Okay, so, remember the part where I wrote that Joss Whedon is God? Yeah. Totally, completely, eternally reaffirmed by his new project, the online miniseries of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
I mean really. Stars everyone's favorite prepubescent M.D., Neil Patrick Harris, and Nathan Fillion, best thing from Canada since maple syrup? Check! Supervillain wannabes, evil horses, homeless folks, jerkwad superheroes, Fake Thomas Jeffersons, groupies, and laundromats? Check! Quintessentially Whedonesque one-liners and staging (see especially "THESE are not the hammer" and tiny cue cards)? Check! Musical goodness reminiscient of the Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling"? CHECK! The series, in three acts, covers the sad tale of a would-be supervillain (Neil Patrick Harris in the title role) on the Evil League of Evil (run by aforementioned Bad Horse, who will totally make you his mare if you cross him), and his many defeats, both in love (with sweet and giving laundress-cum-social-activist Penny, played by a winsome Felicia Day...not even the frozen yogurt could win her over!) and in combat (by the "corporate tool" Captain Hammer, played by Captain Tightpants himself, Nathan Fillion). Prime singing abounds on the part of all cast members, particularly Harris, Freeze Rays are created and then turned into Death Rays (tell your friends!), tight goggles and shirts are proudly worn; Harris the villain is sympathetic, shy, and full of pipe-dreams and bad intentions, and Fillion delectably awful as the muscly jackhole Hammer with his own trio of Superhero Groupies who laud things like his dry-cleaning bill and offer to do "the weird stuff" in the bedroom-everything is here.
Whedon, because he is a compassionate deity, posted all three acts of the series for free from July 18th through July 20th, and both the series and its soundtrack are now available on iTunes, if you missed it. There'll be a DVD edition this fall, complete with any number of tasty extras, including keys to shiny new musical numbers by the cast.
He's done it again, kids. Download it now, buy the DVD in the fall, or be like me and aim to do both, but give it up somehow for Whedon and Co. for delivering laughs, music, and heartfelt villainry in the perfect dosage. And in the event that you really, REALLY get into it, the Evil League of Evil is even accepting supervillain video applications. (No way did I send one in. I swear.)