"Paw Patrol" - Doom Patrol S01E05 Review

It occurs to me if you're not a fan of the Morrison era of the Doom Patrol, the show doesn't make much sense so far. If that's the case, I'm sorry: Doom Patrol is probably never going to make complete sense to you. If anything, episode 5, "Paw Patrol" did even less with the main characters. Yes, they touched on each of the main character's subplots. Cliff is still frustrated, Larry is still tortured, Rita is still torn between being a hero or a disinterested bystander, Vic is still wrestling with the whole good/evil thing.

But mostly "Paw Patrol" is full-ahead weirdness. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Niles (Timothy Dalton) can now walk. Why? I don't know. Nobody is now a godlike power who can transcend time and space. Why? I don't know. Mother Archon lets Cliff and Jane go, and then goes hunting for them. Why? I don't know. Niles throws up whenever someone mentions Nobody's name. Why? I don't know. The Sisters read Elliott to create the Decreator and then just... let him go. Why? I don't know.

Beating the Decreator involves creating the Recreator, which involves ringing a bell in Nurnheim. That reminds Jane, Nobody had her create a cult back in 1977 and reveals the script on the Unwritten Book (which is a pug, hence the title), and the Recreator recreates all of the Decreating the Decreator has done, gets into a staring contest, and at the end they go both just... go away.

Why? I don't know.

I could try and explain it, but it won't make sense because it doesn't make sense no matter how hard you try. Welcome to Grant Morrison world.

Let's start at what passes for the beginning of the middle. Jane is punk clubbing in 1977, gets into a fight with some skinheads, and gets taken to a mental hospital. There she's treated for multiple personality disorder at the hands of Dr. Bertrand (Ezra Buzzington). Jane manifests a previously unseen persona, Dr. Harrison, who can talk people into doing anything.

Nobody and Niles have allied together to save the world from the Decreator. This involves creating the Cult of the Uncreator. Niles emerges back in the 2018 present and finds the Unwritten Book. Which Nobody somehow traveled back to 1977 to convince Harrison to create the Cult of the Unwritten Book. The other mental patients suggested they put the script on a dog instead of a person, and it only reveal itself when a bell in the ghost city of Nurnheim is rung.

In the 2018 Covington, the Decreator starts decreating everything and everyone. Rita tries to reach out to Elliot (Ted Sutherland), but before she can take him to do something he's never done, he gets decreated.

Kipling (Mark Sheppard) is still hanging around, He and Niles compare notes when Niles shows up--walking for some reason--and they consult Baphomet the talking unicorn head to find out where the Unwritten Book is. They track it down, discover a dog is the Book rather than its owner, and wait.

In Nurnheim, Mother Archon lets Young Kay and Cliff the Brain go and reverts them back to their normal forms. Why? I don't know. They eventually meet one of the mental patients, Marilyn (Jeannette O'Connor) and she agrees to hold off Mother Archon and her Hoodmen so Jane can ring the bell. When the bell rings, the script appears on the dog, Willoughby reads it, and the Recreator is created. It recreates everything the Decreator has decreated, the two eyes stare at each other, and eventually the Apocalypse is averted.

In the end, Nobody pulls Niles back to wherever the villain is hanging out. Nobody also causes Vic's arm cannon to blow up, damaging him. The team hits his SOS signal, letting Vic's father Silas know Vic is having problems. Vic isn't big on that.

Oh, and Ezekiel the Cockroach (Curtis Armstrong) argues with a rat about making cheese. And Nobody has planted the words "Doom Patrol" in Jane's mind. And Larry has a nightmare of his disfigured wife, Sheryl

So at the end, everything is back to normal. The team is still looking for Niles. Elliot is gone. Cliff still sees Jane as the daughter he lost. Jane (aka Hammerhead, one of her personas) still hates Cliff and everyone else. Larry is still tortured by the Negative Spirit inside of him. Vic still has issues with his father. Willoughby leaves through a portal and is not a part of the team, not that I expected him to be.

Good points? We find out a lot more about Jane than I recall finding out in the comics. And Diane Guerrero as Jane is pretty much the standout in the cast as she jumps from one persona to the other. Guerrero spends a lot of time as Harrison, but we see her as Penny Farthing. And Hammerhead, which is already getting awfully old.

Alan Tudyk is back as Nobody/Erik Morden, the omniscient narrator. Tudyk, I missed you. The main problem with his character is he has no motivation and is... well, omniscient. That means he can do anything, and often does. it's a rather frustrating experience.

Mark Sheppard doesn't get much to do as Kipling this episode. He and Niles have a love/hate relationship going, but that's all we find out about Kipling and his connection to Niles.

The bad points are if you wanted more on anyone other than Jane, you're not going to get it. And that the creative team tosses that all out to cram in more Morrison-style weirdness. The episode is written by Shoshana Sachi, a New Zealand author who doesn't seem to have done much TV other than episode 2, "Donkey Patrol". And that was a relatively "normal" episode, too. At least as normal as Doom Patrol gets so far. So, I'm conflicted: the episode isn't TV "normal", but it doesn't fully embrace the weirdness of Morrison even when it turns up the weirdness. I get the impression Sachi is using the weirdness to overwhelm the viewer so they won't notice the narrative holes caused by trying to adapt Morrison to TV. And they're Morrison's holes.

Hmm, I don't know if that makes sense. But it sure seems that Sachi isn't a full-time Morrison fan the way the other creative team members like Jeremy Carver, Chris Dingess, and Marcus Dalzine are. That she got stuck ending the Unwritten Book story after Dingess and Dalzine heaped on the weirdness last week, and glanced over the Morrison era comics but wasn't a fan. And thus "Paw Patrol" feels... second-hand.

For instance, there's no Dry Bachelors or razor-wielding Sisters. We get a bunch of mental patients formed into a counter-cult. Harrison's powers are pretty mundane compared to Sun Daddy or Silvertongue, and there's at least twice that the bad guys let their captives go without explanation. Mother Archon lets Cliff and Jane go, and the Sisters let Elliot go.

Say it with me, now: Why? I don't know. Apparently neither does Sachi. It just lets the plot move on to a conclusion.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong. But analysis and speculation is part of why I get the big bucks. And "Paw Patrol" had an odd feel to it. It felt like... an imitation of the Morrison style. As I've noted before, no one can do Morrison like Morrison. But "Paw Patrol" felt like relatively weak sauce compared to last week's Dry Bachelors, and Hoodmen, and reverse Beetle lyrics, and Janis Joplin's dental floss, and hot sauce & rosary protection spells.

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