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I have worked in the TV industry, on and off, for more than ten years. (There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about how the industry works, which I don’t have time to get into here. But please try to avoid sounding off in my comments about how we’re all a bunch of no-taste idiots. Thank you.) I have pitched a lot of shows, written for several, and while I’ve never been in a position to personally greenlight (buy to put on the air) a show, I have advised for or against some.
Last night I watched an episode of a show I had been avoiding due to issues I had with the premise, despite the creator having written some of my favorite TV shows. It had every single problem I would have expected it to have based on my knowledge of the premise, and I wondered why, apart from the Whedon name, executives would have greenlit a show so clearly destined for early cancellation.
The show is Dollhouse, created by Joss Whedon. The premise is that the Dollhouse is a company which mindwipes and implants personalities into people, who are then rented for sex or various jobs. When their jobs are done, they return to the Dollhouse, have their memories of the assignment wiped, and get new personalities for the next assignment. But a doll named Echo begins to have memories seep through.
While a show itself can be complex, a premise that takes three long sentences to explain is itself frequently indicates that the show is locked into a limited structure that will be difficult to sustain over multiple seasons. (I think Pushing Daisies, which has an even more complicated premise, would have had that problem had it survived long enough.) Whereas you can sum up the extremely complex Lost as “People with complicated connections to each other are stranded on a bizarre island.”
The premise is a distillation of the essence of the show, so that changing it would create a different show. It can be very simple, like "It's about homicide cops in Baltimore." If the show is no longer about homicide cops in Baltimore, it's not the same show. If the setting is not essential, you might have, say, "A young woman named Veronica Mars solves mysteries." She can solve them in various locations, but lose Veronica Mars or lose the mystery element, and it's a different show.
While the plot, setting, and structure of a USA network TV show may change significantly (see Lost again; also see the fifth season of Angel) the premise (the one-line summary) rarely changes. (The premise of Angel is “A vampire with a soul tries to redeem himself by helping people.” That never changes. Ditto Lost: Some people are always still stranded on the island.) The only exception I can think of offhand is Prison Break, in which I believe they do break out of prison and continue the show on the lam.
That an essential element of the premise of Dollhouse is that Echo is a mindwiped tool of the Dollhouse who is repeatedly given new personalities, and that for her to escape the Dollhouse and cease to be regularly mindwiped would change the premise of the show, is a major part of my critique.
Before I begin, I want to be clear that I don’t impute bad motives to or look down on anyone who likes the show! I’m just explaining why I think it’s inherently bound to fail.
This is why I would not have greenlit Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse:
( Cut for length; no spoilers )
Last night I watched an episode of a show I had been avoiding due to issues I had with the premise, despite the creator having written some of my favorite TV shows. It had every single problem I would have expected it to have based on my knowledge of the premise, and I wondered why, apart from the Whedon name, executives would have greenlit a show so clearly destined for early cancellation.
The show is Dollhouse, created by Joss Whedon. The premise is that the Dollhouse is a company which mindwipes and implants personalities into people, who are then rented for sex or various jobs. When their jobs are done, they return to the Dollhouse, have their memories of the assignment wiped, and get new personalities for the next assignment. But a doll named Echo begins to have memories seep through.
While a show itself can be complex, a premise that takes three long sentences to explain is itself frequently indicates that the show is locked into a limited structure that will be difficult to sustain over multiple seasons. (I think Pushing Daisies, which has an even more complicated premise, would have had that problem had it survived long enough.) Whereas you can sum up the extremely complex Lost as “People with complicated connections to each other are stranded on a bizarre island.”
The premise is a distillation of the essence of the show, so that changing it would create a different show. It can be very simple, like "It's about homicide cops in Baltimore." If the show is no longer about homicide cops in Baltimore, it's not the same show. If the setting is not essential, you might have, say, "A young woman named Veronica Mars solves mysteries." She can solve them in various locations, but lose Veronica Mars or lose the mystery element, and it's a different show.
While the plot, setting, and structure of a USA network TV show may change significantly (see Lost again; also see the fifth season of Angel) the premise (the one-line summary) rarely changes. (The premise of Angel is “A vampire with a soul tries to redeem himself by helping people.” That never changes. Ditto Lost: Some people are always still stranded on the island.) The only exception I can think of offhand is Prison Break, in which I believe they do break out of prison and continue the show on the lam.
That an essential element of the premise of Dollhouse is that Echo is a mindwiped tool of the Dollhouse who is repeatedly given new personalities, and that for her to escape the Dollhouse and cease to be regularly mindwiped would change the premise of the show, is a major part of my critique.
Before I begin, I want to be clear that I don’t impute bad motives to or look down on anyone who likes the show! I’m just explaining why I think it’s inherently bound to fail.
This is why I would not have greenlit Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse:
( Cut for length; no spoilers )
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