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Author Topic: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog  (Read 5807 times)

1SO

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Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« on: July 19, 2008, 01:22:04 PM »
This post will also be a big SPOILER for Serenity.


Joss Whedon is a Dick!
He's amazingly talented at writing and directing and he's amazingly talented at writing musical numbers.

But he continues to develop projects where he creates people that are extremely likable and then he KILLS them.

After Serenity's shocking death, I became uneasy at how casually he can be cruel to these characters he loves, and these characters he creates for us to love.  There's the senseless victims and then the destroyed souls that must keep on living.  He did it way back with Buffy, and now it returns with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which was supposed to be a fun little lark, but in an effort to grow emotional depth becomes a complete turn off by the end.  Until the conclusion, it's light, very funny and has amazingly complex and memorable musical numbers.  At the end all I could think was "thanks a lot, Dick!"  And this senseless death is becoming very cliched for him.  He needs to, just once, try ending a story on a happy note.  We won't be upset with him for making us feel good when it's over.  Instead, he makes us feel Great then smashes our heart with a hammer.

nougatmachine

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2008, 11:59:13 AM »
I'll defend Serenity to the death, and I get kind of annoyed at the suggestion that he has a unique cruelty to lovable characters. After all, you can hardly ask a writer to only kill off characters you don't like. Where's the drama in that?

I do agree with you about Dr. Horrible, though. The tone shift in the last act didn't work and left a sour taste in my mouth. The difference is that Firefly and Serenity both established early on that while there was a good deal of humor in them, they were still at heart telling a serious story, and it follows naturally that bad things can happen characters you've grown to love --- even if it is sudden and shocking. Dr. Horrible, on the other hand, establishes within the first couple frames (actually, even with the title sequence --- hell, with the TITLE ITSELF) that you're watching something very goofy and devoid of serious drama. The first two acts of watching Dr. Horrible were like experiencing concentrated doses of Fun. A light diversion with catchy songs, with a fun little lovable-villain-that-isn't-really-that-bad subversion thrown in to boot. And then in the third act it's like a completely different author was substituted in and wanted to make a Sondheim-esque tragedy thing instead.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying nobody should ever try to have a tonal change in anything ever. They just have to do it in such a way that it seems to organically grow out of the narrative's thrust, as opposed to instantaneous and whiplash-inducing 180 degree turns.

m_rturnage

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2008, 12:09:34 PM »
When dealing with genre fiction, especially super-hero genre fiction, there is no such thing as death.

The obvious plot point is for him to bring her back to life ala Bride of Frankenstein in the sequel. Of course, by doing so, something will go very VERY wrong, and there will be a healthy mix of hilarity and pathos.

The tone shift is to remind people that, yes, while everything has been fun and games up to a point, we are talking about a super-villain here. You can't go around trying to be evil without hurting anyone. I think it works, especially if you go back to the beginning after seeing Act Three.
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Think_Long

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2008, 09:35:16 PM »
SPOILERS FOR SERENITY, BUFFY, AND DR HORRIBLE

if penny hadn't died, then the conclusion would not have been able to have the same dilemma for dr. horrible: he achieved all that he wanted, but at what cost? if penny had survived, then it wouldn't have worked.  the sudden shift was pretty sudden though, it could have been executed (pun?) better.

i do think that wash needed to die in serenity, there was no other way for that to happen. and tara needed to die in buffy because, well, she was tara.

also, i agree: definitely a bride of frankenstein thing is going to happen.  what's the word on a sequel anyway? all i've heard is that there will  be a cap hammer graphic novel

lise

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2008, 03:54:45 PM »
I saw an interview with nathan fillian from comic-con saying that the clan whedon was working on something
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St. Martin the Bald

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2008, 05:46:12 PM »
I WANT BUFFY BACK!!!!!
Hey, nice marmot!

Wray

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2008, 01:23:45 PM »

The tone shift is to remind people that, yes, while everything has been fun and games up to a point, we are talking about a super-villain here. You can't go around trying to be evil without hurting anyone. I think it works, especially if you go back to the beginning after seeing Act Three.

Exactly.  After all, he does have a Ph.D. in Horribleness...

I do know that the DVD is supposed to have a musical commentary.  That I have to see/hear.

sdedalus

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2008, 11:56:21 PM »
When dealing with genre fiction, especially super-hero genre fiction, there is no such thing as death.

The obvious plot point is for him to bring her back to life ala Bride of Frankenstein in the sequel. Of course, by doing so, something will go very VERY wrong, and there will be a healthy mix of hilarity and pathos.

The tone shift is to remind people that, yes, while everything has been fun and games up to a point, we are talking about a super-villain here. You can't go around trying to be evil without hurting anyone. I think it works, especially if you go back to the beginning after seeing Act Three.

Finally watched it tonight and I agree with everything you say.  There was no other way for it to end.
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lise

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2008, 11:46:10 PM »
and the villain has to face the consequences of his actions. if he killed dr. horrible he would have felt nothing, but by killing her he has to deal with what a villain actually is (and it's not cumin scented gold solution)
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nougatmachine

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Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2008, 12:48:13 AM »
All very eloquent and well-argued. However:

Small-time, ineffectual villains are hilarious. Tormented souls aren't. Dr. Horrible is a brilliant premise: take a laughably non-threatening villain who always gets defeated, and take a humorous and sympathetic look at his side of the table. A sort of Snidely Whiplash Tales, if you will (only with better, far less corny writing than that would have had).

Dr. Horrible is what would have happened if Warner Brothers' "What's Opera, Doc?" had left out that brilliant last line: "What were you expecting? A *happy* ending?" (Incidentally, some tweak or wink to the audience in the same vein would have solved the problems here.) It seems like a mistake to try to turn something so resolutely goofy into something serious. I have a hard time buying into a world with names like The Evil League of Evil as a place where I should expect serious drama. One of the most painful examples of how this doesn't work is the reveal of Bad Horse. That should have been very funny. But we're too busy being depressed and/or feeling whiplash from the tone change for the joke to even register. It's like trying to turn into an SNL skit into Hamlet. Where do you get the ego?

There's no rule that says everything has to be Deep And Important. We're allowed to have fun once in a while. Dare I say it? Heck, it's the internet, I'm practically *required* to be bombastic and flame-baiting, so I dare: this is one case where Whedon needed to get over himself.

 

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