TV Review: Doom Patrol

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Plot: Following the defeat of Mr. Nobody, the members of the Doom Patrol now find themselves mini-sized and stranded on Cliff’s toy race car track. As each member faces the challenge of growing beyond their own past traumatic experiences, they must come together to embrace and protect the newest member of the family: Dorothy Spinner, Niles’ daughter, whose powers remain a mysterious but real threat to bringing on the end of the world.

Review: The first season of Doom Patrol was a marquee series for the recently launched DC Universe platform. Now, with Warner Bros. launching their even bigger HBO Max, Doom Patrol's second season is getting a prime spot for a much wider audience. If you were not willing to pony up the dough for the DC-centric service but HBO Max has earned your subscription, you could do a lot worse than Doom Patrol. While the first season seemed to rely far too heavily on the lack of network censors that prohibit nudity and swearing, the sophomore run of the show takes full advantage of just how weird and wacky this corner of the DC Comics mythology can be.

Like the R-rated cousin to The CW's Legends of Tomorrow, Doom Patrol prides itself on being weird. Bringing together a team of DC Comics' less prominent heroes as well as featuring some of the more unique characters they have produced like Danny the Street, Mr. Nobody, and more, Doom Patrol's first season was a true origin story for the team with an added focus on Brendan Fraser's Cliff Steele/Robotman and Matt Bomer's Larry Trainor/Negative Man. While season 1 had Alan Tudyk as a central villain, this season does away with the villain of the week format we see so often on these comic book shows and instead opts for a much more serialized story that focuses more on character development rather than action sequences.

Over the four episodes made available for review, we find Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), Rita Farr (April Bowlby), Cliff Steele, Victor Stone (Joivan Wade) and The Chief (Timothy Dalton) still shrunk to the size of insects in the wake of their season one battle with Mr. Nobody. They are joined by The Chief's daughter Dorothy Spinner (aka The Ape Faced Girl) played by Abigail Shapiro. While Larry tries to fix their miniaturized state, the team has to face the revelation that their powers were the result of The Chief's actions. Just as the team came together as a squad in the first season, they are pulled apart here and have to deal with multiple new challenges over the start of the season. But, rather than repeat the same beats that the first season hit, this new story feels less reliant on connecting to Titans or any other DC property and forges it's own path.

Season two features flashbacks in each of the episodes made available for review that go back to the late 19th century to add to the back story of Dorothy and Niles Caulder/The Chief while others illuminate more about Cliff and Larry, giving Brendan Fraser and Matt Bomer more screen time rather then lending their voices for their contemporary altered bodies. There is still a lot of profanity, mostly gratuitous swearing from Robotman, but it feels more like a character trait now rather than the writers trying to make the series feel edgy. The special effects are also a bit better, especially in the miniaturized scenes in the season premiere. Where the series really manages to improve over the first season is with the dramatic elements of the story which feel much more organic and show that as funny and odd as this show can be, these are still talented actors who can bring some depth to their performances.

With Mr. Nobody gone, Alan Tudyk's over the top performance left big shoes to fill. But in keeping with the rogue's gallery at their disposal, the writers give us several contenders. The main adversaries we meet this season include Doctor Tyme and Red Jack, two notable foes for the Doom Patrol. Doctor Tyme's portrayal is definitely funny and is the closest we have gotten to a live action take on an animated villain from the various DC series over the years. On the other end of the spectrum, Red Jack is one of the scarier villains on this or any comic book series which is a pretty big compliment. Both are just a sampling of what this season has to offer but the lack of a central enemy puts added focus on the internal battles these heroes have to deal with.

Doom Patrol was never going to be an award winning comic book series like Watchmen nor was it going to be as straight forward an adaptation like Titans or The Flash. Instead, the series is growing into it's potential by really diving into these characters who each get ample screen time. Hell, Cyborg gets more to do on this series than he did in JUSTICE LEAGUE and Joivan Wade looks to have a lot of fun with the part. Everyone involved with this series is having fun in the sandbox of the DC universe and that means audiences will have fun, too. I am as intrigued by the first batch of episodes that I will certainly be tuning in for the rest when they debut and hopefully the larger audience of HBO Max will earn Doom Patrol a third season.

The second season of Doom Patrol premieres June 25th on DC Universe and HBO Max.