Doom Patrol: The Complete Second Season

“DC’s weirdly wonderful Super Heroes – Cliff Steele/Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor/Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr/Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby), Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero) and Vic Stone/Cyborg (Joivan Wade) – are back to save the world in nine episodes filled with humor and heartache. If they can grow up, that is…both figuratively and literally. Following the defeat of Mr. Nobody, the Doom Patrol are left min-sized and stranded on Cliff’s toy race-car track. Feeling betrayed by Niles Caulder/The Chief (Timothy Dalton), they are forced to confront their pasts. As our heroes face the challenge of moving beyond trauma and failure, they must come together to embrace and protect the newest family member – Niles’ daughter, Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Shapiro) – whose mysterious powers threaten the world’s very existence.”

Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray/DVD that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own

DC has been very hit or miss with the majority of their content over the years trying to compete with the MCU. While not nearly as commercially successful in film, DC has plenty of television content that can keep fans occupied. While I generally do not enjoy their more popular shows such as Arrow, Flash, or anything connected to that multi-verse (not without the lack of trying), Doom Patrol has absolutely hit it out of the park, and in my opinion, ranks up there with one of the best super-hero shows on television.

First and foremost, if this show and the success of The Boys is any indication, people are craving an adult super-hero story, one with language, violence, and everything that comes with real-life situations that is as far from the type of Adam West super-hero type as possible. Doom Patrol gives us that and way more, presenting one of the weirdest arrays of characters and situations that I could ever imagine. Not having read the comics myself, seeing some of these characters presented in the show, I’m absolutely amazed at the creativity involved, not only with what is taken straight from the pages, but also what they’ve added to each character to make them more modern and relevant to society today: Larry Trainor and his relationship with the Negative Spirit, Danny the Street, all give a little bit of perspective of modern societal relationships.

While this show may not be the typical super-hero type you may be expecting, lacking some of the action sequences and team mentality you’d find in a CW show, Doom Patrol relies heavily on their characters, first letting us get to know them as much as possible in the first season, following their pain and lack of confidence they’ve harbored for decades, then putting them into strange situations that force them to work together and learn about themselves. After two seasons, I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of not just the characters in the show, but what they can ultimately achieve when the finally learn to control their abilities.

Cliff Steele/Robotman voiced by Brendan Fraser, probably one of the more recognized parts of the show. I really do like the character of Robotman, but feel that he’s probably given the least amount of attention in the first season. Unable to experience any kind of touch or feeling in his body, the exploration of those lack of senses is ongoing in the show, something that I feel Fraser is able to articulate well through the constant yelling and feeling of frustration and anger in his dialogue. Always with the foul language and smart-ass remark, I feel as though the lack of emotional realization isn’t the fault of the show or the writers, but quite the contrary: it’s Cliff Steele’s own stupidity and hard-headedness that prevents him from easily learning from his mistakes and expressing himself in an articulate way. His fondness of Jane, for example, is him just yearning to be a father figure to someone, a father figure that is a positive influence, the only thing he knows he can try to change in himself. With the first season revelation that Niles was the cause of all of their accidents, we finally get to see some movement forward on Cliff, and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorites of the show, when he absolutely wasn’t in the first season.

Larry Trainor/Negative Man might be my favorite of the show. Not because of his abilities or costume or anything, but because of the depths they’ve taken the character’s backstory, which is definitely the most tragic of them all. Larry’s struggle with self-identity has a long way to go, with the Negative Spirit in some way connected to his moving on from his past. The memories it shows him of his relationship with John, and now of his family, all point to a deep connection between the two that needs to change in order for them to both move forward. Many of the negative reviews of the show that I’ve read mention the constant depression of all the characters, and while I do think Larry is shown to be moping around quite often, it does make for the heartwarming scenes that he experiences all the more meaningful. His character tries to make amends in certain ways in this season, only to be met with more tragedy. He gets a pass in my book for suffering for decades. I’m most intrigued by the direction Larry’s character ultimately goes for season 3.

Crazy Jane is probably the most impressive of the show, for the mere fact that they are able to successfully portray a character with 64 distinct personalities and able to present them and Jane’s inner struggle in a way that we can easily understand. Her trauma runs deep, and navigating the Underground and seeing the relationships between all the different personalities is much more prevalent in the second season. Diane Guerrero is very impressive in this role, having the challenging task of playing a different character on a whim, all of which have different powers.

