Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a web series created by J.J. Abrams and Matt Thompson, which premiered on November 1st, 2008 on the website Shockwave.com.
The series is a dark comedy about the life of a mad scientist, Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), who creates a web series as part of his revenge against the world. The series consists of ten episodes, each running approximately twenty minutes long, and ended with a “finale” episode on March 9th, 2009.
The series has been met with positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the series has an 87% approval rating, based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.
The site’s critical consensus reads: “A clever, subversive take on the superhero genre, Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is an excellent example of how to use online video to create an engaging and entertaining show.” On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the series has a score of 73 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has been nominated for several awards, including two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program and Outstanding Music and Lyrics for an Animated Program (the first time an animated television series has been nominated in both categories). In 2009 it was also nominated for six Webby Awards including Best Comedy Series and Best Direction (Matthew Thompson).