Heads up for Dr Horrible
‘The world is a mess and I just… need to rule it.’
Joss Whedon fans will be delighted to know that their hero is back, and on the web! His latest creation, Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is available to watch via three, free webisodes, but hurry! Time to catch his adventures is severely limited, and catch them you should.
Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is a supervillain. He has a Doctorate in Horribleness, and schemes to join the Evil League of Evil. Via his blog, he outlines his plans for world domination, whilst describing his attempts to overcome arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer (Whedon regular, Nathan Fillion). But life isn’t quite that simple. In the guise of his alter-ego, Billy, he turns into a shy nerd. During trips to the local launderette, he has fallen for Penny (Felicia Day), a nice girl who just happens to be dating Hammer. What’s a baddie to do, other than sing about his troubles?
The first two 13-minute episodes of the show are available now. Its third and climatic act will be online from Saturday, 19 July, only for the lot to be pulled into the Internet ether at midnight on Sunday, 20 July. Subsequently, Whedon plans to make the series available for paying customers via download and DVD.
Dr Horrible comes recommended. Its cheap-as-chips production values are worn like a badge of honour. Nobody takes their roles even slightly seriously, and as you might expect it’s extremely camp. Harris cranks the hamminess up to eleven as the eponymous lead, and Nathan Fillion is good value as always. He plays the hero of the piece, whilst also managing to be a smug, odious bastard. The songs aren’t quite up to the standard of Whedon’s ‘Once more with Feeling‘ (aka the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but in that instance the viewers had years of emotional involvement with the characters to back up the odes, whereas this is more in the vein of good, campy fun.
Whedon has essentially done it again. You have to respect a man who uses the medium of the web to churn out something that’s better than much of the rot on television currently, let alone the detritus that has millions of dollars invested in it for the big screen (I’m looking at you, Prince Caspian). What’s important now is for you to click on the unmissably large banner below and check it out for yourself. Dr Horrible won’t change your life, but he might put a smile on your face…
Normal service to be resumed from Monday, which is likely to involve a look at late Hammer release Fear in the Night. In terms of TBW’s future, I’ve picked up a copy of the Definitive Ealing Collection, and intend to comment on the contents therein, whilst a glance through the Rathbone and Bruce Sherlock Holmes collection may be in order, and I have also recently dusted off that old tin case housing the James Bond Special Edition DVDs…