I’m going to write a review of the third act now, which will allow people to spoil to their hearts content.

Whoops, we weren’t discussing Little Shop of Horrors? My bad.

No, Dr. Horrible doesn’t pass the Bechdel test either. As with Little Shop, it’s parodying an existing paradigm – in this case, the paradigm of cartoon superheros and villains which, for whatever reasons, tend to be white guys. And, presumably for financial reasons, Dr. Horrible only lasts around 45 minutes and has only three real characters. With these constraints, even the lead character doesn’t seem to discuss anything other than his work and his love interest. (Which really befits an obsessive supervillain, I guess.)

Is Penny only seen though Dr. Horrible’s eyes? Arguably Penny is the only character NOT seen exclusively through Dr. Horrible’s eyes. Penny expresses her own private thoughts, as when she’s trying to get people to sign a petition, or when she’s wondering why she’s not as excited about her relationship with Capt. Hammer as everyone else is, or when she’s cringing in response to Capt. Hammer’s remarks on stage.

Hard to imagine a different ending that wouldn’t have required a substantially longer show. Compare to Wicked, in which Glinda achieves all her ambitions (at least temporarily), but must begrudgingly acknowledge that “There’s a kind of a sort of — cost? There’s a couple of things get – lost?” She acknowledges this even before she loses her own love interest, and the show requires another hour to achieve resolution after this point. Without offering any explicit spoilers, let me suggest that some ways of achieving dramatic resolution are quicker and simpler, which may explain why those ways appear in fiction so often.

‘[T]he hammer is my penis’ is definately a standout line.

Dr. Horrible is sympathetic, but he’s really not a role model.

[T]he argument could be made easily that it was a commentary on the whole Nice Guy™ thing.

I was contemplating additional responses, but my circuits keep getting overwhelmed.

—Myca

That said, I don’t think that Joss fails to understand that stalking is not cool; Dr. Horrible is sympathetic, but he’s really not a role model.

And come ON, Joss, stalking is not cool.

Oh, but here’s a neat blog entry with some info about the house they used as the location for Dr. Horrible’s apartment.

I agree that teh third part will be the revealing one, and I’m expecting that it’ll go in unexpected directions. But I guess I was comparing it to Sugarshock, where the third part did go in unexpected directions, but I felt there was more awesome stuff in the earlier parts. Not that there aren’t awesome bits (and I agree that the songs are fantastic, I love the bad horse songs), but I expect more.

Although ‘the hammer is my penis’ is definately a standout line.

Fucking awesome.

—Myca

As for the show: I totally agree with your criticisms, but I think a lot of how the work as a whole reads will have to do with the conclusion . . . if Penny ends up as the stereotypical damsel in distress, I’ll have a lot of issues with that. If, on the other hand, she realizes that both Captain Hammer and Doctor Horrible are kind of jerks, well . . . that’s not a bad ending at all.

—Myca