19 Jul 08 My Reaction to “Doctor Horrible”
Okay. I’m going to put this behind a “more” tag to minimize possible spoilerhood.
GOD DAMN IT, JOSS WHEDON!
You know, now that I’ve taken a few deep breaths, I’m still pissed off … and I’m sure I’m painting a big fat target on myself by having posted this on Whedonesque too of all places, but why does Joss always go for the death of a character he’s made us love?
Listen, I do get the power of that technique. But the fact that he has now employed it in nearly every single creative project he’s done is getting a little, well, repetitive: Anya, Book, Darla, Doyle, Fred, Halfrek, Jenny Calendar, Joyce, Lilah, Lindsey, Mr. Universe, Penny, Spike, Tara, Wash, and Wesley, to name ‘em.
But I tell you, part of why I am so angry is that I forgot this was JOSS FREAKING WHEDON we were talking about and OF COURSE this was going to involve Penny’s death. And I got suckered right in to the story and into caring for them.
The death of a beloved character is a SHORTCUT. And the fact that he keeps employing it is now seeming to me to be REALLY LAZY.
Honest to God, Joss, man, we GET IT. We’re now expecting that any creative project you work on, you’re going to write a wonderful, beloved, sweet character that you’ll make us love from the bottom of our hearts, and you’ll then scoop out her soul and not even give her an afterlife, or you’ll shove a piece of a death ray in her abdomen, or you’ll shove a ten-foot diameter Reaver spike through his body, or …
You’re starting to get the allure of a horror movie, except that the characters are so dimensional that they’re not the one-dimensional characters of horror, they’re four-dimensional characters better than real life. But your stuff is getting the patina of a chop-shop movie: what beloved character is going to die next, and in what gruesome fashion are you going to off them?
That’s exactly the reason I waited to watch the whole thing before recommending it to Prairie — and then didn’t recommend it. While she enjoyed Firefly, by midway through Serenity she was obviously not involved in it anymore, and by the end she was regretting going. Sadly, Whedon’s starting to go in my list of people who come up with great ideas but then just don’t really know what to do with them in the end.
@Mike - I’m not sure. I think he knows where he’s going, but I think he somehow thinks, Killing beloved characters off is always good drama. Damn, I’m good.