Choices, choices. Download the three-part web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog over the next few days, or wait for the DVD release? Maybe both.

Dr. Horrible is Joss “man with the Midas touch” Whedon’s experimental comedy/sci-fi musical. If the trailer above doesn’t lie, the whole shoestring production will shine like B-grade gold.

The story: Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, MD) is Dr. Horrible, too shy to talk to his crush (Felicia Day from The Guild) and struggling to prove himself to the Evil Group of Evil. The doctor’s arch-enemy Captain Hammer is played by Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Slither), the coolest poor man’s action star around.

Dr. Horrible is like an awkward, flamboyant grandson of Vincent Price’s character in The Abominable Dr. Phibes. (By the way, that demented, carnival-esque revenge tragedy must have inspired Max Fisher to do a copycat crime in Rushmore. Remember the bees released into Mr. Bloom’s hotel room?)

A guy like Joss Whedon doesn’t need to experiment to get people to watch his stuff, which only increases my respect for him and my excitement for this project. I hope Dr. Horrible is a success mostly because it looks really, really cool, but also because it’ll show other bigwigs there’s a fanbase for freewheeling, unashamed, genre fun.

At the time of this writing the location of the first installment was switching servers, but hopefully it’ll start streaming for free again.