Well, I'll lose my cred if I don't say something about the sexy, sexy Dr. Horrible. Who already HAS his Ph.D., thank you very much.
I loved it. The characters are quirky and loveable, the music is infectious (I can't get "All the birds are singing THAT YOU'RE GONNA DIE" out of my head). I loved, loved, loved the groupies (which is why I picked the only banner where they appear). I'll admit I was skeptical for the first 60 seconds, but in the end I watched it twice.
If you haven't seen it, do. But stop reading now.
Ok, now the feminist meta commentary. And spoilers. You are warned!
There is something about the (always female) love interests of superheroes and supervillians. They can date the wrong people. They can get engaged to the wrong people. They can even get to the alter in a white dress before realizing this is the wrong person. But they MAY NOT HAVE SEX with the wrong person.
I never thought about this until it became clear that Penny had slept with Captain Hammer. And then my gut said, "She and Dr. Horrible will never be an item now. I wonder how they are going to resolve that." I actually thought that perhaps she would wind up rejecting them both and walking away from the whole superhero/supervillian scene. But it was clear to me that Dr. Horrible's crush would be forever unrequited. (The actual resolution was very interesting and well done; my point is only that there are certain unspoken rules for the genre as a whole.)
Of course, this is a trope in comic books but not in real life, where people (male and female) sleep with the wrong people all the time, and those who really love them often forgive them for it. But there is something about the women of super-guys that invokes the mores of a patriarchy. Their sexuality is restricted; pre-martial sex can only lead to marriage... or death.
Discuss.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Dr. Horrible and the sex lives of love interests (spoiler alert!)
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5 comments:
Joss has said that this is as much a send-up of the genre as it is anything else. Given his strong female roles in pretty much everything else he's done, it was jarring to see Penny so weak for a Joss fan such as myself, but not unexpected in the end. It does shed light on the sex bit, as you noticed.
Overall, I loved the songs, but I thought that Act III fell flat. I saw it coming from Joss a mile away, and when Penny actually bit it I was kinda meh. I'm glad that it led to Dr. Horrible's evolution into the real baddie I'm sure he'll become, but it seemed inevitable and almost forced at the same time the way it was done. I dunno.
I agree that "It's a Brand New Day" is one of the best songs. That and "Stop the World."
Oh yeah, it's clearly a sendup. But I didn't see Penny as weak so much as not violent. After all, she works hard to help people worse off than herself, against terrible odds -- that's not a weak person. She's just not a super-hero, fighting bad guys or vampires or whatever, so she seems out of place. And she's not dumb -- she seems to always have doubts about the Capt. But yes, given JW's previous work, I did wonder if someone would die... :)
ZOMG it's Duhan! /waves/
I was also entranced by "It's a Brand New Day." Wonderful!
The whole problem with the send-up genre is that it has to stick to the tropes of its parent genre. Smart observation about the love interest's sexual morality, Sam -- and yeah, Duhan is totally correct. It sends up red flags when a director that knows better has to adhere to a bit of the folklore.
It does occur to me that if I had majored in horribleness I would probably be doing a post-doc by now. =D
Of course, this is a trope in comic books but not in real life, where people (male and female) sleep with the wrong people all the time, and those who really love them often forgive them for it.
You'd think they'd break off long enough to thank their partners for forgiving them. :P
This series was fantastic, and I already miss it. I'm finding Neil Patrick Harris to be teh best evah, and I feel like I've missed the boat in a certain sense 'cause I've ignored his stuff for so long.
I loved it too! Don't get me wrong.
I talked with DG about Duhan's thoughts, and I actually think Duhan may be more right than I gave him credit for (sorry about that!). When I think "homeless shelter," I think people who deal with drug addicts, the mentally ill, and those completely marginalized from society. It seems this was much more about the Victorian feminine vision of charity -- helping the (worthy -- and smiling!) destitute. Penny was not portrayed as the kind of person who would have to make the tough call about whether someone was too drunk to come in off the street that night.
All that said, I still wouldn't call her "weak". But Duhan is right that she was not portrayed as strong as a woman "working with the homeless" could be.
P.S. Our church sang a song called "Brand New Day" on Sunday and I really had to stop myself. Just sayin'.
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