Emo supervillains and jerkass heroes?
so, I just watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and while I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing, but holy crap it was fantastic.
So, I was totally banking on the chick being some kind of supervillain or superhero, and frankly I'm a little bummed out by her. She had no real depth. She was just a font of good and happy and stuff, whereas Dr. Horrible was a fully realized character. I realize that you can only do so much in like 40 minutes, but come on, Captain Jackass got more depth than that! Feminist M demands an explanation for this misogyny.
Other than the complete lack of deep female characters, however, I really liked it. It was an interesting deconstruction of superhero and supervillain and how the notions play out in today's society, and the character of Dr. Horrible is just stunningly realized. I mean, he's amazing. I really identified with him. Frankly, he's more like my boyfriend than he is like me, but since he was so well done, I identified with Billy. Wanting to change the world by throwing out the old order... but perhaps too caught up in a desire for the power I never had to realize my dream properly. It's surprisingly simple, for a Joss piece--You can't respond to ignorance and cruelty with ignorance and cruelty. I think it's also an interesting commentary on the notion of superheroes and supervillains. Joss seems to be saying that heroes and villains are not defined by being good and evil as we see them now, but instead by law and chaos, and both are equally dangerous, but law, moreso. After all, the league of supervillains set the rule that Dr. Horrible needed to assasinate someone, which partly lead to the tragedy that happened. But Captain Hammer is a symbol of it too; if you read the Captain Hammer tie-in comic, it becomes clear that Hammer is just a fairly amoral dupe of the man, who mistakes chaos and diversity for evil. I'm actually kind of surprised with this, as it doesn't seem very Joss, but if I look deep I can see the resemblence.
There seriously needs to be a sequel or follow up to this, perhaps with some decent female characters.
Or maybe I'm analyizing too much. Damn my major; I'll never be able to just watch something again.
Anyway, go out and watch it! It's funny, it's brilliant, and it's kind of poignant, if a bit flawed or oversimplified in some spots. Watch it Now! It's online until tomorrow.
So, I was totally banking on the chick being some kind of supervillain or superhero, and frankly I'm a little bummed out by her. She had no real depth. She was just a font of good and happy and stuff, whereas Dr. Horrible was a fully realized character. I realize that you can only do so much in like 40 minutes, but come on, Captain Jackass got more depth than that! Feminist M demands an explanation for this misogyny.
Other than the complete lack of deep female characters, however, I really liked it. It was an interesting deconstruction of superhero and supervillain and how the notions play out in today's society, and the character of Dr. Horrible is just stunningly realized. I mean, he's amazing. I really identified with him. Frankly, he's more like my boyfriend than he is like me, but since he was so well done, I identified with Billy. Wanting to change the world by throwing out the old order... but perhaps too caught up in a desire for the power I never had to realize my dream properly. It's surprisingly simple, for a Joss piece--You can't respond to ignorance and cruelty with ignorance and cruelty. I think it's also an interesting commentary on the notion of superheroes and supervillains. Joss seems to be saying that heroes and villains are not defined by being good and evil as we see them now, but instead by law and chaos, and both are equally dangerous, but law, moreso. After all, the league of supervillains set the rule that Dr. Horrible needed to assasinate someone, which partly lead to the tragedy that happened. But Captain Hammer is a symbol of it too; if you read the Captain Hammer tie-in comic, it becomes clear that Hammer is just a fairly amoral dupe of the man, who mistakes chaos and diversity for evil. I'm actually kind of surprised with this, as it doesn't seem very Joss, but if I look deep I can see the resemblence.
There seriously needs to be a sequel or follow up to this, perhaps with some decent female characters.
Or maybe I'm analyizing too much. Damn my major; I'll never be able to just watch something again.
Anyway, go out and watch it! It's funny, it's brilliant, and it's kind of poignant, if a bit flawed or oversimplified in some spots. Watch it Now! It's online until tomorrow.