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First, take a moment to consider my incredible restraint in waiting for six full episodes before telling you all what I think about Joss Whedon's new show, Dollhouse. It is amazing, is it not?

OK, now then, about the show itself. First off, the premise is pretty abysmal. Basically, some sort of evil corporation (about whom we are slowly learning as the show progresses) coerces young and beautiful men and women into human slavery, during which their entire memories and personalities are erased so that they can be imprinted with new ones in order to be rented out to the rich and powerful. For some feminists, this premise alone is enough to sink the show. The man behind Buffy makes a show about human trafficking? Inconceivable! But I found feminism in Deadwood, so obviously the premise isn't going to be sufficient to turn me off. It's all about how it's handled.

Posted by Grace in Television Shows
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In previous reviews, I've let you in on my late-blossoming love for Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel). This week, I finished up my viewing of his trio of shows with the one and only fourteen-episode season of Firefly. Previously, I'd also watched the film version of the Firefly story, Serenity, which was made after Firefly was taken off the air. Since Serenity is basically a continuation of Firefly, with nearly identical characters and actors, this review is for both the series and the film.

Like Buffy (and more or less unlike Angel), Firefly/Serenity has strong, central female characters. Firefly/Serenity's feminism is much different than Buffy's, though, as the entire premise of the show isn't a reversal of horror movie victimhood. Instead, Firefly/Serenity is a new take on the western frontier adventure story, which is certainly another area of traditional film misogyny. Though the main character, Mal (Nathan Fillion, who is amazing here as compared to his incredibly misogynist role as Caleb in Buffy) is male, he is surrounded by super competent women. First, there is his lieutenant, Zoe, played by Gina Torres. Zoe is confident, deadpan, and deadly. If Firefly/Serenity is a new take on westerns, Zoe is a new take on Clint Eastwood. She's a woman of color, and neither her femaleness nor her color is at all the point. She's just as likely to save Mal (or her husband, the ship's pilot, Wash, played by Alan Tudyk) as he is to save her. She's unabashedly stronger and cooler-headed than her husband, who mostly admires, rather than resents, it. In my book, Zoe is up there with Sarah Connor and Ripley in the canon of badass action heroines.

Posted by Grace in 4 Stars: Greatest Hits & Television Shows
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As I have mentioned before, Sarah Connor, as played by Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is pretty much the pinnacle of action heroines in my eyes. It doesn't get any better than her, or at least it hasn't yet. So I was understandably skeptical about the role and the story being changed for television for Fox's new show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I specifically declined to watch the original pilot circulated on the Internet, waiting for Fox to air the premiere and hoping against hope that it wouldn't suck.

It was on last night and the night before, and I didn't think it sucked at all.

Posted by Grace in Television Shows
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Some time back, I wrote a glowing post about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the most feminist thing I'd ever seen on television. I hold to that position. However, Buffy creator Joss Whedon is not beyond reproach when it comes to the portrayals of women in his work. And boy howdy does his Buffy spin-off show, Angel, prove it.

Unlike the nuanced and powerful women we are treated to in Buffy, Angel basically serves up two varieties of female--the virgin and the whore.

Posted by Grace in Television Shows
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First, let me put my history and allegiances on the table: I didn't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it was first aired (1997-2003). I watched the entire series on DVD over the space of the last few weeks. I've been through every episode at least once and many twice (so far). I do not believe the show deteriorated when it moved to the UPN (season six); I unmitigatedly loved it from start to finish, but thought it was actually better in the later seasons.

All that being said, I've never seen anything on television so in need of feminist and anti-racist analysis as Buffy. The show gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "so close but so far away."

There is a LOT of analysis on Buffy floating around out there. Multiple books, endless websites, some lay, some scholarly, some quite good, some less so. I can't claim to have read all of it, though I've read a fair bit. If I miss major points that other people have addressed (and I am sure I will) please attribute it to ignorance and not intent. There is a lot of there there in Buffy, and I am by necessity only scratching the surface.

Posted by Grace in Television Shows
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