Part III

[tealin]

Oh, Mr Whedon.

Oh, you. You and your ... you.

Watch the whole thing for a paltry sum!

Edit: Hmm, I feel a rave about story structure and audience involvement rumbling. In the meantime ... [forks over paltry sum for permanent possession of quality entertainment]

Comments

[octaveleap.livejournal.com]

Yeah... stunned but not surprised. Poor Dr. Horrible! *hugs self*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's all remarkably Sweeney, in a way...

But, like, Sweeney with a death ray.

[(Anonymous)]

/Freeze/ ray. *Is snotty*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Um, I do believe it is a death ray at the end ... there's that bit of black masking tape with 'DEATH' written on it. And red electricity. :)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Or ... black gaffer tape ...

[robhu.livejournal.com]

By the end he has the freeze ray AND a death ray.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

OK, yes, but it's the Death Ray that does the ... Sweeneying.

[(Anonymous)]

*Totally did not know that episode three was up yet*

Well, THAT was refreshingly humiliating, wasn't it? Guess I better go see episode three now before I make any more "corrections."

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

No worries; goodness knows I do the same thing more times than anyone could keep track of. :)

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

and check out who plays "dead bowie" on the evil league of evil at the end there....

(joss w. no less)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Umm ... that was ... Jed?

Unless Joss goes by Jed sometimes and really wrote all the music by himself... Hmm, perhaps it's some sort of Fight Club: Writing Genius Edition. That would actually be kinda cool.

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

ya i am mistaken....

thought for sure i read an interview with jed saying joss got all made up to be dead bowie...alas what might have been.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Unless he was being deliberately misleading in the interview because he's actually the same person!

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

;_;

[thearchduchess.livejournal.com]

I watched it on your recommendation and am now sad :(

The ending shot seems like the sort of thing that will be discussed ad infinitum by people - it makes me think perhaps none of it was real and it was just a lonely guy with iMovie, but that's a little - I can't think of any real words to describe it, so we'll go with meandering description - "Look at me, I'm a twist ending! I confuse you. I'm like Lost! Or one of those movies where you know you're gonna have to look it up on Wikipedia to find out what happened, and then it'll only give a list of possible theories! Now, go forth and DISCUSS me in an annoying literary way!"

I just want to give him a hug.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I thought it was just ... his bared soul sort of thing. Like a video blog, you know? He's got this fantastic life that he 'always wanted', partying and hanging with the ELE, but underneath all that, in his diary (except since this is a visual medium it's a video blog), you see this hollow, numb, dazed guy. That shot – what is it, all of half a second? [goes to count because she is a dork] Okay, four seconds. Those four seconds tell you that everything you've been shown and told in the previous montage is a façade. And it can be communicated in four seconds because it's already been well-established that when we see him in that room from that angle with that lighting, that's his blog, his diary, his honest inner self. Because we already know that, when we see him staring emptily at the camera in his street clothes (because being Dr Horrible is no longer a fun hobby) we know that is him, and we realize that even though he got what he thought he wanted it's not what really mattered after all.

All in four seconds. He's brilliant. BRILLIANT. I need to go into further depth about his brilliance at some point.

Re: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

[mincot.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES YES YES.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I should add I'm historically bad at coming up with authors' potential hidden messages, I'm just analyzing it from a strictly surface (and subtextual) story level. But one of the things I love about Joss Whedon is even when he does give things a deeper meaning he makes them work as part of the story first. He could teach Literature a lesson there.

[thearchduchess.livejournal.com]

I admire your commitment in counting the seconds :)

I think you're probably right - it just seemed so quick, so short and such a surprise that it really stuck with me - I keep thinking about that bit the most. That and the Bad Horse theme, but that's for very different reasons. I just feel so sorry for him, he got what he thought he wanted and gets to hang around with Dead Bowie and he's all sad.

Joss Whedon is pretty damn good at these things, although he did allow Buffy to fester slowly into the intolerable mess that Seasons 5/6/7 and he killed off Tara, but yes, he can do things that are both whimsical and witty but also like a very real punch to the stomach at the same time. And you're not bad at all, your points are excellent. I'm off to study English Literature next year and it makes me a little sad that's it's highly unlikely I'll get to study Mr. Whedon.

Now, why isn't Dr. Horrible on UK iTunes yet? I'd be content with the soundtrack!

[thearchduchess.livejournal.com]

And when I search for 'Dr. Horrible' on iTunes, the first thing I get is 'Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust', which is very, very different.