TV in the 2000s or How Let's name ABND's Best Drama Actors/Actresses

Best Performances (TV Drama)

Narrowing the performance/actor categories was HARD. But I went with two things:

1. Do I like the actor/actress?

2. Do I like the performance?

Okay, maybe that didn't help 'em narrow them down at all. But I do have a crazy math system in the back of my head. Just don't make me explain it to cause I'm sure it would blow you away with its awesome and accurateness.

Best Drama Actor

What is it about male actors that keeps me from being wholly invested in them and prevents me from giving great praise to their work? I was planning on writing these men up but maybe it's the end-of-year fatigue coupled with the amount of schoolwork I have but I think they'll speak for themselves.

Jon Hamm - Don Draper (Mad Men)

"You are the product. You feeling something. That's what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can't do what we do and they hate us for it."

Peter Krause - Nate Fisher (Six Feet Under)

"None of us know how long we've got. Which is why we have to make each day matter."

Michael C Hall - David Fisher (Six Feet Under)/ Dexter Morgan (Dexter)

"Yeah, I'll be the strong one, the stable one, the dependable one, because that's what I do. And everyone around me will fall apart. 'Cause that's what they do." - David

"Viva Miami" - Dexter

Hugh Laurie - Dr Gregory House (House)

"It's Never Lupus!"

Victor Garber - Jack Bristow (Alias)

"Sydney, get in. Get in now... you can be stubborn later."

Runners up:

What would Battlestar Galactica have been without Edward James Olmos' raspy, Bale-doing-Batman voice and stern command? What would Big Love have been without its center piece in the form of Bill Paxton? Or, what would Joss's Angel had been without its leading cast member (David Boreanaz, now a staple at Fox's Bones)? Answer: not as good a show as they were.

Best Drama Actress

The ladies though, I couldn't leave without some commentary. Brief as it may be:

Mary McDonnell - President Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica)

"I won't compromise the success of this operation or the safety of this fleet to indulge the neediness of 12 perpetually unhappy representatives. I can't."

What to say about one of the most complex female political figures to grace TV this past decade? The younger cast may have given us plenty of eye candy (Tricia, Katee, Tammoh, Jamie) but it was truly in the duo of Edward James-Olmos and Mary McDonnell, that BSG soared for me. In Laura Roslin - a minister of Education thrust into the role of president after humankind is annihilated, McDonnell gave us a towering presence from the miniseries all the way to the end, when we finally saw her experience pure happiness. Here was a woman who knew what was best for humanity and in many odd ways managed to make me support and believe in the powers of dictatorship, torture, as well as ruthless political strategy without ever making me blink or doubt her. That alone was a feat in itself. The fact that despite this resolute nature of her was still imbued with tenderness and vulnerability (not only in the form of her illness but in her romantic engagement with Adama), without ever seeming at odds, shows how carefully McDonnell (a past Oscar nominee, let us not forget) crafted this character.

Sarah Michelle Gellar - Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why."

Probably my pick for the bravest and most fully formed character this past decade, there's no denying that Buffy Summers wouldn't have been the pop cultural icon it became without the strength of Gellar's thespian skills. Few can straddle the line between high camp and deep melancholy which this part required. Here was a conflicted woman torn between triviality (prom, dating, hairstyles, boys) and the transcendent (death, grief, demons, boys). "The Body" - the episode where Buffy's mom passes away (beautifully directed sans accompanying score by Joss Whedon) is one of the most affecting episodes this show ever produced. To see Gellar's close ups is to see a great actress at work, showing so much grief and so much pain yet trying to remain in control and composed: but how does a slayer deal with death when 'death is her gift' as that season constantly reminded us? But it wasn't just the dramatic scenes that make Buffy a great character and Gellar a worthy candidate for this award: her comedic timing (whether she's playing a robot version of herself, going all "cave-girl" because of beer, or playing up her ditzy blonde routine) is flawless, never missing a beat and always willing to be butt of the joke should the occasion require it. For that, Gellar remains one of my all-time favorite actresses, even if her filmography leaves much to be desired.

