The New Republic

I'm not really familiar with most of the other things Whedon has done, having only seen Serenity and Toy Story.  I was also a little disappointed with Act 3.  The music was sort of lackluster compared to the first two installments and it was a little weird that there was basically no spoken dialogue (come to think of it, the songs were mostly monologues, so there was virtually no verbal interaction between the characters).  I still think the miniseries as a whole was fantastic, though.

- AlanSP

July 21, 2008 at 5:33pm

I agree with you once again, Chris.  (I also thought the song that included the trio of Captain Hammer sycophants, complete with purloined dry cleaning ticket, was pretty hilarious... as was the composition of the Evil League of Evil [Dead Bowie, Fake Thomas Jefferson, Bad Horse is a real horse].)  The ending was a total no-fun, head-scratching downer.  I can understand a dark turn in a long-running series, particularly one with a dark undercurrent to begin with.  But "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog" was (I thought) kind of a televisual petit four, fun for its own sake.  It defeated the purpose of the whole enterprise to end so bleakly, and undercut much of the enjoyment I had already experienced, to the point that I felt kind of pissed off for being taken in by the (apparently false) light-heartedness of the initial two episodes.

- drdannyu

July 21, 2008 at 5:38pm

Totally agree. While I still liked it on balance and will probably buy the DVD, Act III was not up to par and came close to ruining the whole thing for me.

- scharch

July 21, 2008 at 5:38pm

But a happy ending would have precluded showing the inner sanctum of the Evil League of Evil, which reveals the joke that ubervillain Bad Horse is in fact a horse.

And how can any list of killing decent, likable characters fail to include Doyle? "Angel" wasn't worth watching after Doyle got killed.

- rhubarbs

July 21, 2008 at 5:49pm

True enough, Rhubarbs. But I was trying to limit myself to one innocent victim per show and Fred was innocent for many more episodes than Doyle. A full accounting would have gone on too long for a blog post--Jenny Calender (just when she and Giles seemed poised for happiness), Cordy sort of (just when she and Angel seemed poised for happiness), Spike (just when etc. etc.), Buffy's Mom, and of course Wesley. This last was perhaps the cruelest, because having had Wesley watch Fred (essentially) die, he later flips the tragedy and has (essentially) Fred watch Wesley die. There are times I think that Whedon pushed so hard to make (the marvelous) "Serenity" in part because Fox canceled "Firefly" before he'd had a chance to kill anyone off...

- Chris Orr

July 21, 2008 at 6:06pm

What the above said.  DrDan couldn't have put it any better (although I'm still laughing about the lyric "the deltoids of compassion.")  

Rhubarbs, I loved Doyle but Angel still had many terrific - and hilarious - moments with Wesley on board (the second season episode "Guise Will Be Guise" is one of the funniest hours in the whole BtVS canon, IMHO).  But I know Whedon had that "kill off an apparent regular early on" trick up his sleeve since the Buffy premiere.  He said he wanted to include Xander's friend who gets vamped in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" in the opening credits, just to stun everyone when he dies right away, but they didn't have the budget for it.

- adaglas

July 21, 2008 at 6:15pm

Chris, you're dead on about Fred.  I was queasy about that for the entire remainder of the season, hoping that something would turn it around.  Jenny Calendar I understand narratively, because somebody had to die to demonstrate that Angelus was really, truly evil, and not just because the show is telling us so.  And I was really saddened about Joyce as well, but for my money that propelled one of the strongest multi-episode dramatic arcs of the series.

- adaglas

July 21, 2008 at 6:20pm

Rhubarbs, he could have had Captain Hammer accidentally kill himself with the exploding death day, thus preserving Dr. Horrible's (technical) innocence while still awarding him the infamy.  Easy-peasy, and much more satisfying.

- drdannyu

July 21, 2008 at 6:26pm

I also think the drug habit (and eventual related real-life demise) of Glenn Quinn probably contributed significantly to his character's end.

- drdannyu

July 21, 2008 at 6:28pm

"The ending was a total no-fun, head-scratching downer.  I can understand a dark turn in a long-running series, particularly one with a dark undercurrent to begin with.  But "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog" was (I thought) kind of a televisual petit four, fun for its own sake."

