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July 22, 2008
More on Dr. Horrible. Contains Spoilers. And swearing.
OK, I finally watched it. It's online here.
Classic Whedon.
"Oh, look, funny stuff, characters you can dig, and OH I AM SORRY, DID I JUST MAKE YOU SAD by RUINING EVERYTHING FOR THE CHARACTER I MADE YOU EMPATHIZE WITH and then ENDING ABRUPTLY? LOOK, I HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONS! I AM A GOOD WRITER!"
Motherfucker.
GOD, I hate him sometimes.
Who the fuck takes a silly, fun concept like telling a superhero story from the villain's point of view, makes it silly and fun for 5/4ths of the story, and then abruptly turns it into a tragedy with no funniness whatsoever?
Joss The Bastard Whedon, that's who.
I am starting to seriously wonder what the hell his problem is. It's like... he knows he's brilliant at creating interesting, funny characters his audience can empathize with, but he thinks it's a low-brow talent or something and wants to be a Serious Dramatic Writer, so he throws in character death and misery and shit. Which, yanno, fine, but it's like taking your audience on a date and being funny and charming and sweet and then trying to act like a bad boy: either you come off like an idiot (best case) or you upset and horrify (worst case). Some people are masochistic enough to enjoy that kind of treatment; I am not one of them.
Sadly, I love the funny/charming/sweet stuff so much that I keep risking the bad boy idiocy for it. Sometimes I don't get subjected to it ("Firefly," for example), but most of the time I do (like when he made Serenity. Or Buffy. Or Angel).
An infinitely better ending for Dr. Horrible may be found here. I think I will pretend that's how it really ended. I loved Dr. Horrible, he was just my kinda guy. I wanted to ruffle his hair, then help him build a better deathray and take over the world.
Sigh.
File under: Geekiness
Posted by Ealasaid at July 22, 2008 04:03 PM
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Comments
The whole point was that it was "how evil super villains really become evil."
It was an interesting look at the event that caused the descent from not-so-evil genius bent on fixing the system from without (Besides- there are KIDS in that park!) to someone who stopped caring and just went bad. It is far more interesting that Anakin Skywalker's descent- and far more compelling.
Oh- and I like that it was filmed at my house. :)
Posted by: Jonathan at July 22, 2008 05:52 PM
True, it being filmed at your house is pretty freakin' awesome. :)
My gripe is that the tone shifts so drastically. If the whole point is how evil supervillians really become evil, and it's meant to be a tragedy, then Joss should let it BE a tragedy. Let it be serious. Having it start out as a lighthearted comedy and then jerking the rug out from under the audience in the last few minutes is a dick move in my book.
And of course it's more compelling than Anakin's descent, Dr. Horrible isn't a whiny idiot. ;)
Posted by: Ealasaid at July 23, 2008 09:16 AM
I think I will be calling him "Joss The Bastard" from now on, thanks.
After discovering Firefly, I was less than pleased that it had been canceled, but then I observed that it was probably just as well, since given the opportunity to continue, none of the characters would be recognizable within another year or two (see Buffy, and especially Angel).
However, FWIW, I thought that Bad Horse turning out to be an actual HORSE was pretty funny.
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 23, 2008 10:16 AM
If you always got what you expected to get, how much fun would that be? :)
Posted by: Jonathan at July 25, 2008 10:25 AM
It seems to me that that's exactly the problem: It's gotten to the point where you expect the sudden, tone-changing death (e.g., Tara, Doyle, and especially Wash, and those are just off the top of my head). And that's no fun. Now when I watch something by Joss The Bastard, I can't let myself get emotionally involved, because I KNOW the sucker-punch is a-coming.
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 25, 2008 04:06 PM
If you always got what you expected to get, how much fun would that be? :)
There's a difference between not knowing what's coming and having it be an interesting suprise and not knowing what's coming and having it be agony. "Being John Malkovich" managed to completely surprise me, but it didn't do so by sucker-punching me in the heart. Whedon's work does that.
Me, I am very aware of the fact that the people I love could be killed or horribly hurt at any moment. I don't need it in my escapist entertainment too.
And Alex put it well, though I suck at not engaging when scene after scene is lighthearted and sweet. Sigh. I gotta work on that. Or stop watching Whedon's work.
Posted by: Ealasaid at July 25, 2008 04:20 PM
Didn't mean to imply that I am SUCCESSFUL at not engaging. :-)
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 25, 2008 04:45 PM
Graphics from works 