Neil Patrick Harris owned the Internet yesterday. He owned it so hard, in fact, that he broke it.
The title character of the landmark new Web musical, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” played by the lovable and unmenacing Neil Patrick Harris, dreams of gaining admission to the vaunted Evil League of Evil, home of the baddest baddies in the land. But he’s kidding himself. Dr. H. is too skittish to harm innocents or wreak much havoc. The ray guns he invents never seem to work that well, and his cackle is so wimpy he’s hired a voice coach. ...
The first of the show’s three 15-minute episodes went live Tuesday at midnight and immediately, international viewers were screaming that they couldn’t watch it (the Hulu video player they were using didn’t work overseas). And those of us who tried to pay $1.99 to download the show from iTunes couldn’t do that either. Still, those were the least of “Dr. Horrible’s” problems: by the time U.S. viewers woke up yesterday, so many people were clamoring to watch the show that its web site crashed completely, sending the makers scrambling to find more bandwidth.
As of this morning I still haven't been able to get the official site to cough up the freebie viewer. The iTunes download ($3.99 for a three-episode season pass) did, however, provide me with the debut (eventually).
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog isn't exactly surprising, not to anyone who saw the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, "Once More with Feeling," but it's still hugely enjoyable and impressive, and is making big industry waves as the first internet debut of a web series musical. The songs are funny, and emotional, and actually advance the story instead of just being cute filler for talented actors who can sing. The dialog is snappy, and smart, and full of subtext. NPH is dorky and sympathetic and ridiculous and hil-wait for it-arious; Nathan Fillion as the strapping over-the-top hero is hunky and hardy. (Here's a longer review at NewTeeVee that gets into actual, like, plot points.)
But again, the point for you dear readers is that NPH remains a wickedly talented triple-threat. Well, I don't know if he can actually dance, but he can definitely sing, and make people laugh, and believably sleep with thousands of women on a sitcom, all of which to me counts as a superpower. He's an incredibly talented dude and it is awesome to see him wielding his powers as far as the internets can reach.
Previously > Doogie's deodorant ad
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