I was re-watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog today when I suddenly realized that I had never reviewed it. Conceived and filmed during the 2007-2008 Writer’s strike by Joss Whedon, his two brother’s (Zach and Jed) and Jed’s wife Maurissa Tancharoen, the show came out during the summer of 2008 to rave reviews and a fresh eye towards online video. Possibly (I vaguely remember Whedon discussing it when it came out) influenced by Felicia Day’s first season of The Guild, the Whedon family wanted to do something online that would have higher production values. Bringing in Neil Patrick Harris and several people that Joss Whedon had previously worked with (including Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion) and created a funny, musical superhero love story. So, what exactly is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?
Billy (Neil Patrick Harris) is in reality Dr. Horrible, a wanna-be super villain who posts a video blog on his website regularly, where he rants and answers viewers mail. From this we learn that he is in love with Penny (Felicia Day), a woman he’s too shy to talk to when he regularly sees her in the laundromat. When Billy goes out to steal some wonderflonium that he needs for his freeze ray, he runs into Penny, who’s collecting signatures for a homeless shelter. He’s busy with his remote-controlled heist, so he kinda blows her off. Then his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) shows up and destroys the remote control device controlling the stolen van. Billy manages to use the remote control to stop the van before it could hit Penny, but Captain Hammer had pushed her out of the way and now she is grateful to him. Because of her gratitude, Penny is unable to see what a complete and utter douche Captain Hammer is.
Billy is now conflicted. He managed to get the wonderflonium, but his secret crush is now dating his arch-nemesis. Meanwhile, wanting to get into the Evil League of Evil (run my the Thoroughbred of Sin himself Bad Horse), Dr Horrible’s been told that he has to kill someone to get in due to the problems of his previous schemes. After their meeting, Billy now has the courage to talk to Penny in the laundromat and is there when Captain Hammer stops by. The superhero realizes that Billy is Dr. Horrible and lets him know that he will keep dating Penny (and more) just because Billy has a crush on her. Now Dr. Horrible decides that he will kill Captain Hammer using his freeze ray to get back at him and get into the Evil League of Evil in one stroke. But will he be able to pull off his scheme and get Penny as well?
The story is told through video logs, on scene action and with the characters often breaking out into song. The songs are very well done, both musically and for telling the story (my favorite song is Brand New Day).
The story is a fun twist on the normal superhero story by having a semi-sympathetic villain and a completely unlikeable superhero. All the main characters are wonderful (as is The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg as Dr. Horrible evil sidekick friend Moist) and the writing, direction and singing are great. The Whedon family was able to bring in humor, music, pathos and despair into a show that has less running time than a typical network drama. Dr. Horrible is not just a great online show, it’s a great show period. Current rumor from The Whedon family suggests that the sequel might be happening this summer.
The show was released as 3 fourteen minute videos and then later pushed out as a DVD with several commentaries and some applications for the Evil League of Evil. Whether you watch it on DVD or in it’s original online form doesn’t matter as long as you watch it. Highly recommended.