The news spread through the Internets late yesterday that Fox has decided enough is enough and has officially canceled Joss Whedon’s ratings-challenged show Dollhouse. This seems to be the week for cancellations, actually, as ABC also mercifully axed Eastwick and Hank.

Sadly, the cancellation of Dollhouse really should not come as a surprise given the show’s poor ratings performance this season. As others have speculated around The Flickcast offices, we have to wonder if viewers stayed away this season because they didn’t want to get involved with a show they knew was probably going to get canceled. Whedon fans are somewhat gun-shy after the way Fox treated Firefly — although at least the network gave Dollhouse a second season pickup, which Firefly never had.

Still, any time a show with this kind of devoted fan base is canceled, people are going to be upset. Fortunately, it seems Fox will air the whole 13 episodes made for this season, which is something that most other shows never get to do. Although, having watched the de facto series finale “Epitaph One,” I wonder what Joss and company will end up doing to wrap everything up.

Who knows, maybe they won’t completely and we’ll see Echo and the rest of the Dollhouse gang grace the pages of their own comic sometime in the future?

Well, cut me open and splay my innards. This episode was awesome. Written by Joss Whedon’s little brother Jed and his wife Maurissa Tancharoen, this episode Topher develops morals and Sierra kills a client. Also, this episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes (of Star Trek The Next Generation) making it all around awesome.

The last time I recapped Dollhouse, I was pretty harsh saying the show has to give me something worth saving it for. Now I can say that for episodes like this one, its worth saving this show for more of this kind of stuff.

We open on Sierra displaying some of her art on the beach, when Dr. Nolan Kinnard (Vincent Ventresca) comes up to her and asks her out. Flash forward to a gallery showing of Sierra/Priya’s work. Priya wants to leave with Victor who has been imbued with the consciousness of an Italian Art Dealer.  Within minutes Dr. Nolan gets a little possessive and uppity demanding that Priya stay, harsh words are exchanged and Priya leaves.  Flash forward to the next year where Kinnard is seeing Sierra again, and I’m like: “Wait. There are no repeat engagements.”

Apparently Kinnard is a VIP, and is allowed multiple reservations. During a kindergarten class Sierra draws a black blotch on her drawing saying the black blotch is the “bad man” to Echo (Eliza Dushku).  Echo brings this to Topher so Topher investigates by talking to Boyd (Harry Lennix) about Sierra’s last engagement.  Its revealed that Kinnard is a doctor at a psychotic facility, and that Topher brought Sierra in from.

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You can’t always put stock in what people say on Twitter. Sometimes, people just like to say stuff that isn’t true just to get attention or boost their number of “followers.” However, when someone who is supposedly “in the know” like us or Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausielo tweets something, people tend to listen and take it seriously. And given his reputation and insider knowledge, they should.

Case in point is Ausiello’s Twitter post from last night saying that he is hearing from sources that Fox will put episodes of Dollhouse on hold during the important November sweeps and then bring the show back after and air back to back episodes. Here’s what he said exactly:

“Exclusive: Hearing FOX will bench DOLLHOUSE for November sweeps and air back-to-back eps on Friday night in December.”

If true, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe Fox wants to keep the show alive and so is actually doing it a favor by not having it air during sweeps so its less-than-stellar ratings won’t be a factor? Or, maybe Ausiello’s source simply got it wrong? To be honest, I hope its Fox actually trying to do a good thing and still give the show some kind of chance. Although, as much as I might want that to be the truth, I sure won’t hold my breath for it.

Fan favorite, Joss Whedon’s TV show Dollhouse, is kind of like going back for a third date with someone you know can’t get it up. This week’s episode, “Belle Chose”, has the plot of a porno. Echo (Eliza Dushku) takes the implant to be an English student, and is contracted by a lonely English teacher. Yet another Battlestar Galactica alumni Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) guest stars on this episode and he has issues with Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams), the woman who runs this particular Dollhouse.

She informs Tigh that his nephew is a serial killer who kidnaps people that look similar to their family. He’s a dangerous guy, having smashed a woman’s skull with a croquet malet at the beginning of the episode. After the bludgeoning, Serial Killer gets hit by a car trying to kidnap another woman to replace the woman he just killed.

This puts him in a coma, and Tigh hires the Dollhouse to reconstitute his consciousness in an Active — which they do in Victor. He eventually tells Tahmoh Penikett how he (the Serial Killer) did it. Though Tigh releases him, and Victor escapes him on foot. Its at this point that Xander, I mean Topher, gets the idea to do a remote wipe of all the actives so that Victor doesn’t get all serial killer on someone.

This works, but Echo and Victor’s personalities exchange and Victor becomes a 19 year-old co-ed at a dance club, and Echo becomes the serial killer. Eventually, she flips out among the kidnapped women, and as she loses control of her multiple personalities she manages to hold back the Serial Killer until her Handler (Penikett) comes to the rescue.

