"Doom Patrol" - Titans S01E04 Review

Back-door pilot ahoy!

Yes, there's going to be a Doom Patrol series in 2019 on the DC Universe Channel, assuming everything goes according to plan. I don't see why it wouldn't: "Doom Patrol" is a pitch-perfect recreation of both the original Doom Patrol and the Grant Morrison era. About the only character I wasn't thrilled with was the Chief (Bruno Bichir). Who seemed too... well, thin for the role. But he's going to be replaced by Timothy Dalton anyway when the show goes to series.

There was no Crazy Jane or The Quiz. Although they teased the presence of Fever by having Shyleen Lao (Hina Abdullah) be a newly-arrived presence. But hey, someone did mention "Danny Street", so I suppose that means Dick and Kory were driving on the character. Right?

FYI, in the comics Danny is a metagene transformed transvestite teleporting street. Have I mentioned Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol era was kind of weird? Well, it was.

Anyhoo, on with the plot of "Doom Patrol". We get a cold open of Gar in a Congo hospital dying of a disease. The doctors all clear out for some reason: I think because there's an oncoming army. Some other guy (the Chief, presumably) shows up in a hazmat suit and gives Gar an injection, and Gar moans in pain.

Cut to the current day, and Gar in his tiger form finds Rachel in the forest. He takes her to his basement room at the old Calder house and Rachel is soon introduced to Gar's housemates: Cliff Steele, aka Robotman (voice of Brendan Fraser); Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (voice of Matt Bomer); and Rita Farr (April Bowlby). Each of them suffered from some kind of accident and the Chief restored them to some very vague semblance of normalcy. Robotman is... well, a robot with a human brain. Larry is wrapped in bandages and we never see the nature of his power. (Hint: it's releasing a negative energy form.) Rita lies around in her room as a big mass of cancerous cells and can assume human form, but she eats a lot and occasionally loses control of her form.

Each of the members of this "doomed" little group (to quote the Chief) is introduced in effective manner. Robotman banters with Gar, Negative Man makes dinner while bopping to music, and Rita lies in her room watching old movies of herself since she used to be a 30s film actress. They eventually have dinner with Rachel (Teagan Croft) who is loads better than she's been in the first couple of episodes. Part of it is accepting her new friends, part of it is her empathic abilities finally doing something, and part of it is just the character being with someone other than Dick (Brenton Thwaites). Rachel works better being friendly then being a girl on the run and Dick offering her some protection before he dumped her.

The Chief arrives with a new patient and Rachel helps stabilize her. Because of that, the Chief wants to do some research on her. That's a mistake, as Rachel objects when Chief-y pulls out the syringe full of serum. When Gar objects, the Chief shoots him with a tranq dart. Rachel's soul self cuts loose, breaks the Chief's back, and Dick arrives and calms her down.

Oh, while this has all been going on, Dick and Kory traced two hunters who saw Rachel and Gar earlier. They go to one overly aggressive hunter's house, and when he tries to attack Dick, Dick beats him to a pulp. Kory stops Dick, takes him out, and lectures him on how he has self-control issues. No duh.

Before they go, the hunter tells Kory the old Calder house is on "Danny Street". Which is what leads them there. Kory prepares to take down the three house residents while Dick finds Rachel and stops her from doing... something vague and portal-openy.

At the end, Dick and Kory take Rachel with them. And the "Doom Patrol" tells Gar to go with them and have a normal life. He does and they all smile happily and wave. And the next morning, the Chief stares pensively out the window.

"Doom Patrol" is probably the best episode of Titans so far. Part of it is the episode focuses on Rachel but treats her more as a normal person than as a bomb waiting to explode. I like this teenage incarnation more than the older comic books version. Ryan Potter as Gar finally gets some of the spotlight, and all I can say is "What took them four episodes?" In the comics he's the de facto youngest member, but I like him more here when he's Rachel/Raven's contemporary. In a four-member main cast, it gives them each other to play off of, while the older Dick and Kory play off of each other.

That brings us to the Doom Patrol, although they're never named as such on-screen. Bichir doesn't do anything for me, so good that they're replacing him with Dalton. Fraser (body of Jake Michaels), Bomer (body of Dwain Murphy), and Bowlby are all pretty much spot on. It helps they have things to do: Robotman gets lots of jokes and a scene where he has Rachel describe what she's eating to him. Negative Man bops around the kitchen and has lots of quirky little waves and twitches. And Rita has an old-fashioned 30s-actress attitude to her without going into parody the way that the Nuclear Family does.

None of them display any super-powers other than Rita briefly deforming, so we'll have to wait until the live-action series to see what they can do. And Rita's abilities, and supposed deformity, have never been that clear anyway. She was originally an attractive woman that could go and shrink. I guess now she's a blob of cells that can assume human forms, and... elasticize?

Overall, "Doom Patrol" was an entertaining entry in the series. It gave us some background on Gar, moved the plot on a bit, introduced the Doom Patrol, and finally brought all four members of this incarnation of the Titans together. Other than a mediocre performance by Bichir and wasting time saying he was walking and then breaking his back so that he couldn't--which is meaningless to anyone who isn't a comic book fan--there was nothing wrong with the episode. Kudos to writer Geoff Johns, a long-time comic book writer who has been involved with most of the superhero shows of the last 10 years.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?