So continuing my Joss extravaganza I thought I’d review the Dr Horrible DVD, and most importantly Commentary! The Musical.
For those of you who don’t know, Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog was Joss Whedon’s internet musical phenomena of last year. I don’t think it’s Joss’s best work, but it has some very funny moments.1
The DVD came out just before Christmas, and is absolutely awesome. It’s geared very much to the focused fan, with lots of very difficult to find easter eggs (I’m lazy so I just went on-line and found all sorts of pretty things). There’s everything you could expect a commentary and making of documentary.
But there’s also “Commentary! The Musical”, which is what you’re sound. If you’re a Joss fan I’d recommend getting the DVD even if you didn’t like Dr Horrible, because Commentary! The Musical is awesome. They rarely talk about what’s actually going on on screen, so it’s less a commentary and more a musical radio play, without much of a plot.
But the song are brilliant. Most importantly to me is the song about the writers strike. Clearly Joss songs about strikes are my favourite things.
Most of the rest of the songs are about the personas that various creative people involved take on. Felicia Day’s overactive brain is as hilarious as Zak Whedon’s who wants to be street wise. Although Nathan Fillion as a self-important asshole is funnier than bother of them (his song is called “Better than Neil,” and is just as great as you’d think it would be).
Like the greatest silly humour it’s extremely random – there’s a song dedicated to the iphone game Ninja ropes. And another song which is about itself (“It has internal rhyme, but not in every instance and the meter is occasionally a little bit bizarre).”
Most of the humour is silly and hilarious (there’s a great Nathan joke which revolves around the hammer being his bpenis). But there’s also some good satire. Maurissa Tancharoen (one of the co-writers and one of the groupies) sings “Nobody’s Asian in the Movies”, which I love as much for it’s faux resolution as anything else.
Although one of the people who co-wrote Commentary! The Musical, has executive produced 4 TV shows, and written and directed a movie. This gave him some power to determine how many Asians there were on movies and TV. Buffy was on for seven seasons and 144 episodes – and the largest recurring Asian part was Chao-Ahn, a Chinese potential slayer. One of Cordelia’s friends was played by an Asian actress, but she was a very minor character. And that’s it, in seven seasons (and if I’ve missed anyone it’s someone who was as part was as minor as the Cordette). Angel had precisely one recurring Asian character (Gavin) and Firefly/Serenity had no Asian characters at all (as far as I can tell from imdb – there might have been a small one shot). Writing funny songs about problems is a lot less impressive if you have had the power to do something about those problems and didn’t.
Then finally there’s Joss’s song about creation itself:
A CAVEMAN PAINTED ON A CAVE
IT WAS A BISON, WAS A FAVE
THE OTHER CAVE-PEOPLE WOULD RAVE –
THEY DIDN’T ASK “WHY?”
WHY PAINT A BISON IF IT’S DEAD
WHEN DID YOU CHOOSE THE COLOR RED
WHAT WAS THE PROCESS IN YOUR HEAD
HE TOLD THEIR STORY
WHAT CAME BEFORE HE DIDN’T SHOW
WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO
I think cavemen probably did get asked why they used the colour red. The division between artist and audience is a new concept, as it was only possible or expected due to the development of one to many technologies such as the printing press, radio, TV etc. That’s now been reversed by the many to many technology of the internet. To reify one sort of relationship as the natural state between artists and audience to ignore the material basis for these relationships.2
After listening to Commentary! The Musical, I’ve decided that should dollhouse fail I want Joss to make an internet radio show. That way I’d get my serial storytelling from him, and it wouldn’t need to be massively resource intensive, the way an internet (or actual) TV show is.
- I’ve been thinking about Penny and the feminist implications of her character. I think I’ve decided I don’t mind the story from that point of view. Jane Espenson makes a great point on her blog that dramatic characters are intentionally funny and comedic characters are unintentionally funny. Penny makes jokes – she’s a dramatic character in a comedic series. For me that works with the idea that these ridiculous men are fighting over her (it just doesn’t make the story any more resonant with me). [↩]
- I still haven’t decided how serious this paragraph is, if I figure it out I’ll let you know. [↩]
“Firefly/Serenity had no Asian characters at all (as far as I can tell from imdb – there might have been a small one shot)”
And this despite the fact that a basic tenet of the universe postulated an extremely influential China. Extremely problematic.
