Tag: Doom Patrol

How DC’s TV Series May Change With the Warner Bros. Discovery Merger

When it comes to the DC Extended Universe, it would be fair to say it is in a bit of a predicament. Since the merger, Discovery is looking to revisit the DC slate in hopes of crafting a unified DCEU within one universe, akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While most of DC’s previously announced films look to be relatively safe, with the exception of Wonder Twins, the same can’t be said for DC’s television shows. With that in mind, we look at the current state of DC TV and try to guess how the merger will impact the remaining series.

The Arrowverse

When it comes to the Arrowverse, what shows remain are far from safe, especially as the CW was recently revealed to never have been profitable. The chances of many of the beloved superhero shows surviving are even more limited if the CW does go up for sale.

The CW has already said goodbye to series like Arrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning and will now say farewell to Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman. This leaves only Superman and Lois, Stargirl, Naomi and The Flash, which already looks to be reaching the finish line with its upcoming ninth season.

Superman and Lois, Stargirl, and Naomi are series that do not find themselves very involved with the overall universe unlike the rest of the Arrowverse. While Stargirl has yet to be renewed for a fourth season ahead of Season 3’s debut, Superman and Lois is already set to return for a third season. This, of course, could result in the series potentially ending after Season 3, or it could meet a similar fate to Wonder Twins and be axed before things get moving on production. The upcoming debut of the Justice Society in the DCEU could also spell bad news for Stargirl, whose whole thing is the JSA, and with the strange rules surrounding the use of certain characters in other mediums, the series could meet its end. Naomi is another detached series that could continue onward, but is currently airing its first season and has yet to score a renewal for season 2.

Many will notice that over the past few years, the CW has attempted to get multiple new Arrowverse series like Green Arrow and The Canaries, Painkiller, and Wonder Girl off the ground but to no avail. Gotham Knights is the only one that’s actually been able to film a pilot that was not a spinoff from another pre-existing show, but even that has yet to even secure a series order. Justice U, the David Ramsey-led series that would see him reprise the role of Jon Diggle and train new superheroes has also yet to film a pilot, which means it could also see the chopping block.

HBO Max

HBO Max has become the adoptive home of multiple DCTV series like Doom Patrol, Titans, and Harley Quinn. While a show like Green Lantern could very much still happen, especially as casting has been announced, shows like Strange Adventures and Superhero High appear to be dead in the water. We’ve heard nothing on either of them since they were announced, which seems to suggest they’ll be meeting the chopping block.

The harder question here is the fate of Doom Patrol and Titans. Both series have been running for multiple seasons now and feel like they could come to an end very soon. With Warner Brothers Discovery looking to consolidate and unify its DC Universe, these shows definitely feel like they could indeed be canceled as casualties of war.

Projects that will most likely be safe are those pertaining to Justice League Dark and what Matt Reeves has in the works like The Penguin. Shows like Constantine and Madame X are products of a deal between J.J. Abrams production company and Warner Bros Discovery, they feel like safe bets due to the fact they could contribute to the unified DC the new leadership wants and that they all lead into a big Defenders-like crossover event.

Peacemaker will most likely be fine, as it seems highly unlikely that the series will be canceled following its success and how great James Gunn has been for the DC brand since releasing The Suicide Squad. While a series like Michael B. Jordans‘ Val-Zod series seems likely to be canned as it would take place in another universe and just does not seem like it would be a priority for the new leadership moving forward. And animated series like Young Justice and Harley Quinn will most likely remain unaffected due to these series being a completely separate entity from the other live-action series.

The TV side of things feels like it is going to see much more of a shakeup as the overhaul moves forward at DC Entertainment and Warner Bros Discovery. The new leadership would be smart to evaluate each project and look for the aspects that work and see if they can’t integrate some of these characters into their prime universe.

May 3, 2022
How ‘Doom Patrol’ Could Serve as a Template for Marvel Studios Future Plans

When Disney purchased 21st Century Fox in 2019, Marvel Studios gained access to the live-action rights of a treasure trove of Marvel Comics characters. The X-Men. The Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom. Galactus. The Silver Surfer. Annihilus. The list goes on…and it really goes on. However, 3 years after the deal was sealed, we’ve only seen a Variant of Kang the Conqueror and some Skrulls, which were already kinda-sorta useable anyway, while Marvel Studios carefully constructs their plans for the mutants and The First Family.

To date, very little is known about said plans. At SDCC ’19, Kevin Feige announced that a Fantastic Four film was on the way and teased the arrival of the mutants. Since then, however, other than announcing that the new FF film would be helmed Jon Watts, whose recently completed Spider-Man trilogy integrated the Sony-owned Webslinger into the MCU, there has been no official news. Word did come that Marvel Studios was seeking pitches on The Mutants and minor tidbits have surfaced here and there about the Fantastic Four, but nearly 3 years later fans are still in the dark. And that’s ok. It’s ok because, as Feige well knows, Marvel Studios has to proceed carefully with both properties because, simply put, they have to get it right.