January Jones - Betty Draper (Mad Men)

"Sally! Go Bang Your head against the wall"

There are many detractors when it comes to Betty Draper. But one thing that is hard to argue is that, regardless how you feel about Betty, you have to give January Jones props for unflinchingly making Betty the ice-cold Nordic frazzled and childish queen that she is. While her storyline this past season fell mostly on the grating side, her season 2 arc is one of the most interesting examinations of female (and feminine) desire in twentieth century America I've seen put on screen (and here's someone who loves Revolutionary Road, Far From Heaven, The Women, The Hours and Almodovar's films). Betty may seem like a spoiled child (and there's no denying she is) but rather than see her as merely promoting this ideal, Weiner's show is clearly more interested in examining her as a symptom of the culture that bred her. Her mood swings are no less a consequence of here-and-there plot twists but more of a portrayal of the conflicting discourses that rule her life and which she cannot seem to comprehend. I am still waiting to see what they have in store for her next season (I, for one don't want Betty to go away) but these past three seasons enamoured me and while she's anything but lovable, she's fascinated and most of this is because Jones plays her so beautifully (her melancholy gazes, her hysterical fits, even her eerie calm resolve are always magnetic).

Jeanne Tripplehorn - Barb Henrickson (Big Love)

"We're never too far apart when we're holding hands."

This show is pitch-perfect when it comes to complex women (any of the other two wives could have easily made this lineup) but for me it's all about Barb. Maybe it's because she's the one I can relate to the most (and the one that most reminds me of my mother) but it's also because she seems to be the most fully formed and conflicted when it comes to her make-shift "family" and still its most staunch supporter (as evidenced by last season's storyline). She always breaks my heart but what Tripplehorn manages is to achieve this without falling into a portrayal that plays up her victim-like position (which is rarely promoted by the writing itself) but by braving the attacks on her family and her lifestyle knowing full well how she will always stand for what is right (which is why I love the quote that I chose): she may not agree with Margie or Nikki all the time, but she loves them. Family, as they say, always comes first.

Amy Acker - Winifred Burkle (Angel)/Dr Saunders (Dollhouse)

"This has been the best night ever. First, there's you taking me to ice cream, then there's the ice cream, then that monster jumps out of the freezer and you're all brave and, "Fred, watch out!," and then we get to chase it down into the sewers, which are just so bleak, and oppressive and homey. I-I could build a condo down here." - Fred

"You can't be your best. Your best is past. Your past you can't even remember. You're ugly now. You're disgusting. All you can hope for now is pity. And for that, you're going to have to look somewhere else." - Dr Saunders

This is probably my only left-field entry but I have a soft-spot for Amy Acker and I truly believe that her 2 (well, 4 if we're being specific) Whedon characters speak very highly about this young Sci-Fi starlet (it's no surprise she has several Saturn Award nominations and one win under her belt). From the quirky and lovable Winifred ("Fred") to the ice-cold alien nature of Illyria to the touching pitiable Dr Saunders (and then her creepy and touching turn as Whiskey), Acker showed great range, while still nailing the vulnerable and wounded aspects of her characters. "A Hole in the World" (the episode where - spoilers alert! - Fred "dies") still ranks as one of my all-time favorite Whedon episodes and most of it is due to Acker's performance because even as it could have fallen into cliche (dying words, sickness), her tenderness and humour weren't completely gone and made the scene when she finally dies that much more heartbreaking.

Runners up:

The Six Feet Under gals (Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths & Frances Conroy) for carefully adding much needed estrogen to the boy-ruled household. Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) for making Six a more complex and interesting cylon than most human TV characters this decade. The Damages pair: this show really works Rose Byrne and Glenn Close for all their thespian power and in the process we get two lawyers with more characterization than a mere procedural would ever require.

Dollhouse, or How consent isn't a play-thing

Not often can one drop the names of (feminist thinkers) Andrea Dworkin and Catharine McKinnon when discussing a network show, but that is exactly what Emily Nussbaum did over at her blog Surf when discussing last night's episode of Dollhouse "Belonging." And damn if it's not a great read!

Written by Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Jonathan Frankes, this latest episode moved away from Eliza Dushku's Echo/Caroline plot (and even benched Tammoh Penikett's Paul Ballard!) and focused instead on the doll Sierra (played by Dichen Lachman) - her backstory which we had glimpsed at last season (namely, Priya-turned-Sierra was taken to the Dollhouse because she wouldn't comply with a valued 'higher-up' of the Rossum corporation which owns the Dollhouse). Discussing the main themes of Dollhouse and how they relate to the Whedon world, Nussbaum tells us that,

If you're a resentful Whedon nerd, you've got mind-control issues, a sexually charged situation his series tend to at once oppose in theory and play out in a cathartic way in practice. (As Dollhouse in particular demonstrates, it's awfully hard to distinguish these things when your sex slaves are mincing around in tiny tank tops.)

