Dollhouses And Fireflies

Yggy argues that Joss Whedon should just go to cable already and quit screwing around with FOX since Dollhouse just got the axe.

Color me unmoved by the alleged tragedy of Joss Whedon. What happened to Firefly was arguably tragic. But by the time Dollhouse came out, it was clear that the place for idiosyncratic, ambitious television was cable where a show could be viable with a smaller, but more devoted audience. We’ve had Battlestar: Galactica we’ve had The Wire we’ve had Mad Men it doesn’t take a genius to see how this goes.

But you get paid more money to develop a show for a network, and Whedon wanted more money so he gave us Dollhouse, a show with a ton of promise but also dozens of artistic compromises. Getting “killed before its time” was inevitable. Whedon’s fans want to see him make the kind of show he can only make on cable. And I’m sure one cable network or another would be happy to develop a show with a creator who comes with a fervent built-in fanbase. But he doesn’t seem to want to do it. I think it’s a shame, but it’s his own fault.

You know?  Yggy's right.  My favorite shows these days are all on cable:  True Blood, Dexter, Sanctuary, Mythbusters, basically I DVR Syfy's Friday night shows and HBO and Showtime's Sunday night line-up, and Mythbusters on Wednesdays.  I haven't really watched network TV for anything other than sports in years, because network TV sucks.

Joss Whedon would own Syfy.  He would certainly own Showtime or HBO.  He needs to pitch something to one of them.  I'd watch it.