Hey Mediaphiles, (Natalia, I’m looking at you)
I’ve always have mixed feelings about Joss Whedon. On one hand, he’s responsible for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series- whose popularity I’ve always taken as a sign of the decay in standards of modern society. On the other hand, he created Firefly (and the Firefly movie – Serenity) – totally raising the bar on Science Fiction, by insisting that it not just have babes and spaceships, but that it also be funny, witty and have characters that are interesting because of their personalities, not because of their race or station. (Yes Star Trek – I’m looking at you)
Anyways, he’s gone and tipped the scale fully in his favor with his latest work – Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (done supposedly, during the writer’s strike while they had nothing better to do) It is a purely web based tv show, (with only three episodes so far) that were streamed live until July 20th. Unfortunately for me, I finished watching episode II right after midnight on the 20th, so I had to go to iTunes to purchase the season pass. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as the “evil” Dr. Horrible and his geeky alter-ego Billy, as he pines away after the kind and beautiful Penny, tries to get accepted into the Evil League of Evil and battles his handsome and super strong nemesis, the “hero” Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). In other words, it is the classic battle between Nerds and Jocks, played out in a quirky, musical comic book universe. Yes, it IS a musical – but I promise you, that is actually a good thing, as it adds both emotion and humor to the episodes, with a couple really amazing dueling harmonies and melodies.
It’s also an attempt to stick it to the big media publishers, by showing that its possible for smaller companies to make money on these kinds of polished shows on their own terms. So show Joss some love, and get the Season pass (only 4 bucks! cheaper than a movie!). Or don’t and convince one of your friends to pay it so you don’t have to. Trust me, it is worth it. ^_^
Over and out!
-Joe