"Belonging" pushes that sex-slave theme to its limits. It bubbles over with unsettling insights into the Dollhouse's ethical status, fueled by brilliant performances by both Dachman as Sierra and Fran Kranz as Topher, whose status as Sierra's creator/brainwasher is given tremendous complexity (he's regretful, he's complicit, he's innocent, blood is on his hands).

As a quasi-fan of the show myself (during its first season it never quite grabbed me though those last episodes, and Epitaph One - the unaired mythic 13th episode, really pulled all the punches and got me back into the Whedon-bandwagon) I am thoroughly enjoying this new season (trust FOX to pull a Whedon and give us a good thing before killing it off!). This is mainly due to the fact that it has truly embraced its ethical ambiguity and exploited it to advance more (and more interesting) questions than any other broadcast show on TV. Through Sierra's storyline - clearly the one that most mirrors the slavery-motif of the Dollhouse, Whedon & co. crafted one of the most affecting episodes dealing with human trafficking and female consent I have ever seen on TV.

With "Belonging," Dollhouse breached new territory for the show, delving deep into the wounded conscience-addled Topher (played by Fran Kranz) - a character who began as a two-dimensional "nerd" stereotype, at once too smart for his own good and too disinterested to care about his dolls, but who has morphed into the character that most self-reflexibly shows us the limits of the Dollhouse's ethics. In one of the most chilling lines of the series, we hear Olivia Williams' DeWitt tell Topher that

"The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals have been compromised in some way. Everyone except you. You Topher were chosen because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as play-things. This is not a judgement; you alwasy take very good care of your toys. But you're simply going to have let this one go."

Topher's character arc (as Epipath One showed us) will be to deal with this newfound conscience as the searing revelation of what his technological prowess has done (and will do) to everyone inside and outside the Dollhouse becomes clearer and clearer. Is the Dollhouse simply a fancy prostitution agency which manages to disavow human consent by instilling/imprinting a 'real' desire out of nothing? Or is the question an even bigger one: what are the expectations of desire and consent in a world that is already so invested in performance and make-believe? Priya/Sierra may be able to go back to the Dollhouse as a clean slate (maintaining only her love for Victor) but Topher is left alone in his geek quad to live with what he has done and what he must do every day: 'help' these dolls. But at what price? At whose bidding?

If the last couple of episodes have shown us anything is that the better Dollhouse is as a series, the more uncomfortable are the ideas/questions it (re)presents. We have to wait til December 4 for the next couple of episodes, but I personally can't wait for what Whedon & co. have in store for us.

Dollhouse, or How let's meet the players

Dollhouse returned last night with a Whedon-written-&-directed episode called "Vows" which delved deeper into the moral ambiguities surrounding the Dollhouse (through Whiskey/Saunders' storyline) and set up the ongoing threads for season 2 (a senator-led witch-hunt against the Dollhouse, Paul & Echo's alliance, Whiskey's self-discovery). I don't know what new viewers thought (or if any tuned in) but it was a solid episode featuring a great cast:

Spoilers Ahead...

Guest Starring

Lee Adama (known as 'Jamie Bamber' outside the BSG-verse) played Echo's "assignment" - a husband whose business is a bit shady. (PS. Is Bamber hotter when he's angry/villainous or was that just me?)

Wesley Windham-Pryce (ie. 'Mr Alyson Hannigan' er... I mean 'Alexis Denisof' outside of the Buffyverse) plays (and will recur throughout) as a Senator who has it in for the 'Dollhouse': but why?

Amy Acker as Whiskey/Dr Saunders. After finding out her identity was a sham (she was the premier 'doll' until Alpha sliced her up) she's left in shambles battling with her inner-engineering.

Series Regulars

Enver Gjokaj as 'Victor' (a doll) - following the same fate as Whiskey (at Alpha's knife) we find Victor getting cosmetic surgery at the Dollhouse's expense (which irks Whiskey, but then... we all know why Ms DeWitt would want to keep pretty-Victor's face intact, no?)

Dichen Lachman as 'Sierra' (a doll) has probably the most hysterical scene in the episode where her interaction with Ivy ("Uh, could I have the other one? The man one?") showcases her imprint's racist/sexual personality, but has little to do other than hold hands with Victor at the end of the episode.

Harry Lenix as Boyd Langton (Echo's former handler and now head of security of the Dollhouse) plays the 'father' figure throughout (not just with Echo but now taking on Whiskey as well).

