Whedonesque : Comments on 21339 : Dollhouse's 'Epitaph One' number one on iTunes.

Nevermind... Found it.

[ edited by AthenaMuze on 2009-08-16 22:22 ]

Just to keep up with my current 80's trend, I would just like to say Ace of Base!

FWIW, it's actually been #1 in TV Episodes since Thursday. So TV by the Numbers is three days late on this news.

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2009-08-16 22:39 ]

The One True b!X | August 16, 22:36 CET

Still mysteriously absent from the UK store.

Dear Whoever is in Charge of this Sort of Thing:

I am trying to give you money in exchange for your product. I understand this is how the system is supposed to work. Please sort out your side of the deal. Thanks.

mjwilson | August 16, 22:54 CET

It'll probably go on sale two weeks after the DVD comes out in September, that's if the US model is anything to go by.

Simon | August 16, 22:57 CET

Whoo-hoo!

Anonymous1 | August 16, 23:00 CET

I signed up for iTunes just so I could buy it. IMHO it's the best episode yet.

redeem147 | August 17, 01:27 CET

BRILLIANT. Sadly I think it's better just using Eliza a little bit. Felicia Day ROCKS so hard!! And the song at the end is wonderful.

Vinity | August 17, 02:49 CET

I thought Eliza and everybody else was great in Epitaph One... I just think Joss shows are better in general when they're true ensemble shows.

mortimer | August 17, 05:11 CET

I am trying to give you money in exchange for your product. I understand this is how the system is supposed to work. Please sort out your side of the deal. Thanks.

Therein lies the genesis behind much end-user illegal copying.

jclemens | August 17, 05:50 CET

I'm still trying to wrap my mind on why FOX decided not to air this episode. The loss was totally towards them and they still don't realize it. Silly television people.

Madhatter | August 17, 06:05 CET

The running speculation is that "Epitaph One" in the UK won't hit iTunes until after the DVD release, like it did here in the US. I don't disagree that it seems silly, given that lots of people wanted it immediately after it aired there.

The One True b!X | August 17, 07:01 CET

I find it especially odd that I can buy 'Remains' on the UK iTunes store if I want to. But not the episode itself. Just bizarre.

skittledog | August 17, 08:03 CET

I'm still trying to wrap my mind on why FOX decided not to air this episode. The loss was totally towards them and they still don't realize it. Silly television people.

Had you considered the entire episode is a spoiler? A lot of
people hate being spoiled and I am surprised that has not been
mentioned up to this point.

JDL | August 17, 09:18 CET

But it's been aired in the UK, so keeping it off iTunes makes no sense.

mjwilson | August 17, 12:17 CET

I agree that the ep rocks with Eliza being in it only a little, Felicia Day and Amy are excellent. I don't think Amy gets as much credit as she should. Since I did not care for the first 5 eps, I am going to wait for a used copy of the DVD and hope season 2 jumps right into being great.

rehabber | August 17, 13:17 CET

Let Eliza be #1.

BringItOn5x5 | August 17, 14:26 CET

Will episode #0 (unaired pilot -- "Echo") go on sale via iTunes? (I know it's on the DVD -- just asking.)

SteveP | August 17, 14:48 CET

The episode is not a spoiler. It's not a spoiler if the writers set out to tell the story this way. It's not a spoiler any more than Chorus coming out at the very beginning of Romeo and Juliet to tell you that those characters are going to die is a spoiler.

The One True b!X | August 17, 17:54 CET

Romeo and Juliet DIE?!?

JMaloney | August 17, 18:04 CET

The episode is not a spoiler. It's not a spoiler if the writers set out to tell the story this way. It's not a spoiler any more than Chorus coming out at the very beginning of Romeo and Juliet to tell you that those characters are going to die is a spoiler.

Sorry but I disagree. And fwiw I would class that R & J chorus
as a spoiler as well. The difference of course is that one is
of (hopefully) events that will take place after years of more
shows versus a 1 night affair.

But the original question was why did they not show Epitaph 1?
I have given a logical reason that could be 100% wrong. It also
could have been that they did not want to end the season on
such an episode or that they wanted another selling point for
the DVD's. YMMV.

JDL | August 17, 19:46 CET

I thought the reason was already known in that it was because Fox Broadcasting didn't want to pay the licence fee for another episode ? And the reason it was actually made was because 20th Century Fox needed it for the DVD ?

