Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)

Because the status was not quo, Joss Whedon, in the middle of the WGA strike last year proved the studio yuppie scum wrong, that, no, money does not make a show brilliant, and that, yes, writers do. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog could very well be the best single episode TV show that wasn't on TV. A 43-minute musical initially produced exclusively for Internet distribution, Joss Whedon self-produced, directed and composed the music with the help of brothers Zack and Jed Whedon and actress Maurissa Tancharoen.

With my freeze ray I will stop the world,

With my freeze ray I will find the time to find the words to

Tell you how how you make make me feel...
- Dr. Horrible

Dr. Horrible, played with geek-buckling precision by Neil Patrick Harris, is a wannabe super villain who video blogs, replies to sent-in emails, and reveals his master plan to rule the world and win over laundromat girl of his dreams Penny (Felicia Day who played the potential and later on slayer Vi in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) through songs. When he receives a response to his application from the Evil League of Evil, he sets to motion his plan to steal the final ingredient to make his freeze ray work---a freeze ray that would freeze time and stop the pain so he could finally confess his love. Aww.

Much like everything else in the Whedonverse, things don't go according to plan. Horrible was successful in stealing the wonderflonium but he also accidentally introduced Captain Hammer (wonderfully hammy Nathan Fillon), his nemesis, the Superman to his Brainiac, to Penny.

The Buffy musical Once More, with Feeling, episode six of the gloomy sixth season is arguably the show's finest hour; I am obviously biased since I named this blog after Buffy's confessional number. A demon descends upon Sunnydale and binds the town and its inhabitants to a spell that made everyone sing and dance...to death. Best kept secrets were sung out loud, silly, oftentimes funny, and ultimately existential. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a more typical musical with songs for soliloquy. The songs this time around are catchier (but shorter, damn!) and the counterpoint vocals of Harris and Day in the exceptional My Eyes---which chronicles a downfall and a falling for someone, helplessly getting smitten beside helplessly fulfilling an evil destiny---packs a contrasting emotional punch that celebrated musical-movies Dreamgirls, Rent or Chicago can only dream of, err, packing.

The musical format keeps things whimsical, a sonic bubble that seemingly contained the plot in comic booky fantasy fulfillment territory. But this is no doubt a Joss Whedon story and if there's one thing that he is a genius at it's the slap-in-the-face, punch-in-the-nose, kick-in-the-shin, drive-a-stake-through-the-heart ending; Whedon cruelly reveals his last card just when you feel the worst has happened.

The last 3 seconds of Dr. Horrible has rightfully earned a degree in Horribleness; a silence and a blank stare that continues to haunt me.

I cannot believe my eyes
How the world’s filled with filth and lies
but it’s plain to see evil inside of me
is on the rise.
- Dr. Horrible

Fate versus free will seems to be a constant in the Whedonverse. Buffy accepted hers (fate) even if it meant a short lifespan; Angel went against his monstrous nature (free will) but only because he rebelled against his vampire fate.

Dr. Horrible at the start was obviously not meant for supervillainy. He declined a grudge match with Johnny Snow because there were children at a park and his ultimate secret weapon's main purpose was to stop time for confession's sake. Even when he was one click away from killing Captain Hammer, he hesitated.

It was crazy random happenstance.

It seems like no matter what he did, Horrible was destined to join the Evil League of Evil. It was his fate to be a villain. Whedon's characters continue to be caught in situations that dictate their roles in the world. He seems to be saying that there is no real good or evil; it's the circumstances that make us, that ultimately define us.

Hero. Villain. Sidekick. Victim. We are everyone at one point in our lives. It's beyond our hands.

Rating: 5

Get Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog here.
The commentary is equally sing-alongy.


Thaw your cold hearts with this preview.

Welcome to the Dollhouse

DOLLHOUSE (Fox)
Created by Joss Whedon
Episodes 1-4

The Dollhouse is looking for volunteers. Once you sign up, your personality and memories are wiped clean. Tabula rasa, so to speak. It's like you never existed, which is what some volunteers are hoping for.

You become an Active. Actives are uploaded with different personalities and skills so they can become whatever the client desires: girlfriend, prostitute, bodyguard, assassin.

Once the assignment is finished, actives are brought in for treatment, another memory wipe, until they end up once again a clean slate. In the meantime, they wander around the Dollhouse almost like children. But empty. A template.

Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Joss Whedon is synonymous to geek porn. Having amassed a cult following from his previous creations that include (cue angels singing) TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and sci-fic Western Firefly, we (the geeks who shall inherit the Earth) devour anything with his name attached to it. Show me a lamp post with a "Created by Joss Whedon" on it and I will attack it like a creature who attacks lamp posts. His recent gig on Astonishing X-Men, which ends with Kitty Pryde getting stuck in a brobdingnagian bullet cutting through space (expected to appear in Marvel's cosmic event War of Kings...I theorize) only confirmed what we knew along, that Whedon is our Savior from the meh and blech of commercial TV.

