4 out of 5

Director: More Whedons

While not as solidly rewarding as season one built to be, season two of Dollhouse manages to take its creators suspicions of impending cancellation to shed some wandering weight the season builds and get to a very meaty and satisfying story. Youre probably watching this only if youre familiar with season one, but if not, we again join Eliza Dushku as Echo, a doll in the dollhouse, which is an underground organization that takes volunteers and wipes their memories – turning the volunteers into dolls who can then be imprinted with specialized personalities for high-paying clients. By this point in the story, Echo is retaining her past imprints and plotting to rescue her fellow dolls. Season 2 begins to explore elements from the other Dolls pasts, and in so doing takes on an episodic feel for the majority of the season that season one did away with early on. The stories are interesting enough, but never really meaty, and the check-ins with the echo storyline just seem like teases. Particularly silly is Victors episode… down to the one liners and huge story compressed into 15 seconds. But its still such a great concept (and a good show) that you hang on, and its good that you do: because all those things from last seasons finale start to come into play. It still wraps up too quick, and it was canceled, so theres always going to be some lingering questions, but overall this is another great season to this sci-fi series, and though rushed, perhaps hints that its better that it was brought to a close.