bit of faith into Fox and hope that they will learn from what happened with Firefly, at the moment they dont sound as though they interfering with production, but that might be because there hasnt been enough filmed yet.
As for J.J’s new show, not overly excited, I would be if Lost was over and done with but I dont think my ickle brain will be able to cope with so much twisty turnyness. Also from the description it is sounding more than a little like a mix of lost and heroes and to be honest they are both a bit old hat. Give us something fresh JJ
Fox is desperate for a hit, a hit that isn’t American Idol, so I’m guessing that they’ll be a little patient with both Fringe and Dollhouse, and let them find their audience and niche. Why else take on these sorts of shows? And this is a worse network than Fox for speculative story telling…CBS, anyone?
All shows have a potential for cancellation, on Fox more so it seems. It all depends on what show Dollhouse gets paired up with. If Fox pairs this up with American Idol which is a mid-season show each year, then Dollhouse will get enough views to keep it around. Pairing it up with House or Bones might work as well. If they leave it out to dry say on Friday at 8pm, see Wonderfalls then it’s done already. Dollhouse has Tuesday at 9pm written all over it. We are speaking of Fox though. So I would not be surprised to see on Thursday at 9pm which would also be a kiss of death. Mondays and Wedneday might work as well provided it’s parried with the right lead in. Lets hope it gets the back in of American Idol at least a couple of times. You never know about Fox though I’d never thought Prison Break would last this long.
I hope the show with Dushku. I have missed her on TV. I liked Tru Calling and was upset when the show ended. I have been a fan of hers since she was on “Buffy”
Andrea, you won’t be much respect from many real tv fans by saying Abrams and Whedon suck, then immediately following it up by praising Mew Amsterdam.
Seriously, I find it super funny that the author of this article mentions the typos in Abrams script when this “article” is filled with them.
Either way I’m pretty much on board with anything Whedon does. Dancing pigs? I’m in.
I love everything Joss and JJ does, and am glad that FOX has picked up shows from these great writers. I’m willing to give FOX the benefit of a doubt, since their post-Firefly record is not bad and they did renew Sarah Connor Chronicles despite mediocre ratings and were more patient with subpar shows like Tru Calling and Dark Angel than they deserved. TC and DA were just terrible.
The huge question in my mind–since my mind is completely made up that I’ll watch every episode of “Dollhouse” that Fox airs, and buy the DVD set of the “complete series” after they cancel it–is this:
Will it end with the “Grrr Arrgh” Mutant Enemy logo?
Emerald,
I believe that Mutant Enemy is no more.
So looking forward to having a weekly Whedon fix again! And I’m sure I’ll check out Fringe as well.
New Amsterdam was bad. I wanted to like it. I tried. But it was just bad.
I don’t see what the fuss about Whedon is. Firefly wasn’t all that great and the movie version was painful to watch. The Dollhouse show sounds good, but it will require a lot of attention from viewers. Other than hardcore Whedon fans, this show will have trouble attracting viewers.
Let’s face it people, most of us don’t watch TV for the art. We watch 30 min or 1 hour of it a day to escape the reality of our pathetic lives. Most of us will settle for dumb sitcoms for a few cheap chuckles or some reality show to remind us that as pathetic as we are, there are worse people out there. Those of us who like quality tv already are invested into to many shows to watch and probably won’t want to invest time into another.
If Dollhouse comes out toward the end of Lost’s run, then it might attract some of Lost’s viewers looking for something beyond mindless TV, but other than that, it probably won’t do well.
I thin Dollhouse sounds like a great show. I think it would have been nice to pair it on a night with New Amsterdam but I saw they cancelled that show.
So I guess I would love a fox night of Terminator and Dollhouse to keep me tuned to fox for the night.
At least there is potential by the names to go thru the whole Echo, Bravo, November alphabet and have alot of different dolls introduced over time.
I will definitely watch Dollhouse for three reasons:
1. Joss Whedon
2. Eliza Dushku
3. Tahmoh Penikett
I hope it’s good, it’s got three ingredients for a good show already.
