I woke up this morning absolutely sure there was something important to do. I knew it wasn’t work. I definitely knew it wasn’t grocery shopping. It also wasn’t my relatively overdue insurance bill.
After my usual morning net surfing, I remembered Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon’s latest work, was going live today.
But the website was dead. I tried, and tried, and tried to access it but had to momentarily give up.
Hours later I read at DoctorHorrible.net that the demand was so high that the site crashed. This made me really happy because I still hold some grudge regarding Firefly’s fate and it’s good to see Dr. Horrible is getting some love, even if it entails technical difficulties.
So anyway, 40 minutes before I started writing this blog entry I finally got access to Dr. Horrible’s website and saw the first act.
I have to say this is an excellent, lovely piece of entertainment. It is a typical boy meets girl – boy can’t get girl story set in superhero land with far more interesting characters than a typical romcom. I don’t think anyone has reinterpreted the stereotypical character personalities of superhero stories before. Surely, where Unbreakeable humanizes its villain, Dr. Horrible presents as with a villain that is just plain adorable and a Hero that seems to be more of an egomaniac than the good guy.
As far as the musical aspect of Dr. Horrible goes, the songs are so damn catchy! I mean, I’m typing this entry listening to Gary Numan and I just can’t get the lyrics “Bad Horse, Bad Horse, Bad Horse, He’s Bad…” out of my head.
So without giving much away, here are a few notes:
– Neil Patrick Harris is awesomeness personified. He is a great actor, and I’m not just saying this because I had a wicked girly crush on him when he played Doogie Houser and thought he was one of the biggest highlights of Harold and Kumar go to Whitecatle.
– I love Nathan Fillion. It’s too bad he is so damn underappreciated. Not only is he a great actor, he sings too! Very cool.
– I want Dr. Horrible’s goggles. I might even dress up like him on Halloween.
– If you manage to access the website, even if you have broadband, the video will freeze. So be patient. It’s worth the wait.
And that’s all for the first act . Act 2 goes live on July 17, and act 3 on July 19. The three parts will be available online until July 20. And who knows when the DVD will come out but many, many crazy fans – like me – will be waiting.
Check it at http://www.drhorrible.com/
You can also download it from the Itunes store.