Why the Hulk works in The Avengers

The hints of Bruce Banner's struggle to accept that he is the Hulk make his character compelling but his focus on the team—rather than himself—makes him watchable. Bruce doesn't talk about himself  much in the movie, but when he does, he sets up an interesting contrast in his identities as Bruce and the Hulk.

Spoilers after the cut.

Can Buffy be our Doctor?

TV Overmind posted an open letter to Joss Whedon that discusses the potential of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be the "legacy" program in the U.S. that Doctor Who is in Britain. I love Doctor Who and Buffy, and I'm not opposed to anything Joss Whedon does, so let's take a look at what would and wouldn't work if Buffy were a continuing series.

The Doctor regenerates after he's mortally injured, and a new slayer is called after the current slayer dies. In both series, it's easy to switch out the main actor and use someone else. You're not replacing Darrin Stevens--it's a logical progression in the show. The Doctor's personality is slightly different with each regeneration and each slayer could take a different approach to her responsibilities. The Doctor can go anywhere in space and time to have his adventures. Slayers could be from anywhere on Earth, so there's the possibility of dealing with mythology and lore from various countries, and that’s pretty cool. The Doctor has different companions and he meets new people. Likewise, the slayer can have a new watcher, her own set of friends.

Where it falls apart

The Doctor, despite his regenerations, is the same character. Same man, new everything. He keeps his memories, his knowledge…the core being of the Doctor. The Slayer, however, would be a completely new person after the previous one died. She would need to discover who she is, go through training, and learn about vampires and the other baddies all over again because she’s a different person and new to slaying. It could get repetitive.

The Doctor’s character is a progression over time. Experiences that he has change him, and he retains everything he knows with each regeneration. Every Slayer, though, would be a different approach to the same type of character. You can have a Slayer that’s with it, wants to fight evil and does a good job most of the time (like Buffy). You can have the spunky, aggressive, violent Slayer we saw with Faith. You could have a timid Slayer, one who doesn’t want the job. You can have a Slayer that’s a mix of what we’ve already seen. My point is, how many times can you re-hash the Slayer? Every time there’s a new one, you need a different approach, something that’s new and creates a new character that make sense in the fictional world we're dealing with. Can you sustain something like that for very long? I think after a few Slayers, they’ll be too many similarities to care about the new one. Here's another girl who fights evil just like the dozen before her. Yay.

Every new Slayer would practically be a new show. New cast, new place, new problems. Doctor Who has those new things too with each regeneration, but the core character of the Doctor and his TARDIS keep everything together. The audience has something to hold on to while everything else changes. In a Slayer franchise, that constant thing would be the Slayer’s responsibilities, fighting evil, and I’m not sure that’s enough continuity between Slayers to keep the show captivating.

I’d love more Buffy or a similar show about a Slayer, but I don’t think it can hold up as a continuing program the way Doctor Who has. A collection of mini-series about vampire slayers, though? Yes, please. (Whedon being the one to do it would be amazing, but he’s pretty busy at the moment. Sigh.)

The Pretender and Dollhouse

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's new show on Fox. Eliza Dusku stars as Echo, a programmable person who has a different role every episode. The series has come into its own, but the first few episodes reminded me of The Pretender.

The Pretender was a series that aired from 1996 to 2000. The voice-over in the opening credits is the best explanation I can offer for what the show was about:

There are Pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be. In 1963, a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod, and exploited his genius for their research.

Then one day, their Pretender ran away....

In every episode, Jarod takes on various occupations--doctor, lawyer, detective, teacher, pilot--to help people while he evades people from the Centre and tracks down his family.

The Pretender and Dollhouse follow different characters and have different premises, but their episodes have similar structures. Secret organizations whose control is slipping. Lead characters who take on new roles to solve a problem. The cool thing for the viewer is seeing these characters doing something different every week. The difference is, Jarod keeps his personality.

Jarod grew up in the Centre so even though he's socially awkward, his personality is intact. He knows who he is and he knows what he's doing. Echo, however, has her mind wiped after every engagement. She's a blank slate programmed with a new personality for each task. It was difficult watching her at first because she had no character growth. How could she, when there's always a reset button pressed after she's done for the day? The first few episodes of Dollhouse were mediocre because Echo's character didn't change. She was stuck in a repetitive cycle.

