Reel Expression

First episode is up! 2nd will be up on the 17th and act 3 on the 19th. However, they will be only available until midnight on the 20th! www.drhorrible.com

Never heard of it? Well then…

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

During the writers strike, Joss Whedon (Writer/Creator/Producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and the upcomming Dollhouse) decided to do something new that circumvented the studios. At least something good came from that huh?

So the entire thing is seriously low budget. But for once, its showing how low budget can actually be very good. Who better to give us something not only entertaining, but something to shove into the studio execs face, then Joss Whedon who’d been screwed over by Fox with Firefly? (If you haven’t seen Firefly, I highly suggest renting it)

It’s a “supervillain musical.” With Neil Patrick Harris as the geeky semi-competent supervillian Dr Horrible. Do I need put his past stuff in parentheses? Who can forget Doogie Howser, M.D.? (laugh) Or his recent brilliance in How I Met Your Mother - the only show with a laugh track that is not only watchable, but really good. Then you have Nathan Fillion - Captain Mal from Firefly!! - as Captain Hammer the over the top sex symbol type hero.

The writing of course is brilliant. From Act 1 (the set up) we see Doctor Horrible doing his video blog - “wow sarcasim…how origional.” We learn he’s trying to get into the Evil League of Evil. There is (of course) a girl whom he fancies, but can’t talk to. He sings about his freeze ray gun (and the girl) - the first song with brilliant lyrics. Doctor Horrible gets a response to his application for The Evil League of Evil from the leader - Bad Horse -, calling him to pull off something big. And hilarity ensues.

The editing is so subtle that I didn’t even notice it - and that’s what good editing is. Costumes are perfect - I love Captain Hammer’s T-Shirt with a hammer on it. The camera work, sound, everything is just right. The quality of it is rare in large budget productions and even more rare in low budget - just look on youtube for thousands of examples of bad amateur crap. Anyone ever see quareter life? That webisode series was just plain bad. This however is anything but bad.

Now, there are a lot of people who can’t stand musicals. My husband is one of them - I still can’t twist his arm enough to see Moulin Rouge. But, this isn’t one of those kinds of musicals. It’s over the top, campy and very very funny. Definitely reminiscent of “Once More, With Feeling,” that great musical Buffy episode. The songs are just humourous and catchy. I keep watching it over and over.

Not only would you be missing out if you didn’t watch them, but I hope you try it a 2nd time. For me, it gets better each time I view it. Also, if you want to support these types of ideas of new media you can buy them off iTunes and a DvD will be available later.

People tell me that I don’t blog enough. Most of the time it’s because I don’t have anything about SL to actually talk about. How many posts can I write - “Today I made poses?” I’m a bit slow on the news front and there are just better blogs out there. I’m not into leaving my sim, so I can’t really do yet another fashion review site.

Alle and I are working on the SL machinima review site, but that’s one of the projects I’ll be finishing while I’m away for the next couple of months.

Pre SL, Reel Geek used to be my blog for film reviews. I had stopped blogging and couldn’t think of a better name, so I nicked the blog of the SL stuff and deleted all the old posts. But there are still a lot of times when I really feel like writing my thoughts on something I’ve seen that I really enjoyed or hated.

I dunno how much I’ll post with it, but who knows…

Cheers
Luth

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008).
He’s pissed off most people and made the rest of us laugh for over 40 years. Most known (in history) for the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” (1972) - shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksuker, motherfucker, and tits.

He’s been the influence of some of my favourite American comedians including: Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher. He was the first person to host Saturday Night Live, has done 13 HBO specials (1977-2008), frequently on The Tonight Show as a preformer and guest host, plus was in many different comedy films including: Both Bill and Ted films, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

People in general either love or hate him. Which happens to anyone who is that upfront with their views on the extreme topics of politics, religion and society especially when those views are different from the societal norm. Few people can find the humour in things that they are passionate about. I can get that. I enjoy Reel Time With Bill Maher and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart partly because in most cases I agree with them. Even laughed when Jon Stewart made quite a few jokes about SL a few weeks back, but it was more about the congresional hearings on SL harboring terriorists. Yet I don’t usually find pro-conservative spin jokes all that funny, but I haven’t heard that many so I can’t be all that sure about it.

Actually the more that I think of it, maybe that’s the reason why most republicans have their pants in a twist, they don’t have enough comedians to reduce their anger on the big topics.

Now I haven’t always agreed with everything George Carlin has said, but its all pretty much funny all the time. Why I do really like is that he could find something funny in just about anything. Also that he could agree with certain aspect of issues but not others. And most importantly for me, that he could joke about anything no matter what society figured were appropriate topics.

