Hello, readers! What follows is an honest look at my experience watching ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’. If you haven’t watched it yet, be aware of minor spoilers ahead. You can take a look at it for free here before you read this, in case you want to remain free of any expectations.
So I finally spared forty five minutes of my life to watch Joss Whedon’s cute little web-exclusive (for now) musical about the aspirations of a second-rate comic booky ”villain”, the girl he’s been eyeing for himself and his arch-nemesis, an arrogant “hero” played by fan-favorite Nathan Fillion. The piece took the entertainment world by surprise when it suddenly went up during mid-July, providing us mortals with a quality musical short for free (a spoil of the writers war strike). Everybody has been showing their love to it since it went live, but I have to be frank here: it wasn’t love at first sight for me, and I love, love musicals.
It has a steep involvement curve, that’s for sure…unless you’re Whedon’s biggest fan and/or love the cast unconditionally, you won’t get all the hoopla that has been surrounding this piece inmediately. It begins with our titular character rambling for about 3 minutes on his “vlog” (short for “video blog”), reading mail from his “viewers” while giving us a few snippets of exposition about himself, a frustrated, run-of-the-mill villain performed exquisitely by Neil Patrick Harris.
After that slow introduction (which I had to repeat a couple of times due to its inability of keeping me greatly interested), the piece gives way naturally to its first musical number: a deep look at his obsession with the girl he’s secretly in love with (played by the charming Felicia Day). It’s that first musical number that injects some likeability to the characters, finally establishing a way for the viewers to connect with them in an emotional plane. From there on, I liked it. Bittersweet situations that gave way to clever lyrics and songs, camera pans used to display rhythm within some musical sequences, and Nathan Fillion being great as the hatable “Captain Hammer” (which has some of the best lines in the short) were a few of the things that stood out for me as positives.
Neil Patrick Harris as "Dr. Horrible".
Despite that, it never found “greatness” for me. Yes, it’s a good effort from all the parts involved, but it’s not something I’d love to repeat. The music, while good in its own terms, was not incredible either. I didn’t find myself humming the songs nor wanting to hear them again after it was finished. A shame, really. And, of course, the ending…why so tragic? I get it was trying to bang you over the head with a message, but c’mon! Hope, people!
Now, I admit I’m in the minority here, judging by the enourmous support and praise people has given to this piece over the past month or so since it went up. It just didn’t “grab me” as much as I would’ve liked, but that’s fine. I’m happy it served as an introduction to musicals for people who are usually not into them. And it is great seeing a great writer/director like Joss Whedon using the web to spread free artful entertainment, much needed in these days of climbing gas prices and global warming.
As always, thanks for reading! : )
I agree with some of what you said. While I liked it, I was shocked at all the hype. I had to force people I showed it to, to watch past the intro. I liked the intro, but I personally am pretty heavy into the whole digital life way of life. Also, It’s very much like the beginning of a fun little book called, “Soon, I Will Be Invincible”. The first song is where people started to catch on. I loved that song. And then the crowd favorite seems to be, “A mans gotta do, what a mans gotta do”. I found Dr. Horrible to be likable right away, and the sarcasm was right up my alley. My girlfriend hates musicals, I have only got her to sit through a few, and at the end of this she said, “I like it”.
I loved it, because I think it accomplished everything it set out to do. It told the story very well. The quality was far better then any web series I’ve seen. I’m always much more impressed by indy projects that reach a quality finish (especially comics)then anything mainstream.
I totally disagree with you about the ending. There is no other way that it could have happened. Someone had to die. And this really finished the story. I think it works well as a short story that isn’t just a intro. I see no reason for them to continue it, except to cash in on all the hype.
Hey dkoi, thanks for your comment!
Why did someone had to die? The situation went against the tone already set throughout the piece. Yes, it was surprising, and it carried a message, but it felt forced and wasn’t handled realistically, at least for me. Nevertheless, I could see someone liking it.
Well sadly, you aren’t going to like the reasoning. One is if someone hadn’t died Dr. Horrible would not have gotten what he has been striving for. This made his success bear weight. This development actually leads to the creation of a great villain. It also gives this short story a reason to stand alone. If no one had died it would have felt more like a mini series or a pitch for an ongoing series. This made it a full entertaining story with a resolve. And lastly, this is a Joss Whedon story (although I haven’t been a huge fan of too much of his stuff). That’s how he does it, he makes you want two characters to get together, he shows you how good it could be and he never gives it to you. Then someone dies.
This was just a good time. I think you might have been expecting too much due to all the hype. It held a great 1950s satire vibe to it with a fresh twist. It wasn’t supposed to be very realistic but the actions still had weight to them. Atleast that’s the way I see it.