That being said, the pilot of Dollhouse, which Whedon wrote, was a dud.

Eliza Dushku, who is also Executive Producer on the show, is the Active Echo. In the pilot, she is a negotiator for a kidnapping, and unconvincingly so because (a) half of the time I was distracted by her cleavage, and (b) I don't buy bespectacled Dushku with a PhD type personality. It seems like Dushku doesn't buy it herself, her acting amateurish (furrowed brows=thoughtful) and flat. I also had a problem with the pilot's slow pace with too many talking heads and none of Whedon's trademark wit or banter. But it does get better in the end. Resident geek, Topher (the adorkable Fran Kranz) uploaded Echo with a personality of an experienced negotiator but also with the memories of someone who has asthma attacks and who had been kidnapped as a little girl which all surfaced during the climactic negotiation.

The second episode, "The Target," fared better. Written by Angel scribe Tim Minear, it showed Dushku in Faith form, shooting arrows and having passionate sex. This time Echo is hired as a girlfriend to a young business magnate who is into extreme sports. And hunting down his date after sex. This was more the Dollhouse I was expecting, it had lots of action, unexpected twists, and most importantly, it delved deeper into the Dollhouse mythos. The mysterious Alpha is introduced, a rogue Active who, in a tabula rasa state and for reasons still unknown, murdered other dolls in cold blood before killing everyone else in the Dollhouse, leaving only Echo alive. The connection between Echo and her Handler Boyd Langton (Harry Lenix) was also explored, revealing in flashbacks how they bonded, with Topher explaining, "Hey, this isn't about friendship, man. It's about trust. From this point on, Echo will always trust you without question or hesitation. No matter what the circumstances. You're about to become the most important person in her life." Echo's own personality is likewise beginning to surface in bursts, overlapping with the uploaded one. After the mind swipe that follows each assignement, the episode hints that not all of the uploaded personality is erased.

We're your Barbie girls. And a Ken.

The third episode, I honestly couldn't finish. Echo is a bodyguard to a Britney-ish pop star. The end.

"Gray Hour," the fourth episode, written by Angel alums Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (the Harmony-centric episode, belly-bursting "Harm's Way" among others), continues to examine Echo as a template. Echo is Taffy, a locks expert who is hired to steal stolen art. But Echo, while on the phone with her Handler, gets remote-swiped and she reverts to a template, stuck in the vault while security with guns aimed wait outside. A sub-story concerning Paul Ballard, (Battlestar Galactica's Capt. Helo Agathon, Tahmoh Penikett) a detective who is investigating the existence of the Dollhouse is led further away from finding the truth by his contact Victor. Ballard is unaware that Victor (Enver Gjokaj) is an Active. We also get to see more of Sierra (Dichen Lachman), another Active who is also uploaded with the Taffy personality when Echo breaks down. Dushku is getting better with each episode but it's also with personalities that are close to her character Faith in BtVS and Angel. She even has an expression in this episode that is close to Faith's "Five by five" though "Blue skies" is just uhm-kay.

The scoreboard: one great episode, one good, one meh and one unwatchable. Dushku assures that it all gets more Whedonesque by the 6th episode but why wait that long? But so far, yes, I am a mindless, drooling Whedon fanboy (this blog is after all named after a song from the Buffy musical episode "Once More, With Feeling!") so I'm still on board. The concept is strong, the mystery of Alpha continues to intrigue me, the writing occasionally stirring, and, who knows, maybe someday soon Echo will be a vampire slayer.

Something to Sing About

After a two-year absence, there's finally word on her comeback. And my panties are somersaulting. This blog is, after all, named after one of the songs in the musical episode.

Thank you, Joss.



From comics she was born, and to comics she shall return: Buffy the Vampire Slayer's post-cancellation adventures will soon begin anew -- penned by Joss Whedon himself -- in the pages of Dark Horse Comics. Here's an exclusive cover image (by artist Georges Jeanty) from issue No. 1. As you can see, she's kept in shape during her hiatus. (Dark Horse will debut No. 1 at Comic-Con this week.)

This isn't Buffy's first foray into comics. And it remains to be seen if it ranks anywhere near Joss Whedon's best foray into comics: the all-too-brief "future slayer" saga Fray, which follows the dystopic advetures of Buffster's 24th-century successor. (Some will persuasively argue that this is Joss' best comics effort. I will counter with a spin move and the old axe-to-the-head. So watch it.)

So what's going on in the extended Buffyverse? Well, you may recall the show ended with the creation of an army of Slayers. Now they're organized, and the tide has turned in favor of the good guys. Ah, but you know how much Whedon hates winners: Soon an "old enemy" surfaces (Dark Horse is cagey on Big Bad's identity), and Dawn starts "experiencing serious growing pains." I hope that means the Scoobies will be fighting a mutant, undead Alan Thicke.