Those of you who have read our current issue know that we’ve been waiting very eagerly for Joss Whedon’s latest television universe, Dollhouse. The show, which premiered Friday, stars Eliza Dushku as Echo, a member of an underground group whose personalities are wiped clean and replaced so that they may be hired out as saviors, lovers or killers.

In the premiere episode, Echo is programmed to facilitate the payment of ransom of a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by Mexican bandits. The show’s resident nerdling Topher Brink (played by Fran Kranz) complicates Echo’s already perilous mission by downloading asthma, a dark secret and a pretty bad Spanish accent into Echo’s brain. (Okay, Dukshu is probably the one responsible for the bad Spanish accent.)

Inevitably, the show’s dramatic power will hinge on Whedon’s ability to extract from Dukshu an entirely different emotional universe in each episode. It’s a tall order considering how little he was able to pry from her as the rough-around-the-edges Faith back in her Buffy days, but Whedon has earned a season’s worth of patience in my book. I just can’t help but wonder what a more adept lead actress would mean for the show. Dukshu is great in a motorcycle chase, a fight scene and a miniskirt, but she lacks the emotional range and funny bones that have become a staple of the Whedonverse. In short, she’s a lot more Kristy Swanson than Sarah Michelle Gellar.

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