Dollhouse: Season 1

This was an interesting concept for a tv series from the always fascinating but strange mind of Joss Whedon. The premise involves the Dollhouse where a persons dreams may come true. The dolls or actives are people that have literally sold their lives for five years with the promise of wealth at the end of their term. The actives minds are wiped and their memories and personality is stored away till the end of their term. An array of personalities are imprinted on the actives, whether it's a secret agent, thief or someone's sexual fantasy. It's all up to the dollhouse's clients who pay for their services. In between personalities their mind's are wiped and reduced to a childlike state.
Echo played by Eliza Dushku of Buffy fame is the most popular of the dolls. Echo, in the course of the series seems to be retaining some of the personality's abilities and seems to be developing self-awareness.Other popular dolls are Sierra and Victor who seem to be drawn to each other. There is someone overseeing the dollhouse and that is Adelle DeWitt played by Olivia Williams. Ms DeWitt is quite cold and impersonal at first but you get the sense of her doubts over the true purpose of the dollhouse. Each doll has a handler who protects and generally will extricate them out of a troubling situation. Echo's handler, Harry Lennix is a former cop and his position changes over the course of the series.
Other notable personnel include Amy Acker ( Angel) as Dr. Saunders a scarred but compassionate person with a history of her own. Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard an FBI agent who is investigating the dollhouse and is the laughing stock of his agency. Miracle Laurie as November a doll who is sent to spy on Paul Ballard and becomes romantically involved with him. Topher Brink as Fran Kranz, a technology wizard who keeps the dollhouse running at least from a technical standpoint. Reed Diamond as Laurence Dominic the arrogant head of security who has a special hatred for Echo.
This series started slow and the first few episodes were dull and left a person wondering where this was heading. Gradually it picked up speed and by the end it has left me anxious for Season 2.

Both the video and audio are good. The dvd is in English only with English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. There are four discs with four episodes per disc. The fourth disc contains a fascinating unaired episode Epitaph One, and the unaired pilot Echo plus an assortment of typical special features that contains fluff pieces for the most part. A couple of the episodes have audio commentaries which is always welcomed on any dvd.

Though starting out slow this programme involved into quite a fascinating series with interesting and intriguing personalities. The unaired episode Epitaph One which takes place in the future, makes me look foward to what Season 2 will bring.