As with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and X-Men have had previous and relatively recent films. In the case of the FF, the most recent attempt to bring the characters to resulted in one of the most despised superhero films of all times; in the case of The X-Men, Fox’s love affair with Wolverine and inattention to continuity left some of the best characters on the bench, some others poorly adapted and fans feeling fairly frustrated with the end result. As Marvel Studios attempts to reboot these properties, fans are going to carry their experiences with these previous iterations with them into the new projects. In a way, that means Feige and the Parliament are starting in a hole they didn’t dig, but if they don’t get it right out of the gate with these projects, they’ll bury what should be two different properties that could each generate a decade’s worth of stories.

As mentioned previously, fans will be be wary of these MCU reboots as they carry the trauma of the previous versions with them into theaters. If the MCU versions of these properties start to follow familiar arcs or feel similar to what Fox did, fans will find themselves triggered and the aforementioned decade of projects will be DOA. In this case, doing it right almost certainly means they need to do it very differently to separate the MCU versions from the Fox versions as much as possible. That’s no easy task, given that both the Fantastic Four and The X-Men franchises have each been “rebooted” once already, however, Feige and The Parliament could find some inspiration in an already established property that has been incredibly successful: Doom Patrol.

The three properties are a great example divergent evolution in comics, so while their modern day iterations don’t seem to be incredibly similar, Doom Patrol, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are fairly inexorably entangled and have been for nearly 50 years. The group of metahuman misfits that came to be known as Doom Patrol first appeared as The Legion of the Strange in the pages of 1963’s My Greatest Adventure #80. Just 3 months later, The X-Men #1 introduced comic readers to the world of mutants whose strange powers kept them from being accepted by society. If the similarities of a team of weirdos being led by a wheelchair-bound doctor/professor hadn’t ever occurred to you, they certainly did to Doom Patrol creator Arnold Drake, who once stated his belief that his plans for the team somehow made their way to X-Men creator Stan Lee, allowing him to launch his book shortly after the Doom Patrol first appeared. While Drake’s stance on “insider trading” softened over time, the reality is that other than some superficial similarities, the books didn’t truly have much in common. The X-Men dealt with themes of social injustice while Doom Patrol found themselves caught up in the incredibly strange types of adventures that fans of the HBO Max streaming series have come to know and love. And in that regard, it’s another group of Marvel heroes that have much more in common with Doom Patrol than the X-Men really ever did.

As Marvel Studios prepares to bring the First Family to the MCU, they could certainly take a few cues from the way that DC has brought Doom Patrol into live-action. Most importantly, Jon Watts and the creatives behind the project should embrace the strangeness that really defined the early days of The Fantastic Four and has made Doom Patrol a streaming hit. The Fantastic Four has been drastically redefined over the years, but their roots grew through stories about Mole Man and Monster Isle, Skrulls being turned into cows, traveling through time and having Ben Grimm be mistaken for Blackbeard, meeting the Impossible Man and many more ludicrous adventures that often take a back seat to Doctor Doom.

In order for Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four to be successful, it has to be different from its predecessors. Embracing the weirdness of the Puppet Master, The Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super Apes, the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android ensures that nobody will mistake this iteration for one of Fox’s attempts. Doom Patrol has provided a template for doing so successfully, not just because of the weirdness, but because the series has captured something that is also central to the story of the Fantastic Four: a family.

Sure, Doom Patrol isn’t a family in the same sense that the FF are, but they share a sense of tragedy and loss and loneliness that unites them. Over the course of several seasons, the characters of Doom Patrol have come to know, care for and rely on one another as a result of their crazy adventures and this idea is, at its core, what Marvel Studios could-maybe even should-do with their Fantastic Four. A family of explorers going on the type of weird adventures not previously seen in the MCU, but in the DCEU.

April 23, 2022
‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Series Moving Forward at HBO Max

DC comics continue to find a home with HBO Max. The major streaming service has decided to move forward with a new series based on Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner’s Dead Boy Detectives. Set to be adapted by The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey, the show is described as “a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief, and death through the lens of [the undead] Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland… and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace. It’s a lot like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.” The title characters will be portrayed by George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri, with Kassius Nelson playing Crystal. Yuyu Kitamura, Jenn Lyon, and Briana Cuoco are also part of the cast, with Ruth Connell reprising her role as Night Nurse from Doom Patrol.

Dead Boy Detectives will be produced by Berlanti Productions, their second collaboration with Yockey. The showrunner had the following to say in regards to the series getting the go-ahead:

I’ve been obsessed with this comic for a long time, so it’s a true passion project. And Jeremy, Berlanti Productions, DC, WBTV, HBO Max — they’re all encouraging me to run with every wild, bizarre, and unsettling choice. The result is going to be really dark fun.
Steve Yockey

HBO Max’s head of original content, Sarah Aubrey, added:

We are excited to be expanding further into the DC Universe with Steve, Jeremy [Carver] and the Berlanti team with this thrilling new spin on a detective series. We were fascinated by the world of the Dead Boy Detectives that Steve and Jeremy first introduced in Doom Patrol and cannot wait to follow the supernatural sleuths in the lurid mysteries to come.
Sarah Aubrey

As stated in the quotes, the Dead Boy Detectives characters previously made their live-action debuts in HBO’s fan favorite series Doom Patrol. Here’s hoping the new show finds just as much success as it’s predecessor.

