Today's topic is, as you probably guessed from the title, about the recent internet phenomenon: "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" created by Joss Whedon (Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity). If you want to learn more about the show, you can read about it here:
As usual, I need to have my little, or big, disclaimer: WARNING, THIS REVIEW AND/OR ESSAY CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!!
Now I just recently was introduced to Joss through the film "Serenity" and the comic book "Fray" and loved both. Then I saw all this hype about this new internet show floating around, so I decided to go check it out. At the time, only the first two parts were out. I watched them and loved it! It was funny, it was moving, it was great! In the words of Larryboy: "I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob!"
I had learned that the final episode premiered at midnight last night, so I resolved to stay up until then to watch it. I was all excited. To prepare, I read a bunch of interviews with the cast and crew and then caught up on the story for the fifth time about by watching the first two episodes again. Then finally, the moment had come! Millions of sci-fi, comedy, superhero, musical and Joss Whedon fans around the globe waited till midnight..... and THEN..............................................................................................
....................
......
I hated it. My take on it can be seen plainly in a short essay which I wrote on a forum I post on regularly.
Me: "Just watched part III. It was horrible!!!! And I do NOT mean that in a good way! I got hooked on parts one and two, and watched them over and over and over again. Well all I can say is: "THANKS A LOT JOSS, YOU..................!!!!!!!!" *shoots self in the head* I can't believe that I stayed up till midnight to see that! Anyone else agree that the ending was awful??
Forum member #1: "I completely disagree. Joss did a brave thing with the ending. Killing Penny was Brave!After all Dr.Horrible is evil, not the good guy.This show was meant to show how just because someone is good doesn't mean he isn't a total douche.
I really don't know why your upset, he was evil, even if you sympathized with him.I thought the ending was perfect. Why complain when you got it for free? I'll buy the DvD for sure!!!!"Forum Member #2: "Also... It's Joss Whedon... Did you expect roses at the end?"
Me: "Did I expect there to be roses? Ummmmm... is that a trick question? 
Here, perhaps I should explain. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional tragedy every now and then, ("Sweeney Todd" is one of my favorites) but I like them to stay where they are; tragedies should stay tragedies and comedies should stay comedies. None of this mixing and matching, please! But if I HAD to pick, I'd choose a tragic comedy (a sad story with a happy ending) over a comic tragedy (a funny story with a sad ending) anyday!
Guillermo del Toro put it very well in an interview recently. When asked why he turned down the chance to direct the film "Se7en," he said: "Because I'm a fat, sentimental fool who doesn't ascribe to that world view." I feel EXACTLY the same way!
See, unlike a lot of people today, I rarely view things as morally ambiguous. They are either right, or they are wrong. In the case of "The Sing Along Blog," no matter what the characters the show are called, Dr. Horrible is good and Captain Hammer is evil.... I don't think that anything could convince me otherwise. And then it is also a comedy (I'm laughing, aren't I?) So by definition, Dr. Horrible should get the girl and Captain Hammer should be....um....well.... killed. That's the kind of just and right ending that I was expecting and then......well, if you saw act III, you know the rest.
Let me put it another way: someone you trust introduces you to a friend of theirs. You and the friend hit it off instantly. Going to the movies, having meals and going bowling together becomes a regular thing. Then one day, the person who introduced you calls you up and tells both of you to come to his place cause he has a surprise for you. Once you both get there, the man takes you into his house, closes the door and then drives a knife into your new friend's heart. Gasping for breath, she falls to the floor. You scream at the man you once trusted, but he doesn't even seem to notice. Then once the girl is finally dead, he looks at you and says: "Now wasn't that fun?"
Joss Whedon has become the Joker of Batman fame. Perhaps Nolan should give him a part in the next film?
I think that the film "Stranger than Fiction" puts it well when Hoffman says: "A comedy is a tragedy that ends too soon." All I can say is that Whedon ended it too late.
So, I know that it is just a movie, TV show, internet show, whatever and that it's not real. But I really get invested in the characters of any story, and Whedon was successful in making me sympathize with Dr. Horrible and Penny. But then he betrayed my trust with the final installment.
