Dollhouse
FOX | Release Date: February 13, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
7
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: Dollhouse is less about the ninja kicks and witty banter than it is about instant transformations, and about making the audience care about a character who's likely to behave differently every time we see her. That Dushku mostly pulls this off is a happy surprise, as is Dollhouse, which has survived "Firefly"-like trials of its own to get this far. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: The shows are fun and exciting, Mr. Blow, perfect for a stay-at-home Friday night, having a few guys over for beers, or recording and watching when you wake up Saturday afternoon, after all that hard partying. Read full review
80
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: Combining intelligent layers of mystery with sly dialogue and a steady flow of action, Whedon has crafted a provocative, bubbly new drama that looks as promising as anything to hit the small screen over the course of the past year. Read full review
80
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: There is genuine drama in Dollhouse--or, at least, all-engaging narratives of action-adventure. Read full review
80
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Dushku plows into her role with gusto. I've seen three episodes of this strange, mesmerizing show, and it has grown on me. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: There are caveats, but they would trouble me more if the creator were someone other than Whedon. Read full review
75
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: Good, dirty fun. Read full review
70
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: All those ingredients make for a stew that, initially anyway, needs salt....Having seen two more promising later episodes, I say give Dollhouse time. And in the meantime, enjoy the set, the so-called dollhouse. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond
Season 1 Review: Although Whedon infuses Dollhouse with an impressively detailed story line and social structure as well as nifty production values, the show lacks something for viewers to grab onto. Read full review
70
PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
Season 1 Review: Even as Dollhouse sounds like other TV shows and movies, it is also utterly strange, its premise literally ridiculous and intriguingly metaphorical. Read full review
70
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: While it's haunting, cerebral and gorgeous, it's also a little cold, though the flashes of humor help. Like its actives, it's a marvelous piece of engineering. But I hope it develops a personality of its own. Read full review
70
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: Though the show is quick and exciting in its particulars, slick and captivating in its details, it is unfolding slowly as a whole, with perhaps one too many investigations, conspiracies, return-of-the-repressed traumas, and busy backstories curling leisurely into view. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: Given the artfully vague hints of an intriguingly desperate past for Echo, as well as Whedon's track record, we ought to cut the show some slack. Let's see if Whedon can bring this doll to greater life. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: The result is a show that his most devoted fans will debate and embrace, and a mass audience just won't get. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesMisha Davenport
Season 1 Review: The first episode's biggest flaw is that it lacks humor, a hallmark of Whedon's writing. Thankfully, this is rectified in future episodes. Read full review
60
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Whedon is a vastly better storyteller than anyone involved in "My Own Worst Enemy," so Dollhouse can be very engaging, even if the premise doesn't make sense. Dushku isn't as versatile as the role demands--many weeks, the only difference in Echo's persona seems to be her wardrobe--but Whedon and his writers certainly are. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: No doubt Dollhouse will make a good computer game, although it looks like one already. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Joss Whedon is one of television's most talented visionaries, but his latest series--the highly anticipated midseason drama Dollhouse--is a major disappointment. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: Ultimately, you'll want to think about Dollhouse more than you'll want to think about watching Dollhouse. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Dollhouse isn't awful, but neither is it remarkably good. It's a passable hour of entertainment that shows potential to improve but flails and confuses (and occasionally bores) from the start. Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: The pilot is, in fact, baffling, and needlessly so. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Dollhouse has an amusing premise, but the universe it inhabits in the early episodes is thin and bland. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Dushku does wonderful things to a tank top, but her grasp of this vague, personality-changing character is a bit of a muddle. What's left, then, is a series with a hollow center that doesn't initially make you care about its mentally malleable protagonist. Read full review
30
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: If Dollhouse, a pretentious and risible jumble premiering tonight on that most quixotic of national networks, were a piece of music, it would have to be some sort of funky-junky, hip-hop, rinky-tinky, ragtime madrigal. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: Overcrowded with plotlines, high-tech gimmicks and ambition yet empty of emotional connection and purpose, Dollhouse tries so hard to be so many things it winds up being nothing much at all. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineLen Sousa
Season 1 Review: Dollhouse is stuck between two worlds, unable to lead us from reality into fantasy. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: In a perfect world, Dollhouse would be a good show. It's not. Read full review
10
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: To the extent this sounds interesting, it isn't: Half the dialogue seems to have been written for barking dogs, the other half for mewling kittens, and the cast performs accordingly. Read full review
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