DigVid Review: Actually Reviewing Some Vid

There’s not much to watch on TV these days – unless you are enjoying Greatest American Dog or Celebrity Circus or Celebrity Family Feud, and if so, you and I will just agree to disagree – so let’s see what’s on elsewhere, shall we? P.S. If you are actually digging Wipeout, I’ll give you a pass because while that sort of show is not my thing, I understand that many people find physical humor like that absolutely hilarious.

Cable is the first likely alternative and with USA’s Burn Notice having premiered last Thursday and TNT’s The Closer and Saving Grace last night, summer TV is finally off and running. While waiting for cable’s real summer to start, I’ve been occasionally entertaining myself with Lifetime’s Army Wives, but am finding it way too soapy and preachy for me in its second season, and TBS’ My Boys, which I enjoy as a sort of fun summer trifle. What I’m really waiting for is Mad Men, which premieres Sunday, July 27, but that’s still a ways away.

Enter the Internet, on which there is plenty of fun stuff coming out, including Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, TheOffice Webisodes and Heroes Webisodes. Here’s a quick review of each, and check out what B&C critic/contributor David Bianculli also has to say about Dr. Horrible/Terrific.

We know Dr. Horrible is knocking it out of the park because it crashed the server. Go Joss!  So while I wait for iTunes to load, let’s go check out The Office and Heroes.

The Office: Kevin’s Loan, “Money Trouble.” First I have to sit through an ad – once it was the Priceline Negotiator/William Shatner, and then on second viewing, it was Toyota. I had to watch choice because I didn’t believe on first viewing that that was all there was.  I do love The Office but 1) this was only two minutes so it was like sitting in front of a giant delicious Thanksgiving banquet and only getting to eat a bite of green bean bake or something. Also, while I want to be interested in the accountants and other side characters, I feel like they are side characters for a reason. These Webisodes just make me miss Dwight, Jim, Pam and Michael all the more.

Let’s move on to another of my NBC favorites:  Heroes. This mini-series of three Webisodes is titled “Going Postal,” and they introduce us to a new hero who has some serious power of sound. Nissan is the advertiser and Nissan actually has been a big sponsor of Heroes since the beginning. Last season, Claire’s father, HRG, gave her a Nissan SUV as a gift. In Webisode one, a postman who looks a bit like Terence Howard runs through an apartment complex that has be in Santa Monica. He gets apprehended by a new set of scary guys, especially one guy called “The Constrictor.”

Sprint has a clever plug in here too, showing up on an iPhone-like cell phone.

Overall, this Webisode was more satisfying to me than The Office’s. They actually start to tell an interesting story here, and I’ll come back to see the rest.

Now, let’s return to iTunes and see if we can see Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion in Dr. Horrible. By the way, I am so committed to this blog that I just paid $1.99 to see this Webisode. It’s pretty hefty, so 13:49 minutes and 167 MB are slowly downloading over my broadband. After a bit of a wait, I finally get to watch and this Web creation is by far the most rewarding, although it starts off a bit slow. Long live Neil Patrick, even though he’s in that middling sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, occasionally starring Britney Spears. Neil Patrick plays Dr. Horrible who is about as scary as my next-door neighbor’s Golden Retriever. His Broadway background pays off well here, as he sings about his Freeze Ray and his unrequited crush on Penny. And do you think it’s any surprise that Penny looks very much like Allyson Hannigan? If you plan on setting Joss Whedon up on a date, make sure it’s a cute redhead. Overall, I would say Dr. Horrible was totally worth the $1.99 I just paid to see it, although there was no sign of Nathan Fillion until 11 minutes in and that’s far too long to wait for Nate.