Source: THR

April 14, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Doom Patrol’ Season 4 to Introduce Casey Brinke

Doom Patrol might be one if not the strangest DC series that is streaming on HBO Max. The series follows an unlikely team of emotionally damaged individuals with fantastical abilities. After facing their own trauma and self-worth, we spend time with them facing off against a reality-shattering Mr. Nobody, travel through time, and turn into zombies only to kill a bunch of Were-butts. Yeah, that last sentence is real and it’s still weird to explain, but it’s part of Doom Patrol‘s charm. The series got a renewal for a fourth season during DC FanDome and we can exclusively share that one iconic comic character from the comics is finally joining.

Season 4 will introduce the character of Casey Brinke. The heroine known as Space Case had to face off against her father, who turned into the villain Torminox due to a virus. Her mother was the one to take him out by sacrificing herself leaving her daughter behind. It’s a tragic backstory for the young heroine and happens to be fictional. You see, Danny the Street, who has appeared throughout the series, actually created the comic book she lived in and gained the ability to bring her into reality. As such, she had to come to grips with her life being fiction.

The crew behind the project are actively casting a female actress between the age of 20 and 30. They are sticking to her origins as a fictional comic book character, but she will be Dorothy’s favorite superhero. The upcoming season will see her face off against her father Torminox, who may have a bigger role in the story, as she comes to the rescue when he is attacking Dorothy. Her time in the real world will also force her to grow out of making corny catchphrases and hero poses to understand what it means to feel pain and loss.

The character will be added as a major recurring guest star in Doom Patrol’s fourth season, which just recently started production. She will make a great addition to the team, especially if they are building to her arc from the comics. The last tie we saw the Doom Patrol, they were embracing their heroic side with Cliff Steele stuck in the body of a giant robot. Dorothy has left the team to join the Dead Boy Detectives. As she has the ability to bring her imaginary friends to life, she may be the one to bring Casey into reality this time around. Her addition will be an exciting prospect for comic fans, and another character questioning their own existence fits perfectly into the team.

February 25, 2022
Murphy’s Team-Up, Volume 9: Favorite Comic Book Adaptation of 2021

John Sabato

My favorite comic book property this year had to be Netflix’s Sweet Tooth. Jeff Lemire’s original comic is one of my very favorites and was such an interesting read. The series mostly stays true to it’s source material but isn’t afraid to make creative changes that let it stand apart from the comic. It’s a sweet and wholesome story that sees a young hybrid boy and a grizzled survivor of the plague travel what’s left of the world to find the answers to what came first: the plague or the hybrids?

Anthony Canton III

There’s something to be said for a show that continues to get better over each of its three seasons. Doom Patrol does that in spades. There’s a level of self awareness, humor, and introspection that makes it the best live-action comic book adaptation I’ve seen. The casts performances particularly this season have been extraordinary. Nuanced, tragic, and some even angry. Brendan Fraser in particular has been a standout in bringing such a broken character like Robotman to the screen. We’ve had a lot of good to great entries in comic book tv and film this year, but no property quite understands it’s assignment like Doom Patrol.

Nathan Miller

My favorite comic book project of the year is Eternals. I loved how the film made me feel. Through the performances, direction and soundtrack, I felt the weight of human history, the joy of friendships and found family, the terrifying vastness of space, and the drive of needing to pull together to tackle environmental problems. Intellectually I think the film points toward the future of storytelling, in leaving behind The Hero’s Journey and embodying a more collective journey beyond binary perspectives. It’s a shame more people didn’t initially appreciate the film’s complexity, but hopefully that will change over the next few years, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe enriches its appreciation retrospectively. I’m looking forward to Chloe Zhao’s sequel and the Eternals themselves eventually appearing alongside other established MCU characters.

João Pinto

This wasn’t my first choice, but someone with impeccable taste got to that one first (thank you to my friend, JJ!). But in a sense, this show deserves to take the top spot. WandaVision was a pop culture phenomenon. Due to many production delays that affected several projects, it ended up becoming the first Marvel Studios project to be released after the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic and to say audiences were hungry for content is an obvious understatement. The weeks the show was on were some of the best ever to be a comic book fan. The theories ran wild as the show lent itself to the sort of online discourse that drove everyone insane by the sheer magnitude of some of the hot takes. Covering it was a blast as well. I must say that the Murphy’s Multiverse team covered that show as well as any other site, big or small, did. It showed us how much fun we could have while doing something that hopefully everyone enjoyed, and in a way, it became the stepping stone for the work we’ve been doing covering every show ever since. By the enjoyment I got from covering it to following it as a fan it deserves its spot on my favorite comic book adaptations of 2021 list.

Joseph Aberl

I think my favorite comic book adaptation of the year must be Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I have no prior knowledge or history with the character. So, I went in pretty open about the adaptation. I was hoping for at least some fun kung-fu actions inspired by classics from the genre. Yet, the film went above and beyond as I ended up with an incredibly heartfelt story that also manages to open up the MCU in a creative way. I cannot wait to see Simu Liu’s future with the character and what a sequel might offer.

