The latest episodes of Dollhouse and the final few episodes on the Season 1 DVDs make me wish Joss could work something out with Fox where they agree to two and only two seasons. The early Season 1 “what’s this week’s mission?” business with only minor bits of continuity can’t hold a candle to Joss Whedon at his best. For examples of Joss Whedon at his best, refer to Friday’s episodes of Dollhouse.

One of Whedon’s real gifts is for writing lovable – not likable, lovable – characters whose interactions play out so entertainingly that you’re happy to overlook weak plot points. He needs leeway to develop relationships that aren’t obvious to viewers switching on the TV midway through episode nine. He also needs the support of a network willing to endure low ratings (as when Fox renewed Dollhouse for a second season instead of looking for something else to put in its crappy Friday time slot) knowing that his shows move a ton of DVDs.

Dollhouse gets to go out with a bang after some slow buildup because Whedon and company knew it was canceled with 7 episodes left to film. What would season 1 have looked like with an understanding that Fox didn’t need such disconnected episodes? How much better could Firefly have been if Joss sat down to write it knowing he’d have no less and no more than 26 episodes for the stories he wanted to tell?

A cast of excellent characters with stories that play into a cohesive arc – that’s where it’s at. Without ‘em, would I still prefer Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog to CSI: Hip City and whatever hospital garbage is popular right now? Probably, but they wouldn’t be half as much fun to watch. To each his own, as long as all these guys get great roles now that Dollhouse is finished filming!

Did anyone watch Dollhouse tonight? As an assortment of places reported awhile back, Fox is burning through the remaining season two episodes in 2-hour blocks this month, with the final three in January. As ever, Hulu is sure to have both of tonight’s excellent episodes within the next few days!

I don’t say excellent lightly here – I really enjoyed the end of season one and really liked how the Epitaph 1 episode on the season 1 DVDs wrapped things up while leaving ambiguity. I think it’s great how Joss (can I call him Joss? man I’m a dweeb) planned ahead with an episode that essentially said, “this is one of the possible horrendous outcomes of what’s going on in Dollhouse,” without closing any doors on season two.

I loved both episodes tonight, and the first thing I said to my roommate afterward was, “I’m so glad this show was canceled!” Surely, Whedon’s experience with Firefly – Fox airing episodes out of order like total jerkbags before canceling during the first season – prepared him for Dollhouse’s abrupt cancellation. It’s good to see a focused team of writers and producers providing great characters with a worthy plot-line. Nothing sharpens the mind like cancellation! Let me choose between seven top-notch episodes and 21 that are a mix of “cool!” “meh” and “boo,” and I’ll take seven every time.

Enver Gjokaj was born for Dollhouse – I don’t think I’ve seen anyone better at adopting a different voice, attitude, and mannerisms. Ray Wise‘s cameo tonight was good. Summer Glau was better than I expected in that her role wasn’t the same one I’ve always seen her in, and she played it very convincingly. If I have one complaint, it’s that Eliza Dushku is too sexy. It seems somehow… unsafe.

I’m looking forward to the final seven episodes, hopeful that tonight was an indicator of the fun twists and madness we can expect!

I don’t know if I read it somewhere or dreamed it up, but I thought Chuck was scheduled to pick back up in March. Not so – season 3 will premiere with a 2-hour episode on Sunday, January 10th, followed by a normal Monday night hour-long episode the next night. The Chicago Tribune post linked above includes a decent preview clip, along with some encouraging quotes from what sounds like a focused and excited executive producer.

Perfect timing after the conclusion of Dollhouse! The occasionally annoying but far more often enjoyable second season of Chuck will be out on DVD January 5th. I’m excited for the new season, as the end of season two opened the door for a new and improved lead character, with plenty of fresh story possibilities as a result!

The parallels between V and Team Obama were obvious from the earliest teasers: a thin-skinned, exciting leader of unknown background; meaningless “hope and change” rhetoric met with thunderous applause; universal health care at no cost; etc. Replace the largely skeptical press with an overwhelmingly fawning one, and Morena Baccarin‘s character could be named Barack!

The show looks silly, especially since the very first commercial I saw revealed the “twist” that the Visitors are lizard-folk. However, the opening credits said all I needed to hear:

Guest starring Alan Tudyk

If Nathan Fillion wasn’t busy being mega-awesome on cheesy but enjoyable Castle, this would be a Firefly reunion show!

First impression is that yes, V is a little hokey. The teenage character Toolbox Magee and his pal Husker-du have gotten old already. But wow, is it funny that this show is piloting as election results pour in! The opposition leader’s speech about Visitors infiltrated in all areas of society and the time to stop them running short… with ABC’s election results scrolling across the bottom. Oh, to live in a district with Government For All Occasions liberals being trounced today!

Flyer’s Pizza: It’s like Donato’s, but not $30!

If you like pizza and you reside in central Ohio, look no further. I’ve lived 10 minutes from a Flyer’s since last June, but rarely get a chance to try new pizza places with a not-completely-great but so-wonderfully-cheap Little Ceasar’s nearby.

Raising Cane’s opened their newest Ohio store recently, and it’s as good as the others despite being a tiny building on a tiny lot. You need to check Cane’s out if you’re not a fan already! All the Ohio restaurants are in Columbus, which is unfortunate if you live in a small town (or one of the inferior Big Cities).

Five Guys Burgers and Fries is good, but not good enough to be NINE FREAKING DOLLARS for a single cheeseburger, regular fry, and small drink. Sorry, I noticed the receipt sitting on my desk and was reminded of the sticker shock I’ve gotten both times I’ve eaten at the South Campus Gateway location. Know what I miss? K’s Hamburger Shop in Troy – burgers just as good as Five Guys, fresh pies behind the counter, and prices that blow the hoity-toity Five Guys menu out of the water.