But now Echo is retaining pieces of personalities when she shouldn't be able to, and that's what makes Dollhouse interesting. It's funny in a way, because Joss Whedon has said in various interviews how he doesn't like "reset television" where characters do not change from episode to episode (see here, here, and here) but Echo is the ultimate character in reset television. She can't change because of past experiences because she can't remember them...but in a classic Whedon twist, she's starting to. The character who doesn't have a personality suddenly has memories of what she's done and what's happened to her. It's no coincidence her name is Echo.

Cross-posted on the ning.

Dollhouse – Man on the Street

If you haven’t heard of Dollhouse yet, it’s Joss Whedon’s new show on TV. The basic premise is this: the Dollhouse is a secret organization that offers programmable people (whose own personalities were erased) for various tasks---perfect dates, assassins, undercover agents, whatever else---at very high prices so only the very rich and very connected have access to them. The programmable people, the dolls, live in the Dollhouse and spend their days exercising, painting, meditating, and relaxing. When not programmed with a specific personality for a client, the dolls are blank slates, essentially clueless and harmless. No personality.

The main doll is Echo (played by Eliza Dusku, Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), so the episodes generally follow Echo and the clients who pay for her. The concept of the series is a good set up to explore ethical and moral issues, and there are enough unanswered questions and uncertainties about the Dollhouse to keep viewers intrigued. It’s a Whedon show, so expectations are high, but the first 5 episodes were mediocre at best. They had Whedon qualities, yeah. Quirky characters, off-beat humor, actions scenes, sci-fi elements, and snappy dialogue, but those qualities didn’t blend together very well.

Until episode 6, Man on the Street.

This is the first episode Joss Whedon wrote himself, and it shows. We get action, we get humor, we get one of the best fight sequences on TV in a long time. The dolls have some substance to them despite their supposed blank states. We have subplots that are all interesting in themselves, neatly and logically connected by Echo. The episode is entertaining while staying smart. It answers a few questions, throws in a few twists, and poses a few new questions.

This is the show Whedon fans have been waiting for, the show that stirred so much hype around the web for months before it premiered. Hopefully the upcoming episodes will stay at Man of the Street’s high caliber.

Here come the spoilers…

Besides Echo, the character I’ve been most interested in is Agent Paul Ballard. He is sure the Dollhouse exists, but he needs to find solid proof. Like the audience, Ballard wants to know who’s in charge of the Dollhouse, what its true purpose is, and how it acquires people to be dolls. Ballard has a photo of Echo when she was Caroline, her own personality. We don’t know why Caroline wanted to become a doll, and Ballard is obsessed with finding out what happened to her.

I thought Mellie, Paul’s neighbor, was just that—the girl next door. Someone to talk to Paul, someone to nurse his injuries, but Man on the Street completely changed that in revealing that Mellie is a doll. What an incredible twist! I thought she was dead for sure when Hearn (the corrupt Handler) stormed into the apartment, but then Adelle activated Mellie over the phone! Great scene, but now I’m sad for Paul because he’s in love with a doll and not a real person.

Ballard’s fight scene with Echo in the restaurant kitchen was cool, and then we found out a mole in the Dollhouse sent a message to Ballard that he can’t take the Dollhouse down on his own, and he can’t do it while he’s working for the FBI. My bet’s on Ivy, Topher’s assistant, to be the mole. She seems to understand how the imprinted personalities work, so maybe she had a chance to modify Echo’s imprint while Topher was distracted.

I’m finally excited to watch Dollhouse, instead of watching it just because Joss Whedon is behind it. Dollhouse airs Friday nights at 9 on Fox.

Dollhouse and Serenity

Here's a still from a trailer for Dollhouse. See Echo.


Source

Here's a still from the opening credits of Serenity. See River.


Source

They're both great shots...but did anyone else notice how similar they are?
I'm curious.

Horrible Update

Newteevee.com has a great review up for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog with information about the special features on the DVD, including the winning applications for the Evil League of Evil.

I've seen a bunch of applications on YouTube the past two months, but the Final Straw is my favorite. He's an off-beat villain perfect for the League with lyrics like:

I am the the hangnail that consumes you
I'm the paper cut of doom.

and:

Not a glory hound attention hog who needs to make a splash
and hold a city hostage
for a briefcase full of cash.

I hope he's one of the winners.

Dr. Horrible on DVD

Dr. Horrible is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. (The release date is December 19.) The original price was $14.99, and it was reduced to $13.49, so it must be selling well. That's definitely good news.

Amazon is going to post a list of the special features, but I know there's a musical commentary, a regular commentary, behind the scenes clips, and the winning applications for the Evil League of Evil.

