The Doom Patrol

A couple years ago, the pilot episode of Doom Patrol was streamed for free. I watched it, and frankly, I wasn’t impressed for a number of reasons. I *might* have continued watching it, but only the first one was free, man, then you had to buy another streaming service to watch the rest of the season. I HATE that tactic and on general principle, I don’t give in on it. Same for the Paramount + service. CBS actually showed the first ep of Star Trek Discovery and then nu uh, ya gots to buy another streaming service to watch it, suckah! Didn’t give in then either.

     The Doom Patrol was streaming on the now defunct DC streaming service, but has since migrated over to HBOMAX. Which my daughter subscribes to, and thus, so do I. So, in the name of boredom viewing, I finally tried episode 2. I wasn’t sold, but it was enough to make me watch ep 3, and within a short amount of time, I was hooked and binging. 

     The DP is a group of screwed ups who obtain abilities and try to do the right thing. The powers, or curses, of these individuals are not what made them screw ups. They started out that way. The powers just exacerbated their issues. It’s a hell of a character study. And it’s weird. Very possibly the weirdest, most screwed up show in the history of television. Me trying to describe some of goings on would fall short and do the series a disservice. Instead, I’ll just mention some of the key players.

Niles Caulder is the Chief, a reforming manipulative mad scientist. He provides a home for the Patrol.

Rita Farr was a ’50’s Hollywood actress before being exposed to marsh gas in the Congo, which causes her to have elastic flesh when she can control it. When she can’t, it’s much like the Blob.

Larry Trainer was a test pilot in the ’60’s who flew into a space anomaly which irradiated him and created a negative spirit that lives within him. Larry has to wear special bandages which contain the radiation, while trying to live in peaceful coexistence with negative spirit within him, allowing it to burst forth from his body in times of danger.

Kay was a girl with 64 separate personalities, each with a different power, when Caulder rescued her from an institution in the late ’70’s.

Cliff Steele was a race car driver who was driving home one night with his wife when they were in an accident that killed her. Cliff’s brain survived and was placed in a robot body.

Victor Stone, Cyborg, who had about 40% of his body replaced by tech after an horrific lab accident. 

     There are other highlights such as Flex Mentallo, he of the powerful mystery muscle manipulation. Danny, the gender queer sentient street that can teleport anywhere in the world. The Beard-Hunter, who’s fairly self explanatory. Then there’s Mr. Nobody…. I won’t even try. 

     There’s some heart to the show if you can get past the characters that keep getting in their own way. The Doom Patrol is loaded with interesting characters, but then the parent DC comic always had plenty of interesting characters as well. Premiering on the comic stands in the early ’60’s right around the same time as the premiere of Marvel’s X-men, this was an unusual book for DC that broke the mold as far as DC heroes went.

     The show borrows from the early days of the comic by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, as well as from the later Grant Morrison issues from the ’90’s. Thankfully, the show does a much better job scripting a coherent story than Morrison ever did, so bonus there.

     I suppose if you’re looking for a little bit of super, a decent amount of fun, and a whole metric ton of WEIRD, then this is the show for you. Unless you’re a kid. This show is not for kids. 

     So far, there’ve been two seasons, with the third premiering on September 23rd. Considering that I just binged the first two, my timing couldn’t have been better. I’m ready for series three.