Playing in Fox's 'Dollhouse'

When you're a TV critic covering local and national TV and facing expectations from readers, viewers, editors and yourself, you can't watch everything.

In some respects, that's probably a good thing. Regular TV viewers don't watch TV with the same completist mentality I would bring to it if not for the demands on my time.

So when I watched Fox's Joss Whedon drama "Dollhouse" last season, I did not always pay the most rapt attention. Sometimes that was the show's fault, especially in the early episodes, and sometimes it was my fault because I was distracted writing a blog or checking e-mail. And if I allowed myself to be distracted it was because I didn't think the show would get renewed; it seemed easy to devote less attention to it.

All of this has been a precursor to explain that I was a little lost at points during the second season premiere of "Dollhouse" (9 tonight, WPGH). Still, I liked it much better than those earliest "Dollhouse" episodes. The show's direction seems more assured and more in line with the superior original pilot and the "Epitaph" episode, now out on DVD.

As season two begins, Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) has agreed to work for the Dollhouse to gain the freedom of November/Mellie (Miracle Laurie, who is not in tonight's episode). Echo (Eliza Dushku) has been rescued from Alpha, who remains at large. But Echo is having some memory issues after Alpha dumped 29 personalities into her at once. Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker) now knows she's an Active called Whiskey, created by Topher (Fran Kranz) to replace a previous doctor.

It's the Saunders-Topher stuff that I found most difficult to follow. They had some great scenes with terrific performances but having not remembered some of the stuff that came before, I did not appreciate it as much as I think I was intended to.

"My entire existence was constructed by a sociopath in a swaetshirt, what do you suggest I do?" Dr. Saunders asks. This is just one example, among many, of the show's lighter tone in season two; a welcome change.

Because Acker stars in the midseason ABC drama "Happy Town," "Dollhouse" has to find a way to put her character aside. It's a shame because Acker is a wonderful actress and one of the most interesting characters in "Dollhouse." In a recent conference call with reporters Whedon said Acker will appear in three episodes.

"We grit our teeth that we didn't have the funds or the support or the success to just make her a regular and now we're paying for it," Whedon said.

He also said the new season will be more "arcy," meaning, more like the second, improved half of the first season.

"Clearly what people responded to was the workings of the 'Dollhouse' and the progression of the characters in it and we're going to honor that," Whedon said. "At the same time, I'm very much of the mind that you do need to resolve something in an episode. you can't just create a series of twists and turns. You need an episode to have a sense of completion so there will still be engagements of at least problems that need to be dealt with but they will feed into the main arc as well."

Also, Ambridge native Marita Grabiak, who I profiled back in 2004 on the set of "Wonderfalls," directed the episode "Instinct," which the network liked so much they moved it up in the air order so that it now premieres next week.

I'll continue to watch "Dollhouse" but I sure wish I'd paid closer attention in season one. Still, I have to wonder, if I'm a little confused, how can casual viewers possibly understand what's going on?