For the last couple of nights, I’ve been binge watching the new season of Doom Patrol. It’s been a while, and I had completely forgotten how much I loved that show. Despite how weird it is? Hell, no! Because of how weird it is!
It starts with the main characters. Starting in the 1960s, Marvel pioneered dysfunctional characters, but their dysfunction lay largely in the person lives. As heroes, they got the job done. When DC arrived in Dysfunctionville, not only were their heroes messed up, but it affected their job as heroes. The most obvious ones on TV are the Legends of Tomorrow, whose appearance on the scene inevitably made things worse before they fixed everything. With the Doom Patrol, their dysfunction often ensures that one or more members won’t even show up for the battle (as happened in one of the recent episodes when they decided to go to a party in a gym instead).
I’m not sure how much I like the characters as individuals (they’re all self-centred and not always sympathetic), but watching them struggle sure is entertaining!
The secondary characters are fantastic. Danny the Street (not a nickname) is one of the most inspired comic book characters in recent memory, and his entourage are fab-u-louuuuuus! I also really enjoyed watching the Dada Sisterhood do their thing.
The villains are also awesome, starting with Alan Tudyk’s Mister Nobody in the first season (because just about anything Tudyk does is awesome). The butts (asses with legs and sharp, sharp teeth) that, in the current season, will bring about the buttpocalypse are both highly juvenile but highly amusing. And don’t even get me started on the sex ghosts.
What can I say? Doom Patrol has an off-kilter sensibility that appeals to me very much.