Charles Murphy

This will probably come as a shock to absolutely everyone, most of all JJ, but my favorite comic book-based project of 2021 was not a Marvel property. James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad takes the top spot for me and it’s not a particularly close race. While I certainly loved Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, The Suicide Squad feels like the most complete story. While the casts of WandaVision, Loki and Black Widow were lights out, the cast of The Suicide Squad was all but perfect. And finally, while Marvel Studios did a great job bringing some less-than-popular characters this past year, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport stands as not only the best reinvention of a little known comic book character in the past year, but also arguably of all time. After a year in which the comic book-based entertainment we all love was painfully absent, we had plenty in 2021 but none of them quite matched the quality of The Suicide Squad.

Hunter Radesi

I’m as surprised as anyone to be writing this, but I think the quirky magic of Loki was my favorite experience with a comic adaptation this year. I was firmly against the idea of this project from the start, and you can probably find old tweets of mine stating the show would be a waste of resources on a character whose story I felt was already over. I couldn’t have been proven more wrong. Michael Waldron and Kate Herron managed to craft a fresh, unique spin on the genre that left me wanting more every week. Absolutely charming performances from every member of the cast, genuinely joyous twists and turns throughout, and constantly beautiful set pieces that begged you to keep your eyes on the screen. I think I finally understand why my friends love Dr. Who so much. Can’t wait for the next season.

December 5, 2021
The Pulse: Collecting the Biggest News of the Week of November 21st-27th

‘Loki’ Cast Members Getting into the Madness of ‘Doctor Strange 2’

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is undergoing extensive reshoots which are designed, as star Bandicoot Snugglesnatch explained, to help realize the full potential of the film. Whether that means getting people on set who couldn’t be there before, when the film was shooting in the UK, or adding/reshooting some things, it’s ultimately a positive part of the filmmaking process for a pro like Sam Raimi and part of Raimi’s vision for this film apparently includes having Loki, Mobius and Sylvie in it. A recent IMDB update shows that stunt doubles for the actors behind those characters have recently joined the production. Additionally, Owen Wilson has been spotted in Los Angeles, a place he does NOT frequent unless he’s working. We’ll see how mad it all gets next May.

‘The Marvels’ Wraps Principal Photography

As the Doctor Strange sequel keeps on keeping on, the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, has wrapped principal photography after just shy of 3 months of work. Ironically enough, after going the entire duration of filming without a leak, a few set photos leaked the day after filming wrapped. The film is now slated for a February 17th, 2023 release.

‘AMTW:Q’ WPAWAWNSITCFN2Y

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania wrapped production as well and will not sit in the can for nearly 2 years before it releases in July of 2023. Of course it’ll undergo some additional photography at some point, which will inspire some intrepid internet personality to claim it’s a disaster and that the entire film is being reworked, but such is the cycle. It’s rumored that by the time the film does hit theaters, Rudd will look exactly the same as he did when filming began.

Netflix Go Going for a Power Rangers Universe

After crashing and burning with the launch of their Millar-verse when Jupiter’s Legacy turned out to be D.O.A., Netflix isn’t giving up. The streaming network, in an effort to keep up with the competition, is working on mapping out a Power Rangers Cinematic Universe, full of interconnected shows and films. Dragon shit!!

Chris Pratt to Americanize Italy’s Greatest Hero in Upcoming Film Adaptation

In an unprecedented act of aggression, American actor Chris Pratt is boldly attempting to erase the heritage of one of Italy’s greatest heroes by simply refusing to acknowledge it. Pratt, who is voicing Italian icon Mario, will reportedly not be imitating the stereotypical accent that’s been developed by the character over the years. Is nothing sacred?

Scott Snyder’s ‘Nocterra’ Headed to Netflix

One of the more original indie comics of 2021, Nocterra, is now in the pipeline to be adapted at Netflix. Nocterra, created by Scott Snyder of Batman fame, is a horror series that tells of a dystopian future where the lights all went out and a lot of bad shit started happening to people, including being turned into terrifying monsters. It truly is a wonderful book that you should check out before it gets turned into a trash series on Netflix.

More Blade Runner on the Way

Ridley Scott was a little grumpy this week, but in one of his kinder moments, he did mention that he had pitched a 10-episode season of a Blade Runner live-action series. It was a little confusing because on one hand, he railed against millennials while, on the other hand, realizing that streaming is the future of entertainment. With an Alien series already in development, it looks like 2 of Scott’s most iconic franchises will continue to live on and that’s almost certainly a good thing.

‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Cast Gets Recast During Casting for Dead Boy Detectives

The Doom Patrol spinoff series, Dead Boy Detectives, found it’s 3 leads this week. The new crew, who will replace the crew that appeared on the most recent season of Doom Patrol, is comprised of George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson. I have no idea who these actors or characters are, but I think JJ liked them.

November 27, 2021
‘Doom Patrol’ Spinoff ‘Dead Boy Detectives’ Recasts Main Cast

Doom Patrol is one of those rare situations where a spin-off is so good it manages to outshine its original in many ways. The series had become so popular that it went on to score a spin-off of its very own, focusing solely on the Dead Boy Detectives. The series introduced the characters this past season with Charles Rowland, Edwin Paine, and Crystal Palace making their live-action debuts. Before the season had even debuted the characters, they already got their own series but with a twist.

