![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I watched both the first episode of Moonlight and the unaired pilot of Dollhouse for the first time in the last 18 hours.
I can't understand why a lot of people didn't like Moonlight. Okay, it was derivative and not Joss. But otherwise it's quite entertaining. Kind of an Angel for grownups without Joss' hangups. The two leads are likable, the hero tough, but emotionally vulnerable, the heroine no superhero, but no fainting Nelly in a diaphanous gown waiting around to be rescued all the time either. The episodes don't all end with happy, sugar-plum-fairy endings. The villains were sufficiently nefarious and mysterious. If the lathe-turned stakes looked a bit silly to those of us Buffy veterans, the fact that stakes *didn't kill* Moonlight vampires, did make for some interesting action. I recommend that if you never saw Moonlight, take a look at the DVDs. You might be surprised.
Dollhouse Pilot Spoiler Alert It is a little difficult to say anything to nice about what Joss' intentions with the pilot may have been. I don't understand how he thought it could possibly air as a pilot on network TV. It makes an episode of SCC look like Little House on the Prairie. Ignoring that, why in the hell give away that much at the beginning when you had no intention of continuing the series in that time frame? Frankly, it's a bit stupid. Sorry Joss, I got frustrated with the series as it was shown. I'd have become frustrated with it a heck of a lot faster if I'd seen the original pilot first instead of now. Watching some of the cut scenes you have to wonder what Joss was thinking at all. Looks like he had enough material for a three hour pilot. Or enough material that if he could con FOX into showing some of the pilot, he could splice in an entire plot line to replace all the stuff they were not going to approve of short of hell freezing over. The whole pilot looks like and plays out like one of the Resident Evil movies, and that's not exactly a good thing. FOX was right this time. The series is better off without the original pilot being shown first. It might have been a decent series finale, might have been acceptable to the network as such. But since it's been released now before the second season starts, I have to see it as a tantrum from a very spoiled Mr. Whedon.
ETA Thanks to Shadowkat I've learned, what I saw was not the pilot at all. Just some confusion between me and the packaging. I'm still not convinced it's not a tantrum, but possibly it's a much more understandable one.
I can't understand why a lot of people didn't like Moonlight. Okay, it was derivative and not Joss. But otherwise it's quite entertaining. Kind of an Angel for grownups without Joss' hangups. The two leads are likable, the hero tough, but emotionally vulnerable, the heroine no superhero, but no fainting Nelly in a diaphanous gown waiting around to be rescued all the time either. The episodes don't all end with happy, sugar-plum-fairy endings. The villains were sufficiently nefarious and mysterious. If the lathe-turned stakes looked a bit silly to those of us Buffy veterans, the fact that stakes *didn't kill* Moonlight vampires, did make for some interesting action. I recommend that if you never saw Moonlight, take a look at the DVDs. You might be surprised.
Dollhouse Pilot Spoiler Alert It is a little difficult to say anything to nice about what Joss' intentions with the pilot may have been. I don't understand how he thought it could possibly air as a pilot on network TV. It makes an episode of SCC look like Little House on the Prairie. Ignoring that, why in the hell give away that much at the beginning when you had no intention of continuing the series in that time frame? Frankly, it's a bit stupid. Sorry Joss, I got frustrated with the series as it was shown. I'd have become frustrated with it a heck of a lot faster if I'd seen the original pilot first instead of now. Watching some of the cut scenes you have to wonder what Joss was thinking at all. Looks like he had enough material for a three hour pilot. Or enough material that if he could con FOX into showing some of the pilot, he could splice in an entire plot line to replace all the stuff they were not going to approve of short of hell freezing over. The whole pilot looks like and plays out like one of the Resident Evil movies, and that's not exactly a good thing. FOX was right this time. The series is better off without the original pilot being shown first. It might have been a decent series finale, might have been acceptable to the network as such. But since it's been released now before the second season starts, I have to see it as a tantrum from a very spoiled Mr. Whedon.
ETA Thanks to Shadowkat I've learned, what I saw was not the pilot at all. Just some confusion between me and the packaging. I'm still not convinced it's not a tantrum, but possibly it's a much more understandable one.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
I think you are still confusing Minear with Joss???
Or are you referring to Tim Minear? And that's a typo? Because that would make more sense. Unless I missed something?
Because I read on Tim Minear's blog that he wrote Epitaph One and that it is this really dark, apocaplyptic story, that takes place in the distant future - a sort of what if..scenario. Fans were upset Fox didn't air it - but once the series got renewed there really was no need and as Whedon stated it wouldn't make any sense if they aired it now. Also, as Minear tried to explain in his blog at the time - it was not written with the intent of being aired on Fox, it was written as an extra for the DVD - in order to push DVD sales.
The way the DVD's are done or so they said on the blog - there has to be a specific number of episodes for them to be made and to sell. I think it is 13. Fox had ordered a certain number of episodes shot, but one of them was the pilot - which was too confusing and they requested that they reshoot it and make it clearer.
I guess I can handle $30. I'm not a huge fan of the Resident Evil movies, although the first one was not bad, because I don't like zombie movies. I appear to be in the minority in that regard.
From:
Re: I think you are still confusing Minear with Joss???
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1315990/
Joss is right if they're going another direction Epitaph One is now just a curiosity.
There are 16 episodes with the Moonlight set, 14 with the Dollhouse set. Epitaph One is two hours.
From:
Re: I think you are still confusing Minear with Joss???
From:
Re: I think you are still confusing Minear with Joss???
From:
That's Joss's youngest half-brother Jed.
Joss Whedon has at least two younger half-brothers.
I can see the confusion...the father apparently wasn't very creative in selecting names.
I think they are at least four or five years apart.