I can't wait for the DVD, and I hope Joss Whedon and company make some kind of sequel.

The incredible thing is, there's no advertising for Dr. Horrible outside of the internet. People involved in Dr. Horrible, especially Neil Patrick Harris, have talked about it in interviews, but no TV spots, no movie trailers...I don't know of any magazine ads.

Joss Whedon accomplished something huge with Dr. Horrible. He proved you can make quality entertainment without Hollywood studios. I hope more fantastic work comes out of it.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Horrible, Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, DVD, Amazon

Dr. Horrible's Soundtrack

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along blog was a huge hit in July, and several sites are still talking about it. The soundtrack was released today on iTunes. It has 14 songs, including the 10-second instrumental bit at the beginning of each act and the ending credits. You can see the liner notes and lyrics at drhorrible.com.

"Bad Horse Chorus" is catchy, "My Eyes" is bittersweet, and "Slipping" is menacing. The lyrics are clever, and the music will get stuck in your head.

I've had the songs repeating in my mind all week, and that's before the soundtrack and without re-watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's Horribly delightful.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Horrible, Whedon, soundtrack, lyrics

Dr. Horrible on Imacynic

I have an article up on imacynic about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a blend of my Dr. Horrible posts here with some new/updated stuff. Click here to read it.

My friend Jamie runs imacynic.org, "literature for the eclectic and affluent geek." I'm a contributing writer, and so far my articles have been about television and movies with the exception of one about Post Secret and Flickr. Be sure to check out his site (especially the Dark Knight content)!

Technorati tags: imacynic, drhorrible, Whedon

Dr. Horrible back on Hulu

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is back up on Hulu.com. Go watch it if you missed it the first time around, and of course, it's there to re-watch. :)

Technorati tags: drhorrible, hulu

Dr. Horrible's End

I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog in its entirety one more time last night, and I'm still not sure about the ending.

I like seeing Dr. Horrible being, well, horrible. The last song in Act II sets him up to go after Captain Hammer, and that's exactly what he does. Neil Patrick Harris' singing is excellent throughout the show, but his song after freezing Captain Hammer is chilling and menacing. I love it because we see Dr. Horrible as a full-fledged villain--not a bumbling mad scientist regularly beat up after botched heists.

Penny's death, however, feels like a let down. I understand the innocent bystander gets hit idea, and her death is what propels Dr. Horrible into the Evil League of Evil. Acts I and II make Penny likable enough, but her character comes across as being weak. She's timid, hesitant, and quiet. Sarah Dobbs pointed out that you even have to strain to hear Penny when she's singing alongside Dr. Horrible or Captain Hammer (both of whose words are much easier to pick out). It's not an act, there is no twist--that's how Penny's character is. I'm sad when she dies at the end, but I don't care as much as maybe I should.

We find out plenty about Dr. Horrible. His personality, his desires, and his problems are on display the entire time. Captain Hammer, while not a likable guy, is a strong character. Penny's just...there. Dr. Horrible has a crush on her. Captain Hammer wants to irritate Dr. Horrible by dating her. Penny wants to help out the city by converting an old building to a homeless shelter, but she needs Captain Hammer's influence to get the building. So when she dies I'm sad, but not that sad. Dr. Horrible has my sympathy at the end, when he puts on a confident face for the League and then back at home, we see he's grief-stricken over losing Penny.

If you haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I suggest you check it out some time. (Now it's only available on iTunes.) Joss Whedon's intentions aren't completely clear, but the acting and singing is superb nonetheless.

Technorati Tags: drhorrible, Penny, death

Whedon's Dr. Horrible is simply wonderful

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a mini-series starring Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser, M.D.) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly). It's an internet-only thing made of up three acts. You can see Acts I and II at drhorrible.com and Act III will be up Saturday. The idea came out of the writers' strike standstill when Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly...and Dollhouse coming this fall) wanted to make something significant with less money and no major studios.

And so we get this wonderful, funny, quirky musical comedy. Dr. Horrible (played by Neil Patrick Harris) is a sub-par villain with a crush on a girl he sees at the laundry mat. Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) is the superhero of the story, but he's not necessarily a nice guy.

The music's good, and the story's entertaining. Thank you, Mr. Whedon, for giving us something to look forward to in the middle of the summer.

You can watch it for free online until Sunday night. Then you can get it off iTunes or on DVD later on.

Technorati Tags: drhorrible, Whedom, musical, comedy