Sunday, September 13, 2009

Joss on subtlety

"... It's not a very subtle way of doing it, but it is a very naked way of doing it, and I think that is more impressive. Subtlety is for little men."
- Joss Whedon, in the commentary to the first episode of Dollhouse (about a flashback showing buff men in little shorts boxing)

6 comments:

Alex said...

Hey, I just saw that on Friday, did you get the US set, or does the UK set have the same content?

It was interesting to see the unaired pilot. It's like it was just a think tank for what they wanted to do, a warm up. Then they re-set and started properly. I'm glad the didn't air the pilot, then go from their, they messed it up good style.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I bought it from UK.

What disc is the unaired pilot on?
Should I watch it?
(... just took a look at the packaging, it's in there somewhere.)

Alex said...

Have you seen the series yet?

If so, then watch the "Original UNAIRED Pilot Echo" on disc 4 (if you have the same four discs).

It is fun, but it does not feed into the series. It has a different Paul/Caroline meeting. etc. There are elements of the pilot that they retained, but used them over the first four episodes. There are some ideas they just totally backed away from too.

Don't watch "Epitaph One" until you've seen the whole series. It was written as a contractual obligation, making a grand finale (in case there was no renewal). Chronologically it's set in 2019, 10 years after season one. There are too many spoilers in it.

Joss and Eliza both provide interesting commentaries. Unlike some of the other key actresses Eliza doesn't seem to be in awe at working with the god like Joss, some of the others are too humble.

When I got the discs I had to see "Epitaph One" at once, then I did the bonus features. The interviews and making of were quite interesting, not stellar, but not bad. I've since sat on the set for a month, but now find I only have 2 weeks to show the missus every episode before season two begins. Last time I watched it all on Hulu, not sure if I can stand commercial TV any more.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Right, thanks.

I'm on episode 4 or 5.

Alex said...

So now you've seen it all, how do you rate it?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

No, I am far from done yet. Like with books, I tend to watch many things at once.