TWO WEEKS TWO WEEKS Y’ALL.  Ahem.

Sometimes you love something so much, it breaks your heart.  Case in point: short-lived Joss Whedon series.  Joss Whedon, sometimes, gets tangled with networks that do not enable him total creative freedom.  Such as Fox.  He really should go to, say, SyFy, or maybe even HBO.  He could be totally liberated and let his brain run wild.

Firefly, which was a space western but that’s oversimplifying things, was a series that was most definitely gone too soon, which caused an uproar among the rabid fan base (Brown coats).  Serenity, the movie that followed, quelled a bit of the ire but mostly everyone is super bitter that this fun, original series went poof after a mere half season.  Nathan Fillion once again proved that he is incredible in everything and Joss once again proved his penchant for odd, ass-kicking teenage girls.  Also: sassy black second in command, and Alan Tudyk with toy dinosaurs.  Wonderful.

Then Joss came up with Dollhouse, which had a fascinating premise and tons of potential.  Basically there are these underground organizations all over the world called Dollhouses, where people who have been stripped of their identity hang out in spas waiting to be programmed according to a client’s wishes.  This can be anything from sex toy to assassin to replacement mother.  Obviously this was super-fertile breeding ground for all sorts of moral issues involving slavery and brain washing and prostitution and feminism and every now and then these issues were dealt with but sometimes there were stupid episodes, such as the back-up-singer body-guard episode.  Eliza Dushku, who was great as Faith from on Buffy, sadly lacked the range to play Echo, the series’ protagonist.  She just can’t break out of her tough girl ass-kickery.  However, there were some awesome back up players, like Fran Kranz, Enver Gjokaj (I know) and Olivia Williams.  Plus, peek-into-the-future episodes starring Felicia Day!  Fun times!  Sadly, it only lasted two seasons.

Oh, networks, you can’t take the sky from me.