Dr. Horrible, again

[sabotabby]

I was hoping for something a bit more creative. troubleinchina said what I was thinking. (Spoilers.)

I liked the music, though.

Comments

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

Ooh - excellent point. I thought it simply was Joss' usual shenanigans. He should know better!

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Women in refrigerators for the lose.

[starborn-scribe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was disappointed by that, too. I'd hoped that Penny was a member of the Evil League of Evil.

Nevertheless, I'm excited that Dr. Horrible overall has been a successful experiment in making quality entertainment without the studios. :)

[human-loser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was initially okay with the misogynist undertones throughout, because I thought they's pay off narratively. I felt JW was riffing on comic book tropes in his typical po-mo way, in that not only was the supposed hero in the world no one to look up to or emulate, but even OUR (the viewers') protagonist was problematic. But then this was not made clear to either us or any of the characters, so it sort of petered out in to a pat ending. I sorta felt like maybe they ran out of time and had to wrap it up?

I have no problem with the bare bones of the narrative, of a man becoming obsessed with woman, entering into battle over her with another damaged man, and having his obsession ultimately destroy the object of it...if the the narrative had been directly ABOUT objectification, that may have payed off in spades. But yeah it did sorta peter out into "Oh no, I totally wrecked my own life and happiness by being an obsessive ass." Instead of "Holy fuck, what the hell is wrong with me, what have I done to this person?", or, even more desirably, "Holy fuck, what the hell is wrong with you, what have you done to me? Fuck you, and live with my death for the rest of your life."

Neither of the three central characters have an epiphany that would have satisfyingly closed off that narrative in a non-girl-as-toy way.

I would like to point out that Horrible's stalking doesn't start until Captain Hammer is in the picture. Before that he is merely obsessing about her and admiring her from afar, which every last one of us has done with someone. I don't get the feeling that it would have gone beyond inner monologues at the laundromat without the high-pressure plot pushing it there.

And yes, then the stalking begins, but by then I don't think we're meant to approve of his actions. I think the behavior we're supposed to initially find relateable is the silent heartaching and trying to find the courage to make a connection.

God, the more I type, the more I sorta realize what a potentially satisfying riff on objectification this story COULD have been. Missed opportunities.

Well, I'm assuming there was not enough time or money to do a polish that would have cleaned that up. I hope that's what happened.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I'd be more disappointed if I thought either Dr. Horrible or Captain Hammer were sympathetic characters.

[thasolumn.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Mad scientist with delusions of being a nice guy and "nice guy" who's really a selfish, sexist prick. Horrible does occasionally seem to be alright, but ultimately he's a wannabe dictator.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

I fear that my whiny-boy tolerance expired about 2 minutes into the first one. I couldn't take any more.

Thank goodness.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was with it right up until the last episode, I thought he was doing quite well in the Men Being Pathetic In That Male Way Of Theirs thing, but it became clear in the third instalment that that was all there was to it and Penny was just going to be the negative space the men were pathetic against rather than a fully realised character. Which was a shame, because there were some sensational lines ("My penis is the hammer" was my favourite) and the music was quite catchy.

What alternative endings to people propose? I'd quite like to have seen it go a bit Y Tu Mama Tambien...

:(

[jenlight.livejournal.com]

I was so let down that I just went to sleep.

Re: :(

[jenlight.livejournal.com]

I have this whole fantasy where Someone off screen puts the smackdown on Captain Hammer right before he pulls the trigger.... big reveal IT'S PENNY. Penny is really a superhero but keeps her identity secret because that's what Superhero's do, duh! And there's some clever reason why she was PRETENDING to be all in love with Cpt Hammer but now! She must be Horrible's arch nemesis! But she loves him! But she must kill him! And ... I dunno he kills someone and gets into the Evil league thing, but most importantly PENNY IS A SUPERHERO!

:(

Re: :(

[jenlight.livejournal.com]

Man I am stupid. Sometimes

Re: :(

[rojonoir.livejournal.com]

I like it! And it's much better than my idea, which would have gone over budget anyway - the ray backfires, melding horrible and hammer into a two-headed hermaphridite (Male horrible, female hammer). Also I wasn't quite sure what would happen after that.

I take it back

[jenlight.livejournal.com]

Although I was upset then. DHSAB was Brilliant!