It’s being reported by Variety that the pilot has found its stars with George Rexstrew set to play Edwin Paine, Jayden Revri as Charles Rowland, and Kassius Nelson as Crystal Palace. Alongside the main cast, Alexander Calvert will play Thomas The Cat King, Briana Cuoco as Jenny, Jenn Lyon as Esther, Yuyu Kitamura as Niko, and Ruth Connel. She’s the only actor reprising their role from Doom Patrol, where she was Night Nurse.

One of the most bizarre revelations in this news was the fact that HBO Max had already cast actors in these roles since they’d already appeared in Doom Patrol. But with this spin-off the producers decided to toss away everything and start new, now official recasting the roles. They were previously played by Sebastian Croft, Ty Tennant, and Madalyn Horcher.

The project is being written by Steve Yockey who will also serve as executive producer alongside Jeremy Carver, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden. The project has to receive a series order from HBO Max and is currently going to film the spinoffs title pilot.

Source: Variety

November 22, 2021
REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol’ Finale – “Amends Patrol”

The title of the Doom Patrol Season 3 finale is more relevant than usual. Amends Patrol is all about redemption. Redemption here is most literal—making amends—and figurative. Our main characters finally make definitive choices as to who they are and who they want to be, taking control of their often-rocky narratives and owning up to the insecurities and flaws that have held them back for three seasons. As is typical for the series, redemption happens on an individual level for the characters, but perhaps the most exciting part of the finale is that we also get a major transformation on a group level. It is still abundantly obvious that Doom Patrol keeps finding ways to be successful in ways that most superhero or comic book shows cannot. It succeeds by refusing to yield to convention or by taking an easy story-telling route. It has consistently paid off for the series, but this episode is one of the finest examples of the series’ talent.

Where the episode ends highlights just how far the group has come. Where revelations and breakthroughs have come in the past, they are sometimes undone or overshadowed by the next conflict. Interestingly, they were often not accompanied by physical changes even though a lot of the internal struggles were pretty connected with the physical abilities or burdens of the characters. Here, there is no ambiguity—through all the turmoil, they seem to have settled into the new mental and physical places that they couldn’t previously access.

Season 3 made the decision to take its 10 episodes to genuinely develop and play out the characters’ arcs. The show could have easily turned the group into a formal super team at the end of the first or second season. In fact, it’s arguably bold that it avoided this very expected and anticipated element for as long as they did. But the result is a slow but rewarding burn that makes the “Doom Force” moment all the more exciting and meaningful.

The episode begins with most of the group in the last episode’s bus wreckage after Kay/Jane screamed and Larry’s parasite baby essentially blew everything up. While Rita is still obsessed with continuing on to find Laura, Larry and Vic are done following her after it became obvious that the whole situation is based on Rita’s selfish interests, which eclipse any concern she might have had for her teammates. Vic, who had been the biggest proponent of the super team concept, breaks and yells at Rita that they are absolutely not that. The Fog shows up as well to call out Rita. She tells her that neither Rita nor Laura are completely lost.

This sets up a make-or-break moment for Rita as a character, which was foreshadowed at the very beginning of the season. Will she take her newfound confidence and self-identity to pursue revenge and her own personal interest, or will she figure out how to direct it to something bigger? Not surprisingly, she ultimately makes it clear that she’s not truly evil, notably by coaxing the Brain into thinking she will help him only to kill him with boiling water. Her presence as a leader is finally realized in a positive way at the end of the episode as she seems to take on that type of role with the newly minted super team. If you remember the Rita of season one, it’s amazing how seamlessly and gradually she’s made it here.

Laura—definitively known as Rouge now—ends up a member of the Doom Force after she used the time machine’s amnesia to help herself make amends to the main group. Rita, for her part, decides at the last minute not to kill Rogue, further establishing that Rita will move forward.

Larry has a pretty straightforward path to “redemption.” The larva, a negative spirit named Keeg, needs to merge with Larry or it will die. He struggles with the decision of whether he can let himself go through it all again. Vic reminds Larry that he decided during the eternal flagellation to try and let love in. Larry ultimately takes in the negative spirit, saying “I swear I will try my best to do right by you. Always.” We later have a moment of glorious negative spirit flight and action before it suddenly fails and falls to the ground unceremoniously. He’s trying.

Jane’s decisions are less clear. She has been in constant conflict with the other personas over her beliefs on Kay’s growth. It turns out the personas fled the Underground and are living in the Fog because they are afraid they will disappear as Kay evolves. Yet they are still dying. Apparently, Dr. Harrison is the persona behind the scheme, only looking for control. Jane makes a deal with her that if she helps the personas return and rebuild the Underground, Dr. Harrison can be primary. It seems to suggest that Jane’s redemption is geared towards the personas now, not Kay. With all the previous focus on “the girl” with last season’s Miranda plot, Jane spent this season alienating and ignoring the concerns of the other personas in order to focus on Kay. By sacrificing potentially quite a lot in both the Underground and on the surface, Jane manages to make amends to the personas—it’s unclear if this will undermine some of her journey with Kay.

