Identity Television

After watching the series premiere of FlashForward and the season premiere of Dollhouse, I have been thinking about how very intelligent these two shows could be.  Not that they are not brilliant for television, but...they could both be better.

Which may be a problem for the media...

Now, FlashForward has (at the center) an issues that is straight quantum physics, and if they introduce a character named Schrodinger, I will be very very happy.  The act of observing changes the observed, and observing something six months into out future does change how we percieve both ourselves and our future.  In the novel that FlashForward is based on, the future that is seen is the future that may come however it is mutable.  I do not know if the conceit used in the novel will be used in the series (plus, blaming the LHC at Cern seems too much like a plot from a Dan Brown novel)  but I am interested to see where they are going to go with this.

As to Dollhouse, the entire series is based on the idea that identity, much like our future, it mutable, therefore, we are whom we are until we are not.  Ballard goes through as many changes to his core persona as any of the Actives do.  With Echo becoming increasingly self aware and the various graft personas being remembered, where does Echo (the shell) end and the polyglot of grafts begin (the self)?

I do look forward to see how these programs are going to play out, with notions of self and identity being brought to the forefront, because maybe, just maybe, if these popular programs can get people thinking about what it means to be a person, an individual, and the nature of the shifting canvas that is the human psyche, we just may be able to have an intelligent conversation about metaphysics as a society...

Or, and I find this to be much more likely...

Both shows will be canceled before January.