Reviews by Matt

Last fall the writers of Hollywood went on strike. It sucked. There was one good thing that came out of the whole thing, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.”

Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and my personal favorite, “Firefly”, wrote this while he and his writing brethren were fighting for more money.

Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) wants to get into the Evil League of Evil. There is one thing standing in his way, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). As he works to rule the world he pines for Penny (Felicia Day), a woman he sees at the Laundromat.

He has never spoken to her, but wants to. One day, while in the middle of a heist, he inadvertently drives the woman of his dreams into the arms of his arch-nemesis.

Demoralized and pressured from The League, he decides he has to destroy Hammer and take over the world in order to get Penny back.

Oh yea and it is a musical.

Whedon financed “Horrible” without the help of a studio and that allowed him to do whatever he wanted. This was only released online and only for about a week for free. It was available for download on iTunes and can currently be watched on hulu.com.

The day part one was first available the site crashed because of the traffic the release generated. Even sites about Dr. Horrible crashed. It was number one on iTunes for five weeks. It shows just how rabid the Whedon fans are.

“Horrible” is a funny look at a villain trying to make a name for himself. He is an evil genius, but cannot talk to Penny. Neil Patrick Harris has a great voice and has the acting talent to match. The way he portrays Dr. Horrible with just a touch of awkwardness makes the character who he is and is the reason we root for him. That contrasted with the cocky, conceded Captain Hammer gives the viewer all the more reason to want to see the hero defeated.

As I looked at a lot of what people said about this, one thing I noticed is everyone seems to hate Penny. They say she is under developed and ends up as a weak and useless character. Wheadon is all about the strong female characters (Buffy and River spring to mind). Penny plays a huge part in the development of Dr. Horrible. She is the reason he does what he does. So what if she is not beating people up or if she does not do much in terms of moving the plot directly, but then again, she is not the main character.

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” can be seen at www.hulu.com/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog or downloaded on iTunes.