Especially frustrating since it took place in a world in which everyone swore in Chinese.
—Myca
Er, after posting . . . yeah, what Mandolin said.
—Myca
But it is hard to think of a better example of cultural appropriation. The whole Fireflyverse was appropriated and then the originators were vanished.
“Look! Chinese stuff is cool! We’re all American! What is this ‘China’ of which you speak?”
Thanks for pointing that out to me.
I would be interested in hearing about the development of the show — were there supposed to be Asian actors? Was the show initially conceived as being a racially segregated universe, in which the establishment was Asian, and the reason that the main cast was non-Asian was because they were on the fringe? (Given that the establishment in this universe was raked pretty well over the coals, that’s a pretty hard sell for non-racist at this point, although I can think of ways in which the show might have been able to pull it off.) A few of the characters had Asian-ish features or names — were we supposed to read River and Simon Tam, or Inara, as Asian even though they were played by white actors?
I just wonder whether anyone involved with the production had a clue about the problems they were playing into.
Although the answer is quite probably “no;” I can remember watching the making of Firefly and seeing one of the actors talk about how they mispronounced the Chinese that was in the show because they couldn’t figure out how to do it correctly. How hard is it to find a consultant?
The more you think about it the less sense it makes. But even if you can construct a narrative that makes it makes sense (for example the worlds are racially/culturally segregated, and our crew only visit the American dominated worlds. The Chinese dominated worlds btoh in the central planets and outer rim have almost no white people but people occasionally swear in English), it takes the responsibility away from Joss to make it work.
Although Mandolin is Morena Baccarin white? I know she comes from South America, but don’t know anything about her background/culture apart from that (I’ve been thinking a bit about this recently because Tahmoh Penikett is part native Canadian, but his characters read as white as they come).
As I understand it, they did hire a consultant to both write/translate swears and teach the cast out to pronounce them — I read an interview with her (?) once. But even with someone to tell you how to pronounce it, apparently it’s quite difficult.
I actually looked her up the other day, wondering if she was white or non-white (I’d always assumed she was Indian or something like that, but then again I also thought Glau might be of mixed descent). This is what Wiki says:
If you’ll excuse me dropping in something about the original Dr. Horrible, am I the only one who got the creeps from the premise?
I see anyone who really, really wants to be a supervillain as bad news, and the pov is that the viewer is supposed to be sympathetic to him while he’s chasing a woman who isn’t interested in him.
It doesn’t work for me as either tragedy or comedy.
I saw it as a brilliant depiction of the classic Nice Guy (TM) stereotype, but told from his perspective, so that you don’t quite realize how creepy and fucked up he is until it’s too late.
—Myca
Eh, that bit didn’t bug me. Seemed like it was more or less just the same POV switch idea that people have been doing for years in regard to things like “Did Little Red Riding Hood Have a History of Killing Forest Creatures? The Wolf Tells All!”
“I would be interested in hearing about the development of the show — were there supposed to be Asian actors? ”
Yes, Kaylee was originally intended to be played by an Asian actress.
As for Dr. Horrible, I agree with the sentiment that you are supposed to question Billy and not see him as a good guy, while simultaneously feeling some sympathy for him.
Chris – I hadn’t heard that, do you have a source? In the pilot script she’s described as Zaftig – but I don’t htink anyone’s ethnicity was mentioned.
I think part of the point about Dr Horrible, was that teh audience, and almost he character weren’t that serious about what it meant to be a super-villain. So at the end, the reality of being a supervillain comes crashing around.
“Chris – I hadn’t heard that, do you have a source? In the pilot script she’s described as Zaftig – but I don’t htink anyone’s ethnicity was mentioned. “–Maia
I could have sworn I did, but now I can’t find it aside from a few mentions on message boards. It might just be a rumor, actually.
Just FYI: Josh appeared on the radio show This American Life, played a bit of Dr. Horrible, and then performed that “CAVEMAN PAINTED ON A CAVE” song. You can find it here from minutes 28:00 – 38:00.
Joss.
—Myca
Thanks for the info! I listen to all the TAL’s eventually (it’s one of the things I listen to while drawing), so I’ll look forward to getting to that one.