Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
After two f-list mentions in a week, I decided it was fate and finally watched this.
I came into this with absolutely no expectations - I knew it was by Joss Whedon, and starred Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, and that there was singing. All very good things, on the face of it. What I didn't realise was that it was a byproduct of the writers' strike, and possibly as a consequence resembles a kind of low-budget student production. A really good low-budget student production, but it's still rather... bizarre...
Basic story: Earnest, twitchy and somewhat pathetic Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is aspiring to take over the world and get into the Evil League of Evil while simultaneously dealing with his crush on the Girl At The Laundromat (whose name is apparently Penny). In fulfilling his aspirations, he has to contend with his egotistical arch-nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) who seems determined to thwart all his ambitions, just for the hell of it.
I didn't intend to fall into Whedonesque comparisons, but I found it irresistible. Dr Horrible and Penny are essentially streamlined versions of Xander and Willow, right down to the hair. They're slightly prettier and have better singing voices, but all the dorkiness of one and wide-eyed innocence of the other is there. Neil Patrick Harris will always be Doogie to me, and as a mad scientist-type figure in a way this is right up the same alley. Captain Hammer is basically... well, Jayne from Firefly gone feral, and Nathan Fillion looks like he's having the time of his life flexing his muscles and brandishing his... singing voice.
Things I found particularly amusing:
- the 'ooh, sarcasm' sarcasm
- 'make you his mare'. Bwah. Although the whole cowboy/Bad Horse thing was just... I'm sure you had to be smoking something
- Nathan Fillion in general, but particularly when he felt he had to come back to explain his Hammer joke
- Joss' seeming obsession with dry-cleaning
On the whole it was very entertaining, but in retrospect I feel it was probably unfair to watch it while still captivated by That Other Musical, which is still relentlessly spinning its tunes in my brain. With that distracting influence I just found it very difficult to care about the characters, or find the songs memorable, despite all that awesome star power. Also, while the superhero/villain posturing was delightful, I'm just completely over the whole puppy-love tongue-tied secret-crush thing, which is basically at the heart of the plot. Which means I may be getting too old for this kind of thing...
It's pretty much a worthy successor to Once More With Feeling, and the songs feel like they're in much the same vein - my main issues are that I never have quite gotten the way Joss seems to pick random things and moments to hang songs on. You know, like dry-cleaning. The storyline itself was very creative and fun, though.
Summary: Worth watching, but I am not feeling the love as yet. I suspect I will probably give it another watch when my current musical obsession resets to neutral and then go predictably crazy over it or something. Meanwhile... Mabo! *g*
I came into this with absolutely no expectations - I knew it was by Joss Whedon, and starred Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, and that there was singing. All very good things, on the face of it. What I didn't realise was that it was a byproduct of the writers' strike, and possibly as a consequence resembles a kind of low-budget student production. A really good low-budget student production, but it's still rather... bizarre...
Basic story: Earnest, twitchy and somewhat pathetic Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is aspiring to take over the world and get into the Evil League of Evil while simultaneously dealing with his crush on the Girl At The Laundromat (whose name is apparently Penny). In fulfilling his aspirations, he has to contend with his egotistical arch-nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) who seems determined to thwart all his ambitions, just for the hell of it.
I didn't intend to fall into Whedonesque comparisons, but I found it irresistible. Dr Horrible and Penny are essentially streamlined versions of Xander and Willow, right down to the hair. They're slightly prettier and have better singing voices, but all the dorkiness of one and wide-eyed innocence of the other is there. Neil Patrick Harris will always be Doogie to me, and as a mad scientist-type figure in a way this is right up the same alley. Captain Hammer is basically... well, Jayne from Firefly gone feral, and Nathan Fillion looks like he's having the time of his life flexing his muscles and brandishing his... singing voice.
Things I found particularly amusing:
- the 'ooh, sarcasm' sarcasm
- 'make you his mare'. Bwah. Although the whole cowboy/Bad Horse thing was just... I'm sure you had to be smoking something
- Nathan Fillion in general, but particularly when he felt he had to come back to explain his Hammer joke
- Joss' seeming obsession with dry-cleaning
On the whole it was very entertaining, but in retrospect I feel it was probably unfair to watch it while still captivated by That Other Musical, which is still relentlessly spinning its tunes in my brain. With that distracting influence I just found it very difficult to care about the characters, or find the songs memorable, despite all that awesome star power. Also, while the superhero/villain posturing was delightful, I'm just completely over the whole puppy-love tongue-tied secret-crush thing, which is basically at the heart of the plot. Which means I may be getting too old for this kind of thing...
It's pretty much a worthy successor to Once More With Feeling, and the songs feel like they're in much the same vein - my main issues are that I never have quite gotten the way Joss seems to pick random things and moments to hang songs on. You know, like dry-cleaning. The storyline itself was very creative and fun, though.
Summary: Worth watching, but I am not feeling the love as yet. I suspect I will probably give it another watch when my current musical obsession resets to neutral and then go predictably crazy over it or something. Meanwhile... Mabo! *g*