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Extremely belated thoughts about Dr. Horrible
So I'm officially the last person on the planet to have seen Dr. Horrible, but whatever. I was going to wait for the DVD release, but seeing all of the reactions among feminist bloggers made me curious to check it out for myself. My thoughts...
1. I don't completely agree that the story is anti-feminist or pro-Nice Guy Syndrome. Reasons being: Why yes, actually, Dr. Horrible *is* a Nice Guy. He's convinced that he's "right" for Penny, that if he buys/wins her things she'll automatically reward him with Twu Wuv and sex, and that his stalking of her is totally justified. Yes, he lies to and manipulates her, pretending to be her supportive friend while at the same time secretly angling for a romantic "in." Yes, he treats her not so much as a human being but as a prize to be won. Yes, this makes him a Nice Guy. But then that all blows up in his face - literally.
See, I would agree that the story would be pro-Nice Guy if the Nice Guy ended up getting the girl and living happily ever after. Because that would have been the narrative validating the Nice Guy worldview. But instead, the story shows the logical outcome of actual Nice Guy behavior: Nice Guys hurt the women that they obsess over. They're evil. Dr. Horrible realized that he wasn't "right" for Penny at all, he was actually the worst thing that could possibly have happened to her. The story ends up not so much validating the Nice Guy philosophy, but rather showing just how messed-up and awful it really is.
2. Also, I disagree that Penny wasn't developed enough as a character. Was it just me, or did she end up with more actual layers to her personality than both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer combined? I also disagree that she was portrayed as too stupid to see through Captain Hammer's bullshit. She did see through it - hence her big sad song of self-doubt in the beginning of the third act.
But also, yes, she was fridged in the end, and yes, the act of fridging always reduces women to props to drive the story. Blargh.
3. And, yes, I completely agree - the tone shift in the third act was extremely poorly handled, and extremely, er, uncomfortable.
Point: It is possible to combine both hilarious comedy and serious drama in a 42-minute dramedy and/or musical. Whedon pulled it off pitch-perfectly in "The Storyteller" (which is very comparable to Dr. Horrible, or at least what Dr. Horrible was trying to be), and in "Once More, With Feeling." But he didn't manage to pull it off with Dr. Horrible at all. In fact, I think he missed the mark by a mile. Or two. Or three.
Point: It is possible for a comedy program to kill off a main character - even the most sympathetic, likable character in the cast - and still have it be hilarious. See: The Venture Brothers. But yeah, again, Dr. Horrible failed in that regard, by presenting Penny's death as seriously dark and disturbing, rather than even attempting to make it funny.
I mean, let's face it. You can't have an actual dramatic, disturbing character death when the title of your show is "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." No, no, NO. It just doesn't work.
Gods, that ending was awful. Just awful. I'm increasingly convinced that it's the worst possible ending that could have been crafted for that story.
And what's sad is that once my writer-brain started turning it over in my head, I easily could have come up with about fifty different ways to end Dr. Horrible that wouldn't have sucked as much as the real ending did. And you know, I'm no Joss Whedon or anything. Just a viewer.
But, okay, here's my favorite if-I-had-been-writing-Dr.-Horrible ending scenario:
Start with the explosion of the death ray. Not only does this result in the humiliation of Captain Hammer, but it also manages - somehow - to completely destroy the new homeless shelter. Miraculously, however, nobody is hurt. In fact, just when it looks like Penny might actually have been hurt in the explosion, it turns out that - dun dun dun! - the explosion gave her super powers.
In the end, despite not having managed to kill anybody, Dr. Horrible is still admitted into the ELE, on the grounds that "destroying a homeless shelter" is, along with "stealing candy from a baby," "ruining Christmas for orphans," and "kicking over some kid's sand castle," proof enough of his commitment to pure unrelenting evil. That, and also because of the fact that he made Captain Hammer cry.
Dr. Horrible and Penny mutually agree to become each other's archenemies. Thus they end up in *a* type of a relationship, just definitely not a romantic one. The end.
So, open thread time: How would you have changed the ending?
1. I don't completely agree that the story is anti-feminist or pro-Nice Guy Syndrome. Reasons being: Why yes, actually, Dr. Horrible *is* a Nice Guy. He's convinced that he's "right" for Penny, that if he buys/wins her things she'll automatically reward him with Twu Wuv and sex, and that his stalking of her is totally justified. Yes, he lies to and manipulates her, pretending to be her supportive friend while at the same time secretly angling for a romantic "in." Yes, he treats her not so much as a human being but as a prize to be won. Yes, this makes him a Nice Guy. But then that all blows up in his face - literally.
