Psst. Hey You. Wanna see a show? Don't be a chicken! C'mon. Just click on the button down there. You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it. Go on. I'll wait.
There now. That wasn't so bad, was it? In fact, you're probably feeling pretty good right about now.
Here's the thing: I love summer. I really do. I love the sunshine. I love watching the wind blowing through the leaves. I love that I don't have to hunt around for hole-free socks in the morning. What I don't love about summer is the dearth of good television available. Yeah, sure, there's TV on DVD (how parents of small children survive without this, I'm not sure), but we jumped on that bandwagon ages ago, and we're running out of shows to watch. I'm starting to get the shakes. Thanks to Joss Whedon, though, I can cure my summertime blues and satisfy my lust for *MORE! SHINY! NEW!* programming...on the Internet.
Don't know who Joss Whedon is? Surely you jest. Creator of shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, he's pretty much the God of Good Television. Well, he is in my books, at least. Anywho.. During the Writer's Guild strike, Joss and his brothers, Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiancée, Maurissa Tancharoen, came up with the idea to create a new musical work for the Internet that circumvented the strike issues - a "professional-ish" piece with a small budget and a big heart. The result? Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog.
The Internet buzz on this thing is HUGE. So huge, in fact, that despite the complete lack of paid promotion, there were enough people panting to see it that the website crashed, sending the creators racing to find a server with enough bandwith to support the fan interest. They also crashed Whedon's personal website - whedonesque.com - with five times the maximum allowed traffic.
Dr Horrible is "the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to". It stars Broadway musical veteran and Emmy nominee Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser MD) as Dr Horrible, Nathan Fillion (Firefly/Serenity, Desperate Housewives) as the hero, Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day (Buffy, The Guild) as the love interest, Penny.
It is being released in three acts of about 15 minutes each. The first act was released on Tuesday, the second act is available today, and the third act will be airing on Saturday. All three acts can be viewed for free on the Internet until Sunday, July 20th. After that, they will be available to download for a nominal fee. Whedon later plans to put them out on DVD with "the bravest extras in all the land" - including a completely original musical commentary.
The mission statement was to create a free Internet event for fans to enjoy, as well as showing that you can create more for less. Regardless, Whedon also thinks it would be cool to show the powers that be that this free event could be turned into a financially successful proposition, potentially inspiring others to riskier ventures. That's an idea I wholeheartedly support. He also thinks it would be nice to pay the crew.
But what about the show? Does it live up to the hype? And the answer so far is...YES! Harris delivers a finely nuanced performance as Dr Horrible, squeezing out every possible joke and innuendo. His first few minutes answering fan emails on his videoblog is some of the best acting I've seen in a long time. Fillion is no slouch either, arriving on the scene with his fresh and sassy humour and bulging biceps (Did I mention he's Canadian? Yum. We make good men here.) Felicia Day has yet to prove herself to me, but I will admit that I'm totally bitter and jealous - I want her part! All in all, it's goofy, edgy and original entertainment that will not disappoint any of Whedon's fans.
So, if you don't want to be left behind, make sure that you catch this Internet phenomena while it's hot..and free. You have until Sunday, July 20th. If you don't, it'll be curtains for you - lacy, gently wafting curtains.
I have to say, Whedon is actually quite good at doing musicals. The Buffy ep was excellent, as was part I of Dr. Horrible (especially the final scene; excellent harmony and counterpoint). I don't know who he works with for these things, but they have some talent.
Posted by: SciFi Dad | July 17, 2008 at 09:04 AM
Preaching to the choir here. I'd been waiting for this for what seems like ever now. I loved Harris' vlog at the beginning of Act I and am off to see Act II now.
Posted by: Mouse | July 17, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Sounds brilliant. Some of my favorite people/minds in the world. Will take a look but alas, we're not near Internet on Sunday. What the heck am I going to do?
Posted by: Woman in a window | July 17, 2008 at 12:48 PM
"The hammer is my penis." WHY IS THAT SO FUNNY? I can't help but laugh.
It was/is sooooo good. I've watched it three times so far. And the OmegaMan is already planning his Dr Horrible halloween costume.
Posted by: Mrs Nathan Fillion. But shhhhh...don't tell the OmegaMan | July 21, 2008 at 01:20 AM