UPDATE: Sorry if you listened to the song that was on the playlist earlier. That was most definitely NOT the song I meant to choose. The correct one is up now. Sure picked a great day to remind everyone of the playlist...Don't worry the title of this post is an actual song. Check the music player if you don't believe me.
And yes, this blog is meant to be read while listening to the corresponding tune. If you aren't doing it the only person you are hurting is yourself.
Whedonism, like Hedonism... Yup, just like Hedonism
If you haven't been taking part in culture lately you probably haven't heard of Joss Whedon. But if you've been using your T.V. or computer for anything worthwhile, chances are you've run across him and his band of cohorts.
Whedon is the writer and creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly. Both Buffy and Firefly, now off the air, have developed huge cult followings and have spawned entire movements, of varying success, to get the funding and interest together to enable Whedon to expand their storylines. Minor successes include the production of Serenity, a feature length movie based on the Firefly storyline, and the creation of the Buffy comics, which pick up where the 7th season left off. The Buffy animated series, however, never quite took off.
More recently though Joss has been teaming up with some of the best in the biz for a new project: Dr. Horrible, a three part web-series starring Nathan Fillion (Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly), Felicia Day (from the web-series The Guild), and Neil Patrick Harris (Barney from the CBS series How I Met Your Mother). Basically each of these actors has more starpower in their pinky-finger than any other B-actor out there right now and in Dr. Horrible they put it to good use - musical style. Felicia Day, I might add, is not only cute as a button, but also played a slayer called Vi in season 7 of Buffy.
Firefly, HIMYM and The Guild should each independently be recognized as some of the best entertainment offered to the American public in the last couple years, and when you take the most beloved character from each of these shows, and stir in a healthy shot of Whedon, you've got a hit. You've also got servers crashing from the overwhelming number of fans watching Dr. Horrible repeatedly on the day of it's debut and a #1 ranking on ITunes sales because people would rather buy the show than wait a few hours for servers to bring back up the website where they could watch it for free. Originally in three parts, Dr. Horrible is now hosted on Hulu (see end of post) in a single, uncut episode.
What's most exciting though is the fact that this fall Joss has something new in store: a weekly drama called Dollhouse. This new project stars Eliza Dushku who also played a slayer named Faith from the Buffy series (so much for "one girl in every generation"). Dushku plays one of the "Actives," a group of people who have "voluntarily" given up whatever lives they had before to become Matrix-breaking superhumans who forfeit their memories and enter into the employ of a shady organization who rents them out as assassins, personal security guards and arm-candy. I think the premise of the show is great and that Joss is doing something he hasn't done before: make us think. While Buffy and Firefly were immensely entertaining they lacked substance. This new show should raise some really important questions of ethics, morality and definitions of humanity. It's just a shame it'll be on FOX.
One of the great advantages of science fiction is it's ability to show us potential moral difficulties in society and give us a chance to work through them before we even have to deal with them. Often, with a real visionary, like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov or George Orwell, the distopian future they depict begins to become reality before anyone takes sufficient notice. Sometime before the new season of Heroes begins I'll write a defense of Sci-Fi, but for now I'll take your objections.
Check out Dollhouse:
Hopefully the next couple weeks will give you just enough time to get hooked on HIMYM before this blog becomes entirely devoted to it (and Heroes) when the new fall line-up begins in a couple weeks.
So long Scoobies.
Also, if the ol' blog gets 50 hits today there'll be a contest starting tomorrow, with great prizes for all!!!!*
Watch (Legally!):
Dr. Horrible
The Guild
Buffy (Seasons 1 and 2)
How I Met Your Mother
*By "all" I mean the one person that makes me like them the most.