Fran Kranz is Topher Brink, the mastermind behind the Dollhouse's technology - who we saw wounded and damaged in 'Epitah One' begins his morally-tinged journey into ambivalence with his interactions with Whiskey.

Olivia Williams (playing probably my favorite character on the show) is Adelle DeWitt, the head of the LA branch of the Dollhouse (yes! there are more we learned!) and is intent on keeping Ballard close at hand. Good thing she knows how to get things done: by emotionally manipulating people to her advantage.

'Helo' (Tamoh Pennikett) is (ex)Agent FBI Paull Ballard who after spending season 1 pursuing the 'Dollhouse' and finding out what happened to Caroline/Echo, is now 'employed' (though to what capacity the episode doesn't reveal til the end) under the Dollhouse though as DeWitt tells us, his motives (much too chivalrous) are his best guarantee in keeping Echo safe.

And last (and most would also say least) we have Eliza Dushku (Faith herself!) as 'Echo/Caroline): the 'best' doll in the Dollhouse who's self-awareness keeps chipping away at her doll-persona ("I am all of them, but none of them is me" she tells Paul at the end of the episode)

Jamie & Eliza or How I'm extra-excited about Dollhouse now

"We are kickass"

Need we say more?

[src]

Dollhouse's Echo/Epitaph One or How this is fearless TV at work

Dollhouse's 'Lost Episodes' (read: the original pilot 'Echo' - which got scrapped, and the thirteenth episode 'Epitath One' - which FOX refused to air in the Spring but which will be available when the Dollhouse DVDs make their way into shelves everywhere) make for great bookends to what was arguably a shaky start to Joss Whedon's provocative new show. Careful: SPOILERS AHEAD.

More so than its aired brethren, 'Echo' and 'Epitath One' carefully distill the moral ambiguity and bleak-toned originality of Joss's premise:

Echo is part of"a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls". The Dolls are people whose personalities and existence in the outside world have been wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas—including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language—for different assignments (referred to as engagements)" (So Wikipedia summarizes it).

Echo

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

If the aired pilot functioned as a way to introduce gentle viewers into this complicated world (with a ransom story more akin to Law & Order than to a Whedon show), 'Echo' doesn't shy away from plunging us deep into the core of the show's premise: what is the real purpose of the Dollhouse? (a question keen viewers might remember from Echo's encounter with Paul Ballard late in the season and which 'Epitaph' will pick up in full force). The episode guides us through the Dollhouse's process: we see Echo in several assignments as Adele explains that the Dollhouse gives its clients not what they want, but what they need. And so we follow as Echo gets given a mission to throw Ballard's mission off target (having gotten Caroline's picture just as in the aired-pilot and following fake tips from 'Victor', Ballard is getting quite close at finding the Dollhouse it seems) - culminating in a moment as shocking and well-executed as the Echo/Paul fight from 'Man on the Street', showing how well Eliza and Tammoh actually work against the other.

In a way, this 'lost pilot' gets quicker at what the season one as a whole works to develop: it intertwines the Paul/Echo story much faster, gives away the Victor/Doll mystery right away and - this is most glaring in the last scene - Echo whispers 'Caroline' before falling asleep, suggesting Echo's ability to remember past her wipes (This if we all remember is the last scene of 'Omega' though it fits much more beautifully here)

In particular (and given the amount of scenes spliced straight into the aired pilot) I wish the Boyd/Topher conversation had been kept intact as it illuminated (much less didactically than what actually aired) the tensions within the Dollhouse in regards to the Dolls:

Topher: Does that tie keep you warm?

Boyd: Uh... no.

Topher: It's just what grownup men do in our culture. They... ah, put a piece of cloth around their necks so they can assert their status and recognize each other as non-threatening kindred.

Boyd: So what is this? The 60s? We're going to burn our draft cards?

Topher: You wear the tie because it never occurred to you not to. You eat eggs every morning but never at night. You feel excitement, companionship when rich men you've never met put a ball through a net. You feel guilty, maybe a little suspicious every time you see that Salvation Army Santa. You look down for at least half a second if a woman leans forward. And your stomach rumbles every time you drive by a big golden arch even if you weren't hungry before. Everybody's programmed Boyd.

In a sense, despite being the first episode, 'Echo' feels much more like an episode from the second half of the season (post-'Man on the Street', if you will) which suggests Whedon & co. only hit their stride once they realized this was less a show about 'who's Eliza gonna play in this episode?' (read: a Network friendly action of the week type deal) and more of an intricately woven adult premise dealing with human trafficking, body/soul metaphysics and tech morality.

