We have a "normal" episode of Doom Patrol. Don't get me wrong: it was still strange and funny. But it was more "typical" humor, and didn't go for the Grant Morrison vibe except for one scene. Which makes sense, "Doom Patrol Patrol" was a homage/reference to earlier periods of the Doom Patrol in the comics, as opposed to being a Morrison fest like previous episodes.
How did it do so? By establishing an earlier version of the Doom Patrol in the late 50s. Which is apparently the given era for the "Back when superheroes wore funny costumes and were much more public and superhero-y". Unless you watch The Tick, which is setting the "old school" superheroes in the more recent present and then in the future.
Quick blurb for The Tick, it's dropping on Amazon Prime April 5.
In this case, the original TV Doom Patrol are Rhea, Arani, and Steve Dayton. Steve is from the late first period of the Doom Patrol, Arani is from the... second era of the Doom Patrol, and Rhea is from the third. Cliff, Rita, and Larry are technically the original team, but the Cliff and Larry on Doom Patrol--along with Crazy Jane--are essentially the fourth Grant Morrison era of the team in the comics. The TV version of Rita was never a part of the fourth era, and she really isn't the Rita from the first era of the comics since the TV Rita has a tendency to turn into a blob of protoplasm. Although in the comics, she was involved with Steve, and they eventually adopted Gar Logan aka Beast Boy. Who was in Titans, although they never said there he was the adopted child of Steve and Rita.
Got all that? No? Then look it up on a wiki. I'm also not sure if I have the era numbers correct. And DC has probably rebooted it a time or three as they are wont to do.
On with the episode. First, we get a bit of Rita in 1956 trying to convince a producer to hire her. He tries to seduce her casting-couch-wise, she turns into a blob and smothers him to death, and a helpful secretary ushers Rita out claiming the producer died of a heart attack.
In the present Nobody leaves a cryptic mental message for Jane to check out the Doom Patrol. She does some research and finds out there was a 50s team called the "Doom Patrol". Cliff is looking up his daughter, Clara, on the Internet, Rita is unhappy about Eliot being deconstructed in the last episode and not coming back, and Vic is still trying to repair himself after the damage he took in the battle with Nobody.
When the team argues some more, Jane gets impatient and teleports her, Larry, and Rita to the building in a photo of the 50s team. It turns out to be a spiffy suburban manor in what I assume is a parody of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children over at Marvel. Arani (Jasmine Kaur) and Rhea (Lesa Wilson) are training students in using their powers, and the place is run by a strange-acting administrator named Josh Clay (Alimi Ballard). Also running around is Steve (Will Kemp), who is eagerly to start things up with Rita again since they were involved in the 50s and then broke up.
We also find out Arani believes she was married to Niles and he had a daughter before he met her. And in a very Grant Morrison-esque bit, we find out the 50s Doom Patrol fought Mr. Nobody after he dropped a jukebox into a park via a balloon shaped like a pair of buttocks. The music from the jukebox drove people crazy, and its transformation ray turned the police into piñatas which the crazy people tore open and ate the candy inside. Steve also describes the team fighting Nobody and his army of vinyl men, but we don't get to see that. Watching people tear open a piñata of a policeman and eating the candy is disturbing enough, thank you.
There are ominous flickerings of the scenery throughout, and eventually Steve loses it and Josh reveals he's the doctor, not the administrator. The place isn't a school: it's a decrepit house with a mental projection of a school created by Steve. When Steve loses it after he starts arguing with Rita, the illusion breaks down and we find out the three former Doom Patrolers are old folks
Steve starts projecting Larry, Rita, and Jane's mental insecurities. So respectively we get Larry confronting an Air Force Man in Black type who asks if Larry and his "Partner" are ready to get back on mission. Rita driving a woman named Mary Beth to suicide. And Jane being swallowed by a wave of jigsaw pieces and a man calling to her.
The Negative Spirit leaves Larry's body and deus ex mechinas a solution (again) by removing the helmet from Steve and giving it to Rita. Josh reveals he has superpowers but never says what, and Larry wonders why he looks familiar. In the comics, Josh can generate winds and deserted the Army in Vietnam. That will probably get revised, since Alimi Ballard was born in 1977 and he seems a little young to be a Vietnam War deserter.
