Rating: Four out of five stars

World-Famous Three-World Review: Dolls shelved early.

Joss Whedon is awesome. Firefly. Buffy. Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

With this impressive body of work, Dollhouse remains one of Whedon’s best, and most underrated shows. Like Firefly, it was canceled bafflingly early. Dollhouse lasted only two seasons on FOX. Firefly was only given one. And somehow Broke Girls is still on television.

Still, those two seasons of Dollhouse were as intense and engrossing as anything still on television.

In the show, the dubious Rossum Corporation has created the technology that wipes the memory from agents so that they can be imprinted with an entirely new personality. Named after the military alphabet, these ‘dolls’ can be outfitted with an array of customizable skills and traits to then be hired out for any job imaginable.

What could possibly go wrong? I’ll answer my own rhetorical question: Everything.

Things begin to go wrong when main character Echo mysteriously retains memories that were supposed to be wiped. Her deep, dark past begin to catch up with her. Among other things chasing Echo: an obsessed, rogue FBI agent; an escaped, unhinged Doll named Alpha, and eventually Rossum itself.

Even the most elaborate and convoluted plotlines are tied up with Whedon’s characteristic witty dialogue. Most of the characters are complex and interesting. Only a few are poorly acted.

The show has a handful of head spinning revelations and an enduring love story that transcends brainwashing (the best kinds always do). Okay, so some of the plot points bordered on cliche. But they were handled with originality and humor.

It’s just disappointed that the second and final season was so obviously rushed as Whedon and the show writers hastened to seal off the open storylines after the show was prematurely put out to pasture. Even if the premise wouldn’t have been able to support much more than an additional couple of seasons.