"Did I fall asleep?"

I finally caught up with the TV series Dollhouse this weekend and it was totally worth putting off the craploads of work I have to do. I'm disappointed that it got cancelled though... it's one of the few shows (the only show?) that I've followed since it first came out, even though I didn't watch Season 2 regularly. Season 1 was a little slow, not great, and didn't really keep my attention in that I rarely felt like I absolutely HAD to watch the next episode. Season 2 also started off a bit the same but it gained momentum from episode 4 onwards to the point where I watched the last 7 or 8 episodes in about 2 days.

NOTE: Potential spoilers ahead!

I think episode 4, "Belonging", is one of the best episodes, at least up to that point in the series. It primarily focuses on Sierra's past and it's nice to finally learn a little more about what a doll's prior life was like.
Season 2 picked up a lot of speed after that, blazing through the events that lead up to the future depicted in "Epitaph One". On the one hand, it makes the episodes highly addictive and a lot of times I found myself pausing and staring at the screen in total disbelief and shock at the unexpected revelations. On the other hand, it felt almost a little rushed, although I know that it was probably to catch the series up to "Epitaph One" since it was being cancelled... a sort of courtesy to the fans. Despite that, the episodes were incredibly well done and definitely surpass the previous ones, imo. Not to mention that Victor-as-Topher is just GOLD.
I'm also quite impressed by the acting overall (only one or two exceptions who don't need to be named), and the dialogue improved significantly in Season 2 compared to Season 1. I think Topher is my favourite Dollhouse character (at least in Season 2) and I also really like Alan Tudyk's portrayal of Alpha.

I was less impressed by the Epitaph episodes, perhaps because I didn't feel any kind of connection to the new characters. Which isn't a fault of the actors but rather just a consequence of not having them grow on me episode after episode like the main characters. "Epitaph Two" was somewhat heart-wrenching but at the same time almost seemed to conform to the norm of ending everything on a happy note (although "happy" is really quite relative here).

Overall, I think this series rocks and I wish that it hadn't been cancelled, though I think they tied everything up quite nicely (everything important at least... of course, there are still loads of unanswered questions but who knows, they might not have addressed those even if the series had been extended). Season 2 also may not have been as awesome had they not been pressed for time in catching everything up to "Epitaph One" (this is speculation on my part, though... I don't know at what point in the series they were when the show was cancelled).

It's too bad that the ratings weren't better... maybe then we could have seen a little more development of the other characters and perhaps more of what lead up to the future in the Epitaph episodes.

Listening to right now: F.T Island - 미우나 고우나