For a limited time, Smart Pop Books has posted my essay “Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse: 21st Century Neo-Gothic” from the essay collection Inside Joss’ Dollhouse as a free read. Get it while you can.
This is one of the first paid published pieces that emerged from my research, and I think it turned out pretty well. I am, according to one friend, “the world’s biggest Dollhouse fan”, and I love it the way you can only love a child that died young after a long struggle.
The episode of the Active Architecture podcast about Dollhouse episode 108 of “Needs” has a guest experience from yours truly, due to my essay in the Inside Joss’ Dollhouse anthology.
A friend called me the world’s biggest Dollhouse fan, and I do feel an attachment to the series. If Joss Whedon’s TV series and movies are his children, Firefly is the child who died too young and is remembered as angelic, whereas Dollhouse is the child who lasted into adolescent until it died from progeria, long enough for the flaws to show. You don’t see people dressing up like Dollhouse Actives at conventions, I’m pretty sure. The series got my attention with its adult themes and complex ideas, but because of network interference and a truncated production schedule, couldn’t adequately explore them. It’s a flawed jewel, more akin to Cabin in the Woods than The Avengers. If it’s possible to be a hipster within Whedon fandom, it’s the Dollhouse fans.