Cliff is the one who embraces making amends directly. Laura winds up early on putting his brain in a giant robot that the Brotherhood of Evil had thrown out at some point. He then convinces Laura to stop her rampage toward Rita, telling her that she’s, essentially, not completely evil. This is seemingly confirmed as Laura cannot bring herself to kill Cliff, and flies off instead. He then goes to Clara’s to genuinely apologize for being a terrible father.

The ultimate conflict of the finale ends up being Cliff, who has Parkinson’s, losing control of the giant robot which is stampeding into Cloverton. Jane, via Flit, teleports into the robot to try and help Cliff, and they have a tender moment while thinking that they are both about to die. Ultimately, Rita grows into the size of the new Cliff and stops him. It’s a very dramatic moment for her that speaks to a level of control over her powers that we have absolutely not seen before.

Later, the group reacts to what they had accomplished. Rita is particularly proud that they saved a town, even though Larry reminds her that they were the only threat in the first place. They finally agree to be a super team, with Cliff hilariously proclaiming them to be the “Doom Force.” It’s going to be a wild ride because the episode ends with the team labeling themselves and making a to-do list to fight a monster that they are using the time machine to get to.

Amends Patrol is undoubtedly one of the best episodes of the season. It leaves you excited for the next season while managing to be an engaging and compelling episode by itself. While Doom Patrol seems to finally make itself about the Doom Patrol, it’s also clear that the series is not going to be any more predictable. Yes, we now have an official team. But Vic isn’t Cyborg, Jane may not be primary, and Cliff is a giant robot. Larry still hasn’t mastered his new negative spirit, and Rita and Rogue have a tense relationship. And, of course, they are inducing amnesia to go fight monsters with all of these defects. But somehow, this episode ends in one of the most optimistic places Doom Patrol has ever been. The series is not taking the easy way into the superhero plot, which is what makes this show so unique. The individual character grind over the past three seasons made this space better and more meaningful than it could’ve possibly been had the series jumped into the super-team quickly. After this season, there’s every reason to believe that this show will only get better.

November 11, 2021
REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol’ – 3×9, “Evil Patrol”

Season 3’s penultimate episode of Doom Patrol is all about dysfunctional relationships. In fact, it is nearly impossible to point to any element of this episode that isn’t quite clearly a representation of a rocky and toxic relationship. It’s a theme that pervades Doom Patrol as a whole, but it was certainly wrung out in all of its glory in the previous episode. Evil Patrol makes it quite clear that the bulk of this season did the messy work of getting our characters to a significantly different place than they have ever been before in the series. As a result, this episode feels like Doom Patrol is now at a spot where the audience is no longer forced to try and figure out and parse through what is going on, but rather just getting to enjoy it uninhibited. And this episode—which could also be fairly named “Plot Patrol”—does what the series does best: be extraordinarily fun.

This season of Doom Patrol seemed to be setting up Rita as a major player at the very start of it, and it’s become more than obvious that Rita is really who is driving the show now. Even though the clearest conflict is Rita against Laura, Laura only becomes an arguably villainous figure in the present day because Rita pushes her into survival mode. Without Rita plotting to destroy Laura, the latter never would have returned to the Brotherhood of Evil or hatched any nefarious plot. Rita’s obsession with revenge is the only true adversarial threat of the story at this point—it’s pretty safe to say for certain that Season 3 does indeed lack a strong villain, but it isn’t suffering for it.

Rita’s loss of Malcolm turns her into a staunch vengeful personality with the confidence and motivation that comes along with it. It allows her to be an extremely different Rita than ever before. She makes it clear to Laura that she won’t let her ruin anything else and that she won’t stop fighting until she’s ended her life. She doesn’t hesitate to start gathering a team to help her, but she quickly realizes that almost all of her potential “assets”—Vic, Jane, and Larry—are no longer assets. It doesn’t really deter her, and she’s more than willing to go the extra mile in keeping everyone around to help. That’s how desperate she is to get revenge on Laura, and that’s how clear it is that she has little concern for the friends she used to have much more compassion for.

Her loss of herself seems most apparent when she becomes extremely paranoid that Cliff’s daughter Clara is actually Laura in disguise. It comes off as more of a blow to Cliff’s sense of worth, but it turns out that Laura did, in fact, infiltrate Doom Manor, but as Clara’s baby. The result is one of the funniest moments the series has put together—Laura shapeshifts into some kind of elf-sized, disturbingly proportioned creature that looks like it could have come straight out of a Shrek film. She essentially bounces around while the new and mostly depowered team swat at her with objects. The intentionally rough visual effects, including the awkward tempo of it all, fits with the series’ aesthetic perfectly, and it’s just a near-perfect moment. In the end, Laura teleports away with Cliff.

The fight comes after Laura rejoins the Brotherhood of Evil. The group—which is just the Brain and Monsieur Mallah—is a standout in Season 3 despite being minimally involved and having little screen time. Laura finds the two living in a retirement community in Florida, done with the life of the Brotherhood. Laura convinces the Brain to work with her to both keep herself from being killed but also to supposedly destroy Niles Caulder’s legacy. While they ultimately betray her, it’s not until after the Brain puts himself in Cliff’s body—he is living his best life. While the Brotherhood stand out particularly for the humor they bring, it’s ironic how they just truly aren’t villains here. Both Rita and Laura essentially use the Brotherhood as an excuse to target the other, and the threatening-sounding organization is just sort of the connector. The Brain and Mallah were perfectly content with their retirement before these two women came along.

