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"Last night I watched an episode of a show I had been avoiding due to issues I had with the premise, despite the creator having written some of my favorite TV shows. It had every single problem I would have expected it to have based on my knowledge of the premise, and I wondered why, apart from the Whedon name, executives would have greenlit a show so clearly destined for early cancellation."
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Eh, I think it has some potential, and that the premise doesn't have to be discarded once the story moves forward. Echo doesn't have to simply wake up, remember everything, and then flee. She could get some recurring personality element that asserts itself subtly in her different incarnations. She hide this from her owners as she becomes more and more aware, so that her independent side stays safe.
Her independent side could be amnesiac or something other than her original personality, so that even when she figures out what is going on she still has to find her real self. Maybe this new, recurring personality finally discovers her original personality and discovers that she hates the original, so now she's at war between her original self, her new independent self, and the 3rd (constantly changing) personality that they imprint on her.
She could enlist her handler in hiding these events from her owners. She could even start experimenting with the mind wipe, trying different imprints to borrow and combine together different pieces as she tries to rebuild her original self.
And if she finally does break free, the story could continue with other dolls. She could work against the dollhouse, and try to free other dolls. She could experiment on the dolls to find a way to free them. Maybe what worked for her won't work for them, so she'll need to experiment with them to save them.
She could even decide to continue being imprinted, taking on different memories and talents to help her in her battle against her evil former owners.
So I think there are a lot of directions that it could go.
Also, I freely grant that she's showing a lot of skin in an exploitative manner. This may not be a great defense, but let's see what happens now that sweeps month is over.
Without disputing your valid points, I like Dollhouse. It is doing something interesting with characters, roles, technology, so as to be (IMHO) actual Science Fiction, albeit obviously NOT Hard SF.
In the same sense, "Eleventh Hour" is usually silly on Science, but has fun stories. "Fringe" is intentionally goofy about Science, but fascinating drama. "Lie to Me" has a sliver of Science in a vast assembly of Cop Show Tropes. "Life on Mars" (the USA remake) has a dab of Science in a sea of cultural critique.
Of films I've seen lately, "Sunshine" irked my son, who condemned it's premise (re-ignite the sun) as akin to "Core" (re-spin the Earth). But my wife and I quite liked "Sunshine" which, while recycling elements of "2010" and Brin's "Sundiver" managed to be visually and emotionally compelling. Danny Boyle was showing that he can give an engaging twist to any genre (as in Transpotting, Shallow Grave, Slumdog Millionaire).
True, I don't like Dollhouse as much as Joss's Dr. Doogie Howser's Singalong Blog, which I think deserves Hugo or Nebula for Best Dramatic Presentation, and I look forward to seeing the Director's Cut DVD with the Making Of and so forth.