Its only been one episode, but I haven't found the hook yet. I will give it a little longer though.
I think that hits the nail on the head in my opinion.
I'm not a huge fan of Whedon. I've only watched sporadic episodes of Buffy and Angel due to an ex-gf, which tended to vary widely in quality. Firefly I'm a huge fan of, but aside from the pilot I don't think it really hits its stride until the sixth episode (Our Mrs. Reynolds). Dr. Horrible is genius, IMO. So there's a little background regarding my exposure; take it as you will.
This episode wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I'd give it a five; not bad, but the show has to improve for me to keep watching it.
Dushku was serviceable, but not great. The biggest problem specifically with her acting was her line delivery. She's just not nuanced enough in her speaking to carry this episode. Physically I thought she did a good job. This could be overlooked, but there were other problems with the episode as well that did it in. It also didn't help that Penikett and Lennix (and to a lesser extent, Kranz) danced circles around her.
I have a hard time believing that this is a pilot, having seen Dr. Horrible and Firefly. A pilot, in my opinion, has two jobs; introduce the world and the premise, and draw in viewers. I didn't feel this episode was not particularly strong on the second point.
I enjoyed the concept of Echo as negotiator, and that none of the jobs were military in nature. However, this left the episode feeling very mellow, and that's not good for a pilot episode. It doesn't help that by the nature of the episode, it requires more emotional range than Dushku seemed able to give. Still, the most engaging parts of this episode were the parts where stuff was happening - the kidnapping, the rescue,
Helo Paul in the bathroom intimidating a guy, Echo being recruited. The energy fell off unbelievably in the spaces in between. All in all, this would have made a much better second or third episode - after you've got a lot of build-up, you need to cool it down.
The other big problem of the episode was that it didn't start out with much of a bang. The recruitment scene was great, but the girlfriend scene simply blew. There was absolutely nothing redeeming about it. Five minutes into the show, I was wondering what the point was, and that's not good. It would have been much better off to simply lead with the negotiation, and I think it would have been a better narrative choice as well. Okay, I know they had to show us (and not tell us) that they were wiped clean after each mission, but they could have at least started with the wipe.
Finally, we've got this world, and it seems interesting (if a little bright, visually). However, I had a hard time understanding what the point of the episode was. There wasn't really any emotional resonance with any of the characters, and so I don't particularly feel invested in finding out what happens next. Part of that perhaps is the premise - your main protagonist, by virtue of the premise, has no personality. That prevents any sort of real investment. I suppose I would say that the characters felt very one-dimensional, and while I understand it's practically impossible to have three-dimensional characters in a pilot episode, I would expect they would have a little depth to them, especially from an experienced writer like Whedon.
All in all, while I bought into the premise, there wasn't any real hook to keep me watching. That's a big problem for a pilot. I'm willing to give it a shot, mostly on the good graces of Firefly. However, this is nowhere near that caliber of show and I doubt it ever will be. Since Firefly hit its stride after six episodes, that's how long I'll give Dollhouse to prove itself.
A couple of other random bits:
Dushku wasn't the only one suffering from poor acting; the actor who played the father wasn't very good either. I'm not a huge fan of the director lady's acting either. I think that hurt the storyline as a whole.
Aside from Echo and Sierra, I never got a handle on anyone's name; I had to look up most of them. Again, not good from a resonance standpoint.
I enjoyed the introduction of Paul, and the intercuts with the boxing match. However, I'm a big proponent of "show, don't tell" in storytelling. I'd rather have had the scene where he screws up the human trafficking investigation first, and the chewout afterward.
Yes, I'm aware of the cognitive dissonance between the last paragraph and my earlier issue with the first "engagement" being boring and starting with the wipe. The difference is, the first assignment sucked, and I'm pretty sure Tahmoh Penikett would not.
I'm no profiler or criminalist or anything, but even I know that in kidnapping cases (at least in the US) it's very often someone close to the victim. I was expecting it to be the head of security, and I'll admit I felt a little cheated when it was some random guy. Take a pointer or two from the crime procedurals.
So by showing "Alpha" as a rogue male active helped me some with this little quirk. Still, . . .