See, I would agree that the story would be pro-Nice Guy if the Nice Guy ended up getting the girl and living happily ever after. Because that would have been the narrative validating the Nice Guy worldview. But instead, the story shows the logical outcome of actual Nice Guy behavior: Nice Guys hurt the women that they obsess over. They're evil. Dr. Horrible realized that he wasn't "right" for Penny at all, he was actually the worst thing that could possibly have happened to her. The story ends up not so much validating the Nice Guy philosophy, but rather showing just how messed-up and awful it really is.
2. Also, I disagree that Penny wasn't developed enough as a character. Was it just me, or did she end up with more actual layers to her personality than both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer combined? I also disagree that she was portrayed as too stupid to see through Captain Hammer's bullshit. She did see through it - hence her big sad song of self-doubt in the beginning of the third act.
But also, yes, she was fridged in the end, and yes, the act of fridging always reduces women to props to drive the story. Blargh.
3. And, yes, I completely agree - the tone shift in the third act was extremely poorly handled, and extremely, er, uncomfortable.
Point: It is possible to combine both hilarious comedy and serious drama in a 42-minute dramedy and/or musical. Whedon pulled it off pitch-perfectly in "The Storyteller" (which is very comparable to Dr. Horrible, or at least what Dr. Horrible was trying to be), and in "Once More, With Feeling." But he didn't manage to pull it off with Dr. Horrible at all. In fact, I think he missed the mark by a mile. Or two. Or three.
Point: It is possible for a comedy program to kill off a main character - even the most sympathetic, likable character in the cast - and still have it be hilarious. See: The Venture Brothers. But yeah, again, Dr. Horrible failed in that regard, by presenting Penny's death as seriously dark and disturbing, rather than even attempting to make it funny.
I mean, let's face it. You can't have an actual dramatic, disturbing character death when the title of your show is "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." No, no, NO. It just doesn't work.
Gods, that ending was awful. Just awful. I'm increasingly convinced that it's the worst possible ending that could have been crafted for that story.
And what's sad is that once my writer-brain started turning it over in my head, I easily could have come up with about fifty different ways to end Dr. Horrible that wouldn't have sucked as much as the real ending did. And you know, I'm no Joss Whedon or anything. Just a viewer.
But, okay, here's my favorite if-I-had-been-writing-Dr.-Horrible ending scenario:
Start with the explosion of the death ray. Not only does this result in the humiliation of Captain Hammer, but it also manages - somehow - to completely destroy the new homeless shelter. Miraculously, however, nobody is hurt. In fact, just when it looks like Penny might actually have been hurt in the explosion, it turns out that - dun dun dun! - the explosion gave her super powers.
In the end, despite not having managed to kill anybody, Dr. Horrible is still admitted into the ELE, on the grounds that "destroying a homeless shelter" is, along with "stealing candy from a baby," "ruining Christmas for orphans," and "kicking over some kid's sand castle," proof enough of his commitment to pure unrelenting evil. That, and also because of the fact that he made Captain Hammer cry.
Dr. Horrible and Penny mutually agree to become each other's archenemies. Thus they end up in *a* type of a relationship, just definitely not a romantic one. The end.
So, open thread time: How would you have changed the ending?
no subject
I hope that was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, because that's certainly how I took it. ;)
How would I rewrite Dr. Horrible... well, I thought your revision was pretty great. And I think you're spot on with your assessment that Penny had more depth than either Horrible or Hammer, but that wasn't all that hard, really.
I wanted to see Moist get in on the action. I wanted to see Johnny Snow. I wanted... well, really anything other then what was delivered in that third act. It reminded me very much of The Matrix: Revolutions, where the Wachowski Brothers managed to wrap things up in the most contrived, unsatisfactory way possible.
I'll have to give it some more thought, but in the interim, I'm willing to go with your ending. That would have been perfectly satisfactory. Better than satisfactory, really. It would've been great.
no subject
And I like your ending. I like it much better than canon's, or any one I'd come up with! Most of my ideas just involved grumping that Penny didn't get to dump both of them and survive the experience.
no subject