agreed: I need to discover a way to use that in casual conversation

YES! The 4400 was awesome while it lasted—I thought I recognized his face!

all opinions are welcome, even when they're wrong ;)

agreed, I was seeing a lot of priest in the preview & scifi + religion = awesomesauce

& in reply to etho

It's called Hulu. You get "commercials": one 30 second spot per break, each of which is often far more entertaining than the two minutes of commercials you would've had to sit through on TV. You can mute your computer or deal with them, but they get targeted to you (so you don't have to sit through Viagra ads), so they're often better. If you watch during "prime time", you only have to sit through one ad before your show, which is when I usually go get a pot of tea to curl up with. Hulu is win-win-win for the consumer, the network, and the site.

If you really hate ads, you could mod your hosts file…

Or TiVo, which costs money.

I'm not certain that a bridge where all the action takes place, a conference room, a ready room, a transporter room, and a bedroom that can be re-fitted to be anyone's bedroom can be considered "budget heavy". Especially when all the off-ship action takes place on planets that look remarkably like earth. Were there special effects? Absolutely, but they didn't carry the show.

I can't speak to BSG yet, since I just saw the first ep (after the mini-series, and can I just say, holy shit, why didn't anyone tell me?!), but it seems quite similar: all the action takes place in four rooms and a hallway that can be shot from five different angles.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, here. Dollhouse manages to convey a story with a much lower budget. That goes a long way.

I think it's difficult to really make the choice of which is better (see comic above). I think Dollhouse has funnier writing (Joss Whedon dialogue is right up there with Aaron Sorkin or Mamet dialogue) and I think both shows suffer from bad acting (but both feature good acting). The Sarah Connor Chronicwhatcles has more dramatic writing but not as much continuity of themes across episodes. Dollhouse has a more interesting story arc but had some really bad eps.

Both feature T&A, I think that's a function of "what sells in Hollywood", probably mostly for the posters and commercials, but neither are about T&A, which is more than can be said for a lot of what's on television (or in the theater) right now.

Also, I actually like Eliza Dushku and think she was a good choice for the part and has done a good job in it. Amy Acker is a phenomenal actress and early in the season, I was disappointed that she had such a minor role, but I'm more satisfied after the last few eps. Dichen Lachman I can take or leave. Harry Lennix is pretty bitchin', I should look up other stuff he's done.

The same can be said for actors in the Sarah Connor Chronicwhatcles—there's a mix of good and bad actors, influenced by the script they had to live with.

There were absolutely un-tied story threads, but with the majority of the show's main characters removed, I didn't see how they could continue. I'd love to see an explanation of the "will you join us"—I think that was the most intriguing (and possibly smartest) part of John Connor's resistance plan…

I think it was pretty clear from the way the Sarah Connor Chronicwhatcles ended that there was not going to be a third season (unless we started over in a new timeline, which might have been entertaining). I also think it was odd to kill the show just when it's poised to ride the coattails of the movie, but *shrug*

I'm super psyched for another season of Dollhouse, especially if it picks up where it left off and we don't have to sit through another half season of "meh-but-it's-Josh-Whedon-so-I'll-watch-it".