It was a great week for mixing humor and fantasy on both Dollhouse and Supernatural. Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse continued its now-rapidly-accelerating revealing of the origins of Eliza Dushku’s Echo/Caroline, while Eric Kripke’s Supernatural offered a sort of alternate-universe tale of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) as office workers fated to meet.
Dollhouse is leading up to next week’s do-not-miss episode which Fox is promoting as an “event”: “Dollhouse: The Awakening.” In the meantime, we got glimpses of doll Echo’s real identity, Caroline, with flashbacks to the deal she struck with Dollhouse dominatrix (as I like to think of her) Adelle DeWitt. But the main plot was a corker about a drug that infected all the major players, turning them into, in DeWitt’s phrase, “idiot children.” It gave this diverse cast a chance to show new sides of themselves. The result was both funny (Topher: “You haven’t seen my drawer of inappropriate starches?”) and revealing. Like I said, don’t miss next week.
Meanwhile, on Thursday’s Supernatural, in an episode called “It’s a Terrible Life,” the Winchester brothers weren’t… brothers. Dean was a prim businessman and Sam was a dorky IT drone laboring in the same office building, which of course just happened to be haunted. The episode was a beautifully sustained fantasy in which the two are strangers to each other, brought together by a series of bizarre deaths occurring in the office. (I keep trying to forget that image of the guy microwaving his head.)
There was a very amusing show-within-the-show, Ghostfacers, which instructed the duo in how to kill ghosts. Once the prim-Dean and dork-Sam got into it, it was, as Sam said, “like we’ve done this before.”
Both Dollhouse and Supernatural used our knowledge of what’s come before to enrich our knowledge of their heroes, and deepen our understanding of their basic natures. With some solid laughs. Like I said, a great week for the mingling of humor and fantasy.
Did you watch Dollhouse? Supernatural? Both? Did you like these unusual episodes?
Supernatural was fantastic this week. Season 4 gets better with each and every installment. I loved this week’s because it was a nice break from the heady drama of recent weeks but also fit the ever-developing plotline in a brilliant way. Also, who doesn’t love the Ghostfacers??
Dollhouse is an equally fabulous show – it’s clever, unique and mysterious, a dynamite combination if you ask me.
CAROLINE, not Catherine.
Smallville gets my vote this week for mixing comedy and fantasy together. “Hex” was awesome and also hilarious. The scene on the Daily Planet roof was the funniest thing I have seen all week. Tom Welling and Erica Durance brought their “A” game, they were hysterical and totally showed a different side of their characters.
I love both shows. Supernatural was great though… it brought such a mixture of comedy and action in a 1 hour time frame which is awesome! I wish it would go on for more seasons, but I’ve head they are stopping it after the 5th season.
Dollhouse is fast becoming my favorite drama — its mix of mythology and hilarious wordplay is the my new must-not-miss of the week.
I’m a big fan of both shows! Dollhouse has really been hitting it’s stride, now that after the first 5 set up eps the audience is getting a dose of full on Joss-ness! It’s getting better with each ep. Supernatural was great from ep 1 and has more than proven itself capable to telling an entertaining story that deftly combines grim, heart wrenching drama with laugh out loud humor!!!!! Great shows both and I also love TSCC as well to entertain me in this vein.
Dollhouse is great. The actors were fantastic during their “trip” scenes.
Dollhouse was fantastic this week! And I’m starting to think the Alpha casting spoilers floating around the internet are a red herring.
Supernatural has always been great. It is all about finding interesting and entertaining ways to tell its story.
The same can be said about Dollhouse. Every week just gets better and better and I’m looking forward to “Awakening” even though it is being billed as an event. I know, that sounds odd, but how often has an ‘event’ went beyond merely being a good episode to the level of “Holy Crap!!”. I’ve already been doing that with Dollhouse, I’m ready for Joss to put me on my heals.
i love supernatural, just love, love, love it! it might just be my new favorite show. i haven’t watched the newest episode of dollhouse yet, but plan to just as soon as i finish this post
I’ve always loved and been inspired by anything Joss Whedon creates, so of course I’ve been tuning into Dollhouse every week. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this weeks episode. It had moments of awesome, quotable, Whedon-esque humor (my favorite kind of sarcasm), but it was incredibly choppy. “Inappropriate starches”/general high antics = good; big ole loopholes in the storyline? not so much. NO offense intended to the other leads, but I believe Tahmoh Penikett’s character should be featured even more prominently. He’s an incredibly talented actor and his story line has potential for much smoother development, considering he actually retains his identity week-to-week. I’m glued to my seat, at my most engaged with the material, when he’s onscreen, whether he’s fighting (so sweet! pilot/last week?), brooding, loving up his lucky costars… please keep giving him and us some Ballard-centric episodes. He’s got leading man written all over him. PS. Why did Mellie hafta go?
I agree with hhh2. This week of Dollhouse was a big giant disappointment. I kept wishing that I was one of the dolls and got to have my mind wiped to forget that I ever watched this episode. I keep hoping that the show is going to get better but it doesn’t. I think I will just watch next weeks and then make my final decision to watch or not. Love Supernatural and this weeks ep was fantastic!
Supernatural is one of the best shows out there and I’ve been a fan from the beginning. When it first came out I thought it was one of Joss Whedon’s shows. I seen some of dollhouse and can’t get into it and I’m a major fan of Whedon.
I’m totally a fan of both shows… THURSDAY AND FRIDAY ROCK!!! And I loved both episodes. Total thumbs up to both sets of cast&crews the shows were both awesom!!!!!
I didn’t catch the first half of Dollhouse this week but saw some of it. This weeks episode was alright but last week was better. As for Supernatural I watch it every week. Its an amazing and good show that doesnt get enough promotion and credit etc from the CW. I hope the show will be round for a few more seasons. As for Dollhouse I hope Fox least gives the show a chance and lets the whole season play out and least half of a 2nd season b4 it decides to cancel it if they were to. Nice to see Eliza on tv again. Still upset with Fox for pulling her previous show Tru Calling too soon.