DC on TV: Doom Patrol (Season One)

Having seen the guest appearance of the Doom Patrol in the excellent Titans series it was inevitable that I would dip into this series which is based on the Grant Morrison/Vertigo incarnation of the team. This also managed to be a complete story arc in the 15 episodes broadcast (unlike the Titans which was to be continued.....

The Doom Patrol are DC comic creations that originally appeared in My Greatest Adventure before taking over the title completely. The core team always consisted of Robotman who had a human brain, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl. As a child I was aware of the Doom Patrol but it wasn't high on my reading list due to pocket money constraints but I did read a couple of issues and remember a guest appearance or two elsewhere.

 

The Doom Patrol had it's set of misfit heroes fight equally bizarre villains and monsters which was the usual DC fare for much of the sixties. Then came a surprise. The Doom Patrol were killed off and that was the end of them. Or was it?

 

The team had a number of revivals over the years including my personal favourite by John Byrne but the most radical and one most relevant to this series is Grant Morrisons reboot into the adult version viewers are treated to today.

 

The TV version has the basic original three (Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl) though the latter two are revised in particular Rita who has yet to fully appreciate or control the powers she has though there is an indication of that well into the story. 

The addition is of course Crazy Jane who is wonderfully played by Diane Guerrero (with a couple of other actresses for some of her 64 personalities). Former Bond actor Timothy Dalton plays the quite nefarious Niles.

My one criticism of the team is the addition of Cyborg. Now diversity is a thing these days and having a black character, especially in a US show is fine but Cyborg again. He belongs in the Titans not the Justice League (as in the comics or film) and certainly not the Doom Patrol. I didn't like Vic Stone much in this story bit of an arse but that's not the point.

They should have used Cyborg where he belongs and allowed Starfire to be the alien she should be and either upgraded another black character from their inventory or created a new one.  His presence does have a certain raison d'etre because of the connections with S.T.A.R Labs but I digress.

The real stars of this show are Robotman (played by Brendan Fraser) whose constant what the fucks somehow bring the weirdness down to earth as the villain Mr Nobody takes us through a trip that transcends reality, talks to the viewer and takes us inside a donkey.

This is quite a clever and well thought out story arc so I don't wish to give too much away but there are plenty of concepts, twists & turns and human flaws to maintain a high level of interest. Highly recommended.