After the set up of the first 2 episodes of Doom Patrol, it’s time for the team to pull together and seek out the chief… or is it?
Episode 3: Puppet Patrol
After some slightly dodgy detective work (Cyborg’s “grid” AI just identifies Eric Morden as the “unsub” Mr. Nobody? How did it piece that together?) the team decides to head to Paraguay to follow up on a lead on Mr. Nobody’s past. Well, I say “decide,” but Cyborg basically bullies the rest of the team into going.
At the beginning of this episode it dawned on me that the reason Cyborg had been added to this iteration of the team was in order to provide S.T.A.R. Labs financing for more expensive adventures, like searching for The Chief.
I couldn’t help but laugh then, at both cyborg and myself, as he was unceremoniously cut off from all S.T.A.R. Labs resources, including the jet, by his dad Silas (who is a lot more stern than the Joe Morton version of the character). This was then topped by the team attempting to drive to Paraguay from their Ohio, with a great visual “travelling by map” gag.
Overcooked?
Someone on the production team has very obviously been playing the Overcooked series of video-games, as the travel map looks just like the level select screen from the game! They both feature a little bus bouncing over the contours of the map!
Even getting on the road is difficult. As Vic tries to convince a reluctant Rita to come with them, Cliff’s response beautifully sums up this DC show’s approach to super-heroics: “We don’t force people to do sh*t they ain’t up to.” Has there ever been a better way to distinguish the Doom Patrol from other superheroes?
Another thing I loved was Cliff’s teasing of Cyborg. Hiding the keys to the school bus is so childish and yet so funny when it’s finally revealed. It’s unlike the banter you’d see in any other superhero shows.
After a whole lot of getting nowhere, Flit, one of Jane’s many personas, teleports Cliff, Larry, and herself to Paraguay. Skipping any attempt at subterfuge (I supposed it would be quite difficult for Cliff and Larry) they just walk right in to a Nazi superpower superstore set up by Dr. Heinrich Von Fuchs. Even better, the caretakers at “Fuchtopia” (love the pronunciation gags here) barely bat an eyelid. They even offer up a 3 hour puppet show chronicling the life of their beloved founder.
After poking around a bit and having what little pretence at a cover they had blown, Larry uses Fuch’s superpower chamber to have a one to one with The Negative Spirit, while Cliff and Jane wreck house.
A Long Walk off a Short Cliff?
While Larry’s chat with The Negative Spirit (by way of the avatar of his past lover) reveals that The Spirit may be as traumatised by their paring, Larry is just as tortured by his treatment of that lover and Larry’s wife. I can see this developing as a theme over the series.
I was quite surprised at how annoyed Jane was at Cliff’s horrible (but fun!) dismemberment of the Fuchs family. From the comics, Jane’s general attitude so far, and her actions as silver tongue in this very episode, she hardly seems against the idea of extreme grievous bodily harm on Nazi’s. She even killed Fuch’s himself. But apparently blending some Nazis with your robot hands is a step too far?
Maybe she’s just pissed because Von Fuchs accurately surmised that Jane is not the core persona in that body but “just” another one of her personas.
It also looks like the show is going to group up the various members of the Patrol each week. Which makes sense rather than having 5 people shouting at each other all the time. Cyborg and Rita seem to grow their relationship, but Cyborg is still an insensitive ass.
One final thought, the flashback to the accident that claimed the life of Cyborg’s mother and made him the (machine) man he is today looks almost cartoonishly dumb. Cyborg’s rash smashing of bottles results in a comically large fireball. I don’t know if Darkseid has turned up yet in DC’s TV universe, but you can bet there’s more to this than Vic thinks (or that Grid points out).
Oh, and a surprisingly accurate Animal Vegetable Mineral Man makes his debut this episode as a ridiculous customer of Von Fuchs who was left a little too long in the super powered oven.
Crazy Jane’s Personalities: So Crazy Jane herself is just another of the personas inhabiting that mind and body.
Best Line: “Control is a weapon for facists.” – Scrawled by a clearly pissed off Crazy Jane on the window of the S.T.A.R. Labs jet.
Episode 4: Cult Patrol
SOUND THE MARK SHEPPARD ALARM! Only 4 episodes in and the genre favourite, who’s appeared in everything from Firefly to Battlestar Galactica to Doctor Who to stealing a role from yours truly in War of the Worlds: Goliath (Just kidding Mark!) joins the Doom Patrol as Willoughby Kipling, a man who’s “very big in the world of shall we say international strangeness.”
One of the joys of viewing a adaptation so long after reading the original work is rediscovering forgotten things. While watching this, I had no idea that this episode faithfully adapted a story-line from Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Vol. 2. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
A stand in for John Constantine in the comics, Kipling turns up to seek out something from The Chief, something that he needs in order to combat the cult of the unwritten book. They are attempting to read the… um… unwritten book (which is a person) and bring about the end of the world via The Decreator. Got all that? No? Never mind, let’s continue anyway.
While Cyborg’s incessant bullying and belittling of Rita seems churlish after their detente in the last episode, Sheppard steals the show with his occult “gadgets.” It’s nice, for once, to see the rest of the team, as opposed to just Cliff, be aghast at items like “knowing gum,” the Janis Joplin’s incredibly spiritually strong dental floss, and the magical properties of two grams of Michelangelo’s ashes (smoked).
I’m still puzzled by The Negative Spirit’s actions this episode. While its attempts to communicate, and keep Larry around in the face of danger, are to be applauded, why did it let the book escape? Only to then be found almost immediately by Rita? What is it trying to communicate to Larry?
After some science vs. magic banter between Cyborg and Kipling, in perfect Doom Patrol fashion (and in line with the comic that inspired this episode), the DP completely fail to protect the book and the cult summons The Decreator into existence. Almost immediately they (what are the pronouns for a giant eye in the sky?) start “decreating” everything in existence. Whoops.
On to the gripping conclusion of this cliffhanger in the next episode!
Jane’s Personalities: Penny Farthing. A pretty useless English kid in the vein of Oliver. Kay, the original personality!
Best Line: “You’re young, you can afford to be a little stupid.”
Doom Patrol
HBO Go, Season 1, 15 episodes
Showrunner: Jeremy Carver
Cast: Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, Brendan Fraser, Riley Shanahan, Matthew Zuk, Mar Sheppard, and Joivan Wade.
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