Doom Patrol Season One
Any recommendation for Doom Patrol Season 1 must start with the question, “What’s your weird and crazy tolerance?” And I’m not talking a little bit I’m talking WEIRD and CRAZY.
I mean talking cockroach that wants to bring about the apocalypse crazy and perhaps my favorite recurring character ever the sentient gender-queer street that homes the misfits of the world.
Also season one is very much about the characters. It definitely gets slow in the middle episodes. I actually for the most part enjoyed the characters. (Jane’s anger can get a little much as can the chip on Cyborg’s shoulder. But only a little!)
More so the show actually recognizes this and there’s enough insane moments and great performances to make the show work anyway. I loved the characters and the actors but if you don’t early on you probably should bail.
Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser) is the most recent inhabitant of Chief’s mansion of misfits. He joins Larry (Matt Bomer) a test pilot who in the 60’s had a run in with a mass amount of radiation that should have killed him and instead has neutron man living inside him. There’s also 50’s Hollywood movie star Rita Farr (April Bowlby) whose Elasti-Girl.
Then we have Jane a troubled young woman with 64 personalities who each have their own power…
I was a particular fan of the one who could turn words into actual weapons. I had never seen Diane Guerrero anywhere before and she’s excellent here running through a real gamut of well differentiated personalities and when the show literally delves into her mind “the underground” it’s a fascinating look.
I should warn here that there are seriously triggering elements of child sexual abuse. It makes for some powerful moments but it’s hard to watch.
I actually think she and Larry had the best arcs and very emotional stories.
And then there is the amazing Alan Tudyk as Mr. Nobody who kicks everything off and kidnaps the Chief leaving the rag-tag team to find him with help from Cyborg (Jovian Wade) who partly wants to prove himself but mainly wants to get away from his father.
I was honestly surprised how much I loved season one. The only other issue I had was actually dealt with in a big way in the last two episodes. (Well I didn’t really like Chief – Timothy Dalton-) but as he’s missing for most of this season that’s not such a big deal. This is also a an adult superhero show lots of swearing, very emotional story lines, a couple of sex scenes and violence- one scene of violence actually even shocked me.
So keep that in mind along with the weirdness. Otherwise Doom Patrol Season 1 was a great fun ride. This show and The Harley Quinn Show honestly make HBOMax worth it for me. I’m hopeful for the Dark Justice League considering the track record.
Recommend: Yes.
Just keep the crazy in mind going in!