Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008, online only

You should know

Most of what I heard about this initially was from people raving about it on Twitter the first day it went public. Of course, at first I couldn't get the site to work; opening night, it overloaded. High demand.

I did manage to see the whole thing straight through more than once, and also shared it with my parents, Chris, Brian, and Dan. It somehow didn't occur to me to review it until a few weeks ago, and real life and Iron Man got in the way.

So?

Dr. Horrible is a small-time supervillain about to make his big break. He's working on perfecting his freeze ray, and in between fantasizes about Penny, a regular at his laundromat.

When he finally gets word from Bad Horse, "The Thoroughbred of Sin" and head of the Evil League of Evil, that his application to the League is under serious consideration, Dr. Horrible sets out to steal the Wonderflonium ("Do Not Bounce") he needs to finish his freeze ray. His heist succeeds only because his nemesis, Captain Hammer, "Corporate Tool," gets distracted... by Penny.

The bad Doctor's objectives: perfect the ray, defeat the Captain, impress the Big Bad, and get the girl. Can he do it?

By the way, this is a musical, and if you're prone to catching earworms, beware -- the songs are extremely catchy!

It also may not be appropriate for younger children or more conservative workplaces. There are some mild but blatant sexual references, plus implied and shown violence, including one sympathetic character suggesting another kill a child.

It also has an ending that's pretty controversial, but ultimately unsurprising in context.

I genuinely enjoyed this serial, and pretty much everyone I've shown it to has gotten a kick out of it. If the premise I've outlined sounds interesting, you'll probably enjoy it.

Rating

Check it out
In fact, if you enjoy it, consider watching it more than once. It's extremely heavy on tiny details and blink-and-you'll-miss-it jokes, so the laughs don't fade because you catch something new each time.

The rest of the Internet

Beware of spoilers
Follow Dr. Horrible on Twitter for news and updates, or become a fan on Facebook.
The Wikipedia and IMDb pages.

The official fan site.
Lifehacker interviews Felicia Day, while Wired interviews Joss Whedon.
Entertainment Weekly has scoop from Comic-Con.
The Dr. Horrible/feminist controversy, summed up nicely (read as many of the comments as you can stand).
And now: Buy the DVD!