Brilliant Infamy
by Joel Champagne
Supervillains have always had a rough lot. As an avid reader of science fiction, I’ve found myself rooting for the villains simply because, no matter what they do, they’re defeated by the most random of events. I can’t tell you how many times I read books that contained the following plot:
-[insert villain] has an evil scheme, well planned, well hidden, and usually well defended.
-[insert hero], usually through some crazy random happenstance, stumbles across the scheme.
-[hero] just happens to discover the one weakness in the plot, and takes advantage of it, or just shoots a ton of inept guards and machinery.
-[villain] begins the ruing.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog turns things on their heads. Or sides. Or just kind of tosses them up in the air, and waits to see where they land. During the recent writers’ strike, Joss and Zack Whedon decided to make something of their own, entirely on the fly. Calling in favors for equipment and crew, they made a “Supervillain Musical” with no budget to speak of. That said, the cinematography is excellent and the acting is incredible (not to mention the singing).
They released it for free on the internet, in three acts posted over the course of July. Then iTunes carried it a while, for a paltry 4 dollars, before the Whedons put it back online with ads in between acts. It’s fantastic to see a director as large as Joss, doing exactly what all the studios hate — making something, without their input, without their money, and having it be commercially available to the world. God bless the interweb.
Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a wanna-be Supervillain, fighting for, of all things, social change. He is the idealist, taken to such a level that he fights for the power to enforce change. I have to say that, although I like Harris as an actor, I could never before get the stigma of “that Doogie Houser guy” out of my head. Now, for the first time, I have seen him as a new character, not as Doogie in a funny hat. He has an incredible time with this character, and it shows in every scene.
Dr. Horrible’s plans meet their inevitable demises at the hands of his nemesis, Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion. The aptly named Hammer is the quintessential “Corporate Tool.” A hero so self centered, that he thinks nothing of smashing a van out of control, then hopping off to flirt (while singing about himself of course). Fillion also appears to be having the time of his life playing this role.
Last, but the polar opposite of least, comes Felicia Day in the role of Penny, the love interest of the story. She serves as the object of desire to Dr. Horrible, and through a heist gone wrong, gets romantically involved with Captain Hammer. Day plays Penny as the classic naive activist, a perfect counterpoint to the psychotic “activism” of Dr. Horrible. She provides the only source of hope for the audience, only to become the key that unlocks Dr. Horrible’s madness.
Before all else, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog is just plain fun — in the writing, the acting, and even the camera work — and then in the final twist the fun becomes a new kind of horror. I literally gasped as I realized exactly what I’d been secretly cheering for all these years.
Judging from its popularity at both Comic-Con, (the line for a screening was massive) and on iTunes (top download for 5 weeks straight), it seems to strike a chord with a lot of others as well. Let’s hope a sequel arrives soon. (I suggest “The Rise of Jonny Snow.”)
