Serenity

Sign That The Internet MIGHT Actually Be the Future– Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Dr. Horrible

When I was in film school, a few of my instructors regularly talked about the advances in technology that would revolutionize on-demand video distribution. The past decade saw the technology catch up, between internet downloading and on-demand service from cable providers, online video services like Netflix, and game console manufacturers. But so far, the video content distributed by this new technology is driven mainly by pre-existing theatrical and broadcast television properties. Online distribution as the source for new visual content has been limited; it’s a platform for new filmmakers to test smaller products, where shorter run-times and simpler stories can be more easily produced, like Felicia Day’s The Guild. Proof of real viability for an on-line distribution platform needed a test run by a high-profile creative talent; if someone with a following could bring fans and download fees along with them, the idea of first-run entertainment debuting on download or on-demand would be that much closer to reality. That opportunity came in 2008, with Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

During a period when the WGA writers strike effectively shut down production, Whedon, co-writing with Maurissa Tancharoen and his brothers Zack and Jed, came up with a 45-minute, three act musical about a nerdy supervillain, the girl he pined for, and his alpha-male heroic nemesis. It didn’t hurt that they cast Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day amd Nathan Fillion in those three respective roles. While the production values are a little slim (at least by feature film and episodic television standards), all the creative folks involved brought their A-game. Download demand crashed their website in the opening hours, and accolades (including an Emmy) followed. Dr. Horrible was so well-loved, that subsequent DVD sales on Amazon were robust (especially considering many of those same customers most likely had previously downloaded or viewed the episodes).

Dr. Horrible and arch-nemesis Captain Hammer continue to live on, with sing-along screenings, college and high school stage productions, and a recent comic-book prequel. Talk about a follow-up video project remains enthusiastic but loose, given the numerous commitments of the cast and creators, but nonetheless a sequel seems inevitable. If you need further proof that Dr. Horrible has permeated geek consciousness, you can find fanboys at conventions dressed in his signature tunic, gloves and goggles. Dr. Horrible may not be the first, but it’s one of the biggest and best creations of the internet to assimilate into popular culture, and it may be a harbinger of bigger things yet to come.

Can’t Stop the Signal – Serenity

‘We’ve done the impossible. And that makes us mighty.’ – Malcolm Reynolds

2002 was a great time to be a Joss Whedon fan. Two established shows on the air, and a new one coming out of the gate. It was a Whedon show, so great characters, stories and dialogue are par for the course. But as great as it was, Firefly was mishandled by Fox from the get-go. Under-promoted and aired out of sequence, it was a great product that Fox simply didn’t know how to sell. Airing it in what’s come to be known as the Friday-night death-slot didn’t help matters, and the show was gone before all the produced episodes could air.

But the show inspired a serious love in those who had seen it, and if you’re one of them, you know there’s a lot to love. Imagining outer space as one big frontier still licking its wounds a few years after a civil war, its setting roughened the smooth edges seen on most future sci-fi programs, the equivalent of an anti-Trek. Firefly’s core cast of nine characters all brought something great to the table and played well off of each other. They were all fringe people in their way; a mercenary, a prostitute (albeit a highly coveted and respectable one), two talented prodigies who kept them flying, two fugitives, two civil war vets (from the losing side), and a kindly preacher with one big question mark of a past, all living together on the ship Serenity, an unarmed cargo vessel held together by spit, chewing gum, and luck. Their jobs often had them robbing from the rich in order to sell to the not-so-rich, and nothing ever came easily for them. The series’ lead, Mal, was a veteran who’d seen the government grind his hopes to dust; but it turned out that his rage against the system wasn’t purely sour grapes; the government was, in fact, responsible for some truly appalling things.

In particular what made the series’ cancellation so sad to me, as a fan, was all the unanswered questions left about these characters and the world they lived in. And I was not alone in wanting to know; adopting Mal’s former uniform, a new fan movement, the Browncoats, was born. Whedon himself, meanwhile, managed a miracle of his own with longer odds than the Hail Marys performed by Serenity’s crew. He sold the show as a feature film to Universal. Then Whedon performed another; he got the film made with the entirety of the original cast - and the film was fantastic! Sadly, the box office receipts weren’t at the level to turn Serenity into a franchise, but as a fan, that’s pretty much the only way in which it disappointed. Serenity was a stunner, upping the ante in terms of scale, effects work, and story. Some of the bigger mysteries at the heart of its universe came to light, and a formidable new villain, the Operative, made things much harder than usual for Mal and company. What more could a fan ask for?

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