As Doom Patrol arrives on HBO Go, Iain finally takes the opportunity to catch up with DC’s strangest heroes.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that a Doom Patrol TV series was in the works. I had fallen in love with comic series in the late 90’s. That initial feeling of disbelief was almost immediately replaced with dismissal, as I scoffed that there was no way the medium of TV could contain the surreal genius of Grant Morrison’s comic run! Then, my dismissal turned to despair as I realised it wouldn’t be airing anywhere I could access easily anyway. Now that HBO Go has brought both seasons of the show to Malaysian screens, it’s time for me to catch up.
I first came across the Doom Patrol after being infected by mind expanding narrative brain worms from writer Grant Morrison and his series, The Invisibles. After devouring the reference heavy tale of a “cool” group of terrorist revolutionaries, fighting the old world order, the eschaton, and the forces of order, with all of existence in the balance, I was hungry for more. This led me to scouring the back issue bins of Ireland’s scattered comics stores for the surreal adventures of the Doom Patrol.
Consisting of Cliff Steele, the brain of a racecar driver in a robot body, aka Robot man; Larry Trainor, and The Negative Spirit that shared his battered body, and Crazy Jane, a fractured young woman with 64 different personalities, each of whom has their own superpower, the group was led by the wheelchair bound Niles Caulder aka The Chief. Morrison’s Doom Patrol fought existential threats that were beyond sanity. Threats other heroes like the Justice League couldn’t even comprehend, never mind fight.
Threats like the Scissormen, inquisitors from an imaginary city who’d escaped a fictional encyclopedia and threatened to devour “reality.” Or “The Painting that ate Paris,” that absorbed anyone who looked upon it. Or The Quiz, who has “every superpower you hadn’t thought of.” All of these were the meat and potatoes for the Doom Patrol even if, for the most part, they had no real idea what they were doing.
It’s going to be interesting to see if a TV show can provide the same level of inventiveness and maintain it over the course of a season without devolving into nonsense. I haven’t reread the comics in a long time (my single issues are safely stored in a temperature controlled facility on the other side of the world, aka Mom and Dad’s), so now is the perfect time for me to jump in.
Let’s see how it holds up against my expectations.
Note: What follows will contain spoilers for the first and second episodes of Doom Patrol, Season 1.
Episode 1 : Pilot
Having already been introduced to the Doom Patrol in DC’s other superheroe show Titans, there aren’t too many surprises when it comes to the look of their characters. I love the clunkiness of Cliff Steele’s Robotman and how they’ve skipped over any sleek look for him, going straight for the leather jacket with metal shoulder pads and heavy metal T-shirt look. While the episode acts as an origin story for the main trio of Cliff, Larry Trainor/ The Negative Spirit, and Rita Farr, I can’t stress how great it is to see Brendan Fraser in the flesh in Cliff’s flashback’s.
Even if he’s playing an entitled douche, he nails it! Playing a race car driver who’s reduced to a brain in a robot body, the scenes with Fraser are great in their 80s awfulness, but his exasperated voice as Robotman also helps to ground the more wacky elements of the whole affair.
It also looks like they’ve streamlined the look of Larry Trainor from Titans. There, he looked kind of ungainly in his coat and tie. I’m not all that familiar with Elasti-Girl/Rita Farr (as opposed to Elastigirl/Helen Parr) as she wasn’t in the Grant Morrison run, but they seem to be doing something interesting with her powers. Instead of making parts of herself, or her whole self, bigger or smaller, she’s more blob like. Tying her powers to her emotional well being is a bit of an overused trope when it comes to female superheroes, but seeing as every member of the Doom Patrol is messed up in some way or another, I suppose it works.
Diane Guerrero is a late addition to the pilot and has a lot of heavy lifting to do as Crazy Jane with her 64 distinct personalities. Wisely they keep her messed up origin as one of the mysteries on the show. Guerrero isn’t quite what I had pictured for Jane but we’ll see how she develops.
While Timothy Dalton oozes charm as the slightly shady Chief, the final member of the ensemble is the always watchable Alan Tudyk, providing an antagonist for the team in the form of Mr. Nobody. His super super snarky narration has just the right amount of fourth wall breaking comedy. “More TV superheroes, just what the world needs” indeed.
Towny Town
After getting Cliff up and running, Jane inspires the team/support group to head into Cloverton, a nearby town, for some “fun” while the Chief’s away. After an emotional and physical meltdown from Rita, which draws national attention, the team, such as it is, are forced to relocate for fear of the Chief’s mysterious enemies finding them. Only Robotman plans to stick around to protect the town from whatever is coming.
