I have a lot of respect for Joss Whedon's work. I dug most of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, enjoyed his stint on Astonishing X-Men, and wish the people at Fox knew a good thing when they saw it and gave Firefly a better chance. So I'm somewhat predisposed to look upon the man's work with a favorable eye.
I'm rather mystified, however, at the unbounded waves of enthusiasm being directed towards his latest effort, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Once More, With Feeling, the musical episode of Buffy, was successful not just because of the novelty and the surprisingly decent songs, but because Whedon leveraged the tropes of the musical form to explore his characters. I like Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, both of whom feature prominently in Dr. Horrible. But Harris is miscast-- he's just too young-looking for the role and you never for a second believe any part of him is evil. The pacing and editing are off-- the blog sequences have too many beats and needed to be trimmed. The characters are too new to us to lend the musical numbers any real impact. And while I'm willing to believe that despite all the vampiric and demonic activity in Sunnydale the majority of the population lives in denial, I just can't buy that anyone-- much less seemingly everyone-- would worship such an obvious tool as Captain Hammer.
There are some good moments in Dr. Horrible. I thought the cowboys singing the letters from Bad Horse worked well, and there was one joke in part two, alluded to by the title to this post, that was delivered with beautiful timing. But much of Dr. Horrible feels unpolished and predictable, and I kept waiting for it to kick into gear and start hitting all the right beats, which never happened.
Perhaps my dismissiveness stems from having finished reading Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible, which covers similar ground-- a superhero story from the evil mastermind's point of view-- in a more interesting way. Recommended.
Posted by Peter at August 2, 2008 3:24 PMI think that Dr. Horrible was enjoyable, but not great. Maybe the response was more of a way for Whedon fans to rally around a way for Whedon to bypass the networks, which have not been kind to him.
But, I think Harris was great for the role. The fact that he was not really evil was the whole point.
Posted by: Rob Cannon on August 3, 2008 4:09 AMRob is exactly right about NPH in the role: the fact that he seems more like someone just out of law school dreaming of someday becoming partner (and struggling with what he'll have to do in order to realize that dream) is exactly the point.
Perhaps you were just approaching the series in the wrong way. For one thing, I think your expectations were too high. Granted, there was a lot of hype among the Buffy/Firefly lovers on teh Intarwebs, and I can't say that it stands up to this hype as well as (for example) the new Batman movie, but Dr. Horrible would have a long way to go to reach the kind of mass audience and cultural significance of even, say, America's Top Model, much less Batman. So for most people it's a pleasant surprise.
Also, you critique it as a whole entity, like a three-part movie, but it's less of a movie than a web-based tv show. I see it as a fun, silly way to waste a few 15 minute blocks of time; and someday I could certainly see myself shelling out $30-40 for a subscription to a year-long series of similar 15 min episodes that I could download to my video ipod and watch on the way to work. That's the model that they're creating and the real ground-breaking-ness of the enterprise.
And from that perspective, I'd argue that it succeeds admirably.
Posted by: Dug on August 3, 2008 6:09 AMOh, and after all that griping about your post, I'd like to second your recommendation of Soon I Will Be Invincible, which I also just finished, then subsequently bought for my brother for his birthday and loaned to a friend. Lots of fun.
Posted by: Dug on August 3, 2008 6:14 AMSurvey says: BZZZZTTT!!! Your answer is clearly wrong. Let's move on to the next person on your team.
I've watched maybe five episodes of Buffy, so I'm not familiar with the musical episode. I knew nothing about the promotional hype for Dr. Horrible, so I watched it with no expectations.
Jessica came home one night and asked me to take a look at drhorrible.com. I briefly pondered the oddness of a super-villian video blog, but I quickly found Barney to be a terrific aspiring villain. As soon as Doogie Howser broke into song in the laundromat I was hooked. From the point of view of the villain he is in the right and all heroes are tools. Neil Patrick Harris was so right for the role. He plays a geek with big brains, poor social skills and strong opinions about how the world should be run beautifully.
The songs from Dr. Horrible have been running through my head ever since and I've happily sung along with it at home and in HQ during the Intern Game.
I thank Joss Whedon and friends for offering up a tasty treat.
Posted by: Jeff on August 3, 2008 7:54 PMNPH is awesome. From Harold & Kumar to his role as Barney... In this he was great. Doogie is too far removed now. I know I liked it in 1989.
The whole time I was watching this I kept thinking that it reminded me of Skullcrusher Mountain?
Suit up!
Posted by: Jack on August 4, 2008 1:05 PMIs this the internet petition where we agree that Peter is wrong? Looks like it... sign me up!
Posted by: Jake on August 5, 2008 3:22 AM