Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog- (B) While I'm not officially sick of the 'deconstructed Super-hero' genre, it's starting to wear out its welcome. Not unlike at some point in the distant past when stand-up comedians actually were being funny asking about why airline food was so crappy. I think it was this season of Venture Brothers which started to turn me off it. (Don't get me wrong, I still like it, it's just that I'm starting to see as many vague 80's pop culture references in it as in an episode of 'Family Guy'. ) And once the movie version of "Watchmen" comes out, I will be officially sick of that genre.
Joss Whedon's take on it, though, squeezes some juice out of the genre in his tale of a love-sick supervillan. Actually, this three act web-broadcast is like distilled Whedon. You've got Whedon's mix of comedy with pathos, sometimes in the same sentence. And, to top it off, it's a musical! (That saves it from being yet another take on the 'deconstructonist super-hero genre.) And you know, the songs are okay, in a Stephen Sondheim-y way. (I just Whedon-ized my post! Ha!)
What's worth discussing is the media it's distributed in. It came out as a three part web broadcast. (Whedon and friends came up with it during the writer's strike this past spring.) And so far, it looks like a hit. (It's the top seller on Itunes.) So, on the surface, it looks like web-episodes are a viable way to make money over the net, while bypassing the studios. Well, for the likes of Whedon, J.J. Abrams, David Chase, and Ronald Moore, maybe. That is, T.V. creators with an established, successful track record who've already got enough money to 'put on a show with some friends'. (I can't see someone like David Simon or Matthew Weiner doing web broadcasts independently of a studio...)
Interviews with Whedon tell us that he made it for 'the low six figures' and called in a bunch of favours from friends to make it. I'd like to see more of this sort of thing, but I suspect we're gonna get a bunch of even-lower production value stuff put out over the net by frat-boy nobodys who get an audience of their friends and no-one else. And they go broke putting it on. So, again, the only people who are in a practical position to produce this sort of thing on a consistent basis that's even capable of making a profit are... the studios.
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