Apart from the main Rita-Laura situation, the other characters have strong moments both alone and together. Vic probably has the rawest and compelling moment with his conversation with his father after Vic has his tech removed. Joivan Wade really delivers, and the scene grows from comforting nostalgia to completely chilling. It’s also the best Vic/Cyborg mental and emotional moment the series has given us. Vic’s arc was always very interesting—and this moment doesn’t make it more or less so—but it always felt like it was missing some intensity. Vic’s pushback against his dad’s attempts to convince him that turning him into Cyborg was the right thing to do, and claiming that he is ready to be able to actually define himself undoubtedly provides that intensity. It also feels like a watershed moment in the character’s development that was a long time coming. While we arguably “lost” the character of Cyborg, the fact that Vic otherwise remains himself is pretty cool. He’s such a strong personality with a good heart. When the team asks him why he came back to Doom Manor now that he is “normal”, he simply says, “I live here.” He has no interest in not being some kind of hero or doing the right thing—losing the tech highlights that Vic, not Cyborg, was always the hero.

Larry’s parasite baby is a delight. We get sweet and funny dad moments, but we also learn that the little larva can sense and react to everyone’s emotions leading to Larry being zapped by it every few minutes. Jane and Kay are still on rocky and fragile ground, especially now that the rest of the personas have left the Underground. Kay tries to take the reins but flees when she gets scared, and it becomes clear that the Underground will destroy itself if it remains empty. Cliff gets convinced that Clara coming to help him is too good to be true because he doesn’t deserve another second chance.

The overall theme of “dysfunctional relationships” is at its height at the end of the episode when the team takes the bus to go save Cliff. Everyone is resentful that Vic seems to actually have figured things out about himself after the eternal flagellation. Larry confronts Rita about how the mission really has nothing to do with Cliff for her, and she admits she chose not to save them all from dying to not risk erasing the life she built with Malcolm. Larry’s parasite makes it clear that everyone is emotionally toxic. It’s entertaining and laugh-worthy, and it seems true to the “team” we have known in Doom Patrol.

Because this episode seems to have started from somewhat new ground in terms of the overall plot—notably, getting the Brotherhood of Evil involved as a major piece—it was not predictable and it makes it hard to predict where the finale is headed. This isn’t anxiety-inducing, as the series in general and the second half of Season 3, in particular, has been very successful at making stories come out of nowhere and still be great. While we can say goodbye to the idea of a “big bad”, the Rita-Laura situation can probably be seen as a villain in and of itself, with Rita in particular actually giving off the “evil” vibes. Evil Patrol sets up an entertaining finale at least, and probably an exciting one as well. While only time will tell, Doom Patrol has done the work this season to make it something special.

November 4, 2021
REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol’ Episode 8 – Subconscious Patrol

After the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode, Doom Patrol’s Episode 8 had some high expectations to meet. While the episode accomplishes too much to truly do justice in unpacking it, Subconscious Patrol is a masterpiece. Without being overdramatic, I can say that this is one of the best episodes of television I have seen in a long time, if not ever. There is no doubt that this episode will go down as one of the most well-written, well-performed, and electrifying installments of Doom Patrol. Perhaps the best part of the episode’s success is that it does not exist in a vacuum, but was undoubtedly gradually earned over the three years of Doom Patrol.

The series is truly at its best in Subconscious Patrol in a lot of ways, including the writing and concepts it plays with in the episode. The overarching idea is interesting on its face, but the actual execution takes it far enough to be ridiculous in the best way possible. Forcing the characters to confront their subconscious selves is one thing, but to have those “subs” first hang out together in a pillow fort while the main characters prison break one another out of old memories is another. The pièce de résistance is the ultimate combination of mains and subs huddled in the same pillow fort watching each other attempt to sort through their emotional turmoil. It is maybe the first time this season since the first three episodes that it feels like the Doom Patrol was a family, or in something together.

The plot shines, and the convoluted—yet written well enough to easily follow—workings of the Eternal Flagellation are intriguing and exciting. But the character work is absolutely divine. Doom Patrol is known for how well it handles character development and phenomenal acting performances, but Episode 8 was on another level. It is frustrating, though, to try and generally summarize the episode when the details and complexities of it have been delicately built up for years and this is simply the payoff. In reviews of early episodes in Season 3, I criticized how some of the characters’ stories felt stagnant and repetitive at times, but it’s pretty clear to see now how all of it intentionally paved the way for what truly feels like a climax three years in the making. The writers and actors earned this moment, and it is beautiful.

Our new and Sisterhood-of-Dada-version of Rita explains the Eternal Flagellation. Essentially, every person in the world has swapped places with a version of their subconscious selves—generally from a traumatic or guilt-inducing memory. The point, apparently, is that no one will be able to hide who they truly are, which means that no one can be evil. While that doesn’t sound like the ultimate threat of the season, Rita assures them all that “it’s art.” It’s also a revelation that the Sisterhood of Dada is maybe yet another red herring for a villain. But honestly, it looks like maybe the Dada arc was genuinely working in the shadows throughout the season to bring our characters to this breaking point. The lack of a strong adversary in Season 3 certainly is not the detriment it could have been up to this point.