Mutant Enemy still exists on paper to the extent Joss could trot it out again if he gets another proeprty that he basically owns. Heck, Four-Star, Calvada, Cayuga, Villa de Stephano, those are all gone, “presentation companies” don’t really last.
Dollhouse’s 4 disc complete series is going to sit right perfectly next to Firefly on my DVD shelf.
Ok,, this is a long shot, but i will laugh my head off at the irony of this if it happened.
What if, in a scene, when Echo’s on a mission, we see a cameo of the TSCC characters in the background, and vice versa.
I wonder if Whedon is making a mistake (I haven’t met him, so I don’t feel comfortable calling him Joss). Early Buffy episodes are heavily plot driven, and I think a strong story is how you pull in an audience, especially if you’re dealing with something really strange.
I haven’t read the script, though. If he’s showing character through action rather than character through dialog about what the other characters are like, then the show may be quite powerful stuff.
The real test is the time slot. Firefly, Wonderfalls, Point Pleasant, etc. were all on Friday night without any promotion and died. Any night that isn’t Friday or Saturday, in any timeslot that isn’t directly against Lost, Heroes, or Chuck, and Dollhouse will flourish.
Dear Andrea
Stick to reality tv please since you have no clue what good television is…i bet you have a ratings box don’t you?
Both of these shows stand their best chance on FOX because FOX is the only network with similar shows, and the network isn’t cancel happy. The proof is in terminator, they easily could have cancelled that and didn’t. And now they have a compnaion piece in fringe to pair with Terminator to create a solid night of television. Also might i suggest that Whedon TV is destination TV. His fans will follow the show, I think if they schedule it so it doesn’t have too much competition they could win say a friday or a saturday night consistently with it. And in as much as new Amsterdam had potential, i agree, the show just never got good, and Canterbury’s had to go as well.
John, you make me laugh! I’ve always make jokes about who gets ratings boxes, too!
It continues to amaze me the amount of bickering and flaming that discussion of Whedon shows and other “thinking” shows, such as Abrams, cause. I think that’s just proof that there is more too them, whether you like the show or not. Only something of substance could cause so much argument, I think. I for one, love anything Joss touches, but respect those who disagree, so I’d appreciate the same from them. I detest reality television and just didn’t get into Moonlight and New Amsterdam b/c the premises were so similar to Angel that I just kept wanting Angel back, and since I have Bones, I didn’t feel compelled to watch those two (now canceled) shows.
With that said, I am looking forward to these shows! And my opinion of why Whedon ended up at Fox is because he probably really wanted Dushku, but she was locked in at Fox. We’ll know if Fox really has “faith” (ha ha – buffy pun) in the show by how it schedules it (for example, will it give it Firefly/Dark Angel’s death slot of Friday night from the get-go?).
By the way, this is a different “Andrea” than the initial poster.
Joss agreed to do this on Fox because they’re not the same people running things there that were there when Firefly was cancelled.
It all came about when he had lunch with Eliza, apparently, she mentioned the deal she had with Fox and they got chatting and came up with an idea.
I agree with what most of you are saying Fox will probably give this show the death slot of Friday but that is not necessarily terrible. I would be really sad if this gets the show canceled but as long as Dollhouse can get advertising dollars to Fox it will stay. So here is to hoping someone at Fox is a Whedon fan and makes the effort to keep it going even if it ends up on Friday.
Dollhouse and Fringe both sound great, but considering FOX’s post-House new show record, those two shows will be up for quite challenge. I think FOX learned their lesson when they placed Firefly on fridays and I highly doubt that they’re gonna put it on Friday nights. As far as pairings go, I would say that Dollhouse could go along with either: Idol, Terminator, Prison Break or House. As for Fringe, perhaps Bones?
P.S. New Amsterdam was actually a surprisingly good show, but, unlike the 2 new shows, FOX never really gave it a chance for a successful run.
FYI: When I mean it by the way, I mean Dollhouse.
