A PhD in Horribleness!

Get yourself a copy of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog”.  I’ve heard about it for a few months now and I finally watched it this weekend.  I highly recommend it to about half of you.  The other half of you won’t like it.  It’s up to you to decide which half you are part of…

It began as a writer-strike project for the internet.  Joss Whedon and gang wrote up a short little production in three acts.  Boy1 loves girl, girl loves boy2, girl dies as a result of boy1 and boy2 fighting, boy1 vows revenge on boy2, the end.  Sounds simple, maybe a little boring…  Until…

Until you realize that boy1 is Neil Patrick Harris and boy2 is Nathan Fillion.  Not only do we have Doogie Howser fighting Mal Reynolds, but they are in full-on evil genius/superhero mode!

Dr. Horrible (NPH) is an aspiring evil genius with a video blog.  He is in love with a girl but is too shy to tell her.  He finally gets the chance to talk to her but its in the middle of his big chance to move up the corporate ladder of evil geniuses and he is preoccupied.  Along comes Captain Hammer (Fillion) who not only foils Dr. Horrible’s heist (hurting his chances to get into the Evil League of Evil) but he also sweeps the girl off her feet and she falls in love with the cheesy superhero.

But wait, there’s more.  It’s a musical!  Kind of.  If you saw the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s kind of like that, but better.

Dr. Horrible is given a second chance to join the Evil League of Evil, all he has to do is kill someone.  Dr. Horrible isn’t the killing kind of evil genius and is distraught over his options.  Until Captain Hammer tells him that his only real interest in the girl is because Dr. Horrible wants her.  Captain Hammer plans on sleeping with the girl just to aggravate him and then he’ll dump her.  Now Dr. Horrible has a target for his murder.

Driven by his love for the girl and his hatred for Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible turns his “Stun Ray” into a “Death Ray” and goes after Captain Hammer.  The girl is starting to realize how stupid Captain Hammer is and she’s starting to figure out that Dr. Horrible is in love with her.  But in the middle of the battle, Dr. Horrible hesitates (possibly unwilling to kill?) and Captain Hammer smashes Dr. Horrible’s weapon turning it on him.  The weapon explodes when Captain Hammer pulls the trigger and the shrapnel impales the girl, killing her.

The final scene confused me a bit.  It’s all straight forward enough for the story: Captain Hammer gets hurt and turns into a wimp, Dr. Horrible finally gains a seat at the Evil League of Evil, the end.  But the final word in the movie is what confused me.  NPH is singing about how he’s finally won, he’s ready to take over the world.  The scene shows him in his new uniform taking a seat at the table with the other evil villains.  The song comes to an end and the last line is sung loud and strong with the music playing and his arms held wide, “And I won’t feel a…”

But on the last word, the scene flashes to show Dr. Horrible in street clothes, sitting back in front of his video blog.  The last word is not sung and there is no music.  It’s just spoken into the webcam in a sad and distraught voice, “thing.”

So what does that mean?  Was it all in his head?  Is he just a lonely guy fantasizing?  If not, why wasn’t he in his lab coat?

The duality of the final line is good enough for me.  He’s planning on crushing the world beneath him and he won’t feel a thing (guilt).  But he’s also gained all he ever wanted, at the expense of losing the girl of his dreams so now he’s got success and he doesn’t feel a thing (happiness).

Perhaps I’m looking for too much meaning and depth from a movie that has a singing evil genius and a superhero delivering lines like, “The Hammer is my penis.”  No really, that’s a great line if you watch the movie.  The Hammer is my penis…

So check it out.  It was originally three 15 minute webisodes so it’s only 45 minutes long.  Definitely worth the watch.

I can’t wait until Teresa comes home.  She made me sit through the musical Buffy episode (twice!) so like it or not, she’s watching this!