The Doom Patrol—apart from Rita—swap places with subconscious versions of themselves. Larry finds himself in a memory from the moments before his wedding where he ultimately gives in to the homophobic hatred surrounding him (here, his mother’s) rather than calling off the wedding. Vic actually swaps places with a toy called “General Tony” from a memory where a racist toy store worker threatened to call the cops on him because he dropped several toys simply looking for a black superhero—there were none, and General Tony the soldier is what he left with. Jane is somehow in the subconscious of Kay’s subconscious where Jane and the other personas are Sesame Street-style puppets playing into Kay’s fantasy. Cliff finds himself in a memory of his own birthday party involving booze, bros, and a stripper—but the kicker is that he intentionally left his young daughter in the car to enjoy all of it.

The characters’ subs all meet in Doom Manor and General Tony builds an elaborate pillow fort for them to convene. The way these subs interact could fill an entire other series alone, and already Matt Bomer and Brendan Fraser are absolutely phenomenal. They both benefit from getting to play very altered versions of the main characters we know—Bomer is pre-accident Larry and Fraser is pre-accident Cliff. Seeing either of the two as normal-looking humans is enough to be jarring, but allowing the actors to portray incredibly distinct versions of their normal character not within some kind of flashback is fascinating. While the subs discuss themselves, the main characters find a way to unite and break out of their subconscious realm and take a flying car (which looks like Cliff’s memory birthday cake) through a rainbow tunnel to Doom Manor to meet the subs on conscious ground.

When everyone comes together, the magic of the episode really happens. There is so much context to these characters and the conversations they have that it is astounding that the episode did it justice. This review cannot, but to be clear: this episode alone makes the 31 previous episodes of Doom Patrol worth watching even if you didn’t think they were before (but they are anyway).

Larry was the only character who achieved some sort of resolution with his subconscious self. His sub confronts him that he is afraid that he doesn’t know how to love or is not worthy of it. Again, Bomer takes everything about Larry to the next level in this conversation. But the kicker is his final plea to main Larry to change his life, reminding him that he is stuck in an infinite loop of that memory: “Make it worth what I’m going through.” Larry’s sub then disappears. Larry is the first character to have that conversation with his sub, so it sets the stage for the other characters to get their resolutions as well.

Except they don’t. Vic comes to terms with the fact that General Tony represents that he was expected to be a soldier and lost his childhood as a result. There’s an understanding that he can’t get it back, but General Tony tells him that he can make his own choices now. Vic screams, “I didn’t want a soldier!” as General Tony disappears.

Cliff’s conversation is brutal and disheartening. Fraser is masterful here, and it’s hard not to believe he was actually talking back and forth with himself in real-time. Cliff’s “breakthrough” is that he admits that amongst his need to feel special, fatherhood makes him feel nothing. He recognizes that he’s doing the same dumb things now despite his second chance with Clara. With a lot of shouts of “Fuck you!” back and forth, the sub disappears. Cliff is left more agitated and emptier than ever, and it is a dramatic contrast to Larry’s conclusion.

If Cliff needed competition for “worst subconscious conversation ever,” Jane gives him a run for his money. Main Jane is still a puppet at this point, which is hilarious, but sub Kay tells her that everything Jane does brings Kay more pain. Kay says that it’s time for her to grow up and be without Jane. This conversation is the most heartbreaking—Kay disappears after she says, “I wish you would die.” Diane Guerrero doesn’t let you forget that she’s been acting the hell out of Jane since day one, and Jane absolutely loses her mind. It’s as if this is the moment she finally realized that Kay getting better means her existence is useless. It’s particularly interesting because Jane always knew this to be the case, but here it seems as though she finally let go of the illusion that they can all grow together.

If the pure brokenness at this point was not enough, the episode has more punches left. After the Eternal Flagellation ends, our characters wake back up to the real world. Clara tells Cliff his presence as a grandfather isn’t working out, Kay has cleared the Underground of all other personas, and Vic wakes up from surgery with prosthetic skin and no tech. What we do have is Larry—sweet Larry—who goes back for the parasite he previously abandoned in the woods.

We also happen to learn why Laura DeMille actually time-traveled to 2021 anyway—after being fired from the Bureau of Normalcy because of Niles Caulder, the Brotherhood of Evil recruits her to travel in time, steal his technology, and bring it back so that the Brotherhood can invent it before Niles does. The Brotherhood finally gives her the name, “Madame Rouge.” Rita and Laura confront each other once again, and their duality and rapidly complex relationship is still one of the most interesting pieces of the Dada plot remaining.

By the end of Subconscious Patrol, we are on very uncertain ground. At the very least, we know that Vic is no longer “Cyborg.” There’s also the possibility of it Jane being destroyed by Kay at any moment. Cliff is a broken (robot) man, but Larry is finding a way forward. The Dada storyline might be fading out as quickly as the fog rolled in, but the way it was able to bring the character development to a head in this episode was incredible and compelling beyond expectations. It’s pretty unclear how the season will wrap up its last two episodes after this, but Subconscious Patrol is one to remember.

October 28, 2021