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Joss, Joss, Joss... Why must you make us nerds so happy? For years now, Joss Whedon has brought us joy with a stream of wonderful projects, starting with Buffy, and thereafter, Firefly. Now his latest masterpiece is a well-conceived, fun, satirical take on the superhero-genre. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a three-part "tv series" that was aired online for free to the residents of US. The first episode is Act I of the story, the second Act II and the third Act III obviously. As you might have guessed from the title, the series shows us the blog of Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), along with a lot of actual footage from his life. Dr. Horrible aspires to be supervillain, part of The Evil League Of Evil, but his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), a selfish asshole, tends to foil his plans every time he tries to do something evil. In his normal life, Horrible is Billy, a mild-mannered geeky guy who's hopelessly in love with Penny (Felicia Day). Finally Dr. Horrible sees his chance to become a member of EoE as he prepares his time freezing-ray, but then... Well, I won't spoil anything (what I described here is learned in the first 5 minutes of Act I).
Whedon has developed himself in many aspects since the first episode of Buffy, but the biggest thing I personally noticed in Sing-Along was that his writing has travelled lightyears in the last 10 years. Whereas with Buffy I didn't care that much for the characters until like 1½ seasons had passed, in this series I was cheering/booing certain characters by the middle of the second act. I'm a hard person to charm with characters, let alone in mere 20 minutes. The story also probably will have plenty of twists that you won't expect... Or maybe that's just me. Maybe I was one of the few surprised by how it ended, or perhaps at that point I was simply too involved with the events of the show itself to actually even briefly think of what might happen in the next scene. This Blog has a thing called immersion going for it, big time. Dr. Horrible should pull you in within the first act. If not, it might not be for you. You should also slap yourself if this is the case.
Now, I don't think I mentioned the second-best thing yet. See the part in the title that says Sing-Along? It's a goddamn musical. Not all of the dialogue is music, obviously, but the majority of events take place in elaborate musical numbers. Even though the show has a very low budget, Whedon directs with a certain amount of chaos and confidence combined into his shots so that most things look pretty damn action-filled even if in reality only one person is moving in the entire frame. Also, the music is very packed. The lyrics have a lot of content in 2-3 minute songs, and the biggest surprise is their delivery. I would've never imagined I would fully enjoy listening to Neil Patrick Harris singing, but by gawd, this miniseries totally makes me listen with joy as he sings about the sickness of mankind. Speaking of good old NPH, the man oozes charisma here. Every shot he's in, he feels mesmerizing. He becomes Dr. Horrible, and it's a joy to behold. All the other singers in the whole show are fantastic with their vocal delivery, and in the case of the comedic lines, the comedic timing. The musical side is primarily electric guitar, piano or synthesizer (I could be very wrong though since my tone ear isn't the best ever), and it sounds wonderful.
If I was to look for a bad thing in this entire charade, it would be Captain Hammer. Not so much the character, but a single scene in the third act, in which he has his very own song. Even though the lyrics are very suitable, it just feels boring, especially since Act II ends with a perfect song from Dr. Horrible. Hammer also has one problem; he isn't a bad guy per say. He isn't a villain, his aims are always good, but he just happens to be a complete dick. We symphatise more with Horrible, as we are supposed to, but fact and matter is that I never came to hate Captain Hammer simply because he just wants to do good. He's just a twat about how he does it. I guess I personally just have issues with the fact that we're supposed to root against a character who does nothing but good throughout the film. Also, as far as the bad sides of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog go, the ending is something that you might consider one. This story ends with a twist of sorts, and it literally is the last shot of the entire thing. It has left many to speculate what it means, and this might push some people off the whole story abit since I do understand if to certain individuals said ending might feel too "sophisticated" or out of place for a story as comedic and entertaining as this. I personally liked it, as it seemed a proper end to the spiral toward tragedy the story took in the third act.
Overall, this thing is definately worth a purchase (it's on sale via amazon.com or viewable via stream for free at Hulu.com for US residents or proxy users).
10/10
