Joss Whedon

Firefly

This is another gimme — "Serenity," the original Firefly pilot, is a great war movie and a great cowboy movie and a terrific space action movie, with so many terrific character moments and enough artful camera work that you really believe that you’ve lived through the Battle of Serenity and you’re now living with Mal on the edges of the system.

Dollhouse

No, not the version that aired — the unaired version. Get the DVD box set and see for yourself. This is Joss Whedon firing on all cylinders, creating a tense thriller about people who have had their personhood stolen away. Whedon sets up Tahmoh Penikett’s Agent Ballard as almost a co-protagonist with Eliza Dushku’s Echo, and Ballard gets a lot closer to the truth in this version of the opening, making his character a lot less frustrating to watch. Most of all, it’s a great, fast-paced exploration of the show’s disturbing premise that places the emphasis squarely on the immorality of what the Dollhouse is doing.