So good news for Dollhouse fans! Fox has renewed the lackluster, flaccid, ethically ambiguous, vacuous and boring series for at least 13 more episodes, in spite of its week ratings performance. Yes, the network that completely blew it with Firefly has given at least part of a second season of Dollhouse the green light.

To be fair, my esteemed colleague, msarko, seems to quite like Dollhouse. Or perhaps he's just a nicer person than I am. Regardless, I wish that if a series was going to inherit the Joss-Firefly-Fox- Screw-up karma to get a second chance, it was something more interesting and worth spending 40 minutes of my life every week watching. And I tried to like this show, I really did. But these are all just really unpleasant people.

The official announcement won't apparently be made until Monday, but we have the internetz (and Dollverse.com) to tell us that the contracts have been signed and sealed for another half-season's worth of episodes. I'm not sure where my perceptions broke down, because everyone I know is all "Rawr, Joss! Dollhouse! Yeah!" And my reaction was "oh crap. Another season of having to listen to people talk about Eliza Dushku with a mind-wipe in thigh-boots and a garter belt, as if this was some sort of daring new take on role-playing softcore bdsm fantasy? Please god, say it ain't so."

In the final episode, Omega, we got to see Alpha escape, learned that Dr. Saunders was really an operative Alpha had sliced up because he had a crush on Echo, Ballard-the-FBI guy win his creepy-doll girlfriend's freedom by joining the Corporation, and Echo having a clear moment of Barbie Self-Actualization. Go, team.

This banged-up finish gives us all sorts of themes we can speculate about in terms of what will happen next season, and I know what I'd like to see:

Will Paul like Echo better than Caroline? Everyone else certainly seems to (and ultimately what a message that would be about what men really want from women.)

Will Echo decide she likes Echo better than Caroline? (Honestly, who could blame her? Everyone else does, and yadda, yadda, see above.)

Will Dr. Saunders deal with her implanted hatred of Gopher Topher and hopefully smack him on his smirking little pinhead with something really heavy? Please? Can we start an online fanmail campaign begging someone to smack the bejeezus out of the smirky little creep? Pretty please???

Will Adele blow up the Dollhouse, then take poor, newly-scarred Victor away somewhere tropical to heal?

Will . . . you know what? I don't care enough to speculate. Dollhouse will be back next season—but I'll be somewhere else. Unless someone leaks a hot rumor to the internet that someone finally smacks that smirk off of Topher. If that happens, I'll be glued in my seat right alongside the show's other 117 fans.