I liked the pilot of Community, liked the second episode a little more, and by the third the show had definitely hit a stride. If you enjoy comedy at all and you’re not watching, start! NBC may or may not renew Community, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Speaking of renewals, Dollhouse definitely isn’t getting one, since apparently people have better things to do on Friday nights than watch crazy, awesome Joss Whedon magic. It should be noted that I’m not meandering off into a tirade about the fact that people are not entertained by Dollhouse, but will watch a hundred thousand CSI spinoffs and hospital dramas.

To be honest, I’m fine with Dollhouse being canceled so long as the writers can plan accordingly. Season 1 left plenty of room to grow but ended well, especially when you consider the completely badass Epitaph 1 episode included with the DVDs. Season 2 can wrap up even better, as long as Alan Tudyk returns in time for Tahmoh Penikett to beat his face in sufficiently.

How about movies – there’s some cool stuff coming out next weekend. Michael Caine – shoot, Sir Michael Caine – is in Harry Brown, and all kinds of people are in The Men Who Stare at Goats, a movie whose trailer greatly confused me when Coffing first sent me a link awhile back.

I mentioned awhile ago that my roommate and I have been working our way through Battlestar Galactica via Netflix. I loved the first season, and liked the second only a little less. Drama generally doesn’t appeal to me, but the series started with such a good story, such interesting characters, and such cool sci-fi action that I was happy to make an exception.

As I mentioned in my previous BSG post, season 2 ended on what I felt was shaky ground. Well, now I’ve watched season 3 and enough of season 4 to make a simple recommendation: if you haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica, watch the first two seasons and then stop. Season 3 had its ups and downs, with the balance leaning pretty heavily towards the latter. Season 4…

I gave the show the benefit of a doubt and watched “Razor,” the two-hour special that opens season 4. Razor is a flashback that contains a flashback within a flashback. Yes, tertiary flashbacks. No more need be said about the first disc of season four. I gave the show the benefit of another doubt – and then two episodes into the season I dropped all the remaining discs from my Netflix queue.

Think of every thing sci-fi writers could do to ruin a show, and these guys did it. There are ruthless, vengeful robots that look like humans? Obviously when the plot starts running thin half your favorite characters will be revealed to have been robots all along, while the robots who started as frightening villains devolve into emo windbags. Mysterious, supernatural forces at work? Of course it’s better to keep introducing weirder and weirder nonsense than to ever explain anything. Part of me would like to see how BSG ended, but most of me just doesn’t care.

Community is everything I hoped it’d be: a little cheesy, a little quirky, really funny. Chevy Chase is bearable! Joel McHale is great at being a lovable SOB. It’s sure to be on Hulu tomorrow if you missed tonight’s pilot.

And now, a decision: Leno, or Always Sunny? Haha – just kidding.

(If you haven’t watched Leno, let me save you some time: it’s a lame pop-culture snoozefest. Boring interviews with vapid people, plus boring skits that go much longer than they should. Five nights a week!)

It’s football season, with highs in the mid-70s – what’s not to love?

It doesn’t hurt that Joel McHale’s new series Community starts next Thursday night, and Dollhouse will be back the week after. You’ve watched the additional episode of Dollhouse from the Season 1 DVDs, right? And, have you heard that some of Joss Whedon’s favorite ladies and roughly half the cast of Battlestar Galactica are joining the show in season 2?

Don't let her fool you - that's a yawn, not a roar

I’ll be rooting for Michigan today because Notre Dame is annoying and the Big Ten needs to get its act together. I’d like to hear the phrase “a resurgent Big Ten Conference” peppered in sometimes among all the (entirely valid) comments about the Big Ten being a joke.

I really hope the Bucks can… er, buck this trend of flailing helplessly against ranked out-of-conference opponents. USC is going to be tough – but then, when aren’t they? If you’re going to the game by any route that crosses under 315 within 5 miles of campus, you might want to leave home around, oh, 4:00.

Go Bucks!

As the first season of Dollhouse came to a close and we became fully convinced of Tahmoh Penikett‘s awesomeness, my roommate pointed out that Agent Ballard was also part of the Battlestar Galactica cast. Since I didn’t get Sci-Fi (er, “SyFy,” since somehow they haven’t realized that name sucks) when Battlestar Galactica premiered, I knew the series only as the go-to reference when you wanted to call someone a nerd. Given the plethora of nerdy things I already watched, there wasn’t a compelling reason for me to add it to the list.

Having now seen the first two seasons via Netflix, it is so good. Really, the best way to describe my enthusiasm for the first half of Battlestar Galactica is “Schrute-like.” After watching the pilot – basically a feature film unto itself – I expected the entertainment value to drop. It did not. Through the first season and nearly all of the second, the characters (even the sleazy ones) are convincing and their relationships are interesting. The action is great, the bits of over-the-top science fiction goofiness are few and far between, and the drama is… dramatic.

Then you get to the last 20 minutes of the season two finale. I’ve read mixed things about seasons three and four, and the way season two ended inspires no confidence. Let’s say you have a believable love triangle – involving several major characters – that’s picking up steam, sparks of romance between two other characters, and a huge shift in the roles of warring political leaders. Would you fade to black and begin the next scene with “One year later?” Me neither. It almost felt like the writers had gotten tired of the whole wandering through space routine, and wanted to move on to something lamer.

So, like a Schrute (or a lady), season two of Battlestar Galactica left me feeling as though I’d missed a whole lot of important events in the lives of the characters, left me much less excited for the Season 3 disc that arrived today, and made me glad I resisted buying the crazy-go-nuts series box set when DeepDiscount.com had it on sale.

[Update: Typo. First paragraph. Corrected.]