TVSquad

Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku is trying to calm fans' worries about the show's Friday night death slot and the fact that Fox seems to have no faith in the show and really, really wants to make Joss Whedon fans cry.

It's not working for me.

Here's how she defended the Friday night scheduling:

"Dude, we're in the age of DVR," she told Sci Fi Wire. "People watch what they want to watch."

True, except that the jury is still out on whether something other than a live viewing is worth much to advertisers and networks. Plus, it's same-day DVR viewings that really count. Are most people who usually go out on Friday nights really going to make it a point to watch the show at least 24 hours after it airs? Probably not. Networks care about live ratings, and Fox seems to have made up its mind about Dollhouse: It ain't gonna get any, but we already paid for it, so let's dump in on Fridays.

Here's what Dushku said about Whedon having to retool the show and shoot a new pilot for the network:

"I think [the way] he also originally had outlined it, we had the 13 episode pickup, but he wanted to gradually play out stories and do a lot of setups," she said. "[The network] wanted more payoffs early on to hook people, I think, so we made that adjustment. I think it's been really successful. The scripts are tight, solid, fast, action, drama, comedy. It's really great."

Dushku seems optimistic about the show's new direction, and I hope she's right. I have faith that Whedon will deliver a fun show, even after all the network mandates. But her words seem a little disingenuous to me, like when someone tells you that a black eye is hardly noticeable or that a giant frakkin' corporation screwing with the heart of your original vision is a good thing.

Maybe I'm just a pessimistic alarmist, aka Firefly fan, but I wouldn't be surprised if Fox's next move would be to personally punch every Joss Whedon fan in the face. But that's just me.

Dushku did leak a few cool tidbits about her upcoming Dollhouse adventures. Her character, Echo, will go undercover as a blind woman with cameras surgically implanted in her eyeballs in one ep. She'll play a "50-something-year-old" woman in another, and we'll get to see her kick a 6-foot, 5-inch dude's ass with some Muay Thai fighting skills in a six-page fight scene. That all sounds like fun. Is it possible to anticipate something and mourn it at the same time?

Dollhouse premieres Feb. 13 after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.