More on Dr. Horrible. Contains Spoilers. And swearing.

OK, I finally watched it. It’s online here.

Classic Whedon.

“Oh, look, funny stuff, characters you can dig, and OH I AM SORRY, DID I JUST MAKE YOU SAD by RUINING EVERYTHING FOR THE CHARACTER I MADE YOU EMPATHIZE WITH and then ENDING ABRUPTLY? LOOK, I HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONS! I AM A GOOD WRITER!”

Motherfucker.

GOD, I hate him sometimes.

Who the fuck takes a silly, fun concept like telling a superhero story from the villain’s point of view, makes it silly and fun for 5/4ths of the story, and then abruptly turns it into a tragedy with no funniness whatsoever?

Joss The Bastard Whedon, that’s who.

I am starting to seriously wonder what the hell his problem is. It’s like… he knows he’s brilliant at creating interesting, funny characters his audience can empathize with, but he thinks it’s a low-brow talent or something and wants to be a Serious Dramatic Writer, so he throws in character death and misery and shit. Which, yanno, fine, but it’s like taking your audience on a date and being funny and charming and sweet and then trying to act like a bad boy: either you come off like an idiot (best case) or you upset and horrify (worst case). Some people are masochistic enough to enjoy that kind of treatment; I am not one of them.

Sadly, I love the funny/charming/sweet stuff so much that I keep risking the bad boy idiocy for it. Sometimes I don’t get subjected to it (“Firefly,” for example), but most of the time I do (like when he made Serenity. Or Buffy. Or Angel).

An infinitely better ending for Dr. Horrible may be found here. I think I will pretend that’s how it really ended. I loved Dr. Horrible, he was just my kinda guy. I wanted to ruffle his hair, then help him build a better deathray and take over the world.
Sigh.