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Well, we're now in that time of year when most TV shows go on a short hiatus. In celebration of the holiday season, FOX has decided to burn off most of the remaining second season order of the canceled Dollhouse before packing it up and shoving it into The Attic, where it will likely build a dedicated cult fan base, and a status of network mistreated show. I know I've championed the damned thing over the course of its short life and, now that it's on its last legs, and with no other programs airing new episodes for the time being, I thought I should give it one last look.

Some would argue that Joss Whedon dropped the ball in the first place with the first five or so episodes being of a somewhat lesser quality than his legendary Buffy, Angel and Firefly. I don't dispute the claim that those early episodes weren't great, the pop singer episode, in particular, is quite the slog to sit through, but with a few exceptions (24 and Alias come to mind), most shows best days aren't good in the early going. It takes a while for the show runners to find the voice of the production, especially for a mythology show wherein the world needs time to develop and become fully realized.

Look back at the early Seinfelds, X-Files or Simpsons to get an idea of the evolutionary nature of television. It's not that those first episodes of any given, high-quality show suck, it's just that they only offer hints at the pleasures that the show will deliver as it grows to maturity. Many long-running classics enjoy creative peaks in their third and fourth seasons when the direction of the series is at its most confident, and before the writers start spinning their wheels.

What makes the early Dollhouse griping that much more frustrating is that Whedon is quite guilty of the early episode malaise himself. I'm a huge fan of Buffy and Angel, but both of those masterpieces started out on shaky footing. They're almost enshrined as classics of televised literature now, but take a look back at their first seasons. There are several installments that I have to force my way through to get to the good stuff during my periodic re-watches. The Xander/giant praying mantis episode, for example, is not much better than the awful pop star Dollhouse. Or remember the Doyle days of Angel? I do, just not many of the individual episodes. They're generic and forgettable. Yet those first seasons are vital to establishing the elaborate mythological universes for which Whedon enjoys so much acclaim. When you think about it, the sixth episode of Dollhouse is where most claim Whedon turns it around and starts delivering on the show's promise, a lot sooner than Buffy and Angel start getting good.

The other issue is the age-old complaint of network interference. We live in a golden age of serialized television, so it's a bit surprising that networks really don't like them. They prefer the CSI/House mold of stand alone, formulaic comfort food programming. Viewers can jump in and out of the run without feeling like they've missed anything. For that matter, each episode returns the characters and situations back to square one, everything back to normal. Whedon and his ilk prefer their shows to evolve. We discover new layers to the characters, the relationships restructure over time, and the situations become more complicated. They are multi-hour novels for television.

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