Blu-ray Movie Reviews

From Joss Whedon comes a new groundbreaking show starring Eliza Dushku as Echo, an operative in an underground organization that provides hired personas for various missions.

Interesting week for reviews with some similar themes crossing between multiple titles. In Surrogates we saw people using life like robots to live out there lives and fantasies. In Dollhouse, the beautiful people give up their lives to have their bodies used as a shell for various implanted personalities that cater to rich client for various experiences. Each episode stands alone for the most part, with some subplots carrying on throughout the season. The show has a very interesting concept and the execution is solid for the most part. I was impressed with the acting from the dolls, who essentially have a new character to act out every episode. Unfortunately Fox didn’t do this one many favors during its run on cable (though not as bad as Whedon’s Firefly) so it will be interesting to see if the show continues after this first season. I hope so.

Most of the TV shows I’ve seen on Blu-ray all look pretty good and this is no exception. At times it can look a bit overcompressed with some slight banding setting in, but for the most part this is a good looking title. Fine detail and dimensionality are pretty strong and colors have a nice pop. I did find the spots for commercial interruption a bit annoying though. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack does a commendable job with the material though. There is actually a lot to work with and some impressive dynamics and sound stage use in this one.

Fox delivers some decent extras for the season including the unaired pilot. You also get a feature commentary on some of the episodes, some deleted scenes and production features including a look behind the scenes at the making of the show.

Whedon succeeds again at making a great concept with solid characters and storylines. Fox succeeds again at pigeonholing it during its season and making sure it isn’t given the chance it deserves. But thankfully they gave it a great Blu-ray release. Recommended.