What? Joss Whedon explains:
All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom — that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)
And now to answers a few Frequently (soon to be) Asked Questions:
1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?
Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.
Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.
The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap — but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.
2) What happens when it goes away? Does it go to a happy farm for always like Fluffy did when mommy was crying and the neighbor kept washing his fender?
No, Dr horrible will live on. We intend to make it available for download soon after it’s published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we’re hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew ....
Strangely, the They Might Be Giants song “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair” which features a character named “Mr Horrible” is not included, but it does have everything else you could hope for: romance, humour, danger, evil maniacal laughter, laundry, extremely cheap special effects, and yes, singing.
I have problems with the ending (actually, just the tag), which I won't spoiler except to say that it employs, to my mind, one of the weakest of all narrative conventions. Otherwise, this was a completely charming piece with some really funny, entertaining, and compelling moments. It'd be lovely to see more stories set in this world.
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