Check out their sweet guns. Related: these are interesting examples of marketing tv shows that I'd rather not delve into.

There is, of course, a catch. Both shows will undergo budget cuts and possible short seasons. TV Squad conjured that one of the Chuck cast members might have to go. While budget concessions could really effect both shows, especially the futuristic-esq Dollhouse, a renewal is a very good thing.

While re-watching a few episodes of Firefly earlier today I realized that the final moments of both Dollhouse and Chuck are equivalent to when River Tam kills a number of security guards and proclaims “no power in the verse can stop me.” I like game changing moments in TV. TV, unlike movies, allow many hours of learning about a character and getting to like them. Then when something completely contrary to what you know happens, it’s really great and completely unexpected. While River’s full potential wasn’t realized on the small screen, I’m glad that Dollhouse and Chuck will at least have the opportunity.

In the finale it was revealed that Alpha, brilliantly played by Alan Tudyk aka Firefly‘s Wash, became self-aware — more or less — and started reacting based on memories and other instances. We had seen this a few times throughout the season, once with Victor’s attraction to Sierra, and on multiple occasions with Echo. As if self-awareness that wasn’t enough, Alpha accidentally had all forty-two of his prior personalities loaded into his head all at once. To top it all off, Alpha was a former prisoner and generally bad guy. All of this combined to turn Alpha into the lunatic that cut up half the staff and escaped the Dollhouse.

When Alpha comes back to the Dollhouse and steals Echo and puts her through the same process he went through, loading all of her previously used personalities into her head at once. The idea seemed to be that Alpha and Omega could rule as gods doing whatever they pleased. The difference, is that Echo’s true personality shined through and showed her just how twisted Alpha had become. So she fought back.

At the end of the episode, after Echo had been re-whiped and returned to the Dollhouse, in the last second of the show, it’s true greatness was exposed: Echo has become self-aware. The implications for this could be awesome, though much like Chuck, these may not be realized do to possible cancelation. It’s sad really, because Dollhouse and Chuck are great shows that deserve to be renewed and ended in potentially game changing ways. Whereas shows that absolutely suck will have no problem getting renewed and a horrible talkshow host will get a daily hour long slot. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

I’m off on a tangent. Bottom line is that Dollhouse had an enjoyable freshmen season and I hope to see what it produces in year two.

The cast of Fox's new Dollhouse.

Eliza Dushku
This was the easy one. She’s pretty recognizable. Dushku plays the main character, Echo, and has been in a number of Whedon shows in the past including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spinoff Angel.

Harry Lennix
This is Echo’s handler, Boyd Langdon. Basically Boyd Langdon is to Echo as Marcus Dixon is to Sydney Bristow. See how I did that? But looking into it, I recognize Lennix from his part in day six of 24 and as Commander Lock in The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions.

Reed Diamond
Meet Laurence Dominic, basically Boyd Langon’s boss — or direct superior at the very least (I’m doing this on one episode, deal with it). While I couldn’t recognize where I knew this guy from, looking at his IMDB page made it pretty clear: Diamond was the brother of the main character in the good but short-lived Journeyman.

There are a couple of other characters played by actors whose faces I recognized, but after looking through their resumes there’s nothing I can see as to why I should know them. I don’t know what that says about their careers, but as least I recognized them, I guess.

Either way, Dollhouse has the potential to be a pretty good show — depending on the stories and personalities they cook up for Dushku’s character. Then, of course, there’s the Fox factor. Fox tends to not allow shows like this the ability to survive by either canceling them outright or airing their episodes out of order so the show makes no sense and no one wants to watch it; see Dark Angel and Firefly. Hopefully Whedon get’s a few episodes to work the show out and let the stories unfold. Dollhouse airs Friday’s at 9pm on Fox.