IKEA on Dollhouse

The two small bowls. I have those.  I often use them for tea eggs and the like, espcially the smaller, red one. This was the first time I noticed IKEA props on Dollhouse. But it’s not like I am paying sharp attention to the props on this show… It just fails too badly at whatever it’s trying to do to be worth the effort. I’ve seen this episode referred to as good and even as great, but it only seems that way because the first five episodes have been so irrelevant and pointless. I don’t think I watch any more, unless they get, say, Michael E. Rodgers to guest-star. (I even watched “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” for the man…) Sick and tired of the Dolls’ strained “innocence”; of de Witt’s never-ending smug smile as she smugly strides through her office and smugly says smug things.  And Topher can take his self-important technobabbles and shove them up his ass. Or maybe he can get his cutesy pig-tailed Asian assistent to do that for him, since that’s what she’s apparantly there for.

What I like

There’s something I realize now after watching Being Human, a couple of things that come on my “What makes good TV” list. Because I really enjoyed Being Human more than I enjoyed anything in a long time, and more than I was expecting to enjoy it – seriously! It feels good to watch something with a different motivation than snark.

I could snark about it, too. Sure! There are probably some flaws, but they don’t matter very much because the story as a whole is coherent. When it’s obvious that the show has a purpose and an underlying sense and theme, and everything is leading somewhere and nothing is random, I get a sense of security and trust that is necessary to really enjoy a show.

a) You get a sense of the setting. The house is like a fourth protagonist. It plays a role and has character and continuity. I realize I’m a huge fan of little details and paying attention to the most idiotic things, and with Being Human, it’s cups, for example.With the house treated like that, the show is grounded in reality and normalcy. You can really believe that this is the place where these people live.

[Removed: Rant about the bad and inconsistent and half-hearted characterization of Mohinder's apartment in the last two seasons of Heroes.]

b) No CGI for the werewolf, omg!!! I don’t think I ever found any werewolf believable-looking, but between the two last werewolves I saw, the one in Being Human wins any day of the week. Good old animatronic puppets!!! It may still look fake, but it looks real at the same time, probably because it IS real, the model really exists in all its fake furry glory.

In case you wonder, the other werewolf I saw was the one in Sanctuary. Didn’t look like a wolf. CGI. Looked like 1996. Looked like a hairless wolf monkey because they didn’t even bother designing the hair. I guess that’d have been impossible on their budget, but then why choose CGI? I applaud Being Human for choosing a method that is not only within their budget but also looks decent. Everything else looks like you don’t actually give a damn what your own show looks like in the end, but

One of these days I’ll rant about Sanctuary.

Conclusion: I enjoy bright colours and nice clothes. Also details, and a lot of characterization can be done that way, through clothes, set design and allll the tiny little things in between. That’s makes something feel alive and real and therefore worth my time.

Now I will make a new header that doesn’t feature Heroes anymore. I am grateful for Heroes in a way, because it gave the world Sendhil Ramamurthy, and god knows the world needs Sendhil Ramamurthy.