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It should come as no surprise that fans of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse have, due to the show’s sagging ratings, already started a “Save Dollhouse” campaign. Complete with a shiny website, the plan is to keep the low rated show going strong on Fox for as long as possible by spreading the love and making people aware of the show and how good it is.

Of course, we’re big fans of the show here at The Flickcast and hope it goes on for a long time. However, in the past these campaigns have rarely seemed to work, with some notable exceptions like when fans sent pounds of nuts to CBS in an attempt to save Jericho. Sadly, most of the time these decisions are driven by pure economics. Is the time slot on the network making enough advertising money for the network to justify having that particular program occupy that time slot?

If the answer is yes, the program most likely can stay where it is. If the answer is no and reruns of some other show or a thrilling reality program would be more profitable in that time slot, chances are your favorite show is gonna get the axe — even if the network honchos happen to like the show and/or its creators. Like the old saying goes: “It’s not show friends, its show business.” Hopefully, this campaign will help save one of our favorite shows. Do your part and help spread the word.

Our love for Dollhouse and all-things Whedon has no bounds. We’re big fans of pretty much everything Joss does and followed along through all the trails and tribulations during the Buffy and Angel years, with Firefly and Serenity and now with his latest TV project Dollhouse.

The show has had its ups and downs and it looked for a while that it would not be coming back for a second season at all. Fortunately, it was renewed, although a bit changed from its first season. We’ve spoken to Jane Espenson about the changes for season 2, featured an interview with the man himself and series star Eliza Dushku and now, via the folks at Access Hollywood, we’ve got another video here for you today showcasing more with Eliza about what fans can expect from season 2 of Dollhouse.

In typical cryptic fashion she doesn’t reveal too much more than what we already know such as upcoming guest stars will include Jamie Bamber, Keith Carradine and Angel alum Alexis Denisof. She did say, however, that season two will be shot entirely on HD. Dushku said the change makes the show feel more real and less “science fictiony.”

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Writer and producer Jane Espenson has written, or co-written, episodes of some of the most popular and successful TV shows in recent memory. Getting her start on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Espenson also worked on hugely popular shows such as Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and one of the most celebrated series ever on TV, Battlestar Galactica.

More recently, Espenson has written for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, wrote the BSG TV movie The Plan and she is now Executive Producer on the upcoming BSG prequel series Caprica. Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with Espenson about, among other things, The Plan, Caprica, Dollhouse budget cuts and the move to the internet from traditional media.

CHRIS ULLRICH: What can you tell us about The Plan? It supposedly shows Battlestar Galactica entirely from the Cylon perspective, correct?

JANE ESPENSON: Technically, that’s correct, but perhaps misleading. It shows events from the series from the POV of two very specific Cylons, not from the point of view of them as a group.

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In a recent interview with the LA Times, the legend of Blues, comedy and ‘busting ghosts’, Dan Aykroyd, updated the fans on the developments of a third Ghostbusters film, which has been on hold for quite some time, mostly due to Bill Murray’s prior reluctance to return to the franchise.

“I don’t put not making the third movie on Billy,” said Aykroyd in the interview. “We can’t do that. I’ve been very busy. Harold’s been busy, Ivan’s been busy. And a third script really didn’t coalesce properly. And Billy, you can’t blame an artist for not wanting to do the same thing again. He did two of them, for God’s sake.”

Aykroyd went on to defend Murray further and elaborate a bit more on when he feels the film may come together and start production. According to the actor:  ”Although I’m the biggest cheerleader as the originator of the concept but I’ve never begrudged Billy not doing a third movie. I never said he held it up or that he refused. I’m sorry he never read my third draft because I thought it was pretty good but, look, now we’re at a point that there’s a story that he can accept and that’s going to work, and I think we’re going to be in production fairly soon. We could be in production by winter.”

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What better way to fill that Friday night void now that Dollhouse‘s first season has ended? Oh, how about news that Fox has picked up the show for a second season?

According to the LA Times, the network won’t make the announcement officially until upfronts on Monday, but several close sources to the show are saying that we can look forward to another season of Eliza Dushku in skimpy outfits. No word yet on whether the illustrious 13th episode, starring star of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog and fellow twitter-addict Felicia Day, will get any airtime, but it will definitely be available on the DVD — which is due out July 28.

It’s true, we can even admit that we were a bit worried about a second season after the poor ratings of the finale (among other episodes), but we here at The Flickcast are more than happy that Fox is giving Joss Whedon and his gang another chance.

This means that along with Fringe and Lie to Me, which have both been renewed for another season, Fox seems to be breaking the trend of ending shows prematurely, and it only took a few dozen casualties and thousands of irate fans.

Great job, Fox! Now how about some love for Sarah Connor?