We find out Rhea and Arani torture themselves with their powers, and they and Steve were all "broken" by Nobody after a battle in the 50s. Josh suggests Nobody sent Jane there to find out first-hand what happens to people who cross him, and tells her not to fall for it. In a final touching scene, we get a shot of the 50s Doom Patrol posing for a publicity photo which is actually a mental illusion. The reality is, Josh is giving them their medications.
In the B plot, Vic has to call in his father Silas (Phil Morris) to repair his damage. While Vic is in sleep mode, Cliff rips Silas a new one, telling him to consider what his future relationship with his son will be because of how he's treating him. In the end, after Vic comes out of sleep mode, Silas is nicer to him and Vic hugs him.
We end with Rita tearing down her old photos so she can move on with her life. Larry chilling out with his "partner" the Negative Spirit, Jane discovering the door to her room isn't padlocked, Vic using a flash drive to access some restricted stuff after helping Cliff hack his daughter's Facebook (unnamed) page, and Cliff discovering his old pit crew chief Bump (Alan Heckner) has been raising Clara as his daughter.
We also find out slightly more about Steve Larson from "Puppet Patrol". He's now robbing convenience stores and his dinosaur head keeps biting his human head. It's pretty standard "modern meta types and how stupid they would be in real life" humor.
"Doom Patrol Patrol" did its part in honoring the past incarnations of the Doom Patrol, even if it ended by rather unflatteringly showing them as insane. Then again, Steve was never a picture of mental stability in the comics, either. And it was suggested at least once, Arani was delusional in the comics where she claimed she was Niles' wife as well.
Unless they're going to do more with Josh, I don't know why they played coy with his powers and background. Tthey could bring him back, but he's not that interesting a character in the comics and they're already pretty full with the five core team members, Niles (Timothy Dalton) who keeps showing up in flashbacks and mental projections, Mr. Nobody, Ezekiel the Cockroach, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, Cliff's backstory supporting characters, Larry's backstory supporting characters, Rita's backstory supporting character (the woman who killed herself), Willoughby, and lord knows who else.
We get a little more backstory on Rita. Hopefully she moves forward and becomes a member of the new Doom Patrol, as much as there is a new team so far. They still haven't coalesced as a team, and this episode focuses more on Vic and his relationship to his father rather than his trying to make the group into a team.
Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan continue to make a good team as the voice and body of Cliff. Shanahan does excellent work as the mechanical body that is old-fashioned and awkward, and Fraser keeps up a constant stream of jokes and swearing. I like Matthew Zuk more as the "body" of Larry than Matt Bomer as the voice, as Zuk has an odd awkward-but-graceful series of movements down. Bomer's voice is okay but nothing special.
In previous reviews, I've already written highly of Diane Guerrero. April Bowlby continues to do well as the brittle, sarcastic Rita. I wouldn't say Joivan Wade was the worst actor on the show, but he's definitely the one given the least to do compared to the other main actors. Does Vic have any personality traits beyond "angry young man" and "aspiring superhero" at this point? The other characters' backstories are their personal failings. Cliff was a lousy father, Larry cheated on his wife, Rita was obsessed with success and glamour. Jane is a victim, yes, but she's insane as a result, and having sixty-four personalities means she's usually doing something different from scene to scene. Vic, he may have caused his mother's death and that may be an implanted memory. It just doesn't match up with the others depth-wise or give Wade much to do.
Doom Patrol remains an entertaining romp, juggling the humor and the tragedy. "Doom Patrol Patrol" lands on both fronts, thanks to writer Tamara Becher. The fate of the 50s Doom Patrol felt... tragic, and she managed to capture the feel of both the 50s era and the Morrison era (thanks to the park/jukebox/piñata flashback), and incorporated Arani and Rhea into the mix. Having it play as a convoluted "dream sequence" created by a mentally damaged character is the best she could do to try and bring it all together.
It also has a subtle message about the elderly. Either old age is never explored in the newer "young" superhero shows like Black Lightning and Arrow, or it's brought up and then quickly dismissed with a few old-folks jokes on shows like Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Anyone remember Wildcat and the JSA? So seeing three essentially elderly (if they were in their 20s in the late 50s, they'd be... in their 70s now?) superheroes with essentially dementia, and turning their powers on themselves and each other, makes a powerful image.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Written by Gislef on Mar 23, 2019
No comments yet. Be the first!