SHOULD I BOTHER? - Dollhouse

Joss Whedon's TV ride started out comfortably and eventually became short, big, and very bumpy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had long and acclaimed runs, but as soon as Whedon tried working with a major network - FOX – expectations were high and impatience higher. Space western Firefly was shuffled around the schedule, had its pilot abandoned, all before being cancelled after only 14 episodes with no wrap-up by a network that reportedly didn’t understand what they’d commissioned. Although the show enjoyed a quite unprecedented rebirth via DVD resulting in a major motion picture (Serenity), the prospect of Whedon returning to television was both relished and dreaded. Since the distinctive creator has never managed a massive mainstream hit, he wouldn't necessarily enjoy carte blanche.

Dollhouse is Whedon's return, both to TV and to FOX after several feature projects stalled. Although the Firefly-killing regime had long since departed, many wondered why he didn't try the more niche-friendly cable networks. As the story goes, Dollhouse came about by accident. During a lunch with Buffy actor Eliza Dushku (Faith), Whedon advised her that she needed to select or develop projects that gave her a range of acting opportunities, rather than the sassy bad girl she was becoming typecast as. He brainstormed an idea where Dushku would play an impassive 'doll' who is imprinted with a new personality and skill set for every new 'engagement', wherein the exceedingly rich pay for a custom-made person to meet their needs, altruistic or otherwise. Sufficiently compelled, he agreed to develop the show himself, but Dushku's development deal was with FOX. He held his breath and dove in.

SHOULD I BOTHER? - Chuck

Welcome to the first in an ongoing, and in theory infinite series of obviously named articles evaluating whether That Show You’ve Heard Of or That DVD Everyone’s On About is worth your time. We will cut through the ‘if you like this’ and ‘my friend told me it’s good’ bollocks to determine the answer to that sage, undying question… “Should I Bother?”

Granted, this is also only one opinion, but I shall strive to give a well-rounded overview of the thingy in question and a firm sense of whether it’s worth your hard-earned time and money. Or it will be an excuse for a rant. You’ve been warned.

First up, one of the many Little Shows That Could that are around at the moment. Every American TV season produces a new show that cult TV fans and broadsheet critics rally around as a quality program that not enough people are watching. Their emergence is joining death and taxes as one of life’s constants. But that’s not to say that these shows aren’t worth the effort, rather that the divide between viewers of reality TV and crime procedurals and fans of less conventional drama and offbeat comedy is not shrinking, but is instead a binary that seems to define TV.

Star Trek (2009)

It’s been a few weeks since the release of the new Star Trek film, and the numbers indicate that JJ Abrams and Paramount have achieved something that I was highly sceptical could ever happen: they have made Star Trek cool. This film has outgrossed Wolverine, and will likely defeat Angels and Demons and Terminator Salvation, perhaps even Night at the Museum 2 (yay!). It is the highest-grossing movie of the year to date, yet until now it has without question been considered the nerdiest franchise of them all.