Doom Patrol
I never in a million years thought that "Doom Patrol" on the DC Universe streaming service would be one of the things that I look forward to the most in a week. I'm already dreading when the season ends and I'm ready to start campaigning for a second season.
Episode 3: "Puppet Patrol"
Woman: "Welcome to Fuchtopia."
Jane: "Fuck-topia?"
Woman: "Fuchtopia."
Jane: "Spell it."
Cyborg is attempting to whip the misfits into a team with briefings and everything. Research into Eric Morden aka Mr. Nobody lead the team to take a trip to Paraguay. But when Vic's dad cuts him off, it's a two day trip by bus. During a pit stop, one of Jane's personalities, Flit, gets impatient and transports herself, Larry and Cliff to a bus stop in Paraguay. There they meet Steve, who is heading to Fuchtopia to get super powers. Cliff, Jane and Larry head there as well to learn the story of Sturmbannfuhrer Heinrich von Fuchs and his relationship to the Chief. Each of the Doom Patrolers are also faced with challenges that they may not be able to overcome.
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| Forbidden Love |
"Doom Patrol" keeps raising the bar on itself week after week. It started strong and it just feels like it is topping itself with each episode. I do worry a little bit that it will peak too early or the quality to start to drop, but I am just going to keep enjoying this. Part of what makes "Doom Patrol" so successful is the chemistry that the team has. They play on each other really well and it's super rare that the minutiae of an episode, the stuff that isn't plot related, that yo really get caught up on. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I could probably have watched a couple of episodes where the team is just on a bus, arguing with each other. It's just so freaking entertaining. That is just a testament to the strength of the ensemble.
"Doom Patrol" leans into it's oddball concept and it could be cloying and off putting, but instead it just enhances everything. The episode gets it title from a 3 hour plus puppet show that von Fuchs puts on to explain his background, including how the Chief shot him. It's so absurd but it works so well. Along with this, we also start getting more bits and pieces of the characters backstories. The big revelation this week is that Jane isn't the primary personality. That begs the question who is? Someone we've met before or heard about or someone completely new.
Even though it's quirky and weird and leans into that, the show remembers that this is a show about super heroes and we get the first real action sequence of the series and it certainly delivers. We finally see Cliff really let loose and it's nuts. He ripped a guy in half and beat another with the legs. It's definitely a lot more violence than we've seen on the show so far, but it doesn't feel gratuitous partially because of the cartoonish aspects of the violence, but also because of Cliff's breakdown after it's all over.
This episode belongs to Matt Bomer, though. Larry is still struggling with the Negative Man after trying to set some ground rules in the previous episode. Bomer is a great actor and when the show was initially announced, I was worried that all he'd be doing is voice acting, but these flashbacks give him a little more to do. We get a fuller picture of who Larry was before his accident and after the accident, Bomer emotes like nobody's business through the facial prosthetics. That's not easy. Larry has always lived this conflicted life, torn between what he wants and what he feels he should do. That' is a great conflict to explore and I'm anxious to see how he comes out the other side and what happened to him while he was in von Fuchs' machine. On a personal note, it's nice to see a gay storyline in a superhero show that is front and center and not kind of shuffled to the side or the background.
"Doom Patrol" pumps out another stellar episode that has me foaming at the mouth for next week. We didn't even touch on Alec Mapa's Steve who seemed like kind of a throwaway character until he reappears in the tag at the end of the episode. I'm sure we will see more of him and if you're curious about who he might be, I'd suggest Googling "Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man."
Grade: A
Is anyone else watching "Doom Patrol?" Are you loving it like I am? If you are, hit up the comments and tell me about it.
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