Dr. Horribles Sing-A-Long Blog


Title: Dr. Horribles Sing-A-Long Blog
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Series
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion
Director: Joss Whedon

“I'm Moist. At my most badass, I make people want to take a shower.”


It didn’t even cross my mind to write a review for this as its old news. Hell, it was old news when I first discovered it two years ago, but it’s nonetheless deserving of mentioning for those who missed it, and sadly missing it was all too easy to do for anyone who isn’t a crazed Whedon-obsessed fan. The writers strike in the US had some pretty severe repercussions beyond simply shorter seasons and forced repeats; many shows (Heroes and Battlestar Galactica spring to mind) were forced to cram so much into their – now severely diminished – run time that it became convoluted and unveiled too much too quickly, and during the strike it would seem most directors took something of a holiday. But not Whedon.

When the creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse was told he had to stop, he started concocting Dr. Horrible in his spare time with his brother. This small-time mini-project soon encompassed a number of notable actors and a small six-figure budget, all in the name of having a bit of fun without any intention of actually having it make a profit. Released as 15 minute webisodes free to view, on its first day of release the traffic was so large the site actually went down, and this became a regular occurrence as people flocked to watch something original.

Based around Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) and his video blog, this 40 minute series shows his quest to be accepted by Bad Horse (the thoroughbred of sin) into the evil league of evil and win the heart of his beloved Penny (Felicia Day), but things are never as simple as they first seem. Every time he gets close his evil plans are thwarted by his arch nemesis; the pompous, obnoxious, arrogant and moronic Captain Hammer (Fillion). Frustrated at his constant failures, the situation only becomes worse when he unwittingly introduces his arch nemesis to the woman of his dreams and resolves to do the only thing to solve his problem: he must kill Captain Hammer once and for all.

The humour in rooting for the bad guy is part sympathy at his internal conflict but not without its own style; he’s trying to be as evil as possible yet murder goes against his morals, not to mention his own competence is perhaps a little ‘lacking,’ giving rise to this unfortunately tragic character. The music is catchy and melodic and the jokes never cease to fire off; its no wonder it was nominated for so many awards as this is a show that proves my old theory that all you need to make a decent piece of film is a well written script and adequate direction. Bring on Season Two (announced for 2011)!

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