DC Movie Mark Out 2 - Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol

Of all the live action series from marvel or DC, Doom Patrol is by far the weirdest and by even farther the best. 

Unabashedly proud of its own inherent comic book weirdness, and proudly taking inspiration from Chad sorcerer, Grant Morrison's equally insane 80's run on the comics, this show just doesn't give a fuck. 

Morrison's run on Doom Patrol was totally zerked to begin with, even for comics. But Doom Patrol balances this weirdness with a strong character-focus, and it helps that the cast of characters it has is both complex and entertaining enough to be worthy of that focus. 

There's barely any of the action and fight scenes typical of comic book heroes, but the world and characters it develops is so enthralling and exciting as to be legitimately binge worthy. 

Try binging any of the Marvel Disney + shows, i can barely make it through one episode without slipping into a heroin coma. 

Each of the ensemble cast gets equal time in the spotlight, but the standout is undeniably Cliff Steele, aka Robotman, played to perfection by Mr. George of The Jungle himself, Brendan Fraser. If awards meant anything I'd say this guy deserves an award for this performance. Hell, i know they don't mean anything, and I'm still saying it. 

Fraser elevates this role in a way very few actors could. Even under a doubtlessly hot and heavy costume and totally unable to emote his metal face, his natural likability shines through so completely that what is on paper an emotionally unstable, insecure, self-destructive dumbass ends up being not only the most entertaining character on the show, but entirely sympathetic as well. 

We're first introduced to this world through RobotMan's eyes, and despite being as much a misfit and freak as anyone else in the cast, he remains our window to it. His blunt honesty in expressing his constant bewilderment at what's happening around him is relatable put as "what the fuck?". 

Cliff says this in every episode but it comes off as more than a catchphrase. It's the shows way of using Cliff as the audience surrogate. It's relatable because most of us find a reason to have to stop and say what the fuck every day of our own lives as well, but the phrase also functions as a subtle meta-acknowledgment of the absurdity of whatever strange events are currently unfolding. 

Doom Patrol has a matter of fact tone that feels refreshing compared to other comic book shows and movies, which often seem vaguely ashamed of themselves, struggling to over-explain and re-contextualize the more outlandish aspects of their source material. 

In contrast Doom Patrol is perfectly comfortable being every bit as bizarre and unpredictable as the comics it's based on, but all the biggest moments of weirdness are inevitably accompanied by a declaration of what the fuck by Cliff. "What the fuck" he says, almost as if he's saying it directly to us. He might as well be looking at the camera and saying "you guys seeing this shit?" but the writing is clever enough to keep him grounded in this world by having him brush up against the 4th wall without needing to break it. 

When it comes to breaking it, the show has Mr. Nobody for that. The big bad of the first season has a self-aware narration gimmick that one might expect to be tired of after a decade of Deadpool repetitiously tea-bagging all of pop culture. 

But it's all in the writing, and Mr. Nobody comes off like a Deadpool that's actually consistently clever and funny. This too is due in no small part to a stellar performance by Alan Two-Dicks, who i assume is named for his own super-powered deformity.

The show's tone lies perfectly balanced between being self-aware enough to aknowledge it's own silliness, while also taking itself seriously enough that it all still feels coherent, like the stuff happening actually matters and means something.

Perhaps no member of the cast better illustrates just how confidently bold Doom Patrol is willing than one of the show's most important supporting characters, Danny The Street. 

There's no actor performing Danny The Street because Danny The Street is a street, a sentient street, a transgender sentient street, who settles in various locations to provide sanctuary to any outcasts and transients who need one, and communicates via text appearing on signs, movie marques, and newspapers. 

This isn't just a one-off, or a quick joke, this is a real, reoccurring character, who continues to impact evens and form unique relationships with the other characters throughout the series.

In any other show a concept like this would just be used as a lolsrandom gag to make the show seem surface-level quirky, but here Danny is treated with the same respect and dignity as any other character. Danny is a real thinking being with his own opinions, goals, and fears. There's an episode later on where Danny is in trouble and all the other characters basically drop what they're doing to cheer him up by throwing a party, and it's one of the best episodes of the series. 

This show got me more invested in a talking stretch of pavement than any capeshit movie or show has for any character in a while. 

It's also genuinely progressive, more-so by leagues and bounds than something like Falcon and Winter Soldier, which devotes all the cringe dialogue it can to impotently telling you how progressive it is.

Episodes featuring Danny actually have something to say about people needing a place to be themselves without judgement, which mirrors the themes of the show, The Doom Patrol being isolated misfits themselves. The explorations of this theme go a lot deeper and come off as infinitely more thoughtful than what we typically get in these kind of shows, which usually amounts to characters all but pointing at the audience and saying "durr racism bad and dont forget to check ur straight male privilege" every 5 minutes. 

Doom Patrol is the smartest, weirdest, funniest, coolest, and best live-action comic book superhero show i've ever seen and the competition ain't even close. I think the next runner up would be Smallville, and all i even remember from that show is the girl i had a crush on growing up to be a sex cult psycho, so thats quite a big gap.

A+