History Series / Dollhouse

* IncestuousSubtext: in 'Haunted' Adelle's old friend Margeret downloads her personality into Echo so she can attend her own funeral and see what everyone truly thought about her. Her son later deep kisses her, telling her he's noticed her checking out his body and she admits it but claims it is subconsciously and due to "Too much wine". In 'Stage Fright' Adele offers a Dollhouse client twins to "relieve his tension".

* FiveYearPlan: the Actives are meant to be released with their original personalities after five years.

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dollhouse3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:[[MindRape "Did I fall asleep?"]]]]

* ThreeAmigos: Victor, Sierra, and Echo have always been the primary focus of the show. Depending on how you count the number of personalities in Echo's head, this may tally up to something more on the order of forty-three amigos.

** "Did I fall asleep?" Subverted in "Stop-Loss" when the first thing out of Victor's mouth (after "Roger" is scrubbed from his brain) is "Has anyone seen Sierra?" An OhCrap; it's nice to see Victor and Sierra remembering more and more... but it's not good when the [[MagnificentBitch jealous lover]], plagued by a constant [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor yo-yoing of morality]], is in the room too.

* BigBadFriend: Hey you see [[spoiler: Boyd Langton, PapaWolf to the actives, father figure to Echo, seemingly all-around nice and decent guy? He's the MagnificentBastard head of Rossum [[EvilPLan pulling the strings on everything going that he's been running since before the first episode]] of the series.]]

%%* LockAndLoad: In the second episode.

* WhipItGood: Echo as a dominatrix at the start of "A Spy in the House of Love" (1x09). She uses it on Victor's handler just for the hell of it.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Could pretty easily be seen as a western take on Franchise/GhostInTheShell. If Whedon didn't at least know about GITS beforehand, then it's a massive coincidence.
** Could also be one to ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', except using older women instead of younger girls.

* ComboPlatterSuperpower: The whole premise of the dolls sets up this effect, allowing the writers to give Echo skill X in one episode, and then skill Y (but not X) in the next episode. As well as seemingly giving Alpha skills A through Z, as well as skills 1-100, when he glitched.

* GreenLanternRing: The whole premise of the dolls sets up this effect, allowing the writers to give Echo skill X in one episode, and then skill Y (but not X) in the next episode. As well as seemingly giving Alpha skills A through Z, as well as skills 1-100, when he glitched.
** And then Echo gets the ability to switch and merge her skills at will in season 2.

--> '''Topher''': How did you know it was called a disruptor?
--> '''Bennett''': What else would you call it?

--->'''Topher-in-Victor''': Glasses?
--->'''Topher''': Glasses on a chain!
--->'''Topher-in-Victor''': For the ''win!''

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Averted in Haunted. Most of the dead person's relatives aren't all that unhappy about her being gone, mostly due to a combination of well-meant actions that weren't well-received (And then there's the one person who murdered her to get at the inheritance...)

* HotScientist: Amy Acker's character.

The show is about the titular "Dollhouse", an illegal offshoot of a corrupt medical conglomeration known as the Rossum Corporation. Basically, the Dollhouse consists of a group of men and women called "Actives" or "dolls," who have been [[BlankSlate wiped clean of their own personalities]] and have [[FakeMemories new personalities]], tailor-made to suit the customer's needs, "imprinted" onto them for the various clients of the Dollhouse. Besides [[TheOldestProfession the obvious romantic and sexual applications]], "dolls" can be rented for use as made-to-order surrogate mothers, bodyguards, best friends, thieves, assassins, hostage negotiators, and politicians (and those are just the examples from the show itself). If you have the money, the Dollhouse can create a human being to fulfill your desires, no matter what they are. Each doll gets wiped and imprinted many times for many different purposes over the course of their service contract, which they supposedly signed voluntarily before being wiped.

Note: the true finale of Season One, "Epitaph One," is actually a LostEpisode on the DVD and Blu-ray sets. Please view this before watching the series finale, "Epitaph Two: Return."

Creator/DarkHorseComics is now putting out a miniseries ''Dollhouse: Epitaphs'', which takes place after most of the series, but before "Epitaph One" and "Epitaph Two."

The show is about the titular "Dollhouse", an illegal offshoot of a corrupt medical conglomeration known as the Rossum Corporation. Basically, the Dollhouse consists of a group of men and women called "Actives" or "dolls," who have been [[BlankSlate wiped clean of their own personalities]] and have [[FakeMemories new personalities]], tailor-made to suit the customer's needs, "imprinted" onto them for the various clients of the Dollhouse. Besides [[TheOldestProfession the obvious romantic and sexual applications]], "dolls" can be rented for use as made-to-order surrogate mothers, bodyguards, best friends, thieves, hostage negotiators, and politicians (and those are just the examples from the show itself). If you have the money, the Dollhouse can create a human being to fulfill your desires, no matter what they are. Each doll gets wiped and imprinted many times for many different purposes over the course of their service contract, which they supposedly signed voluntarily before being wiped.

The show is about the titular "Dollhouse", an illegal offshoot of a corrupt medical conglomeration known as the Rossum Corporation. Basically, the Dollhouse consists of a group of men and women called "Actives" or "dolls," who have been [[BlankSlate wiped clean of their own personalities]] and have [[FakeMemories new personalities]], tailor-made to suit the customer's needs, "imprinted" onto them for the various clients of the Dollhouse. Besides [[TheOldestProfession the obvious romantic and sexual applications]], "dolls" can be rented for use as made-to-order surrogate mothers, bodyguards, best friends, thieves, hostage negotiators, and politicians (and those are just the examples from the show itself). If you have the money, the Dollhouse can create a human being to fulfill your desires, no matter what they are. Each doll gets wiped and imprinted many times for many different purposes over the course of their service contract, which they signed voluntarily before being wiped.