Not amused,
Frank'n'stay"
Frank'n'stay is just another alias I go by, in case you were wondering. But anyway, that's really all I have to say on the subject. I've been sitting on a bunch of reviews. I try to get them to you asap, or, that is, whenever I get around to it.... :P
Till Then,
Scott
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3 comments:
Goodness, never even heard of the show. So I'm lost and have no idea what you are talking about.
Batman came out yesterday, as you know.
I'm sure you are seeing it soon.
Write a review on that once you see it.
& Contact me ASAP. I hear you'll be here for a day, let's hang out.
Later my friend :)
Hey man, this is Prof. Langstaff. I just finished watching the three acts, and I must say that overall I really loved the show. I think the ending was a bit tragic, but it kinda had to happen for him to be a villain. I was really sad when Penny died, and it sorta confused me that the gun would randomly explode like that... but I think for the ending they chose, they pulled it off well. I don't know, I might be starting to ramble. Anyways, hats off for writing the review. I'm way to lazy most of the time to sit down and do something like that.
~Prof. Vincent "Goggles" Langstaff
Okay, well...
I missed this show the first time around (I forgot about it, mostly. :P), and as I finally found it on hulu today, I just watched it for the first time.
I have a question for you, Scott.
Did you hate the entire SHOW or just the last installment?
I, for one, am inclined to agree with this part of the review immediately above my own:
"I just finished watching the three acts, and I must say that overall I really loved the show. I think the ending was a bit tragic, but it kinda had to happen for him to be a villain. I was really sad when Penny died, and it sorta confused me that the gun would randomly explode like that... but I think for the ending they chose, they pulled it off well."
It's kind of like LOST. (As practically everyone dies on LOST, perhaps this was not the best example. But I think you can catch my drift.) Charlie, as you may know, was my favorite character. And what do the writers do? They kill him off. Not because the actor was tired of the show; not because they thought it was what the fans wanted (believe me, it wasn't).
They killed Charlie off because- at least in the eyes of the creative staff, it had gotten to the point where his character could further more the plot DEAD than alive.
Imagine what "Dr. Horrible's..." would have been like had Penny survived.
a) She probably would have gotten back with Captain Hammer (there is a slight chance that Billy would have gotten a chance with her, but after seeing him almost kill her "hero", it seems unlikely.)
b) The relationship between Penny and Billy would have changed radically. Where can a relationship go when one party tries to murder someone close to the other party? (Think Romeo and Juliet.) Had Penny not died, odds are Billy would have either a) given up his super villain ways in order to win her trust or b) become an even larger super villian because she turned her back on him; there's really no neutral ground.
You can't just say "I'm sorry I tried to kill your boyfriend; let's still be friends."
If Penny had lived, her relationship with Billy be forever scarred. Things would never be the same.
Now, don't think that I loved the ending, because I didn't. But I do understand how it was necessary for the characters' growth.
To quote part of a review of the show I recently read:
"...I thought the title of the series was entirely contrived (dr./mr./prof. -insert bad thing-) until I saw that he was responsible for something truly horrible. His tragic mistake is thinking he can gain at the expense of others (a common mistake in a capitalist society) where ultimately his evil will only allow him to benefit at the expense of his humanity, which, since he is a supervillain, is embodied by the persona of billy. All those aspirations of having the “world at his feet” are horribly realized in seeing his “world” lying dead at his feet. Basically, for Dr.Horrible to win everything, Billy has to loose [sic] everything."
(-"Auroch", the official fan site message boards.)
All in all, I really did love this show. Yes, it had a sad ending. Yes, we emotionally aligned ourselves with the characters portrayed. However, this show was not meant to be a sugar-coated, "disney-type" musical. And, however flashy and exaggerated it happened to be, this show is an accurate depiction of our world today.
The guy doesn't always get the girl. We can't always tell the good guys from the bad; in fact, most of our "heroes" today are quite the opposite. We instill our trust in people only to find out how different they are underneath their outward facades.
And, no matter how much we may wish for it to be otherwise...
...the good guys don't always win.
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