TV Review: Doom Patrol (S1) | Quirky enough to be refreshing, and enough drama to be interesting

The DC Universe / HBO Max superhero drama, “Doom Patrol” was not a property I was familiar with – I mean at all, – but I had heard Alan Tudyk (Harley Quinn) was in it so I checked it out. Having Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart), Timothy Dalton (Penny Dreadful), and Bredan Fraser (Condor) is not too shabby but Diane Guerrero (Jane the Virgin), April Bowlby (Two and a Half Men), and Joivan Wade round out the cast. The series was developed by Jeremy Carver, who has it turns out write and produced on a lot of show that I like (Supernatural, Being Human (US), Frequency, Prodigal Son). The show is based DC Comics superhero team of the same name written by Arnold Drake & Bob Haney, and artist by Bruno Premiani.

Premise: An idealistic mad scientist, the chief, gathered a group of super-powered individuals, who all received their powers through tragic circumstances, to threat and protect them. But when the chief is abducted by Mr. Nobody those super-powered outcasts, the Doom Patrol, will discover secrets about the chief, and themselves while trying to save him.

Review: If you like weird and bizarre shows just go ahead watch it, if not stick with it because you might enjoy that mind bending ride. Doom Patrol is a strange show, I had to hang in there for bit at the beginning but as the episodes went I totally got in to. It sounds like I’m talking about some gateway drug that you get hooked on but it’s better. There is a sameness to the shows in the television landscape right now, particularly superhero shows. This one is different, a real breath of fresh air.

Although some characters have a familiar “been there, done that” aspect to them – or to be accurate, their abilities do – they stand out with their personalities and the group dynamic. A lot of the things about them and around them are surreal, but at their core they feel like real people that those surreal things has happened to. The cast is as great as the characters they portray – shout out to Diane Guerrero – just like the story they don’t pull any punches.

The aesthetic of the show is also something to behold. The costumes, scenery, cinematography and special effects are amazing. They perfectly fit with the show and balances everything

Doom Patrol dares to be different, go further, get quirky and dramatic. It might be the show you didn’t know you wanted, some kind of game changer, better than what you’d expect.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

You can check out or get the comics here

Advertisement

5 thoughts on “TV Review: Doom Patrol (S1) | Quirky enough to be refreshing, and enough drama to be interesting

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s