I need Echo to be something and to want something. She can be crazy and want to eat a kayak in one sitting but I need something to feel forher own. X-files wants truth. Lost they want off the island (or to further understand the island and its consequences as it has evolved. Buffy wanted to protect her school and have a normal life. Kolchak wanted to get the big story and be believed.

The fact that Echo just wants to do what she's told and she has no idea why she wants that is going to be tough to sell. This week she had some range (even if it just came from her sort of being able to sing) but it's hard to tell these kinds of stories with a lead character who is a cipher with no memory. (Neil Gaiman, for example, has empty vessels who wander through weird landscapes and myths connecting the dots and documenting the fantasia. He makes it look easier to pull off than it is, most of the time, and I don't know if you can translate that to tv -- and Echo has no way to connect the dots, though I'm starting to sense that Dollhouse may have tricks up its sleeve. The bit on the official website that mentions classics of dystopian literature makes me think that the show may veer a bunch soon. If what I'm viewing as boring routine sameness is actually a set up for mind-blowing weirdness, I'll eat my words.