Joss Whedon has once again done the impossible, and it has made him mighty (Firefly reference!). In the midst of a strike that was based on the idea that internet content was a way to take money away from the writers, Whedon wrote a made-for-the-internet miniseries that not only made money, but was incredibly successful (the site crashed the first day, and the series immediately became one of the most downloaded items on iTunes).Telling the story of a low-rent supervillain's rise to power, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog looks at the nature of heroism and accepting society the way it is. In my last post about it, Act III hadn't yet been released, and I expected another incredibly funny denouement (for a full look at my prediction for the final act, read said post). After watching Dr. Horrible complain about how society is broken, and see Penny express the same beliefs, but also believe in a ray of hope, I expected to see the status quo upheld. Instead, Dr. Horrible finally succeeded in defeating Captain Hammer (sort of) and gaining entrance into the Evil League of Evil, but it came with a price (just like everything in the Whedonverse).
After two incredible acts, there was some debate over the third act. Some people said that it was just as strong as the first two (and maybe even the strongest of the three). Others claimed that it was a departure in theme and suffered from "women in refrigerator syndrome". When I first saw it, I didn't dislike it, but I was certainly taken aback, since there was a strong swing from comedy into tragedy. But as I thought about it some more, I found that I liked it more and more. The second act remains my favorite, both due to it having the best songs and best jokes, but Act III certainly has its place in the story of the bad doctor.
In a sense, Horrible's actions continue to uphold the status quo, since his actions begin to lose reason. In Acts I and II, he did what he did to protest the fucked up nature of our society. He had an angry passion. But by the end, he was a cog in the evil machine, and it is only a matter of time before he meets his new nemesis (or Captain Hammer gets out of therapy). On the other hand, I noticed a few similarities between Horrible and the Joker from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (Whedon, Nolan and Alan Ball need to team up to do some sort of uber-movie). They both decry the status quo (my brother and I have pretty much done the "Then everybody loses their minds" quote to death). They talk about how life is filled with lies and look at how tragedy has been normalized. But Dr. Horrible isn't a soulless psychopath (at least not in the first two acts) and the Joker probably doesn't care about fixing things (though Horrible may not either). Still, this is an pretty interesting connection.
Interestingly enough, I had a similar conversation with a girl about the nature of society, where I played Horrible's role, stating pessimism that things will get better anytime soon, whereas she agreed that something is wrong, but expressed hope. It was kind of scary that the biggest difference between us and the Billy/Penny laundromat scene was that I worked up the courage to ask her out.
Whedon knocked another one out of the park, but, as always, this would be nothing without the actors. Neil Patrick Harris is an incredible singer, and Day and Fillion are no slouches themselves. They looked like they had a blast, judging from the footage from Comic Con (I am including this not because it goes in depth into the making of Dr. Horrible, but because it is so damn funny, and it shows that the actors are very comfortable together:
Felicia Day Twitters from hacksaway on Vimeo.
To be perfectly honest, when I first saw this video, I had no idea that Twitter was a kind of instant messaging/blogging service. I thought it was some sort of slang from Alabama that had to do with... I don't know what I thought it had to do with.
Fortunately, we have been promised more Dr. Horrible in some medium, and I believe that it can't get here fast enough. You can watch the series here. There will be a DVD release soon.
Up next: Living in the World...
