When Joss Whedon refers to his new show, Dollhouse as: the darkest show he's ever done, and says things like no one is going to come away from this show feeling clean, I get nervous.   Joss has done some dark storylines in the past.  Season 6 Buffy.  Angel.  Quite a bit of Firefly.  Body counts wrack up.  No one is safe.

But at the same time, he manages to balance it with humor.  Buffy broke into song.  Angel was turned into a puppet.  So how dark are we talking here?  Black coffee with black sugar and black milk launched into the blackness of space where it will be enjoyed by astronauts on the dark side of the moon?  That dark?

After watching the first episode of Dollhouse, I think it’s too soon to tell.

Joss is always at his best when he takes a traditional genre and gives it a new twist.  Buffy showed how the little blonde in the horror film could be the hero instead of the victim.  The crew of Serenity combined spacesuits and six-guns.  Dr. Horrible reversed the roles of hero and villain by making the superman archetype an over-muscled bully and the mad scientist a conflicted metaphor of each of us.

Here Whedon seems to be taking a punch at the spy genre.  In Dollhouse, the dolls are people who have had their memories wiped.  At the start of each assignment, the dolls are implanted with new memories, skills, even muscle memory.  In Episode 1.1 Ghost, the series’ main character, Echo moves from an assignment where she is a love struck girlfriend to an efficient kidnapping negotiator.  In between the “actives” seem childlike and innocent.  (This range allows star Eliza Dushku to flex her impressive acting muscles.)

The show mines a rich tradition of spy stories including James Bond, La Femme Nikita and Alias.  But where Sydney Bristow and Nikita could assume a role by putting on a wig, underneath the makeup, they were still themselves.  The conflict of these shows arose when the characters’ own personalities ran counter to their assignments.

In Dollhouse, the ‘actives’ aren’t assuming a role.  By imprinting, they are actually becoming the people they are assigned to be.  When Echo is brought back to the Dollhouse for reprogramming after playing the perfect girlfriend, she wants to go back to the party and be with her boyfriend. 

The conflict in the show asserts itself when Echo’s programming starts to break up.  When she’s confronted (in the identity of a negotiator) over her competence, she seems unsure herself over her history.

For a pilot show, Dollhouse has guts in tackling tough moral and ethical questions right off the bat.  Many networks would shy away from a pilot that hinges on facing child abuse.  But the plot was well-done and not ham-fisted in the least.  Since Joss has indicated that he won’t shy away from moral and ethical questions (the largest of which being the implied prostitution angle that the show could take), I would expect to see more of the big issues tackled in future episodes.

What does seem to be missing from the show is the trademark Jossian humor that has served as an outlet in his other shows.  Buffy had the moments of self-parody, angel was self-depreciating.  Even Mal on Firefly had his snark. 

That isn't yet there on Dollhouse.  And the humor is sorely missed because it serves as a pressure valve to release the pent-up energy caused by all the unrelenting dark. 

The story seems to work as a standalone, however there are deeper mysteries hinted at in the episode.  Why did Echo (in her former life as Caroline) agree to give five years of her life to the Dollhouse? And now that she’s an active, will they just let her go after five years?  What happened to Claire Saunders (Amy Acker) that scarred her face?  How will Echo’s resurfacing memories as Caroline come into play? What about Agent Ballard and his investigation? 

Unlike other shows with deeper mysteries (I’m looking at you Lost) Dollhouse seems approachable.  You won’t have to see every single episode to understand the show.  And the mysteries won’t drag the show under with their weight.

I’m not quite a fan yet of Dollhouse.  But I’m intrigued enough to keep watching.  And whether I become an avid fan or not: it’s good to see Joss in television again.  He’s been sorely missed on the landscape.