Archives For Joss Whedon

What Eliza Dushku Has to Teach the Church

Chris —  February 16, 2010

It’s hard saying goodbye to a friend, especially if it’s another one of Joss Whedon’s creations that passed before its time.

Dollhhouse is not Whedon’s best work, but it may be his deepest. It lacks the punchiness that made Buffy so much fun, and the creativity which made Firefly soar beyond science fiction. It did, however, use a sexy model with sad puppy dog eyes to raise questions about the dangers of man’s relationship with technology and the nature of the soul.

After the Firefly debacle nothing was going to keep Whedon from telling his story. After season one, he released “Epitath Part One” straight to the internet, telling the story of a post-apocalyptic future directly resulting from the technology used to run the Dollhouse harems.  Season Two seemed hurried, trying to accomplish the plot and character development needed to reach the end of civilization. Although rushed, the last few episodes were exhilarating, with heroes becoming anti-heroes and villains becoming pastoral leaders.

Dollhouse raises a number of important questions, but perhaps the most important is about the societal and spiritual implications of our growing dependence on technology.  Christians, except perhaps the Mennonites, seem to ignore this.

Could projected preachers create a dangerous celebrity culture? Does social networking increase or impede our ability to function as the body of Christ? Could driving 30 minutes to worship cripple our ability to love our neighbors?

I’ll miss Whedon’s latest, but the questions it raised will stick with me.

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Fall TV Check-In

Chris —  October 7, 2009

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Here’s what I’m watching:  It’s mainly stuff I’m “already committed to,”, which either means that there’s not much new of note, or I just haven’t found it.

Fringe With theme music lifted from the little known 90s revival of The Outer Limits and a plot line that is little more than a post-911 update of X-Files, I watched the show mainly out of respect for J.J. Abrams.  After a slow start, the show started to get increasingly complex and climaxed with a cameo from Leonard Nimoy.  Now the rough edges of the over-the-top mad scientist and stoic blonde FBI agent have been refined and show teetering  between all out inter-dimensional space opera and CSI-style detective procedural.  Despite some creative characters and intriguing plot twists, it lacks the fondness of Mulder and Scully, and the  addictive questioning nature of Jack, Kate and Sawyer.  Fringe has yet to find its stride quickly this season, and I hope it does soon.

Dollhouse Like with Fringe, I’m watching because I like Joss Whedon.  Despite a disappointing start, the first season ended with some fascinating philosophical questions and the introduction of a fun bad guy.  Now it has the advantage of starting with developed characters and a list of unsolved mysteries.  It already stars Battlestar Gallactica‘s Helo, and Captain Apollo guest starred in the first episode.  This alone, not counting the beguiling Eliza Dushku, is enough to keep me tuning in.

How I Met Your Mother One of the saddest moments in recent TV history was the opening episode of season 4 of Scrubs: what had been brilliant and out of the box suddenly became sill and cliche.  Although I’m holding my breath, this has yet to happen to the best sitcom on TV.  As long as Marshall keeps delivering lines like “Haven’t I met you…on a yacht?” I’ll keep watching.

Heroes Heroes started out as the comic book for everybody, a superhero story about normal joes waking up with superpowers.  However, once Hiro saved the cheerleader, things lost their way.  This season shows promise, with a fascinating new bad guy, and a truly twisted Sylar storyline.  However, it has already become so self involved with its own mythology that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone but the hardcore comics fan.

The Office When will Americans tire of the cringeful British import?  No time soon.  Pam is pregnant, Jim is promoted, Dwight is delivering angry soliloques and Michael Scott never ceases to amaze.  Watch it, even if you haven’t been following for years.

Community I had to give the show that combined the television return of Chevy Chase with The Soup’s smarmy Joel McHale a try.  The show is a 21st century misfit Breakfast Club that takes place at a local community college.  It focuses on McHale’s character, a lawyer and pathological liar forced to go to college after his fake degree is discovered.  The characters still seem a bit stock, but great performances by all will keep me tuning in.

Flash Forward Touted as the new Lost, Flash Forward is a sci-fi detective thriller that shows a lot of promise.  The show revolves around a mysterious incident in which all of mankind was knocked unconscious, and experienced a few minutes of a day six months in the future.  I wasn’t terribly captivated by the first episode, but the fascinating premise is enough to make me give it a few more tries.

What about you?  What are you watching?

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