Joss Whedon’s new series had a rocky road to TV. The network rejected his original pilot and he created a new one from scratch – same concept, same characters, same cast, even the same sets but a new way into the story – that resembled a more traditional action series. The series was a slow starter as a result and I confess I stuck through largely out of loyalty to Whedon and confidence that he was developing something interesting behind the more conventional episodes. And it paid off: the high-concept show about a (quite literally) underground company that imprints entire personalities and sets of skills onto its otherwise blank roster of operatives developed into one of the most intriguing shows of the 2009 season. Eliza Dushku stars as Echo, the star player in this lineup (they’re called actuals) who are programmed to be everything from sexual fantasies to secret agents, but she may be holding on to pieces of her imprints as she goes through her assignments. Harry Lennix is her handler, protective of his charge and suspicious of the moral implications of the business, and Olivia Williams the company boss, though we discover that she’s merely in charge of this franchise in a covert business with locations all over. The show was a surprise renewal (the higher rated Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles didn’t survive, thanks to its much more lavish budget) and Fox has rewarded the fans who stuck through with a pretty special DVD release.

The Dollhouse cast

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Playing Shakespeare debuts on DVD

One of the finest nonfiction series about art debuts on home video this week.  Playing Shakespeare (Athena/Acord), a 1984 production written and presented by Royal Shakespeare Company founder John Barton and featuring featuring members of the company, is more than simply a master class in acting (as if that’s not enough in itself). Part master class presentation, part workshop, part Socratic dialogue, it plays out in the manner of an actor’s workshop, where exercises are staged with actors and the results discussed by all involved. But it’s also about theater today and in Shakespeare’s time, about conventions and ideas of realism, about language, about history and culture, about how actors try to bring them together, and finally it’s about getting to the heart of the words and characters of Shakespeare and illustrating how and why his work lends itself to multiple interpretations, each with its own insight to the art. It’s a remarkably approachable documentary with brilliant insights into the craft of acting from the likes of Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, Judy Dench, David Suchet, Patrick Stewart and Sinead Cusack (among many other equally fine if less famous performers), who don’t merely illustrate the lessons with performances but discuss their approach and their tools with Barton and with each other. Particularly insightful is episode four, focused on a single character – Shylock in The Merchant of Venice – with two actors who have played the role on stage and prepared their interpretations for this episode: David Suchet and Patrick Stewart. The entire show is Barton (who originally directed them both in the role) with the two actors, and it is riveting television and a brilliant discussion of art and theater as they address the five scenes in which Shylock appears in the play. And it’s serious without becoming self-serious; an episode on Shakespeare’s language, and his words, is introduced by way of a comedy sketch by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. As in the best of documentary presentations, it is both a brilliant study in its subject – theater and the work of Shakespeare – and an illustration of the power and importance of art. In the words of Shakespeare, it is as if a mirror held up to nature. Nine episodes on four discs in a box set of three thinpak cases, along with a 20-page study guide.

Speaking of the Royal  Shakespeare Company, one of its most illustrious veterans returns to British TV with one of the best mystery series of the past decade: Henning Mankell’s Wallander (BBC). Kenneth Branagh plays Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander in a trio of mysteries made for British television and seen in the U.S. on Masterpiece Mystery! Wallander is close to burnout from corruption and cruelty he’s seen and the toll its taken on his personal life and Branagh gives his most restrained yet evocative performance in years: there is such loneliness and disillusionment in his Wallander, but he’s still roused to seek justice. The episodes are beautifully produced on location in Sweden (two of them shot by Oscar-winner Anthony Dod Mantle). Three feature-length telefilms on two discs, along with featurettes and interviews.
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Forget Mamma Mia! The musical to see this weekend is a low-budget production created for and available solely on the Internet by Joss Whedon. He wrote, produced and directed the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog during the writer’s strike. It’s up now, free for a limited time and then via iTunes.

Neil Patrick Harris stars as aspiring supervillain Dr. Horrible, a nice guy with a rather misplaced sense of ambition who is in love with cute girl-next-door (Felicia Day, from the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Nathan Fillion is his arrogant nemesis, a jerk of a musclebound superhero.

Act I went live on July 15, Act II on July 17, and Act II will be posted on July 19. All are free until July 20. Visit now. It’s fun, it’s funny, and Whedon writes better songs than you’ll hear in most new Broadway shows.

The episodes, along with other news and information, can be found here.