“Uhhhh… little help?”

Summer Glau, the Joss Whedon muse who starred in the short-lived “Firefly,” the follow-up movie Serenity, and the now-defunct “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” has been added to the cast of Fox’s “Dollhouse” (another Whedon project) for Season 2.

[Glau] will have a recurring role as Bennett, a Dollhouse employee who shares a secret past with Eliza Dushku’s Echo… Whedon expressed interest in Glau joining the show back at Comic Con.

**pushes glasses up nose** Hooray!  Now all the show needs is more people from the cast of “Battlestar Galactica”!

Whedon has a whole host of geek-friendly names visiting the show in season two: Jamie Bamber (from “Battlestar Galactica”) is a charismatic businessman who’s Echo’s new husband (!). Michael Hogan (“Battlestar” again) comes to Dollhouse hoping to stop a psychotic family member’s killing spree.

Granted, I don’t have the requisite geek DNA to be a big Whedon fan, but I’ve never understood why geeks have to obsess over women that operate weaponry and kick ass?  Not that I have anything against that, but given a choice I’d pick a girl who can’t kill me with her bare hands.  I’m much more likely to admire traits like “laughs at fart jokes” and “horny when drunk” and “always drunk.”

There’s a new poster promoting the second season of “Dollhouse” starring Eliza Dushku, and since writing about some poster is one of the more boring things I can imagine, I took the liberty of spicing it up  a little.  Say hello to Three Wolf Eliza. AH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

But seriously, that’s inappropriate.  Eliza should sue those wolves for sexual harassment.

Catching up on Friday’s late-breaking news: pretty much everything but “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has been renewed.  The biggest and/or most pleasant surprises are renewals for Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” on Fox, NBC’s “Chuck,” and ABC’s “Better Off Ted,” which (along with “Southland”) was my favorite mid-season replacement.  More on “Dollhouse”:

The move is tougher to explain than most, especially based on the show’s ratings. A “Dollhouse” pickup is a shock, an underdog comeback that blows away NBC’s will-they-or-won’t-they hand-wringing over “Chuck”… In fact, “Dollhouse” might very well be the lowest-rated in-season scripted drama to ever get a renewal on a major broadcast network…

Basically this is a case of a bunch of minor decision-making factors successfully ganging up on the biggest factor (ratings). In addition to DVD sales, streaming and DVR influences, Fox received some serious budget concessions from 20th TV and Whedon to continue the show. [THR]

So there you go, sci-fi nerds.  Don’t say we never gave you anything.  Besides wedgies and swirlies, I mean.

(Side note: ABC also renewed “Castle” and “Scrubs.”  Why?  Because coming up with new ideas for shows would take all kinds of effort.)

Dollhouse (Fox) — The season finale tonight is supposedlt pretty good.  From the Chicago Tribune: “The episode, ‘Omega,’ does all the things that Whedon’s shows do at their best: It delivers action, suspense, quippy dialogue and a tangled set of relationships, all while asking thorny questions about human nature.”  Phew, I can finally stop watching just for Eliza Dushku’s ass.

Party Down (Starz) –  I’ve only heard good things about the show from the people who’ve watched it.  Bad news is that’s only two people.

Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) — Seth McFarlane is a guest.  Should be good, if you’re into watching talented people be bloviating douchebags about their liberal politics.  Which I’m not.

Ghost Whisperer (CBS) — They should combine this show with “Medium” and have an episode where Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love Hewitt watch True Romance and I Know What You Did Last Summer together while eating buckets of fried chicken and crying greasy tears for what they once were.  Oh, Jennifer Love.  So sad.  I’ll always remember you like this.

Escape to Chimp Eden (Animal Planet) — This would be so much better if it had Kurt Russell playing a chimpanzee.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been a lot of message board traffic and blogger buzz about “Dollhouse” by Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”/”Angel”/”Firefly”), but apparently message boards and bloggers don’t have  much sway, because the new Eliza Dushku vehicle bombed on its debut Friday night.  [Ed. Note: I would happily ride an Eliza Dushku vehicle.]

The series premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” was seen by 4.7 million viewers Friday night and garnered a 2.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 6 share. It was beaten in the 9 p.m. hour by ABC’s “Supernanny” (6.1 million viewers, 2.2/7) and is the lowest-rated scripted series premiere on a major broadcast network this season aside from NBC’s now-defunct “Crusoe.”

Ouch.  So, I’m not going to win any friends by saying this, but I have to say it: Joss Whedon is wildly overrated.  “Buffy” was a fine show, but it’s not like he created “The Wire” or “Mad Men” or even the new “Battlestar Galactica.”  He makes passable sci-fi/fantasy shows in a market that doesn’t really demand them.

You hate me now, don’t you?  Okay, fine.  I’ll give “Dollhouse” another chance.  But I’m gonna need Dushku to get a whole lot closer to naked.  I’m sorry, but as a professional TV critic I have to maintain some kind of standard.