DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG
(or "The show, which will itself become a new genre, will be called.")
Writers: Joss Whedon and Zack Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed
Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon
Producers: David Burns, Michael Boretz, and Joss Whedon

Hey, new Mutant Enemy content! If it has the monster at the end, it
counts, as far as I'm concerned. Well, my ego has swelled to the
point where I've decided the remnants of Usenet need a special
separate thread for my impressions of something that everyone else is
also watching and posting about at the same time. Cross-posted to all
the Mutant Enemy groups, since as far as I know there's no
alt.fan.joss-whedon or anything.

There's a bit of a pitfall inherent in having too much reverence for
one person's body of work. It constantly sets a baseline to live up
to, where everything is expected to be the most awesomest thing ever
or else it'll be a disappointment. I feel like I've been priming
myself for disappointment (especially since realizing that many of
Joss's _Buffy_ comics do nothing for me). That's most weighing when
it comes to _Dollhouse_ and its insane levels of hype, but also seemed
relevant as I followed Joss Whedon (almost) wherever he went, to _Dr.
Horrible's Sing-Along Blog_. There was a distinct potential for a
strike-time in-joke among friends that got mistaken for a serious
project at some point. It could have just ridden its cutesy premise
to forty-two minutes of inconsequential fluff. I think the dictum of
"high hopes, low expectations" was appropriate. It lets one be
pleasantly surprised, and Joss showed the ability to surprise me. I
felt it played best in thirteen-minute chunks, so let's go act by act.

ACT I
As in so much of BTVS, ATS, and _Firefly_, it's not just the
cleverness of your premise or the size of your hammer, but how you use
it. Wringing humor from examining the foibles of life as a
supervillain has been done before (for instance:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375424865/ref=cm_cr_dp_orig_subj).
The fact that it opens with Neil Patrick Harris haltingly talking
about his villainy into the camera isn't necessarily such a good sign,
then. But how do Joss et al use it? In part, just by doing it well.
The dialogue doesn't start as anything special, but the occasional
turn of phrase like "letter of condemnation from the deputy mayor" is
the kind of line that only a writer with certain skills could have
come up with. And then people start singing, and suddenly it's a
different world.

(An aside: Our leading man, Harris, has apparently become some kind of
cult figure himself. Having never seen any of his TV shows, past or
present, my only knowledge of him is as a drug abuser and thief:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sWGvDAhgs2Q.)

If the cold open doesn't nail the mood and sell this as a worthwhile
project, the first musical number certainly does. The concept of a
freeze-ray has been mined for humor before in "Smashed," but here,
("freeze" as in "stop," in this case), it's perfectly suited to be the
climax of the chorus. It's not a death ray, as the lyrics tell us;
they don't tell us that we'll see that in Act III. Anyway, the result
is a well performed song that mixes uplifting with comedic in just the
amounts that the project demands. To put it more simply, I knew that
our villain crushing on a girl at the laundromat would be a major plot
point, and it still made me grin.

Apparently there's some joke to which I'm not privy about the name of
Simon Helberg's character. In lieu of that, I'm fine to just be
amused at the lamest superpower imaginable for Dr. Horrible's
sidekick. Moving on, I'm not nuts about the Bad Horse choir (although
their second bit, in act II, is briefer and better than their first
appearance), but I'll take the opportunity to mention that without the
ending credits, I wouldn't have been able to say for sure whether it
was "Bad Horse" or "Mad Horse."

On first viewing I was busy being impressed by the fact that despite
being a thoroughly independent project, DHSAB doesn't look all that
unprofessional. On second viewing, the impossibly cheap special
effects such as those surrounding Horrible's van control device become
harder to ignore. Ah, we get spoiled. This is the venue in which
both our hero and the audience actually get to know the object of his
affection, Penny. And now the mentions of overturning the status quo
start to make sense, as it gives them a chance to bond (sort of) over
the homelessness problem. "You're treating a symptom." That's
inspired, actually. Now, initially I was a little sad to see Felicia
"Vi" Day (not to be confused with Vi Daley, a Chicago politician who's
constantly filling my mailbox with campaign literature) seemingly
wasted in a rather generic role. Online devotees know that Day is
usually cuter and funnier (http://youtube.com/user/watchtheguild?
ob=4). Here, you've got the sympathetic villain and the cheesy hero
getting most of the fireworks. And then there's The Girl, who has to
play it straight and is important to the story only as an object of
affection for the male leads. It's a bit. unimaginative. On re-
watching, knowing what happens to her at the end, I think I appreciate
the character a little more. Listen to the tenderness in her voice
during her first singing part, trying to stop people for signatures.
Maybe in order to sell the way the third act plays out, the story
really does need someone who's not drenched in some kind of irony or
parody. I dunno.

