The best thing to come out of the short-lived DC Universe streaming service was the live-action Doom Patrol series.
It peaked in the first season, which debuted in 2019. The second season was strong but ended abruptly due to the pandemic. The third season suffered from some pacing issues, and the fourth season started getting a bit too silly before arriving at a satisfying conclusion. It never lost my interest, but any more would have been too much. That first season set an exceptionally high bar, though.
Doom Patrol worked so well because it was about something. It drew plenty of direct inspiration from the comic books, especially the Vertigo series that Grant Morrison wrote in the ’90s, but it went beyond a straightforward adaptation. Rather, series creator Jeremy Carver reached into all that source material, mixed it around, and pulled out his own original story—a story about deeply flawed and damaged individuals trying to become better people. It’s distinct while remaining very much the Doom Patrol.
The main characters reside in the mansion of scientist/adventurer Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton), who’s also known as the Chief. They’ve each suffered a tragedy that gives them their powers but also disfigures and/or psychologically scars them. The Chief sets up his mansion as a place of healing, which is a slow process. Most of them have been there for decades already.
Each character represents a different decade. Rita Farr (April Bowlby) was a 1950s movie star who, upon exposure to a mysterious substance, turned into a human blob. She’s been struggling to hold herself together ever since. Comic book Rita is a size changer, not a blob, but the blob approach is probably a less expensive effect and fits thematically.
Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer) was a 1960s Air Force pilot until he flew into strange radiation, crashed and burned, and began sharing his existence with a silent energy entity known as the Negative Spirit. Larry’s skin is now radioactive, so he must constantly mummify himself with special bandages. (When covered in those bandages, he’s physically portrayed by Matthew Zuk while Bomer voices him.)
Jane (Diane Guerrero) arrived in the mansion in the 1970s. She has sixty-four personalities, each with a different power, all of whom exist to protect the abused child at the core of her psyche.
Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser) was a 1980s racecar driver who should have died in a car crash, but the Chief installed his brain in a robot body (which is physically portrayed by Riley Shanahan while Fraser voices him).
And representing the current century is Vic Stone, alias Cyborg (Joivan Wade). Comic book Cyborg was primarily a member of the Teen Titans and had little to do with the Doom Patrol, but he winds up being a meaningful addition here. He’s the one natural superhero of the bunch, but he’s just as damaged as everyone else, physically and psychologically.
Cyborg doesn’t show up until the second episode, though. The pilot focuses on Cliff acclimating to his robot form and life at the mansion.
At this point, the mansion acts as a sort of timeless purgatory. None of the characters have aged since they arrived, including the Chief, who’s much older than all of them. Their longevity winds up being a major plot point, but the show wisely saves the details for later. For now, the characters seem to exist in limbo, and it’s partially of their own making. Other than Jane, who comes and goes as she pleases, they remain within the mansion year after year, decade after decade. Instead of going out and living, they’re punishing themselves for the terrible people they used to be.
Rita, Larry, and Cliff were awful, self-centered individuals before their accidents. When we meet them, they’re nowhere close to being superheroes. But after the villainous Mr. Nobody (Alan Tudyk) captures the Chief, they need to step up and help rescue him—even though they can barely help themselves.
The key to the show’s success is that these characters were terrible people, but now they’re striving to improve. And it’s not easy. They start out as “super-zeroes,” as Mr. Nobody calls them, but that is merely the starting point. This isn’t some nihilistic, cynical take on superheroes, like The Boys, nor is it a parody. We’re not pointing and laughing at inept losers—we’re rooting for these inept losers to get their acts together and make something of themselves.
Doom Patrol has a wonderfully offbeat sense of humor, often erring on the side of being too ridiculous, and it successfully captures the unbridled creativity of the comic books. For example, Mr. Nobody is well aware that he exists in a TV show. A recurring character is a sentient street named Danny—yes, a living, genderqueer street. Then there’s a guy who can track men by eating their beard hair, and we meet an evangelical cockroach with delusions of grandeur, among numerous other oddities. This is anything but a typical TV show.
They even perform a Kelly Clarkson song in the middle of an episode, and it somehow works. The number demonstrates that as fun as all the zaniness is, the show’s most important element is its humanity.
What cements Doom Patrol as a great series is each character’s struggle for redemption, how they confront all the pain they’ve caused in the past—all the damage they can’t undo—and still somehow find a way to move forward. Watching bad people get their comeuppance may feel cathartic in the moment, but watching them reform into something better is far more satisfying. Doom Patrol focuses on what happens after the fall.
Superhero stories tend to be aspirational ones, featuring characters who are striving to be their best. The characters of the Doom Patrol are starting from a much lower point than most, which makes any progress all the more heroic.
If you haven’t already, it’s worth watching on HBO Max.
You should read the comics, too. The original series was DC’s best book of the 1960s, and the 1990s series sits among the gems of the early Vertigo line (but, like the TV series, is not for kids).