{"id":222,"date":"2008-07-23T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-23T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallioncornell.wordpress.com\/2008\/07\/23\/the-horribleness-of-dr-horrible"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:25:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:25:38","slug":"the-horribleness-of-dr-horrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/the-horribleness-of-dr-horrible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Horribleness of Dr. Horrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
WARNING: The following post has spoilers with regard to both Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing Along Blog<\/span><\/a> and the Firefly<\/span> movie Serenity<\/span>. They\u2019re slightly nebulous spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless. You ought to watch both of those things before reading this post, unless you haven\u2019t seen the Firefly<\/span> series, which makes you a loser. GO WATCH FIREFLY NOW! It\u2019s only the best TV series ever made, that\u2019s all. And you really think it\u2019s a good idea to watch Serenity<\/span> before you see the series? It can be done, but the series is better anyway, and it gives you all the background you need to appreciate the continuation movie. If you\u2019re wasting time reading this blog without having wasted sufficient time watching Firefly<\/span>, I pity you. No, I mock you. You don\u2019t deserve to be able to read.<\/p>\n

There. I got that out of the way.<\/p>\n

I got a Facebook message recommending this Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-Along Blog <\/span>thing<\/a>, and I wasn\u2019t quite sure what to make of it. It seemed like an odd idea \u2013 a superhero musical on the Internet? \u2013 but it was my kind of odd idea. Joss Whedon was involved, which is a good thing, as Firefly<\/span>, as mentioned above, is perhaps the best TV show in history, and Nathan Fillion, Firefly\u2019s<\/span> star, has a prominent role in this dealie. So I settled in and watched \u2013 and I was startled and amazed.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with startled. I was startled because this thing actually existed, and I legally got to see it for free. (It\u2019s no longer free, but it will only cost about six bucks to download it from iTunes if you want to catch up.) It\u2019s a wacky concept all the way around \u2013 a budding supervillain is trying to impress the Evil League of Evil with his membership application, yet he finds himself falling for a sweet homeless advocate \u2013 only to have his arch nemesis, Captain Hammer, muscle in on his action.<\/p>\n

I was amazed by how good it was, at least at first. It\u2019s essentially a three-character piece, and it\u2019s well played on all sides. Neil Patrick Harris is perfect as the titular Dr. Horrible, as is Felicia Day as the object of his affection. And Nathan Fillion makes a great stuffed shirt. The thing is funny and goofy in all the right places, and the songs are eminently hummable. I\u2019ve been singing \u201cA Man\u2019s Gotta Do What a Man\u2019s Gotta Do\u201d for days. As I watched it, the whole thing felt like a revelation, and I was thrilled to have a new Joss Whedon masterpiece to add to my Firefly<\/span> collection.<\/p>\n

And then we get to Act III.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t have minded so much if you didn\u2019t really care about these goofy characters. You really shouldn\u2019t care about them \u2013 they live in a silly world with freeze rays and superheroes who frequent laundromats. But it\u2019s so well written that you ache for Dr. Horrible\u2019s unrequited love and look forward to seeing Captain Hammer deflated. Which is why the thing\u2019s total betrayal in the end just sucks out loud.<\/p>\n

As is Whedon\u2019s custom, tragedy gets inserted into this piece entirely needlessly. Indeed, they couldn\u2019t have made this more tragic if they\u2019d tried. It reminds me \u2013 spoiler alert again \u2013 of Serenity<\/span>, when a beloved character gets killed for absolutely no reason at all. Why? This thing was so much fun! From whence cometh the compulsion to sink the whole enterprise with a lead weight?<\/p>\n

Yes, I know tragic things happen in the real world. Whedon is very fond of killing off characters unexpectedly, because it keeps the audience on their toes and approximates reality more closely. But that\u2019s such a miserable excuse. It reminds me of the actors back at USC who always chose foul, profane, depressing material to perform because it was \u201creal.\u201d Well, what\u2019s so great about being real? I take a dump or two every day, yet nobody wants to pay money to see that. Why is it entertaining to bask in gloom and doom? I watch television and movies and, uh, sing-along blogs to escape reality. I don\u2019t need to be reminded that life is capable of sucking.<\/p>\n

In addition, Dr. Horrible is decidedly NOT the real world. People burst into song. Superheroes and villains abound. Horses lead fraternal organizations of supervillains. This is a terrible, terrible vehicle for tragedy, and yet that\u2019s exactly where Whedon takes it. I\u2019m not saying musicals should only be light and fluffy, but tonally, this isn\u2019t Sweeney Todd or even West Side Story. It\u2019s fun and goofy and silly \u2013 and then Whedon suddenly paints the whole thing dark black.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a musical theatre buff, though, you probably ought to see it. Maybe stop watching after Act II. But go see Firefly<\/span>, dammit! See it now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\" WARNING: The following post has spoilers with regard to both Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing Along Blog<\/span><\/a> and the Firefly<\/span> movie Serenity<\/span>. They\u2019re slightly nebulous spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless. You ought to watch both of those things before reading this post, unless you haven\u2019t seen the Firefly<\/span> series, which makes you a loser. GO WATCH FIREFLY ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5226,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/5226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}