Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Review
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the webseries creation from Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind Joss Whedon, siblings Jed and Zack, and Jed’s fiancé Maurissa Tancharoen, initially hit the Internet during the summer of 2008 and quickly crashed after 200,000 eager viewers-per-hour flooded the website’s servers. Simultaneously released on iTunes, Dr. Horrible likewise became the top TV download in a relatively short time, and media outlets from USA Today to Variety dubbed the three-part web “mini-series” a monumental event in the short history of Internet video. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored the series as well, awarding it an Emmy in 2009 for “Short-Format Live-Action, Special Class.” Eventually released on DVD (with an accompanying musical commentary), Dr. Horrible has even been screened in local theaters, similar to how the musical episode of Buffy once stormed across the nation before legal considerations shut it down.
The webseries—which Whedon describes as “the story of a low-rent supervillain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to”—stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion (who worked with Whedon on the short-lived FOX drama Firefly as well as its big-screen sequel, Serenity) as Captain Hammer and Felicia Day (potential slayer Vi in Buffy) as Penny. While a musical in style—and both entertaining and comic in nature—Dr. Horrible is actually more detailed and depth-oriented than one might expect; each of the characters evoke a naïve innocence, while the narrative itself explores what happens when that innocence both fades and eventually shatters.
All the elements of Dr. Horrible click in top-notch fashion, from the writing to the acting to the music itself. Harris, for instance, shines as the title character. His vocal abilities go beyond impressive to Broadway-quality, while his acting effectively switches from comic to knee-weak-romantic to determined-evil without ever missing a beat. Fillion, meanwhile, portrays the self-indulgent Captain Hammer with straight-forward smugness coupled with the same charisma he brought to Firefly’s Captain Malcolm Reynolds. Just as Harris instills a likeable quality in Dr. Horrible despite the character’s inherent villainess, Fillion does the same for the arrogant Hammer.
As for Felicia Day, the Buffy Season Seven actress similarly strikes the right balance between meek innocence, naïve optimism and a starry-eyed belief in mankind. While her initial vocal performance comes across as a little “weak,” this is simply a reflection of Penny, and the singing grows stronger as both the story and the character’s confidence evolves. Day brought a full arsenal of both dramatic and comedic acting abilities to her own recent webseries, The Guild, and does the same for Dr. Horrible, effectively establishing herself as the predominant female talent in the still infant online medium.
The music, although co-written with brother Jed, invokes the same classical vein that Joss Whedon mined in the Buffy musical episode, “Once More With Feeling,” and runs a full gamut of styles—the initial laundromat sequence is whimsical in nature while later numbers range from rock to a touch of gospel, and the song collection conjures comparisons to both Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Jonathan Larson’s Rent. The underlying instrumental score, composed strictly by Jed, effectively evokes the comic-book nature of the webseries while also adding to the impact of the emotional climax.
The inherent comic nature of Joss Whedon is evident throughout the webseries, with some of the funniest moments and dialogue coming in Act III. The resolution of Dr. Horrible is also a classic example of his ability to pull the emotional rug out from under the viewer’s feet. The inevitable final confrontation between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer not only effectively brings the webseries to conclusion, but transforms the two arch rivals from isolated simplicity into full realization of their inherent natures. Suffice it to say that after their epic battle, neither Dr. Horrible nor Captain Hammer will ever be the same again. The whimsical and comic nature of the webseries likewise evaporates in the final musical sequence as the title character completes his evolution from wannabe to full-fledged supervillain, while the simple, abrupt ending adds to the emotional wallop that Whedon has developed into a personal trademark.
In the end, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is more than a trailblazer on the World Wide Web terrain, but a classic parable about the perils of naïve innocence, “watch what you wish for” lesson-learning and the cost one eventually pays when guided by blind ambition. It is also whimsical, romantic and comedic while equally living up to the “sing-along” wording of its title. The Whedon Clan has created a webseries that not only brings attention to the potential of the online medium, but a forty-two minute narrative masterpiece for these technologically-changing times in which we live.
Anthony Letizia (July 21, 2008, updated January 4, 2010)
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