TV: Goodbye Dollhouse, We Hardly Knew Ye

Things aren't looking good for Dollhouse.
Last Friday's season finale racked up the show's lowest rating ever, pulling a pithy 2.8 million viewers and a 1.0/6 preliminary rating in the 18-49 demographic.
The show premiered at around a 2.0/6 rank.
Based on these numbers, Fox will likely pull the plug in this show, but Dollhouse's rough season isn't terribly surprising. The show faced a number of early hurdles including the dreaded Friday night time slot and several mandated episodes that turned off many early viewers.
Add into the mix the fact Fox paired the upstart sci-fi drama against the legendary Battlestar Galactica, and its not a stretch to say this show was doomed from the beginning.
But the plug hasn't officially been pulled yet, so I'm hopeful Joss Whedon will get another season to do his thing.
Sure, the show took some time to gather steam, but it's been nothing short of spectacular in recent weeks and Friday night's episode was no exception. Spoilers ahead!
Guest star Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Dodgeball) made another spellbinding appearance as Alpha, the uber-smart/uber-violent doll obsessed with making Echo (Eliza Dushku) his uber-smart/uber-violent partner in crime. By imprinting Echo with dozens of personalities, Alpha tries (unsucessfully) to turn Echo into Omega, his doomsday weapon, as it were, who would be able to deal the final blow to the Dollhouse.
In recent weeks Dollhouse has tackled some pretty heavy existential issues. Regular show themes center around the nature of the soul and the mutability of personalities and human consciousness. Heavy stuff. But the philosophy is always mixed in well with the action (and a fair dose of comedy) and, surprisingly, it all works. Not only that, it works really, really well.
If the show is canceled (and I really, really hope it isn't) at least the season finale did mostly wrap up the show's plot. Sure, I'd love to see more of Alan Tudyk. And yeah, I'm curious to find out if io9 has it right when they say everybody is a doll, but if Dollhouse gets boxed at least it went out on a high note.
The DVD will also feature a bonus 13th episode starring none other than geek goddess Felicia Day, so who can argue with that?

Image credit: IGN TV