Rita Farr/Elastic-Woman becomes much more complex in the second season as well. In the first, mainly dealing with the acceptance of not being in the spotlight anymore, forgotten from minds of movie-goers, her inability to confront anything that might cause her emotional stress ultimately leads to her unable to control her skin. While she makes huge strides to move forward in the second season, determined to learn to control her abilities and use them for good, she uncovers another childhood trauma that begins to affect her in all aspects of her life, while uncharacteristically becoming the linchpin in the group at times.

Vic Stone/Cyborg is the character I was most surprised at being in the show, after seeing him portrayed in so many other more prominent shows. What they do best, though, is give him a flaw that he struggles with, which boils down to being able to trust his own father. In the second season, we move past this for the most part, but his ability to trust is still called into question in every relationship he forges, stemming from his relationship with his father. He isn’t as well-rounded as the others, but he’s also still very young, in relationship to most of the other characters who are pushing 100.

Niles Caulder/The Chief still manages to be the most mysterious character on the show, which makes him fascinating to watch. Although we’ve gotten a lot of questions answered about his past, there is still a lot to explore. The second season shifts his personality somewhat from being a father-figure to the group to being the untrusted outcast, still desperately needing their help with his daughter, and trying to find ways to mentality cope with his decisions he’s made over the years that has caused so much pain and suffering. Is he genuinely trying to make amends? Some of his actions speak to very villainous tendencies. His character has been both good and evil in the comics, so it’s interesting to see where they head moving forward with Niles Caulder. Timothy Dalton is usually one of my favorite parts of anything he’s involved in, and Doom Patrol is no exception. He is able to do anything in this show, something that calls for being an over-protective father with the actual weight of the world resting on his shoulders, to someone who tells Cliff to let the SeX Men handle it, they’re the ‘sexperts’.

Season 2 of Doom Patrol doesn’t just continue to delve deeper into these troubled characters, but also bring so many more interesting characters from the comic book to the screen. Doctor Tyme, Animal Vegetable Mineral-Man, The SeX Men, Red Jack, The Beard Hunter, and more, make appearances. These usually aren’t major villains in the comics by any means, but they are put into the show to further the simple weirdness that makes it stand out beyond anything else on television. Filled with humor and emotion, Doom Patrol now stands to be my favorite DC creation ever.

Here’s an episode breakdown of Season 2:

Disc One:

1. Fun Size Patrol – The Doom Patrol (along with Niles Caulder and his daughter) are still mini-sized.
2. Tyme Patrol – Cliff Steele, Crazy Jane and Rita Farr pursue a time-altering doctor.
3. Pain Patrol – Larry Trainor is taken prisoner by a villain who feeds on pain.
4. Sex Patrol – Rita asks Flex Mentallo to help her unleash her full potential.

Disc Two

5. Finger Patrol – Dorothy Spinner befriends Baby Doll – until playtime goes awry.
6. Space Patrol – Dorothy goes missing, and Niles’ old team returns from space.
7. Dumb Patrol – The Doom Patrol embraces their inner morons.
8. Dad Patrol – Cliff gives father-daughter bonding with Clara his best shot.
9. Wax Patrol – Dorothy makes a fateful choice in the shocking finale.

Video

Each episode is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.20:1. Before diving into the second season, I went back to watch the first on HBO Max. Because of the inconsistency of the picture, it wasn’t long before I turned it off and ordered the Blu-ray copy to continue. The difference between that alone is a reason why I’ll never be an advocate of digital media over physical, and why I recommend picking up the Blu-ray copy instead. The episodes look fantastic on Blu-ray, very crisp in detail and able to look superb in a lot of the darker sequences, something streaming is never able to pull off as well.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The track on these episodes sounds great, able to provide some great surround moments throughout the season. Levels sound good, with a large portion of the sound coming in the form of dialogue from the center channel. Although there aren’t heavy action sequences usually, there can be some very satisfying audio coming from sequences like the Doctor Tyme confrontation, the Sex Ghosts floating all around Doom Manor, and other weird story-lines that make the show so enjoyable.

Special Features

There are only a few, very short extras on the disc unfortunately. As much as I loved this show, I wish I could see more from behind the scenes or from the cast. Here’s what we get:

• Doom Patrol: The Magic of Makeup
• Doom Patrol Season 2: Come Visit Georgia PSA

With Marvel owned by Disney and vowing to adhere to family fulfilling entertainment, DC could corner the market on this type of show, something that is clearly wanted. Doom Patrol really is unlike anything I’ve seen, taking huge risks that pay off big-time. Pick this one up today!