Paul O'Brian writes about Watchmen, trivia, albums, interactive fiction, and more.

>SUPERVERBOSE

Update to the Dr. Horrible Update

Well, that was a downer. I mean, great to avoid cliches and all, but still: kind of a downer.

And I was having so much fun, too.

Plus, the guy’s kinda-girlfriend is dying, and I’m thinking, “Dude! You have a freeze ray! Can’t you stop time until the paramedics arrive?” I guess maybe it was out of power.

I am still filled with love for parts I and II. I am filled with ambivalence about part III.

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2 Comments

  1. jrw

    Yeah. You start out light and funny, and that’s how you end it? What a bummer for the audience. The hero’s a bum, the villain actually does turn to a life of real evil, and the girl dies. Oh well.

    Also, yeah, I was wondering why he didn’t use the freeze ray. I guess that would have been the path to the happy ending route.

    Clearly they should have made multiple endings and let the audience choose. Maybe next time.

    Actually, thinking more on that… if they were to say “This is the ending we had in mind all along” or what have you — I fail to see how the expectations that the beginning instilled in us prepared us for what the end was going to be.

    • I agree that the tone feels awkward, although I felt less so on a rewatch; the end of act II is pretty suggestive that we’re heading into darker territories (even if you might expect with what went so far that things will somehow turn out better).

      Also, the whole thing put together works moderately well as an origin story. Indeed, if it weren’t for the very last bit of video blog, I’d advance an argument that there’s something being said here about what (comic-book) evil is and how it comes about, and the very usurping of the light tone over the acts reflects exactly what Dr. H goes through. (I think that very last snippet of blog video suggests that it’s just a character piece, not an origin story (although it is still that mechanically), and indeed he’s undermining that comic-book evil with that snippet.)

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