SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses characters, plot details and revelations throughout the episodes to date of the series “Dollhouse,” including the unaired episode “Epitaph One.”

Back in February, after having seen only the premiere episode of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse,” I listed my misgivings with the premise and the presentation of the Fox series. As I tend to do lately with genre shows such as this, I avoided the series in first-run, opting instead to wait for DVD or iTunes Store release. (I didn’t watch a single episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in original release, but on DVD instead.) That way, if the buzz on the show is that it’s a piece of crap, I can avoid it altogether and not have wasted my time.

The buzz on “Dollhouse,” however, was weird. It did not seem to have the Wheeders wetting their collective pants, as did “Firefly” (a Whedon show I enjoyed but still can’t understand the furor over), but it did have a particular type of cautious fandom. It was amusing to follow the early hype on the show, in which Whedon, star Eliza Dushku and other Whedonaires were downright apologetic about the early episodes, promising that it would all kick in with the now-legendary sixth episode, the Whedon-penned “Man on the Street.” (Apparently it did.) Also amusing was the fuss over Fox’s decision not to air the offbeat 13th episode, the also-now-legendary “Epitaph One,” as well as the massive “Wait  … what?” moment that occurred when Fox decided to renew “Dollhouse” for a second season. (For the record, I applaud both the decision not to air “Epitaph One” and the decision to renew the series.) Most recently came the fuss over Fox’s imbecilic decision not to air episodes of “Dollhouse” during November sweeps. (OK, it was, perhaps, a smart business decision, but imbecilic to fans of the show.)

So, with some extra time on my hands of late, I downloaded the entire run of the show from iTunes and proceeded to get caught up.

Bottom line No. 1: I can now be considered a fiercely loyal “Dollhouse” fan.

Bottom line No. 2: While I might modify some of my original concerns, overall I take back nothing I said in my original post.

Here is what fascinates me most about “Dollhouse”: It is a series constructed not so much on its original premise — that of programmable “dolls” used in a variety of professional scenarios — but more on Whedon and Co.’s attempts to correct the course of what they must have realized early on was a severely flawed show.

Whedon succeeded, grandly. He didn’t make lemonade out of his lemons, he distilled limoncello. He embraced every drawback, criticism and flaw of the show and turned them to his, and the show’s, advantage.

As explanation, here’s a point-by-point rundown of my original misgivings, with modifications:

1. “Where’s the hero?” — My first complaint concerned the major flaw in the programmable-person premise: With Dushku’s Echo character assuming a new identity every week, there was no central character with whom to identify or cheer. In the episode “Haunted,” for instance, in which Echo takes on the personality of a murdered woman, we were cheering for Margaret, the murdered woman, not Echo. But the Whedonaires dealt with this flaw by introducing elements of “Echo” into many of her implanted persona. In the episode “Stage Fright,” for instance, Echo expands upon her programming by teaching a lesson of survival to pop singer Rayna Russell. In “Echoes” she compulsively leaves one assignment to investigate the event that led her to become Echo in the first place. In “Spy in the House of Love,” it’s the tabula rasa Echo’s idea to implant her with the identity of a counter-intelligence agent so she can assist in tracking the mole within the Dollhouse. In each instance, it’s hinted that the aberrant actions weren’t those of Echo, but of her root persona, the activist Caroline Farrell. Perhaps you sometimes have to look closely, but the hero is there.
2. She works for the bad guys — As it turns out, she apparently works for Big Pharma, in the guise of the multinational Rossum Corporation, the owners of the 20-plus Dollhouses around the world. As the series developed, however, creator Whedon has shown us that while, yes, Rossum has been revealed as a sinister organization, working for them is not unlike working for just about any other multinational. Or even a national, for that matter. Or even a local. In other words, no matter how large or how small the business, and no matter how reprehensible its mission statement, there always will be a mix of personnel with varying standards, motives and ideals. Or, as skeptical chief of security Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix) says in the best line of dialogue of the entire series, “We’re pimps and killers, but in a philanthropic way.” The point is not that our hero works for the bad guys, the point is that you cannot have an operation that is completely amoral, no matter how carefully you construct it.
3. Why hire actives? — My original question was a point that was raised in the first episode: If you’re rich enough to hire a bodyguard/love slave/backup singer/babysitter/whatever, why not just hire one? Why hire a phony with an implanted identity? While they did a sloppy job of answering this question in the first episode, it was answered satisfactorily at several points throughout the episodes. Simply put, the Actives are not phonies. While their identities might be implanted, they are not facades; they truly believe they are who they say they are. Perhaps the best answer to this question is in the fabled episode six, “Man on the Street,” when the tech mogul portrayed by Patton Oswalt explains the tragedy that led to his current fantasy and how only an Active can help him cope.
4. It has an arc — I was concerned about investing time and thought in yet another series with a mythology that stretches across multiple episodes. I also wondered what would happen at the end of the arc, when FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) finally infiltrated the Dollhouse to “rescue” Echo/Caroline. Well, I needn’t have worried about the first concern, and as for the second, well, Season Two so far has addressed this satisfactorily.
5. Topher — Any misgivings I might have had about the dweebiness or dickiness of the Topher Brink character (Fran Kranz), who runs the Dollhouse tech, were eradicated by the episodes “Epitaph One” (the unaired Season One finale) and “Belonging” (the most recent Season Two episode). Well done, Whedonaires and Mr. Kranz. Just on principle, however, I’m still upset about the character, just because he’s so Whedony. Joss Whedon has a propensity to create the same character over and over again that rivals Seth McFarland’s (Brian the dog, Klaus the fish and Tim the Bear anyone?). Until Topher began hitting his stride as a three-dimensional persona, I couldn’t help but feel that he was simply a template out of Whedon’s series-creation kit — Insert Smartass, Pop-Culture-Steeped Young Guy with Ironic First Name Here.
6. The series is, after all, about white slavery and prostitution — I’m just guessing here, but I have a feeling that this was perhaps one of the “Uh, oh, we’ve painted ourselves into a corner” moments when Whedon and Dushku first realized their can-be-anything-we-program-her-to-be premise had flaws. But it was their acceptance and handling of that flaw that has made “Dollhouse” the superior show that it is. In other words, the creators are saying, “Hell, yes, the show is all about white slavery and prostitution. That’s the point.” It is implied that the damaged persons who agree to become Actives know very well what they’re getting into. They know it’s a deal with the devil, but with one difference: After it’s all over, they’ll not remember one instant of ever being in Hell (and they’ll have a fat bank account to boot). The brilliance of the show is that this “volunteerism” is not a justification for the actions of the Dollhouse; quite the opposite: It’s the entry point for several episodes about responsibility and conscience and drawing the line (such as “Man on the Street,” “Needs,” “Spy in the House of Love” and “Belonging.”
7. Suffers from “Well, It Sounded Good on Paper” Syndrome — Linked to the previous point, this is a syndrome that affects a lot of series (“My Own Worst Enemy,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” to name but two). The creator of the show makes a pitch to the network, a simple one-sentence or one-paragraph summary, but when the series enters into the cold, bright light of production, the flaws and obstacles become quite plain, and the show deteriorates into something else. But this is my main argument: Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku and their colleagues seemed to realize early on that their premise had holes. But instead of trying to quickly patch the holes with witty exposition and hastily concocted characters or backstories — as would lesser TV writers — they held the show up with all of its holes and flaws and said, “Not only are we not going to patch the holes, we’re going to make them even bigger and nastier. Eventually you’re going to begin to suspect that we might have even planned these holes to begin with.”

OK, now that I’ve modified my original points, I have to air some new concerns. Now that Ballard has a job within the Dollhouse, as Echo’s handler, he’s expressed his desire to use his inside position to “bring down the Dollhouse,” mostly because of the white slavery aspect. Also, they’re making a big deal out of Echo refusing to let go of past persona, and her desire to remember who she originally was. To both these points I ask, Why? If the Actives were somehow tricked into their service, or if it was indefinite, that would be one thing. But they’ve repeatedly shown that the participants are willingly signing up for five-year terms. Echo just need be patient and she’ll be Caroline again. And if Ballard wants to bring down a white slavery operation, there have to be more sinister examples out there.

But I have a feeling these concerns will be addressed in coming episodes. At this writing the plan is to bring “Dollhouse” back in December, with back-to-back episodes until 10 episodes of Season Two have aired. After that, who knows? We can only hope that Fox will take a chance and extend “Dollhouse” for the entire five year journey that Whedon reportedly already has mapped.

UPDATE: Fox has, in fact, canceled “Dollhouse,” although the network has announced that the remaining nine episodes of the second season will air, beginning Dec. 4.