Dollhouse

* When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, KDVR-Channel 31

From the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and the cult series Firefly comes Dollhouse, a latter-day Invasion of the Body Snatchers premiering, appropriately enough, on Friday the 13th.

This new series from Joss Whedon wants us to believe the following: Somewhere in America, there exists a special "house" where attractive young men and women exist in a state of blissful ignorance. When a well-heeled client needs a special job done - a hostage negotiator, the perfect date - he/she pays the house's shadowy operators to have his/her desires imprinted on the human vessels.

Eliza Dushku stars as the chief doll, Echo, a feisty young woman with one flaw. Unlike the other dolls, whose memories get "wiped" after each job, Echo begins having flashbacks to earlier missions. Her handlers don't know this, but viewers do. Which means it's just a matter of time before past consciousness breaks through to the present. That spells trouble.

In the opening show, a wealthy businessman's daughter is kidnapped and Echo is programmed to be a hostage negotiator. The businessman is skeptical. So are the kidnappers. Who is this sexy young woman who seems to know so much about how they operate?

As it turns out, the dolls are imprinted with the memories of actual people, be they expert hostage negotiators or a kidnap victim. The only thing missing is any trace of the doll's (they call them "actives" here) original personality.

There are myriad unanswered questions (Who created the dollhouse? How are the actives recruited? Why do the dolls all look like they just exited a Pilates class?), which will no doubt be addressed if the series survives. Fox has thus far ordered only seven episodes.

Dushku acquits herself well as the mercurial Echo, and she's surrounded by a solid supporting cast. Harry Lennix is suitably stoic as Echo's handler, Boyd Langdon. Olivia Williams is the brittle "madam" of the dollhouse. There's also a subplot about a cranky FBI agent (Tahmoh Penikett) looking for the dollhouse.

As for action, expect plenty. In the Feb. 20 show, a rich guy hires Echo to be the perfect lover-survivalist companion. Then he turns a crossbow on her in the middle of the woods and she becomes the prey.

Did I mention there's also a rogue active named Alpha killing dolls?

Dollhouse may lack the flashy special effects of Buffy and the caustic humor of Firefly. Yet, in the early going at least, it panders to our secret suspicion that if we could just trade places with someone else, our lives would be perfect.

Or not.

pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592