Playing Doctor
The Writers’ Strike, when film, television and radio writers essentially stopped working from November 5, 2007 until February 12, 2008 had a huge impact on the show business industry, especially on television. Seasons ended prematurely and by the time new episodes were written, filmed and available to viewers, ratings suffered with some shows being cancelled as a result. It was a horrible time…but at the same time it was a gloriously Horrible time, too; as in Dr. Horrible.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, from director Joss Whedon (of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer fame, among other things) and starring the talented trio of Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, is a 42 minute musical that was initially produced exclusively for Internet distribution and written during the Writers’ Strike. It’s fucking brilliant.
The premise is simple enough. Dr. Horrible (the talented and very cute Neil Patrick Harris) is an aspiring supervillain with his eye on two things: world domination (once he gets accepted into the Evil League of Evil, of course) and winning the heart of Penny (Felicia Day), his laundromat crush. Getting in the way of achieving either objective is Dr. Horrible’s superhero archnemesis, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). Will Dr. Horrible rule the world, or live happily ever after with the girl of his dreams…?
Neil Patrick Harris
While doing a little window shopping recently prior to taking in a screening of the relatively disappointing Wolverine flick, I noticed that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was finally available on dvd. Having not been able to catch it on-line (I don’t think it’s available to anyone outside of the U.S.) I immediately snapped up a copy and couldn’t wait to get home in order to check it out. I was filled with Christmas morning-esque anticipation where experiencing this gift was concerned.
Nathan Fillion
There are many admirable things about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s completely original in its execution, cleverly written (extremely hilarious in parts), flawlessly acted and most surprising (to me at least) is just how extremely infectious and memorable the songs are. It’s completely addictive, but for all the right reasons. And since it’s considerably less than an hour (more though if you watch the over 90 minutes of bonus material) it’s the sort of thing you can watch repeatedly without sacrificing too much of your time in the process. I’ve owned the dvd for a little more than 2 weeks now, I think, and have already watched it three times.
Felicia Day and Neil Patrick Harris
So while there’s practically very little on television now that is new, between visiting your favorite porn sites, or going to check out the latest would-be blockbuster, I suggest that you pick up Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But only if you are in the mood for a guaranteed good time, that is. And some catchy tunes to sing along with.
Cheerio,
S.R.