Most of you who know me or have been reading this blog long enough can easily figure out that he’s a long time favourite. I’m pretty angsty now, but it was considerbly worse when I was younger. I first caught Carlin’s HBO show “Doin’ It Again” (1990) when I was 13. Of course I didn’t understand a good deal about some of the political issues he joked about, but it still was highly influential. See, no matter which of his shows you are watching the base theme is: question everything. Question politics, religion, society, everything. Most of his jokes are about “normal” things looked at a bit more closely or in a different angle then most people think about them. That’s some pretty heavy shit for a midwestern teenage girl who was constantly surrounded by people who expect everyone to conform to their version of normality.

Think about it… I was this girl with genius level intelligence and a base instinct of questioning everything, yet I was living in a society where not only were girls not supposed to be intelligent you weren’t to question anything. English teachers expecting you to understand a book their way and you’d fail if you saw other things in it. I had many fights with teachers over the years because they could never answer my questions on many topics outside the scope of the lesson plan. Most specifically in English and History. Now, I used the word “intelligent” instead of “smart” because there is a bit of difference. Being able to regurgitate information and memorize dates (history), themes (english), and theories (maths & science) is different then being able to understand it and come up with your own ideas. While most of the girls I knew growing up held themselves back on school work for fear of being a nerd or whatever other societial pressure, there was far more pressure against the logical use of your brain to think for yourself. Now, thats also not to say that boys were encouraged to think for themselves, but from my point of view of my history girls were pushed a little bit harder for the “normal” ways girls are supposed to be in order to attract boys, which is our primary role in life, right?

So prior to the age of 13 I had heard the quiet voice out there to question everything before. Or that I haven’t wavered and thought life would just be easier if I “fit in.” Hell, my SL business would more then likely be far better off if I kept my trap shut. I don’t know what it was that night that cemented my belief in questioning everything, but it did.

So.. Rest in Peace George Carlin. Thank you for the many years of constant laughs.

The following are NSFW and will make you angry if you don’t find the humour. The 2nd one espeically if you don’t see the humour in religion. The first one was from 1978 and the 2nd was from 2001.

This blog post is a good 8 out 10 on the work avoidance meter.

Last night I was searching the net for when Burn Notice, Eureka and Psych start up again and imagine my shock at finding out that Fox made a pilot of an Americanized adaption of the brilliant UK show called Spaced. It’s this slice of perfection of cult tv shows that should stay just the way they are. Spaced is a perfect example creative inspiration at it’s best. Luckily while the pilot has been made, the entire project has died an early death.

Bugger Fox broadcasting. Not only do they have faux news but they were stupid enough to cancel Family Guy oh so long ago - they only get a few points for bringing it back - but they were behind the horrible way in which Firefly was treated. Thankfully they passed on it. *deep sigh of relief*

Possibly due to the success of The Office remake for American TV and/or Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright’s films - Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. When they first came out with the announcement of the Office remake, I had many issues with that. Granted its not nearly as good as the origional, but it still had the brilliant Ricky Gervais (the origional creator) as a producer. A lot of people said it worked and maybe it did get more people to watch the origional, but I can’t say much since I haven’t watched it. But it could not have worked without the origional creators input.

In the press release they did mention Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright but completly left out Jessica Stevenson. On further digging I found out that none of them have been consulted about the show and all have been vocal against the entire thing. How the bloody hell can you have Spaced without those three?! How could Tim or Daisy be written or played by anyone but Pegg or Stevenson?! Some creative projects ooze the blood, sweat and tears from the creators. You know it when you see it. Other projects are made for money and that spark is just missing.

It would be like what West Wing was after Aaron Sorkin left. It’d be like a major movie studio remaking Clerks.

While there are some really great TV shows from the states, the only way Spaced would end up on the networks would be to seriously water it down. And you just can’t have a gen-x subculture comedy and still water it down enough for American network tv of today.

It’s not like there are so many cultural differences between the US and the UK. At least not so much presented in the show. Most of the references are about films (mostly American), video games, comics, and many other cultural references that are actually shared between the two countries. If Shaun of The Dead was well recieved, why would you need to Americanize the pretty simular TV show? Even in Shaun of The Dead the referenced Spaced! That didn’t ruin the film for those who hadn’t seen the show. Bloody hell, if people don’t get it as is, then they never would not because of the differences between Americans and Brits, but because of not being geeky enough. Those people have American Idol to keep them entertained.

I saw it when I first arrived in London and loved every min of it and in veiwings years later only a few things stand out as more understandable now.

If you haven’t seen it and like gen-x subculture and dry humour, I highly suggest trying it out after it comes out on region 1 DvD in July. And if you really like Brit comedy, I highly suggest also trying out Black Books.

Below is the first ep in the crap youtube format: