The third and final act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is up. Joss Whedon is all about subverting genre expectations, and this is no different. You've got a supervillain who's actually pretty nice, versus a superhero who's a mean, creepy, preening jackass. When they both go after the same girl... oof. The songs are really catchy (and, as in "Once More with Feeling," actually drive the plot), it's by turns hilarious and heartwrenching, and the actors are all committed 100%. I'm a semi-hopeless Whedon fanboy, granted, but I think this might be the best thing he's ever done.

And it's on a budget! They've created an epic tale of blind ambition, betrayal, and revenge, and it's set mostly in a crappy apartment and a laundromat, with costumes no more elaborate than a t-shirt, a lab coat, and a very cleverly employed pair of welding goggles. Yeah, it's clear they spent more money than your average webshow, but not that much more. Good writing and acting: it's nature's CGI!

Not to be spoiley, but this certainly didn't end the way I thought it was going to. Which is good. (Or bad? Badgood? Bood?)

Why are you still reading this? The whole thing is only going to be up until Sunday at midnight, and then you'll have to pay to watch it. Which you should anyway, for something this great, but why wait? Go!

P.S. Hey, you're back. Okay, the reason this is actually better than "Once More with Feeling," even though that was arguably more of a achievement, is because this is self-contained. You don't need to know anything going in; it's all there. "OMwF" was amazing in that it advanced an ongoing storyline in musical form, but I'm sure it loses something if you've never seen an episode of Buffy before. So that's why that's what I think about that.