After weeks of speculation and nail-biting, Joss Whedon's fourth television series Dollhouse has gotten the green light for a second season.

This news was unexpected to say the least given the show's rather lackluster ratings during its season one run. Even Whedon himself seemed shocked by the news.

I've watched this show since the beginning and enjoyed it, but having said that I'll be the first to admit that the initial episodes were a bit formulaic and didn't really pull me in the way I'd assumed they would. I'm a big fan of all Whedon's previous television work, but when I started watching Dollhouse it didn't really feel like one of his shows. The first five episodes had a very paint-by-numbers approach, a style that was apparently mandated by Fox to be that way in order to "ease viewers into the series".

Not surprisingly the network's idea backfired and a lot of people stopped watching before it actually got good. This became such a problem that Whedon and the show's star Eliza Dushku had to keep telling people in interviews, "just wait for episode six".

This fabled sixth episode, titled "Man On the Street", finally let Joss do his thing and the show instantly improved. The series started to find its footing and get a feel for its identity in addition to gaining a momentum that was carried through to the end of the season.

Despite my earlier comments, I don’t advise skipping to the middle of the series to "get to the good part" as you’d end up missing out on all the setup, which is rather crucial.

Hulu still has the last few episodes of the season online, but if you’re new to the show you’ll want to wait for the DVD set to come out so you can rent them and start from the beginning. The DVDs also contain the unaired 13th episode, titled “Epitaph One”, which is the true season finale and according to Whedon will factor in heavily to the ongoing story.

I don’t know whether Dollhouse will end up realizing its full potential in the second season or garner the kind of ratings it needs to continue on for future years. Either way I’m happy that the show has been given a chance to grow.

At the very least this reprieve from the jaws of cancelation is a fitting penance for Fox's undue dismissal of Whedon's last series.

We Browncoats may eventually forgive Fox, but we'll never forget.

-Quoth the Raven

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