Harry Lennix, Tahmoh Penikett, Eliza Dushku and Joss Whedon on the "Dollhouse" set.

The sleek, beautiful “Dollhouse” set isn’t going to waste after all. “Welcome to the biggest surprise of my career — our Season 2,” creator Joss Whedon told visiting TV critics Friday. The “Dollhouse” set wasn’t finished last summer when Whedon and Eliza Dushku led us on a tour, and “Dollhouse” seemed half-baked itself.

The series, which eventually arrived in February, stars Dushku as an operative whose personality is regularly wiped clean so she can go on various missions. Then, “it was an idea that we had a lot of trouble defining, and America got to watch that,” Whedon said. “And now we feel like it is defined.”

In Season 2, look for less emphasis on self-contained stories and more on the mythology of the so-called Dollhouse where Dushku’s Echo and the other operatives live, Whedon said. Also, look for the formerly passive Echo to move toward functioning as a person, not a blank slate.

Anything Whedon has to say is well received by critics, who have appreciated his work since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Less well received: the shrimp and Gouda pizza offered as a parting snack, a nod to the meal over which Whedon and Dushku cooked up “Dollhouse.” Many slices of the bizarre pie remained untouched.

Gail Pennington is attending the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Los Angeles.