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When the Hollywood writers went on strike last winter, it was speculated that television and film's loss would be the Internet's gain.

It's been several months since the strike concluded, but there's finally evidence that that lull in production has resulted in a game-changing online creation from Hollywood professionals looking for a new avenue.

The first episode of the three-part Web series “Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog” was posted Tuesday at drhorrible.com, and it doesn't take a mad genius to realize its quality, its humour and its inventiveness signify a great leap forward for online video.

The series stars Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) as Dr. Horrible, a wannabe mad scientist who blogs about his unrealized dreams for world domination and his refused entry into to “Evil League of Evil.” For example, he's working with a vocal coach on his maniacal laugh.

He's an evildoer who's just not very good at doing evil.

Plus, he sings.

In the first 15-minute instalment, Dr. Horrible and other characters occasionally break into song; in one, Dr. Horrible sings of his love with a girl at the local laundromat. He has a nemesis, too: Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion (“Serenity”).

Says Hammer: “It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains.”

“Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog” is the creation of Joss Whedon, one of the best-known scribes in Hollywood, thanks to his long filmography of genre-bending TV hits: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly” (which inspired the film “Serenity”), “Angel” and the upcoming Fox series “Dollhouse.”

Whedon has a considerable fan base of sci-fi and comedy fans, and when “Dr. Horrible” went live on Tuesday, the site crashed from the traffic. The second episode will be posted Thursday and the third and final installment goes up on Saturday.

They will all be available for free streaming on the site with the videos imbedded in a player from Hulu.com, but only until midnight Sunday. After that, you'll have to purchase the show on iTunes, or later, a planned DVD of the show with a promised bevy of extras. (The first episode on iTunes ranked as the most downloaded TV clip Tuesday.) In a letter to fans, Whedon explained the venture was hatched during the writers strike (in which he was a vocal participant, penning an open-letter for Variety).

“Frustrated on the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy,” wrote Whedon.

He continued, “The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap — but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the Internet.”

The result is not a TV show published online or a dinky YouTube video, but a series suited to the medium and perhaps the best yet. The only thing close is the excellent 10-part “Clark and Michael,” the 2007 comedy series about two aspiring TV writers starring Michael Cera and Clark Duke.

Even though Dr. Horrible might not stand a chance against any of the superheroes currently flying around our movie theatres, the Web is his.