Saje | August 17, 19:50 CET

If the writer's story tells you forthcoming events in advance of them happening, it's not a spoiler. It's just storytelling. Maybe it's an approach to storytelling some people might not like, but it's not what defines a spoiler. It's a narrative device to create a certain form of tension. A spoiler is someone outside the writer's narrative -- say, a fan site or a TV columnist -- outing a story point before the writer's actually told the story to people.

The One True b!X | August 17, 19:56 CET

Makes sense. A spoiler spoils part of the story, it can't be part of the story.

Saje | August 17, 21:39 CET

Babylon 5 did a similar thing, I felt it added to the story.

Simon | August 17, 21:58 CET

Presenting a glimpse into the future is a relatively common narrative device and by definition not a spoiler (per b!x and Saje). One of a gajillion examples: the opening of The Shroud of Rahmon episode in Angel. Another couple Angel episodes did something similar in their opening scenes (spacing on their names right now). In all the cases I can think of, nothing is quite what it seems in these glimpses into the future (to paraphrase Adelle DeWitt). That is, what we think we're seeing isn't necessarily what has happened/will happen, once we understand the broad narrative arc, start to finish.

Anyway. I'm thrilled by the position of Epitaph One on iTunes. It's a dynamite episode. I think it should have been aired, but then again, I'm not a Fox scheduling exec. And I get that they didn't want to lay out more dough. Still. I think for a certain kind of audience, it'd be just what the doctor ordered to get people (even) more excited about Season 2.

Edited to add: Epitaph One has been toppled from the number 1 position to number 3 by the latest Mad Men episode and some other thingie I know nothing about. Oh well. It had a pretty good run of being number 1.

[ edited by phlebotinin on 2009-08-17 22:17 ]

phlebotinin | August 17, 22:07 CET

Be interesting to know if the sales on iTunes paid for the episode's production costs. If Joss did film 'Epitaph One' on the cheap then it might have.

Simon | August 17, 22:22 CET

Pretty sure he's said they made it for about half the budget of a normal episode.

Babylon 5 did a similar thing, I felt it added to the story.

And it made you feel as if JMS really knew where his story was going too.

That is, what we think we're seeing isn't necessarily what has happened/will happen, once we understand the broad narrative arc, start to finish.

Yep and in this case Joss has already said that a lot of "Epitaph One" is told through memories, which are unreliable. And even without Joss telling us, we know memory is the one thing we can't count on in 'Dollhouse', anything we saw as related by the machine could be a genuine misperception by the "donor" or unintentionally skewed towards/against an individual or even just plain false, a deliberate lie for reasons that might become apparent later.

As a device BTW, I think it's bordering on overused, particularly as in the cold open where we see A N Spectacular explosion/death/etc. before the credits then the text "12 hours/2 days/3 weeks earlier" pops up onscreen and we move towards the events often to find they don't happen as we were shown or they're a huge anti-climax (at least E1 has a "cheat" built into it with the whole memory thing, it sort of wears its cheat on its sleeve so to speak). Time in recent TV that it worked completely BTW ? The "House's Head"/"Wilson's Heart" two parter from S4 'House' - we knew the bus crash was coming but when it finally arrived it was still incredibly powerful IMO.

Saje | August 17, 23:06 CET

"A Spy In The House of Love" also had this sort of format. So it's even been done before on Dollhouse.

JossIzBoss | August 18, 00:23 CET

If you purchased the season pass for dollhouse on amazon VOD you got the 13 episode for free. Just found it on my download list and went back to see if i was charged for it and wasn't. Dunno if it was a glitch or on purpose but im not gonna complain

flamepulse | August 18, 03:40 CET

I may be the last person in the U.S. to have seen this - just now, so I'm still processing.

I thought it was brilliant and maybe something there isn't a word for. It needed to be longer, it seemed to go by in about twenty minutes.
I would have liked more Eliza, her absence made me realize that for me, she really is the heart of the show. I haven't even had time to check the cast for the little girls name, but ... just, wow!

Spectacular performances from every single actor, and I'm not generally that much of a fan of Felicia Day. (Go ahead, throw various fruits and meats). I'm more impressed now, I just wasn't sure she had the range to play against type.

Fran Kranz has cemented his place as my favorite actor/character on Dollhouse, he's simply spectacular. And Amy Acker doesn't know how to be less than perfect, no matter what she does.

Spoiler? Nooo, .... there has never been a show where memory and reality are less reliable. They can take it anywhere, without violating the integrity of this little gem.
When the series ends (may that be a long time coming), what I want is a movie spin-off, from this ep.

Happy sleep now. ;)

Shey | August 18, 13:26 CET

August 16 2009