Wow, so hard to choose between Castle & Dollhouse!

svt121 | June 13, 15:53 CET

Not much of a selection, it was a brutal season for freshman shows -- Dollhouse was an easy pick this time. But what an awful picture of Anna Torv! I didn't get who it was until third glance.

cabri | June 13, 16:06 CET

Castle or Dollhouse?

Dollhouse, thus far, has failed to meet my expectations for how good a show I think it can be.
Castle, on the other hand, met or exceeded my expectations from the get-go.

Therefore: Castle.

brinderwalt | June 13, 16:25 CET

It's easily Dollhouse from this list, I don't even have to mentally ignore the weak start to justify it. Although, fair is fair: I haven't seen 'Southland'. Is it any good? From the mini-blurb, it sounds The Shield-y. Which would be of the good.

brinderwalt, I agree that Dollhouse didn't meet my expectations (at first) and Castle exceeded them (based pretty much completely on Fillion's work). But then: my expectations for Dollhouse were sky-high, while for Castle - just another procedural - they were very low. As far as I'm concerned, Dollhouse easily beats Castle in terms of simple quality of writing and story, which is what made me pick Dollhouse without much hesitation at all.

GVH | June 13, 16:30 CET

The link doesn't work for me, for some odd reason, but this one does:

http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/index.html

[ edited by zillah on 2009-06-14 01:34 ]

zillah | June 13, 16:33 CET

Dollhouse. But Better Off Ted doesn't deserve to be last.

I don't believe Summer's poll ever got posted, but she's winning anyway.

hacksaway | June 13, 16:48 CET

When I see a generic "which one is best" question like this one, I consider it to be a judgment about which show made the best use of its available resources (actors, sets, story, etc.) as a whole. Yes Dollhouse is written on a higher artistic level and employs the serial format (as of episode 6 anyway), but both these factors are questions of taste and not a reflection of superior quality.

[ edited by brinderwalt on 2009-06-14 02:58 ]

brinderwalt | June 13, 17:53 CET

Crap. I had to vote for The Mentalist because Simon Baker is super hot.

twinkiefoo | June 13, 19:59 CET

"Dollhouse" was easily better than any of them, even with its rough start. I like "Fringe," but only came to like it toward the end of the season (whereas I believe it is nearly love for "Dollhouse"). "Castle" very quickly settled into being a routine procedural. Nathan in the lead is really all it has going for it. Everything else is pretty predictable and monotonous.

Nebula1400 | June 13, 22:25 CET

I really don't enjoy Castle--and the only thing I regret about not watching is how charming NF is in his role. It just employs so many things that shows on USA does/did better, with the especial problem that that kind of Moonlighting acrimonious flirty type of romance is something I hate with a fiery, burning passion. Fringe, the only other show I've seen on the list, is filler for me.

So my vote goes to Dollhouse w/ only the qualms that I haven't seen the other nominated shows.

dottikin | June 13, 22:28 CET

I liked two new shows this year -- Dollhouse and Lie to Me. Lie to Me wasn't on the list, which makes Dollhouse an easy choice.

snowinhell | June 13, 23:42 CET

brinderwalt, I'm not looking actually to go into the whole 'what constitutes quality fiction'/'can we judge fiction with anything approaching objectivism' debate we have here from time to time, but for the record: I disagree with that. I don't think that's completely a matter of taste. Sure, taste always figures into it ("it" being art appreciation), but I do believe there's gounds on which to show that Dollhouse is written not just with a different goal in mind (more artistic and complex), but also, by some form of consensus on how to judge fiction, "better".

ETR: typos

[ edited by GVH on 2009-06-14 11:55 ]

GVH | June 14, 02:53 CET

I really like Lie To Me too, but I don't think show itself is anywhere near as interesting as Dollhouse, and the premise is every bit as unbelievable, though not presented as a fantasy/scifi thing.

The certainty with which the experts detect the liars is too extreme and difficult to credit as a real world science thing, and all the plots hinge on that one ability. However, Tim Roth's performance is just mesmerizing; he makes it and everything else believable. He's really something else.

ETA semicolon, because I am a freak.

[ edited by toast on 2009-06-14 12:00 ]

toast | June 14, 02:58 CET

LOL. I know that feeling. ;)

brinderwalt | June 14, 06:26 CET

Castle combines Nathan Fillion (who is one of the actors in television I like most) and basically the concept of Psych which is one of the tv-series I enjoy watching most, yet it doesn't really do a thing for me and I'm not compelled to watch it every week, so I don't feel it makes the most of its available resources.

It did better in meeting my expectations than Dollhouse did, but that's only because there weren't really any and I had incredibly high hopes for Dollhouse.

Anyway, slim pickings (though that's mostly because I don't know most shows on the list), which made choosing Dollhouse really easy. Maybe if Sit down, shut up wasn't canned just when it was getting better, it could have given Dollhouse some competition or (if I'm not mistaken and this is about the whole tv-season) the inclusion of True Blood on the list would have made the choise more difficult.

the Groosalugg | June 14, 06:47 CET

Castle. I always had a weak spot for Murder She Wrote. ;)

redeem147 | June 14, 06:51 CET

I went with Castle. It's the only new show that I actually followed and saw every episode of. The others didn't hold my interest. That includes Dollhouse. Sorry.

TDBrown | June 14, 08:59 CET

Better Off Ted is charming. It tries too hard at times but its getting better and I think it will continue its upward slope. As much as I absofrakinglutely adore Nathan, Castle just isn't my bag.
It took me a while to really enjoy Fringe. But the more messed up the show got the more my apprecitation grew.
And no need to go on about Dollhouse as everything there is to say about the show's been said.
I think of the 3 Fringe had the strongest whole year but its a little unfair as BOT only had 6 episodes so far (or was it 7) Dollhouse has had 12 while Fringe got 20. Fringe hasn't gotten anywhere nearly as deep as Dollhouse though.
I voted for Dollhouse but it may have been more honest if I had voted for Fringe, maybe not. I did let Fringe build up and my DVR for a while and I never waited longer than a day after Dollhouse aired before I watched it. And the 1 day wait, the one time was cause I got home from work late and only had enough in me for BSG and Terminator, and Dollhouse was way #3 to those 2.

theMidnighter | June 14, 14:02 CET

Maybe, but not the distinction that the one show is a procedural and the other is a serial, because down that train of thought lies error. MUWAHAHAHAHA...NARF!

[ edited by brinderwalt on 2009-06-15 01:15 ]

brinderwalt | June 14, 15:30 CET

Dollhouse was the only show on the list that held my interest. I know NF is a huge fan favorite here and elsewhere, but I just don't dig him.

edcsLover9 | June 14, 16:22 CET

Yeah easily Dollhouse for me.

NF is fine but I too don't think he's anything truly special.

vampmogs | June 14, 18:49 CET

I voted for Dollhouse, but honesty would have made me vote for Better Off Ted.

FaithsTruCalling | June 14, 20:47 CET

Dollhouse is in the lead with 30.2% as of this post ^_^ (Fringe is in 2nd with 20-something percent).

katetwo | June 14, 21:01 CET