The first act goes by without introducing the alleged "hero" until the
last few minutes. It's Nathan Fillion, apparently having a blast
turning the volume of everything up to eleven. It bothers me a little
bit that Capt. Hammer doesn't seem to have much of a superhero
costume. C'mon, how about a cape or something? This leads to about
the best action sequence you'll see done with a complete lack of
budget. Hammer throwing Penny into the garbage and "stopping" the van
is a nice bit of slapstick. This musical is big on synchronized
singing, and it usually turns out well. Hammer picking up on the "A
Man's Gotta Do" song while being supported by both commentary from
Horrible and counter-theme from Penny works quite well. ("What heist
were you watching?" "I wonder what you're captain of.") That was
fun, and, as Mrs. Quality called it, "about the geekiest thing ever."
But one might be left wondering if this project can sustain its
momentum for the length of a full TV episode.

ACT II
. a worry soon dissolved by the segment that is, for my money, the
show's best third, musically. The song that opens Act II, which I'll
call "On The Rise," is a small masterpiece from Jed and/or Joss. I
notice that the Harris's singing style gets more or less theatrical,
depending on the demands of the song. In this case, it's done very
much as a theatrical medley, built over a wonderful acoustic riff
that's apparently good enough to re-use in a later song or two. The
mix of voices is extremely good here, especially once Harris and Day
are singing with their frames separated by a brick wall on Horrible's
side, matching "world's filled with filth and lies" with "world's
finally growing wise." In the background, meanwhile, there are loads
of little details that crack me up, from not actually ladling anything
into the bowls to Horrible "disguised" as a bush. If it wasn't clear,
this is my pick for the best written song of the show (although it may
not actually be my favorite).

One thing that's usually sure to irritate me is alleged comedy
involving a lead playing romantic spoiler. However, most such stories
aren't done with such a deft touch, or with dialogue like:
PENNY: Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something
totally different underneath the surface.
HORRIBLE: Sometimes there's a third, even deeper layer, and that one's
the same as the top, surface one.
[uncomfortable pause]
PENNY: Huh?
HORRIBLE: Like with pie.

So, fine by me. Act II in particular is filled with lines that, to
use an old turn of phrase, are really stupid, but I laughed anyway.
Examples (including some from the beginning of Act III, just to put
them all in one place):
- "Peace. But, not, literally"
- Bad Horse saying "nay"
- "Look at my wrist! I gotta go!"
- "Apparently the only signature he needed was my fist! But with a
pen in it. Signing"
- "It's a good day to be homeless"
- "CAPTAIN HAMMER: I HOPE TO SET AN EXAMPLE FOR, YOU KNOW, CHILDREN
AND STUFF."
- "Justice has a name, and a name that it has - besides justice - is."
- The tiny cue cards. "I hate the homeless. Ness problem"

Hammer has up to this point been menacing mainly just because he's an
opponent to our lead. For the first half of the story, one could
imagine that he believes in the cheesy fight he's fighting. His true
colors come out in the "just because you want her" speech, and it's
always jarring to see Fillion so good at being a complete asshole.
This ought to firmly cement most viewers into rooting for the good
doctor, evil plans and all. [EDIT: Or at least it did for me - it's
interesting after having written this to see other peoples' take on
the ending, which is a little different from mine. Many others are
treating Horrible as having become truly evil.] Which despite how
comedy-oriented this story is, might suggest an actual theme and
such. Why is it that Horrible is the hero? By any evaluation of
their objectives and what they accomplish, Hammer is the good guy.
Does the simple fact that he's such a jerk negate that? Logically,
not really. Emotionally speaking, it feels like it should. It seems
like the big quoted line from this section is going to be "the hammer
is my penis," although personally I would've added a Whedon-y
deflation to the line like "in case you didn't get that."

