Now that Doom Patrol is on HBO streaming I finally got a chance to see it. I just finished season 1.
Wow, what an amazing show. I rank it up there with The Umbrella Academy as among my current favorites.
What an amazing take in the superhero genre—the twists, the absurdities. But also throughout having such a big heart abs making me care so much about the characters. I don’t have a real criticism ignoring any of them.
Also it was really refreshing to see a
adult/mature D.C. show. The nudity was limited but well applied. The strong language was appropriately used in context.
Rita Farr/Elasti-Girl was the big standout for me. Amazing that they made the character so alluring and repulsive at the same time.
In terms of performance Crazy Jane was amazing with close follow up by Niles Caulder/the Chief and Cliff Steele/Robotman.
Having the villain be so powerful and yet so dweeby at the same time was great.
I also liked the nods to the original versions of the Doom Patrol—the mostly original members and even an appearance by Steve Dayton/Mento. (I’ll also note that there is an argument that the original X-Men were a ripoff of the Doom Patrol, and it seems interesting that the X-Men franchise has ground to a creative halt while never rising above mediocre.)
Every event was just so surprising. The Ezekiel the cockroach, Admiral Whiskers the Rat, Danny the Street, Ernest the Beard Hunter (I literally retched).
In the end you waver between wanting to hug and comfort everyone but also vomiting from how awful they are.
A truly brilliant show.