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A few blog entries ago I recommended everyone to check out Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a 40 minute supervillain musical miniseries. It was streamed for free in three parts: Act One (Wheee!) July 15^th, Act Two (OMG!) July 17^th, and Act Three (Denouement!) July 19^th. If you missed the opportunity to watch Whedon’s new masterpiece for free, don’t fret because you can still watch it at a minimal fee (that’s definitely worth it) when you download it from Apple’s iTunes.

Whedon explains that during the writer’s strike he was “frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.” He fronted the project with his own money with the intentions “to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.”

Well Mr. Whedon was successful in his first goal: in creating “a piece of entertainment.” But I knew he had it in him from his last great musical, “Once More With Feeling” of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is an intriguing story about a lovable supervillain played by none other than the always phenomenal Neil Patrick Harris (NPH). I couldn’t wait to see NPH’s performance in this musical after watching his musical rendition with Jason Segel on the Megan Mullally Show. The musical is about Dr. Horrible as he is working on his goal of becoming a member of the Evil League of Evil, while trying to keep his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer at bay, and planning to win over the girl he loves, all while keeping his fans posted through his online blog. Once again, as in HIMYM, NPH brings a catchphrase to his character with “I’ve got a PHD in Horribleness.”

Whedon makes things more interesting by turning the typical musical on its head, as we assumed he would. We root for the seemingly bad guy, the villain, Dr. Horrible and we scoff at the superhero Captain Hammer for his egotistical, dim-witted, and womanizer personality. (To understand the character of Captain Hammer you can also read a the online comic, created by Zach Whedon and Eric Canete.) Nathan Fillion gives a hilarious performance portraying the one dimensional Captain Hammer with his cheesy smile and smug talk. Soon on in the miniseries, the two men begin a fight for the same love interest, the sweet activist Penny (Felicia Day), but we know the only reason Captain Hammer wants her is because he finds out Dr. Horrible wants her, and because he wants to show her the power of his “hammer.” Therefore we have more desire for the nerdy, skinny, but sincere Billy/Dr. Horrible to win the love of Penny.

An entertaining and humorous musical from a most creative mind, with a great cast of powerful singers and actors, and an interestingly well written story and music, what else is there to ask for? I suggest you all to check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Apple’s iTunes, otherwise you will be left out of an incredible experience. I’ll also keep you posted on when the DVD version will be available which will include many bonus features.

-Shavon Keller

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