This leads us into the song I'll call "Brand New Day," which may be my
favorite to watch. It's the time the show most successfully indulges
in the fun of wanton destruction and, well, being a supervillain. I
don't know that the song is written nearly as well as, say, "On The
Rise" - it's a pretty straightforward one that actually reminds me a
lot of "Rest In Peace" from the _Buffy_ musical. But sometimes
crunchy guitars and a hook are all a number needs to shine. Giant
versions of Neil Partick Harris are optional, but can't hurt.

ACT III
Act I is cute. Act II is an absolute blast. Act III is. surprising.
That was the only word Mrs. Q. and I could use to describe it after it
ended. It surprises in a few ways. One of them is how much is kept
beneath the surface. Penny's part in the opening medley suggests that
she knows her perfect few days are based on a lie, somewhere. The
most obvious presumption would be that she's gotten a sense of what
kind of guy Hammer is but is staying with him for the perceived
greater good. That's not totally clear to me. We're not really in
Penny's head at all during Act III, leaving us to guess what she's
thinking. The same is true for our villainous hero later on.

"Everyone's A Hero In Their Own Way" is of course a parody of the
inspirational sing-along, seemingly designed specifically to take the
piss out of the kind of patronizing elitism that leads to such
sentimentality-in-place-of-meaningful-action songs being written.
(Yes, I do actually see themes and such within this silly little
musical, albeit not really explored to any great extent.) I think it
gets a little more broad than it should - little tidbits like "it's
fine to know your place" are more effective than the more overt stuff
in the later verses. I like how it slowly "reveals" itself as an FM-
rock style power ballad, though.

And then shit falls apart as Dr. Horrible and his freeze ray interrupt
us to perform "Slipping." On second viewing I noticed it sounded
familiar and had to stop the video to figure out where I knew those
chord progressions from. For those who didn't figure it out, it's
basically a rewrite of Pink Floyd's "The Trial." At least, I think
so. The similarities are hidden enough that I would have no problem
believing that they were totally accidental, but they're there. As
far as the actual content of the song, it's a weird mix. "Sheep'll
show up the slaughter" seems like it shouldn't work in this context,
but it's tempered by "why can't they see what I see/why can't they
hear the lies?" He's a villain, yeah, mostly about fame and power,
and hasn't really thought through the whole "social change" thing.
But from his perspective, I do think he believes the world will be a
better place without people dev Captain Hammer and his pipe dreams.
But how committed is he to the evil parts of being a villain. It's
noteworthy that he hopes Penny won't see this side of him. And then
of course there's his obvious hesitation on the "here goes no mercy"
part. What exactly is going through his head? Again, the show leaves
us out, and I can't stop thinking about it.

Horrible sings that "heroes are over," and - admittedly through dumb
luck - he wins. Perhaps not coincidentally, that's overshadowed by
Penny's death, her last words being the meaningless belief that
"Captain Hammer will save us." It's shattering to Horrible, left
playing a character more than ever before through the rather
unspectacular ending song, and puts a cloud over the whole story. I
do know that it totally caught me by surprise (even more so than
Fillion's big out of nowhere "whyyyyyyyy" right before it).

Why is it so shocking? I don't just mean the surprise (hey, people
don't usually die in comedies), but why is it so effective? I mean,
Joss Whedon was one of the main movers behind this project, and
killing off thirty three point three bar percent of the main cast is
the kind of thing he always does. It's not like we really got to know
Penny very well to begin with. Maybe it's because of the surprising
pathos which Harris brings to his reaction when he sees the
consequences he's brought about (while the viewers were cheering him
on). Maybe it's because one isn't ready for innocence to be literally
killed off [aside: I'm tempted, seriously, to draw comparisons to a
fairly recent (i.e. last couple years) fantasy movie, but I don't want
to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet] and evil to triumph in
this world without heroes, or some other such pretentious thing. All
I'm really qualified to say is that it works, damn well. While I may
not worship everything he does unreasoningly, I'm glad to be a
follower (so to speak) of Joss Whedon, and to let him surprise me like
this.

Lots of little cameos which I'm sure have already been listed. I'm a
bit sad not to have recognized David and Marti as the newscasters
until the ending credits.

Like the kids on the internet say, MOAR PLZ. Or, to again use the
idiom of the internet, http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU


(Sorry. Been dying to do that.)

So.

One sentence summary: The standard by which all internet supervillain
musicals should be judged.

"Objective" rating: ***1/2 (out of four)
"Subjective" rating: Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha/10