After a little break we’re back with our Doom Patrol Diary, although it seems to be more of a Psychology Log Book than diary as our “heroes” deal with so much past trauma.
Episode 5: Paw Patrol
After their spectacular failure to prevent the summoning of The DEcreator in the last episode, the Dysfunctional Patrol are are surprised to find themselves joined suddenly by Timothy Dalton’s Niles “The Chief” Caulder once more. The Chief, who can now walk, has been forced to cooperate with Mr. Nobody in order to prevent The Decreator ruining Mr. Nobody’s playground, aka all of reality.
Just hearing Alan Tudyk exclaim “The goddamned DEcreator. No, this cannot be the end, I refuse! I haven’t even been in the last two episodes!” really makes you realise how much you missed his deranged performance.
While Niles and the gang wait for Mr. Nobody to inspire one of Jane’s more persuasive personalities, Dr Harrison, to create their own cult in order to spawn a REcreator in the past, we get a little more back story on Jane and her original core persona, Kay, although not too much.
So far, I’ve been remiss in not mentioning the great Timothy Dalton’s performance in the show. Partly because he’s not quite what I picture when it comes to The Chief in the comics, the same goes for Bruno Bichir in that Titans episode too. This episode draws attention to just one of his strengths, via the French accented giant purple horse head, Baphomet. In reaction to encountering him again she says: “There’s that silky voice I miss. Like hot jam and honey. You really do turn my trot into a gallop Mr. Caulder.”
Beyond that voice, Dalton is a tricky presence to nail down as the chief. All warm and cuddly in his interactions with most of the team, and nothing but a helpful presence in those video tapes from the past, there is nevertheless an undercurrent of darkness in his character. Something which Willoughby Kipling highlights. Dalton positively sparkles with charm in every scene he’s in. There’s no doubt he can nail more menacing characters, but it’ll be interesting to see how he balances the two.
The Doctor Is In?
As Dr. Harrison gets waylaid in the past, her would be cult members make a lot of edits to her creation myth, Cliff gets to scream “WTF” some more in the nightmare world of Nurnheim while Jane’s timid persona, Penny Farthing, finally gets fed up with him.
I’ve also neglected to mention just how good Diane Guerrero is as Jane in this, again, mainly because she’s not quite what I imagined. The Jane of the comics fits a very particular late 80s/early 90s fantasy of a crazy (white) girl. Seeing Guerrero as Dr. Harrison, Penny Farthing, and Hammerhead, in adjacent scenes, really shows just how good she is at portraying all of Jane’s different personas. It is also heartbreaking to see the look on her face during her brief reunion with The Chief at the end of this episode.
Speaking of which, Dr. Harrison is successful in creating the cult of the REcreator and summons another wacky eye in the sky to bring back everything the DEcreator erased from existence. But where is Eliot, The Unwritten Book? It’s a different ending to the comics, where the Doom Patrol didn’t stop the DEcrator, they just slowed it so much that it’s “decreating” was almost imperceptible, but the TV ending is a little more upbeat for a show with so much darkness already.
Who’s a Good Suci Anjing? Yes He Is!
A solid episode, although the showrunners need to look further than Google translate when coming up with magic spells for the show. Kipling actually chants Malay (preceded by some Hindi) in order to summon the REcreator (“Suci Anjing, paling istemewa” or “Holy Dog, special dog”). It adds a whole new layer of humour to the show for me.
The threat averted, Mr. Nobody takes Niles away again, leaving the team with the gift of Cyborg’s arm cannon exploding, and a mental suggestion to Dr. Harrison for a phrase she should remember once this is all over: “The Doom Patrol”
There was A LOT going on this episode. I didn’t even get a chance to mention that the street preaching cockroach returned this episode! Farewell Mark Sheppard (for now?). As you so succinctly put it yourself, “You f**king legend.”
Crazy Jane’s Personas: Jane, Hammerhead, Penny Farthing, AND Kay Challis.
Best Line: “The goddamned DEcreator. No, this cannot be the end, I refuse! I haven’t even been in the last two episodes!”
Episode 6: Doom Patrol Patrol
After such a packed two parter (which was kept from becoming a 3 parter by Mr. Nobody), this next episode is slightly more straightforward. Mr. Nobody’s parting whisper of “The Doom Patrol” to Dr. Harrison, spurs Jane to investigate, leading to an amazing moment where she pushes the big red not-a-button on Cyborg’s chest and asks: “Hey Siri, what’s the Doom Patrol?”
Leaving the Robotmen behind, Flit teleports Jane, Larry, and Rita to check out the home of the 1950’s iteration of the Doom Patrol, while Cyborg and Cliff “bond” back at home. After Vic’s arm cannon exploded last episode, triggering his “safe mode,” his father, Silas Stone, calls around to check him out. Vic’s relationship with his dad is really toxic. Whatever trust they slowly build this episode via Cliff’s interaction with Silas is completely undone by the episode’s end as Vic steals his “security dongle” from Silas, allowing him to open up his cybernetic operation system.
Meanwhile, at the former Doom Patrol’s headquarters, no one is weirded out by the fact that the original team of Steven Dayton (Mento), Arani Desai (Celcius), and Rhea Jones (Lodesteon) haven’t aged a day since the 1950s. Seeing as it’s Jane, Larry, and Rita, who don’t seem to have aged either, I guess it didn’t seem off to them. I wonder if we’ll ever get an explanation for that?
To the audience, it’s pretty obvious that something is amiss, and sure enough after some Mento-induced-backstory-revealing-hallucinations, the team discover that the metahuman school, presided over by Josh Clay (Alimi Ballard), is actually an Old Superheroes Home for the Doom Patrol, that has been left severely damaged after their last run in with Mr. Nobody in the 50s.
The flashbacks to that encounter turn on a dime from goofy, a jukebox hung under a giant balloon shaped like a pair of buttocks, to absolutely horrifying, as policemen are struck by a ray that turns them into piñatas that are then torn apart by a crazed crowd.
Doom Patrol Prime?
While a very distressing status quo (for the original Doom Patrol) is restored, we do get another glimpse into the pasts trauma of Rita, Larry, and Jane.
We get hints of Larry’s military past, with the negative spirit, while Rita’s got yet another skeleton in her closet with the suicide of “Marybeth,” to add to the weird baby imagery from previous episodes, and her accidental murder of a lecherous studio executive back in the day.
Fans of the comic will know what those jigsaw pieces mean to Jane and I’m sure we will see more of them later.
What I really like about this episode is its approach to the comics history of the Doom Patrol. Josh, and his charges are from the various iterations of the comics, and have been revived and revamped numerous times. (Josh was the superhero, Tempest, before becoming a kind of caretaker in the Morrison run.) Nothing here really contradicts what came before in that typical comic book way. The other DC superhero shows did this in various ways but with the Doom Patrol it seems a better fit, perhaps due to their fractured history and comparatively short series.
Even though it can be incredibly dark, I’m loving it.
Crazy Jane’s Personas: Jane, Sun Daddy, Flit (very briefly).
Best Line: “How do I see my kids’ Facehole?”
Doom Patrol
HBO Go, Season 1, 15 episodes
Showrunner: Jeremy Carver
Cast: Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, Brendan Fraser, Riley Shanahan, Matthew Zuk, Mark Sheppard, Timothy Dalton and Joivan Wade.
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