The ending caught me off guard as well, but after watching the whole thing over again (multiple times--I did a lot of procrastinating yesterday), I think there is a darker undercurrent in the earlier acts that is easy to miss because of all the light-hearted (and hilarious) dialogue.  The opening and closing songs of Act II are both pretty dark.  I actually think the idea of a goofy, lovestruck, minor-league villain progressively becoming a real, sociopathic supervillain is potentially very compelling.  The problem was that all of this happened too quickly to get really fleshed out, so the changes end up being pretty abrupt.  It's something I would have like to see them do more in a longer format.

- AlanSP

July 21, 2008 at 6:35pm

Minor typo at the end: that should read "It's something I would have liked to see them do more with in a longer format"

- AlanSP

July 21, 2008 at 6:42pm

Alan, I agree that theoretically the evolution of the character would have been compelling.  (And contributing multiple posts to this thread is my own particular form of procrastination.)  But I think the proportions were out of whack for the offerings as aired.  For a run this short both in terms of length of episodes and in availability, it was pretty humor-intensive until the end, where the dark turn is jarring.  I guess I'm just confused as to why Whedon decided to make something so otherwise overwhelmingly fun such a bummer in the end.

- drdannyu

July 21, 2008 at 6:43pm

Alan, I agree, and the ending Whedon chose essentially made the "series" a remake of "Unbreakable," in that it takes the origin story that occupies the first third of every superhero movie, and is often the best part of the movie (see "Superman"), and makes it the whole movie, except this time it's the villain. With comedy and singing.

And even granting Christopher's critique, I find myself thinking "Dr Horrible" makes a hell of a lot more interesting premise for a continuing series than "Dollhouse." Add Eliza Dushku as either a fellow supervillain or as a rogue superhero antagonist, and you've got yourself a good show. Plus, the audience wouldn't so much mind Whedon's penchant for creating sympathetic characters just to kill them if they were antiheroes to begin with. (Sort of a "Sopranos" thing: I liked Chris, too, but he was a mobster, so I'm not gonna tear up too much to see him offed. The same could work on an anti-Justice-League show.)

- rhubarbs

July 21, 2008 at 7:24pm

@drdannyu (1126)

-that's what I thought was going to happen! I was shouting "you're holding it backwards" at the monitor as Captain Hammer pulled the trigger and went flying backwards. Alan has a point, but I think that would have been much more satisfying.

- scharch

July 21, 2008 at 9:41pm

Disagree with Chris (and apparently most of the other commentators).  The songs in parts 1 and 2 were entirely forgettable, but every song in Part 3 was top-notch.  And the dark turn makes perfect sense -- Dr. Horrible is a villain, remember?

I can only assume the people who were disappointed/surprised didn't notice Whedon's obvious references to the closing scenes of Star Wars Episode III, as the death of his beloved and the donning of his new, scarier and more dehumanizing costume parallels the final transformation of Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader.  With Penny's death, "Bobby's" ambiguity dies as well, and he becomes fully and completely Dr. Horrible.  A dark ending, to be sure, but a satisfying one that takes the character to its logical conclusion.

- austinexpat

July 22, 2008 at 10:03am

Also Chris, if you're still checking these comments, I'd be curious if you're a fan of the show "Venture Bros." on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.  It runs along similar conceits as Dr. Horrible (flawed heroes, nebbishy villains) and consistently delivers some of the best laughs I've seen on television.  Not to mention some great deconstruction of the superhero/villain dynamic.

The episode from last Sunday is a perfect example; Dr. Venture's arch-enemy The Monarch delivers a monologue explaining how pure his hatred for the former is: "From the moment I saw him, I wanted to kick his ass!  I wanted to build a *machine* to kick his ass!  I WANTED TO BUILD AN EMPIRE TO HOUSE THE MACHINE TO KICK HIS ASS!"

I encourage everyone to check it out if you aren't already. :)

- austinexpat

July 22, 2008 at 10:15am

The (very) good news: Pop TV maestro Joss Whedon tells Sci Fi Wire that we haven't seen the last

- Anonymous

January 7, 2009 at 2:32pm