Meet Echo. She used to be somebody. Now she's nobody. After deciding to voluntarily give up five years of her life, Echo is one of many "dolls" - mindless, programmable people who can be rewired to do... well, pretty much anything.

Such is the premise of Dollhouse, Joss Whedon's (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) latest drama. In the initial season, Echo becomes everything from a midwife to backup singer, inspriational speaker to kung fu killer. Eliza Dushku's Echo draws you into the story for the first few episodes, but it isn't until we start learning that there's a lot more "dolls" hiding in plain sight that the show starts to become addictive. Olivia Williams' performance as the ice queen matron Adelle DeWitt is also noteworthy. As Echo makes slow steps in each episode to become self aware, there's also the looming threat of superdoll "Alpha" in the background.

The show deals with a lot of issues of identity that a teenager struggling to decide the person they are becoming can relate to. While some of the episodes drag especially early on, the good episodes of this show are... well, really good. I was surprised how many teens at my library had heard of it and watched it when it first started. It's definitely a show for a more sophisticated, older teen. The second, and sadly last, season of this amazing show is coming out on DVD sometime this fall.