With an army of rabidly loyal fans at his command and a good number of people enthusiastically backing up his creative efforts, Whedon is in a good place to ditch the film “industry” entirely and market his work directly to fans. He’s already proved he can do it with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, releasing the shows for free online while selling them through iTunes and with extras on physical DVDs. Unfortunately the shows aren’t still online via the main site, a move that only discourages potential fans from becoming interested.

He’s only scratched the surface of what’s possible. Using a tiered support model, his team could offer anything from signed physical copies of shows and tie-in merchandise to time with the actors or old set props. Many in his audience would devour such offerings as though it were a final meal.

In addition, he gains the creative freedom to tell his stories the way he wants to, unfettered by preposterous demands of stodgy network executives seeking meaningless ratings increases. Money received from fans also goes directly to those involved in creating the art they enjoy.

As for the Dollhouse story, what an ending. The ear-mounted imprinting devices reminded me of Neuromancer, with Ambrose and Harding swapping “suits” much like the sleeves in Altered Carbon. The only major gripe I have is with Boyd Langton. His Master Plan was seriously to allow the world to be destroyed so he and his handpicked favorites could rule over it? To what end? The lord of a billion mindless slaves doesn’t have much of a swagger.

Honestly, it had the same level of ridiculousness as one of Lex Luthor’s inane schemes, blowing up the California coast or creating a new landmass so he can…sell waterfront property. It seemed much more likely to me that Rossum would cause the tech to get loose through a wanton pursuit of profits. Making Boyd insane or stupid didn’t seem like the best story path to take.

On a more minor note, a massive pulse that “resets” everybody back to how they were? I was under the impression that the imprinting process made essentially permanent changes, hence the data backups. What happened suggests more of an overlay that can be removed to reveal the original person underneath, seemingly in conflict with previous statements.

The show got off to a tediously slow start, but I think Dollhouse had a smashing second season. It’s a shame that once again a show gets shut down midstream just as it begins taking off.

To me, seeing the show’s characters again was like visiting old friends, and I got sad all over again when the adventure concluded. Interestingly, Rachel told me that it was the theme song that initially put her off to the show. As soon as she heard the opening phrases she thought, “This is stupid.” If she hadn’t persisted for my sake, she would have completely written it off.

After basking in the testament to her love for me (awww), I began to wonder how many others had a similar objection. The show was very character-driven, so if a potential viewer had ditched the show at the beginning thanks to the song,  they would likely have had a difficult time connecting to the characters at a later stage.

Firefly – Main Title by Greg Edmonson
Download now or listen on posterous

01 Firefly – Main Title.mp3 (1767 KB)

Dollhouse recently got handed a similar fate. I suppose that if these kinds of shows can’t grab an audience right from the beginning, they’re doomed. All the more reason to ditch network TV.

Posted via email from Michael’s posterous