Dissecting Dr. Horrible

As of right now, you have just under 24 hours to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog for free at www.drhorrible.com. If you missed it, fret not, it should be available on DVD soon (we'll know how soon within a week, I'm sure). I, for one, will be picking up a copy as soon as humanly possible.

What I am going to talk about are certain elements of the characters that I found interesting and their relevance to the nature of the project as a whole.

Here's the proposition I'm going to make:
Dr. Horrible is the emerging culture of the internet (and online broadcasting). Captain Hammer is the traditional media. Penny is the consumer, being asked to choose between the two. The analogy is far from perfect, but here's my explanation.

Dr. Horrible has two distinct faces. There's, well, Dr. Horrible, who is trying to disrupt the status quo, rule the world, and enter the Evil League of Evil. And there's Billy, the quiet, lonely guy just looking for somebody willing to take the time to know him; but too shy to take the first step. At the end, we see that Dr. Horrible is mostly Billy. He's not misunderstood - he honestly does want to upset the status quo, simply because it's broken. Instead, he's misguided; turning towards the problem outside himself - the one he can "fix" in any number of ways - instead of the one inside - the one he needs to find a solution for. This leads him into emptiness and despair.

Captain Hammer is the definition of superficial. Beyond this, his only goal is his own glorification. He does what is "good" and says what people want to hear (even if sometimes poorly) because he knows that these are the things that will earn him the most praise. The response of the masses to his action is one that says the ends justify not only the means, but also the intent. He picks on Dr. Horrible because he upsets the status quo that honors him, and because most people are comfortable with the status quo and will perceive its defense as right.

Penny is superficially attracted to Captain Hammer because of his ability to do and say what she wants. She's utterly unaware that his entire motivation is his own gain. At the same time, while somewhat wary of Dr. Horrible - even without knowing him as such - she sees the value in him and connects with him on a more human level...she's just not willing to pursue a relationship - something she does with Captain Hammer because, on the surface, he is immediately able to meet her up front needs.

The internet has two faces. There's the internet: home of obsessed with piracy, who sit and work to disrupt the status quo because it doesn't agree with what they feel the world should be (free). And then there's the internet: medium for mass communication and shared expression that, despite its technological nature, is human and connecting. This medium allows artists the ability to genuinely be themselves and connect with fans at a strong, personal level and to derive support from the dedication this relationship instills. This is contrary to the traditional model of being as generally "acceptable" as possible so as to gain a larger, less attached fan base, whom you reach, for a price, through the media at large. As people better understand the way the internet works, this second face becomes more obviously the true one, but that first face still lurks, patently visible to anybody, its motivations threatening to ruin the more personal nature of the internet for everybody.

Big Media exists chiefly to promote its own existence and create profits for those whom are a apart of it. The programming it provides is intended to distract us - be it through despair or amusement - from our other options so that the money keeps rolling in. is constantly trying to manipulate the general public into seeing that first face of the internet as its true identity, make people understand it as an aberration that seeks to destroy this construct with which they are so comfortable, which brings them so much joy. They do this because the internet, by allowing people to form stronger bonds with those from whom they consume, threatens to damage the way they do business if it is used as anything other than a new means of the distribution of their traditional message and programming.

Consumers still love the traditional, Big Media, because it meets their needs at the most basic level. They are beginning to be attracted to the personal level at which internet based content providers can meet their needs, but, by and large, they aren't willing to fully invest themselves in the endeavor because things aren't as reliable, or as cut and dry.

Just as Captain Hammer's continued advances on Penny drive Dr. Horrible towards plots of increased violence against him, the Big Media's ever stronger advances towards the hearts and attention of the typical consumer - and their vilification of the (non-corporate) internet, drives the acts of piracy to greater desperation. And yet, if this piracy succeeds entirely - resulting in the fall of Big Media, it is at the expense of everybody. Without Big Media around, there's nothing new for the pirates to "liberate" except for the independent content creators, whom the pirates will then attack, preventing them from creating anything new; this kills the creative spirit of the internet, leaving it entirely devoid of its second, more powerful character; consumers are left with nobody to consume from; and the pirates, having completed their task, are left with nothing new to do beyond reinventing what they've already done. It's a dire situation for creators and consumers alike, one which leads to the fall of culture.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is, as much as anything else, a warning of what happens if we, the internet culture, allow our love of piracy and "freedom" overcome our desire for stronger, human connections and bold, new, exploits of creative energy. Doing so will certainly hurt Big Media, but at the expense of what truly makes the internet what it is. Joss Whedon and friends are helping to pioneer new ground in the use of the internet AS the internet - not merely a new means of distribution - in a new way of making a profit for creative effort. Please, support Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog; not only because everybody involved deserves to earn something, but because the internet is becoming more than we've let it be in the past, and we need to nurture that.