DOLLHOUSE actually renewed

In a truly startling development, The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog has announced that Fox has renewed Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's low-rated Friday night series. The official announcement from Fox is expected Monday.

As the Live Feed article points out, Dollhouse is perhaps the lowest-rated network drama to ever get renewed. But a combination of factors combined to save it - impressive audience numbers on DVR, a cult following that's certain to snap up the show on DVD, Whedon proving (with the unaired 13th episode) that he could deliver an impressive-looking show on a slashed budget, and the execs at Fox apparently being impressed with the later episodes in the show's debut season.

While I had warmed to Dollhouse quite a bit by those last few episodes, the show never grabbed me the way Whedon's earlier series did. The premise was always problematic. It was hard to get too invested in a lead character who by definition had no personality herself, and the personalities downloaded into her brain every week tended to be rather predictable genre types - the sassy robber, the prim lawyer, etc. I'll be glad to tune in for the show's second season. But I probably would've been even more glad to see what Whedon was going to do in his next series.

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