I agree, Dollhouse looks like unless if they have Idol or House to lead it in, the show is up for a tough 7-episode season. Speaking of New Amsterdam,it would have been better if it was a blockbuster movie than it was tv drama.
Troy, I have to respectfully disagree about the time slot. Dark Angel aired the first season on Tuesdays and did OK enough to get a second season, at which point Fox moved it to Friday and it died. Firefly started on Fridays and died. I just think that is a bad timeslot when your target audience (18-30) is out partying. It seems like a dumb move. And I think Fox is well aware of that, too. The problem is that you can’t go up against ABC and CBS on Thursdays (that killed Tru Calling) or Sundays. And they won’t budge American Idol from multiple Tuesdays and Wednesdays (they already jumped Bones, a well performing show, around for that many times), so it really doesn’t leave Fox with much play room, so they end up putting sci-fi on Fridays, hoping the traditionally dedicated fanbase will be home.
Well, “Fringe” is going to air on Tuesdays at 9 after “House” in the Fall and “Dollhouse” is going to air at 8 p.m. before “24” at midseason. Hardly the death slot for either of them. People need to remember that there is always high turnover going on in network programming departments. The people making decisions today aren’t the same people who made them 2 or 5 or 10 years ago.
Good thing Fringe is Abrams (and therefore probably more mainstream) b/c being on Tuesdays it will probably get bumped some for American Idol stuff as Bones often did in that timeslot.
Fringe has been paired with House/American Idol on Tuesdays. It has competition in Scrubs (don’t worry it’s viewers are decreasing)/The Goode Family, The Mentalist, Surviving the Fulthy Rich (on The CW), part of the Biggest Looser, and Kath & Kim.
Dollhouse will come mid-season and will lead in 24 (wow most of you forgot it in your dream pairings…)
Terminator fans will probably see a lot of commercials for Dollhouse as Dollhouse is replacing it mid-season. It appears to face part of Dancing with the Stars, The Big Bang Theory/HIMYM, Gossip Girl, and Chuck.
So no Friday for either of them.
At this point, I’d say Fringe has a better chance than Dollhouse.
I agree with ya, Heradite. I think Fringe is going to have a better chance of survival especially because it has a lot less competition than Dollhouse and because FOX is going to promote Fringe more (kinda ironic since Dollhouse is from 20th Century FOX TV, while Fringe is from Warner Brothers)
This is kinda disappointing towards Whedon fans, since Dollhouse is going to be placed in a worse time than the JJ Abrams show.
I read Dollhouse is supposed to be more stand alone episodes then serialized. But that’s how Angel was supposed to be too. Bt Season three it was a 22 episode movie.
Joss will deliver. Glad to see him teaming up with Dushku and Acker
24’s a pretty good lead in. So if the show fails you can’t blame fox. You have to blame lame viewers that will only watch reality shows.
Daniel I have a question. What does it mean she’s a Doll. IS she a human that was kidnapped and brainwashed or a robot or is this part of the mystery? Fox doesn’t really need another chick robot show featuring a whedonverse actress as this point.
Jason S. Dollhouse is leading into 24.
Also, Fringe while it does have a great lead in with House/American Idol, it will have to go against the Dancing with the Stars results show. So as long as it doesn’t bleed viewers it should at least finish 2nd in its time slot. I don’t think the NBC shows (Biggest Loser and Kath & Kim) will provide much opposition and CBS also is airing a new show (The Mentalist) opposite it at 9pm.
As mentioned above, Dollhouse has the more difficult slot b/c it has to start itself. That being said, I’d rather it be at 8pm Monday than 9pm Monday b/c then it would be opposite more competition in the end of Dancing with the Stars and Samatha Who? on ABC; Heroes on NBC; and 2.5 men and a new comedy on CBS. Whereas at 8pm it is opposite Dancing (usually does it’s best numbers b/w 9-9:30 compared to its 8-9 #s) on ABC; Chuck on NBC; and The Big Band Theory and HIMYM on CBS (do much lower #s than the 9-10 comedies).
I’m not even going to mention the CW shows b/c if they become a factor than both of those shows are seriously doomed.