Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

In all my classes, we make our students to a media blog, which is basically a blog about some of their media interactions that allows them to think critically about the media they engage with, and offers them the opportunity to think of ways they might use that media (or ideas that the text generates) in a teaching setting. It's an excellent assignment that helps students become more aware of the many voices and messages that surround them. It helps to keep us from becoming passive consumers.

Lately, I've felt much more like a passive consumer than an actively engaged participant in the media world, so I thought it would be a good idea to start my own media blog. I haven't yet decided if it will be available to my students. So, here goes.

Yesterday I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I heard about it from one of my students, but the reason I wanted to watch it was not only because she said it was something of value to her--it was because I seemed to be the only person in the room who didn't know what she was talking about. This always disturbs me; I graduated a Media Arts major, I teach Media Literacy, so shouldn't I be aware of all the cool things going on? There's a lot that I chalk up to not having TV, but shouldn't I know about server-meltingly popular videos? Why yes, yes I should.

And so I watched it, and I really liked it (not loved--liked). I think I love the idea of it more than the execution--the idea being that a bunch of professionals who were (selectively) out of work for the Writers' Strike getting together and making a great quality little film for internet distribution. I don't think that Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog had lofty aspirations (in the beginning, they weren't even sure if they could pay people), but now they're talking about Broadway versions, a sequel, etc. It's the kind of get-up-and-go story that we love; a group of friends get together to make something they love with no promise of success, and then they make it big (sort of like this student film that I helped on, where all the funding was out of the director's pocket, and it made it into Sundance. Not that I got paid, but my name is in the credits, so that's fabulous).

It is also really interesting to see how Dr. Horrible combines two forms that don't seem to be compatible at all--the video blog (which is so rooted in reality that it can become banal--one person sitting in front of a camera and talking about their life), and the musical (which nearly always requires us to suspend our disbelief in such a way as to not doubt the ability of characters to harmonize even though they are a town apart). Surprisingly, we don't really bat an eyelash at this odd juxtaposition, which just proves that a great story (well written...) has the ability to keep anything together.

Dr. Horrible sets up some interesting questions to consider (that I'm going to attempt to pose in way that won't spoil it for you in case you want to watch it): in this scenario, what constitutes a happy ending? Does a happy ending mean that a protagonist achieves his objective, that justice is served, or that good wins? Why do we long for happy ending in the first place? This offers a good opportunity to talk with students/kids about paying attention to which character we identify with, and why that might become complicated.

This film also breaks down trite stereotypes that (used to) dominate the superhero film--in this case, "good" is a bit terrible, "bad" is quite lovable, and in the end we're left to decide who we root for and why.