“Once More With Feeling” was one of my favourite episodes from 7 seasons of Buffy – yes, I even bought the soundtrack and often crank it up and sing along when doing “stunningly boring chores” like the dishes. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I was excited when I heard Joss was doing another musical.

How the show came into existence is almost as interesting as the show itself. In the midst of the writer’s strike earlier in 2008, Joss got together with a few collaborators to prove that creating content for Internet distribution was a viable alternative to writing for traditional tv.

In my opinion, the experiment was a success. Dr Horrible is not the sort of show you would expect to see on tv, and definitely not one tv execs would gamble on. Firstly because it’s a musical, but also because of the episode format: 3 acts of about 15 minutes each.

One of the reasons I love Whedon’s work is because he is first and foremost a storyteller. There are no expensive special effects here, just a really tight story.

The plot is very straightforward: Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is a wanna-be villian who is trying to impress Bad Horse and get into the Evil League of Evil. Thwarting his plans at every turn is his nemesis, Captain Hammer (the brilliantly arrogant Nathan Fillion). Caught in the middle of their struggle is Penny (Felicia Day of The Guild fame), who Dr Horrible is secretly in love with.

In anyone else’s hands, this could be a bland superhero show (recent seasons of Smallville anyone??). But what makes Whedon’s work so great is how he is able to reverse cliches and create something unexpected. In this world, the villain is shy and awkward, and hero is the arrogant and self-absorbed ladies man.

The story is driven by Dr Horrible – he has two desires: get into the Evil League of Evil, and to be with Penny. But this is Whedon at his best, and there’s no lack of complications along the way. And in the end, Dr Horrible achieves one goal at the expense of the other. How Whedon squeezed so much emotion into the final seconds is testiment to both his storytelling abilty and Harris’ acting talent.

The songs are so damn catchy that I challenge you watch it a second time without joining in. After all, the title clearly encourages it!

Rating: 9/10