Some thoughts on the finale of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" (which will be up on the official site until Sunday night, so watch and/or download it while you can), plus an interview with Dr. Horrible himself, Neil Patrick Harris, coming up just as soon as I finish my song...
Barring some kind of goofy, character-defying twist like making Penny turn out to be Bad Horse, "Dr. Horrible" was going to end one of two ways: Dr. Horrible gets the girl, or Dr. Horrible becomes the supervillain of his dreams. Joss Whedon chose the latter, and chose to have it play out in the worst way possible for poor Billy. He gets the thing he thought he wanted, but at the cost of what he really wanted. Lovely work by NPH and Felicia Day, particularly that gut punch of a moment where the dying Penny tells him not to worry, that Captain Hammer will save them.
The rest of it was the usual cleverness we've come to expect over the previous two acts. Bad Horse turns out to be an actual horse, and is in the Evil League of Evil with the likes of Fake Thomas Jefferson, Dead Bowie and Professor Normal. Captain Hammer sings a song belittling the homeless, but it's so catchy and he's so handsome that everybody but Penny wants to sing along. And Captain Hammer turns out to be a bully who can dish it out but can't take it, judging by his crying jags after actually being hurt by the backfire of Dr. Horrible's death ray.
All in all, this was a lot of fun, bringing lots of what I enjoy about Joss Whedon's work even on a micro-budget scale.
Will there be further adventures of poor Dr. Horrible? That's one of the questions that came up when I tag-teamed Neil with Mo Ryan (which is why many of the quotes here are the same as the ones you can see in her own "Dr. Horrible" post) at CBS' press tour party last night. Some excerpts:
On the huge day one reaction to "Dr. Horrible," which overwhelmed the servers:
On how much he enjoyed being a part of the project:
On how he got involved:
What would happen if Barney Stinson and Dr. Horrible met, and, more importantly, ho'od win in a fight?
On where each iconic character would rank on an awesomeness scale:
Will there be more Dr. Horrible?
What did everybody else think?