Joss Whedon seeks a TV revolution with Horrible
Dr. Horrible is a typical Whedon combination of unabashedly geeky inspiration, self-deprecating humor and an overblown, histrionic story played out by ordinary people. Most of Whedon's stories are fatalistic, but that's easy to overlook in the scope of his imagination and the sympathetic insight he has into the minds and hearts of nerds, wallflowers, blustery teens and childish adults. Despite Dr. Horrible's grandiose ideas about destroying the status quo and salvaging mankind with anarchy, the would-be villain really wants to rule the world because he's too awkward to ask a girl out or stand up to a bully. And Whedon's wry voice permeates the script: "Wow, sarcasm, that's original," Dr. Horrible deadpans to his webcam in response to viewer mail, totally unaware of the irony. When Dr. Horrible tries to convince Penny that Captain Hammer isn't as great as she thinks he is, he explains, "Sometimes people have a third, even deeper layer, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie."
The musical is sometimes over-earnest, but in general, it strikes a good balance between taking itself seriously and openly mocking its own conventions, always with a surprisingly gentle attitude toward characters with social inhibitions. Part of the joke upon which the musical is premised is the stereotype of the loser/failure video-blogging to make himself feel important, defensively responding to viewer mail and stammeringly trying to be cool and sarcastic. Whedon also uses the visual idiom of the video blog in a way that is creative and fresh - making the blog like an invisible character with whom Dr. Horrible interacts. But even while he skewers Dr. Horrible, Whedon uses the satire to reveal the quietly repressed loneliness of his character, who does have friends and is even moderately successful, but doesn't know how to feel good about it.
Dr. Horrible managed to attract a sizable Internet viewership from the wide base of Whedonites, fans devoted to his previous creations, Buffy, its spin-off Angel, and the sci-fi cult hit Firefly. From the highly Internet-active Whedonites, word spread about the quasi-homemade, geek-chic musical as it was hyped by fans on blogs, Facebook and even Wikipedia.
The musical is sometimes over-earnest, but in general, it strikes a good balance between taking itself seriously and openly mocking its own conventions, always with a surprisingly gentle attitude toward characters with social inhibitions. Part of the joke upon which the musical is premised is the stereotype of the loser/failure video-blogging to make himself feel important, defensively responding to viewer mail and stammeringly trying to be cool and sarcastic. Whedon also uses the visual idiom of the video blog in a way that is creative and fresh - making the blog like an invisible character with whom Dr. Horrible interacts. But even while he skewers Dr. Horrible, Whedon uses the satire to reveal the quietly repressed loneliness of his character, who does have friends and is even moderately successful, but doesn't know how to feel good about it.
Dr. Horrible managed to attract a sizable Internet viewership from the wide base of Whedonites, fans devoted to his previous creations, Buffy, its spin-off Angel, and the sci-fi cult hit Firefly. From the highly Internet-active Whedonites, word spread about the quasi-homemade, geek-chic musical as it was hyped by fans on blogs, Facebook and even Wikipedia.
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