Okay, sie ist geschafft. Joss hat nicht nur "Epitaph One" erstmals von tausenden Leuten bejubeln lassen, er hat auch einige großartige Sachen über die Show selbst, Season 2 und den kreativen Prozess im allgemeinen gesagt. Hier mal ein kleiner Recap, den ich mit dem verdammt großartigsten Joss-Zitat zu dieser Show eröffnen möchte, das ich je gelesen hab:

I think with this show, I want to say to the people who have, you know, felt a connection with me, that maybe you want to back away and avoid eye contact, that maybe there’s something horribly wrong with me, and this is my very poetical way of expressing that. I think of it as a work that actually frightens me at times in a way that my shows seldom got to. At the same time I have that sort of jolly love of everything that’s going on and have to be reminded that what I’m doing is reprehensible. So it’s a mature work in the sense that I grew up and went insane.

Über das allgemeine Thema der zweiten Staffel heißt es dort:

Yet I would say in terms of the second season, the abuse of power and the different kinds of forms it can take is going to become broader and more, in fact, political, and we’re going to see the Dollhouse in the world a bit more.

Re: Renewal:

I’d say it came extraordinarily close to being canceled, I’d say it was probably pronounced on the table and we went, “Nooo!” (feigns CPR) and the camera pulled back and it went (gasps) and the music came up and we all cried. It came down to some very simple numbers that people worked in a very complicated fashion to fudge laughs and ultimately the fact that my shows have never gone that big, you know they’re marathon runners, they’re not sprinters. This is the studio where I did those shows, even when they weren’t on that network. And they know that, so they fought hard to make it as easy for the network as possible. So it was really the hardcore fan base, the people who are here, to tip the scale. And that scale was tippy.

Und über ein Dollhouse-Comic:

I don’t see it happening. I don’t care how good an artist is, they’re not gonna make an Eliza. Ultimately you know she doesn’t fly, she doesn’t shoot firebolts, except in that one episode — it’s gonna be awesome. So I think this belongs exactly where it is: on television… and in fanfic.

A propos Spoiler. Casting-News für Season 2 gab's auch: Amy Acker (wie gesagt) nur in 3 Folgen, Summer Glau womöglich dabei, und Alexis Denisof fix für ein paar Folgen. Und in "Vows" spielt Felicia Day (et al. aus "Epitaph One") mit, es gibt also eine Form von Anschluss.

In Bezug auf was Season 2 falsch machen könnte, meinte Joss hilariously:

As long as we don't send anyone to feudal Japan, we should be fine.

Joss hat übrigens nie Lost gesehen (keine Zeit, muss ja selber TV machen). Über die allgemeine soziale Problematik, die die Serie und die Technologie, aufwirft:

As you can see from this lost episode, everything turns out fine.

(Was für eine Frage! Und das direkt nach dem "Epitaph One"-Screening!)

Noch mehr zur Philosophie der Show gefällig?

Someone wanted to know if Joss had a thing against giant corporations and Joss said, "Have you been in America? I like to consider myself a great documentarian. The entire structure is designed to mess with your minds, to combine selling you things with entertaining you to keep you in line to make you think that you need the things they want you to need and to stay away from the things that they want you to stay away from, to keep them in power, to share none of it. This is all happening. There are lights in the darkness. The art that we get to create because of our powerful patrons let us is one of them, but sometimes, yeah, it's like running the daycare on the Death Star. The truth is there is power and manipulation that is controlling almost all of our every thought, and that is why I love this show so much."

Alan Sepinwall wiedrum hat kurz mit Jed & Maurissa über das Problem gesprochen, wie Seaosn 2 damit umgehen wird, dass die Hälfte der Leute "Epitaph One" gesehen haben, und andere nicht:

I talked briefly with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen after the panel, and they said there will likely be some repetition of information from "Epitaph One" to explain things to the viewers who didn't see it, but I can't imagine that explanation being nearly as powerful as simply watching "Epitaph One" itself. Joss also said that those of us who watched "Epitaph" shouldn't automatically take all the flashbacks as gospel, as they're presented as memories, and memories aren't always what actually happened.

Joss hat über seinen Schreiber, sein kreatives Umfeld und den kreativen Prozess auch tolles zu sagen:

I haven’t had a thought in years! The staff are really there as stenographers! This is without a doubt the best first year staff I’ve ever worked with. A room full of brains… floating brains in jars. I really feel like this, more than any other show is a real roundtable. Everyone has made a contribution that I wish I thought of and was grateful not to have to. Sometimes the people you work with actually help inspire. I can’t stress this enough. The way I talk about the writer’s room, being a round table, being a circle, this is how my creative life exists — because of a community. Everything I see from them informs everything I do. The show was created because I knew Eliza [Dusku] can be sophisticated, funny, vulnerable, blind. All these things she’s not going to get to play unless I get to play with her. At the same time, it was Felicia [Day] singing in her little Christmas episode of THE GUILD that made me want her to play penny in DR. HORRIBLE and the idea that had me use her in “Epitaph One” was when Sarah Fain [DOLLHOUSE Executive Producer] brought her up after considering her for a role in WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB. I was so embarrassed we hadn’t thought of it. Apart from the stealing from friends, writers, artists and William Shakespeare. For a guy who notices very little I see everything. It all filters in. I have these weird genre filters in me and everything comes at me and I can’t stop. I can’t stop thinking of things that I want to say and different ways to say them. They don’t always work, are often re-written and not produced, but they keep coming and thank God they do. I don’t think of it as a creative process, it’s like blinking. It’s just the way I am. I’m not very good with actual people because I’m usually too busy with the little avatar world I live in.

Über das Umbringen von beliebten Charakteren:

As a storyteller… I hate people… I want them to suffer and die! I kill people for (1) either the story or (2) because contractually I have to. I try to have as much integrity as a storyteller that I can but when somebody is going to disappear sometimes you have to think up something so that you cry when they do.

Und bei Dollhouse? Season 2 spoiler sagt: "No one can be trusted. Actually, there is one person who can be trusted, but I’m going to kill them."

Season 2 wird übrigens visuell sehr an "Epitaph One" angelegt sein und auf Video statt auf Film gedreht werden. Director of Photography wird eine neue Person, die an "Epitaph One" mitgewirkt hat.

Auf der "Epiatph One"-Review-Front ist vor allem die tolle Mo Ryan hervorzuheben, die liebvoll wie immer die Folge und die Implikationen für Season 2 zerpflückt. Nur IGN sind lahme Miesepeter wieder einmal.

Alles in allem, ein super News-Roundup. Season 2 wird groß, keine Frage.