It's that time of the year again

Three Americans share Nobel Prize for Medicine.

It's the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.

It's that time of the year again

Three Americans share Nobel Prize for Medicine.

It's the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.

Dollhouse Monday: The Premise

As far as premises go, Dollhouse may be one of the creepiest things to hit network television in a long time. A biotech firm develops the technology to extract all memories from a person's brain and replace them with custom memories and skills. In the finest capitalist tradition it hires out customized people (called Actives ) to people rich and influential enough to pay the multi-million dollar fee. The Actives are engaged in tasks including espionage, hostage negotiation, cult infiltration, midwifery and - most disturbingly - romantic and familial relationships.

The Actives, or "dolls", are supposedly volunteers contracted to lend their bodies to the Dollhouse for five years, after which they will have their original memories restored and be given several million dollars in compensation. In reality, at least two of the Actives were manipulated or forced.

Actives aren't just programmed to do things, they are written to BE fully realized people who want to do those things above all else. You want a date to your ex's wedding? Then by Jove, the Active will be in love with you all the way down to the biochemical level. People who can afford to hire an Active often come with high levels of entitlement, so everyone is happy with the arrangement. The Dollhouse gets paid, the client is satisfied, and the Active is wiped clean of the latest mission leaving a personality-free shell that spends time in a luxurious spa setting until the next job.

And then entropy happens.

The human brain has a tendency to defy expectations. Some Actives squirrel away traces of memory from each of their engagements, and develop a rudimentary personality even in their wiped state.

The problem is that this rudimentary personality is NOT the original owner of the body. The original owner who, by the way, agreed to abandon the body for a period of five years. So who gets to say what the body is or is not allowed to do? Is it the original owner who may or may not have been a willing donor and is now residing on a hard drive? Is it the Dollhouse which holds the contracts? Or is it whatever personality currently resides in the body?

We've already met three Actives who have realized that they don't own their bodies. Each reacted differently. Now we're waiting to see what happens next.




Save Dollhouse.

Dollhouse Monday: The Premise

As far as premises go, Dollhouse may be one of the creepiest things to hit network television in a long time. A biotech firm develops the technology to extract all memories from a person's brain and replace them with custom memories and skills. In the finest capitalist tradition it hires out customized people (called Actives ) to people rich and influential enough to pay the multi-million dollar fee. The Actives are engaged in tasks including espionage, hostage negotiation, cult infiltration, midwifery and - most disturbingly - romantic and familial relationships.

The Actives, or "dolls", are supposedly volunteers contracted to lend their bodies to the Dollhouse for five years, after which they will have their original memories restored and be given several million dollars in compensation. In reality, at least two of the Actives were manipulated or forced.

Actives aren't just programmed to do things, they are written to BE fully realized people who want to do those things above all else. You want a date to your ex's wedding? Then by Jove, the Active will be in love with you all the way down to the biochemical level. People who can afford to hire an Active often come with high levels of entitlement, so everyone is happy with the arrangement. The Dollhouse gets paid, the client is satisfied, and the Active is wiped clean of the latest mission leaving a personality-free shell that spends time in a luxurious spa setting until the next job.

And then entropy happens.

The human brain has a tendency to defy expectations. Some Actives squirrel away traces of memory from each of their engagements, and develop a rudimentary personality even in their wiped state.

The problem is that this rudimentary personality is NOT the original owner of the body. The original owner who, by the way, agreed to abandon the body for a period of five years. So who gets to say what the body is or is not allowed to do? Is it the original owner who may or may not have been a willing donor and is now residing on a hard drive? Is it the Dollhouse which holds the contracts? Or is it whatever personality currently resides in the body?

We've already met three Actives who have realized that they don't own their bodies. Each reacted differently. Now we're waiting to see what happens next.




Save Dollhouse.