While I wasn’t quite expecting a laugh fest or full on action movie, both the humour and action were handled surprisingly well. What I really wasn’t expecting, however, was just how melancholy the show would be. By the time I got around to the comic, it was mostly Cliff who was still tortured by his fate, Larry being relatively well balanced with the negative spirit, and Jane… well you never knew what you would get with Jane. The level of sadness on display – and hopefully the teams efforts to struggle through it – really makes Doom Patrol stand out from the current crop of superhero shows.
The sadness in the main characters also provides a nice contrast for Tudyk’s snarky voiceover to work. Fourth wall breaking gags would wear pretty thin if it wasn’t for the occasional line about Cliff and his wife having reached “the bottom rung of marriage: contempt.” Ouch.
As the episode ends with the team finally working together, Mr. Nobody upsets the apple cart with a farting donkey and by telling the audience, “There’s a way out of this dreck, follow me,” as he sets a “big hole” about devouring the town.
I’m also a big fan of Clint Mansell and Kevin Kiner’s score. It give the show a nice, off kilter, retro vibe without resorting to “quirky” harpsichords.
So far, so intriguing.
Crazy Jane Personalities: Jane, Sylvie, Hangman’s Daughter, Sun Daddy, Hammerhead.
Best Line: “Critics, what do they know. They’re going to hate this show.” – Mr. Nobody
Episode 2 : Donkey Patrol
With the introductions out of the way, the team fail miserably to protect The Chief and Jane, or the town of Cloverton from being swallowed whole by… a big hole. Their only lead: a flatulent donkey. This is what smart TV looks like folks!
This episode sees the introduction of Teen Titan Cyborg into the mix as a straight laced hero, with a “shot at the justice league in 5 years” and a prior friendship with The Chief. Vic Stone decides to help the squad find the Chief partly due to fond memories of him, but also as an attempt to establish himself as a hero on his own, without his father’s help.
Mr. Nobody’s fourth wall breaking narration gets even more ingrained in the show, after Larry, Cyborg, and Rita get sucked INSIDE the donkey. In a nice touch, he narrates their actions via museum style audio headphones, while getting quite peeved when they don’t follow his directions. Back in the real world, Cliff tries to cajole Jane’s multiple personalities into revealing what happened to The Chief after she was spat out of the donkey.
It may be incredibly cruel but I laughed like a drain at Tudyk calling Brendan Fraser’s Cliff a “Bag of Ham” in a flashback. If y’all want to talk about range, I don’t think I’m ever going to get sick of Fraser exclaiming “What the F*ck!” as he’s repeatedly confronted by sheer lunacy.
“Bag of Ham,” Tee Hee
Cyborg seems like a bit of a weird fit for the series. A little too normal to gel with the rest of the “conventionally challenged” team. It’s also quite interesting that while everyone is from different eras (1950’s Rita, 1960’s Larry, 1980’s Cliff), it’s only now that most are really coming to terms with their abilities and hang-ups. Handy that.
The opening of this episode features a talking cockroach, preaching about the end of the world (for humans) and the beginning of a new one (for cockroaches). It’s hard to tell if this is just weirdness for weirdness sake, or if it’s actually going anywhere. I hope it’s the latter as one of my fears is that the show will end up just throwing any old idea on screen just to appear weird, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this pans out.
By the end of the episode, it seems we have our arc set up for the team for the season: rescue the chief from Mr. Nobody’s clutches, while coming to terms with their powers and hang-ups, while Alan Tudyk mocks everything and everyone via voiceover.
I can quite happily live with that.
One thing bugging me is Larry’s Negative Spirit. While making Larry gay is a nice update to the character, based upon how his/her/their body changed over the course of their adventures in the comics, I have to say I’m not entirely sold on the design of the Negative Spirit. This white, electrical being, is almost the exact opposite of the design in the comics, which actually looks like some of the effects in the later episodes of the recent J-horror Ju-On: Origins.
Also was that a pair of giant scissors in Larry’s cell/room at the very end of the show? Hints of Orqwith and the Scissormen perhaps?
Crazy Jane Personalities: Baby Doll, Katy, Lucy Fugue, Silver Tongue.
Best Line: “Grant Morrison fans, reddit trolls with DC Subscriptions, the three new fans that stuck around after the donkey fart.” – Mr Nobody, when asked who is he talking to
Doom Patrol
HBO Go, Season 1, 15 Episodes
Showrunner: Jeremy Carver
Cast: Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, Brendan Fraser, Timothy Dalton, Riley Shanahan, Matthew Zuk, Alan Tudyk, and Joivan Wade.
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