but a lot of the things you point out are kind of par for the course for the genre.

I've seen a lot of musicals - but normally:The music is of high enough quality to make up for a lot. A lot musicals, say Sondheim manage fairly high ratios of wit to witlessness, and put some depth into characterization. (Many, not all) operas are more comparable in writing quality, but then they have really really good music, really really good singing, plus my opera tolerance is not really that high either. This looked to me like a case where parody was used an excuse for really bad writing. But some of the posts help me understand how it can be seen differently.

And I agree with what someone else wrote here earlier - the ending song is wonderfulness. Such a tight, smart production.

Seriously, when the soundtrack's out?

I'm with d that Penny was definitely hoping to talk to Billy again in the laundromat and if he hadn't been so busy plotting how to kill Hammer and had met up with her things would have worked out differently.

Which totally feeds into the Greek Tragedy concept that Sail brought up.

Kalshane,

and honestly, I am not trying to belabor this point because while I'm disappointed, I'm still likely to buy the DVD, etc.

But my response is: why should whether she likes Hammer have anything to do with Billy? She's an adult woman. Yes, I think she was hoping to see him at the laundromat, but Hammer is still a dick.

I think by the time the dedication ceremony was going down she knew it wouldn't work out between her and Hammer but she felt she had to pretend for the sake of appearances.

You know what? - yes, without Penny Hammer wouldn't help to save the building, but given Penny's sheer assertiveness, can you see her doing so on her own? I can understand why Hammer's allure was lost on Penny once the building was secured to her cause.

Le Nubian,

In the final laundromat scene, based on what she's singing, she's obviously having doubts about her relationship with Hammer.

I don't know if having a conversation with Billy would actually change how things worked out with her and Hammer, as Laga suggests she may have already made her decision and was staying with him for the press conference for the sake of appearances but I do think that it might have further softened Dr. Horrible's resolve to kill Hammer. He plainly has doubts right before his freeze ray wears off and if he had talked to Penny and realized she wasn't as blindly smitten with Hammer as he believed, things may have gone down much differently.

but what about the Evil Gang?

they wanted Hammer neutralized (killed, preferably) and since his aim was to get into the gang, I'm not sure that an attempt on Hammer's life would have been avoidable.

I am fine with the point of the three acts to show Horrible becoming well, Horrible. I just wish Penny's role and agency were a bit stronger.

D woke me when he came home at 2 and kept me up until after 4 watching Dr Horrible and I'm only a teensy bit mad at him. I'll get through the day with the help of coca-cola and the snippets of song that keep wafting through my head. so romantic!

I apologize if this sounds snippy. It's not intended to, but I've got years of discussional frustragion here, so.

yes, it's also structured like X, Y, or Z. Hell, I can read it as an allegory for various and sundry things, often quite cleverly done. The fact that one can see Dr. Horrible and totally see the morality play aspects doesn't negate the part where, especially given its roots in the common tropes of comics, it falls prey to a narrative device (common in comics) that I find disturbing. Penny's treatment is practically text book. I understand that other people may not have that as a button, but the fact that it's not a button doesn't mean it isn't THERE.