Epitath One

Written by: Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon

Directed by: Joss Whedon

We start in an LA we might only recognize because we've seen the Terminator films: it is dark, flames envelop the background and we are told it is 2019 and these 'actuals' (humans who we presume can't/haven't been 'printed') we meet are afraid of any tech as they seek refuge. Where do they end up? Inside the Dollhouse of course.

This is not your regular Dollhouse; for this Whedon & co. came up with a framing device that might have seemed hokey if it did not work perfectly to retell the 'Dollhouse' mythology (following it through past what the season finale showed us) tracing it through what is arguably one of the most fascinating characters on the show: Adele DeWitt. While the rag-tag pack of survivors find a way to survive inside the Dollhouse (battling an unseen murdering force and finding a creepy haunting-like Whiskey/Dr Saunders) we get fragments of Adele's memories that explain how the technology that gave people 'not what they want but what they need' ended up causing the mayhem we witnessed at the start of the episode where remote wipes and reprinting is now not restricted to Dolls but to anyone walking the streets.

This is fearless storytelling not least because Whedon & co. have pretty much mapped the direction of the show (or, not just mapped it but showed the audience said map: we see snippets of romantic pairings, we see the Dollhouse as a safe haven from above, we see Boyd fleeing, Whiskey/Dr Saunders scarless, we hear about 'what happened to November'). In short, this is an episode that functions just as powerfully as an 'ending' (which it almost was) and as whetting titillating flash-forward: I am even more excited now for season 2 than after seeing 'Omega'. This is Dollhouse we were all waiting for, with a sprawling mythology, a deeper purpose, and an array of well-grounded characters. That said, it might say something about the show as a whole that, being this its strongest entry, it showcases the least amount of screentime from Ms Dushku: albeit, she is more than capable and believable as Caroline than she ever was as Echo, but the episode instead finds itself weighing heavily on two of Whedon's regulars: Amy Acker and Felicia Day, and on Dollhouse's boss-lady, Olivia Williams, all capable thesps with Joss at the helm.

Overall, these make for great bookends to Whedon's new show and I'm glad they are being released to the public for not only do they enrich the stories and characters we got to know in this first season, but they also set up wonderfully the world and the tensions which will populate season 2. Brava Joss, brava indeed!

Dollhouse, or How OMFG!

OMFG. I won't tire of saying it. Or thinking it. Or feeling it. But damn if it doesn't represent the 'edge-of-my-seat-ess' that I experienced during Joss Whedon's Dollhouse Season 1 Finale.

[Spoilers Ahead]

So, what were the Top 5 Greatest OMFG moments in 'Omega'?

OMFG Moment #1: Saunders is Whiskey 1.1... isn't 'Saunders' at all

OMFG Moment #2: Alpha attacks Whiskey 1.1

OMFG Moment #3: Alpha pulls a Caleb on his handler

OMFG Moment #4: Agent Ballard 'saves' November, not Echo!

OMFG Moment #5: "Caroline..."

Now if only Dollhouse wasn't already dead in the water... sigh...

Dollhouse, or How it's good: tell your friends

Dollhouse just keeps getting better and better. Joss and co. have started to flesh out the universe of the Dolls and have worked hard at exploring the moral ramifications of the actions of the Dollhouse without sacrificing tension, drama and even romance. The latest episode ("Needs") was an interesting (literal) mind-bending experiment that saw Echo, Victor, Sierra and November deal with their 'inner demons' and sought closure through their newly found free-willing actions. But then, nothing ever beats 'concept episodes' in a Whedon show right? Here's to looking forward to next week's installment.

Dollhouse delivers, or How Joss never lies

Man on the Street written by Joss is finally the Dollhouse I was waiting for.

Dominic: You played a good hand.

DeWitt: I played a bad hand well.

DeWitt: There is a distinction.

Well played Joss, well played.

Awesome TV Week, or How 30 Rock + Dollhouse + BSG!

Eliza dancing!

- She's living the dream

- Yes, but whose dream?

- Who's next?

How dare you say that in front of the statue of Santa Lucia, the patron Saint of judgmental statues!

And of course:

Welcome back Ellen... 

[I am still deciding how I feel about all this and I doubt this episode helped me made up my mind at all, but a lousy, didactic and schematic BSG is better than most TV]