"Doom Patrol": The best superhero show on TV brings a necessary breath of fresh air to DC Comics

In my pre-teen years, I was entranced and enthralled by the multitude of superhero shows on television. Shows like “Arrow” and “The Flash” kept me anticipating every Tuesday night at 8:00, and was my main incentive for staying up late on a school night. But as I grew older and matured with age, those series that I loved for so long failed to mature along with me. Slowly but surely, I grew more attracted to the gritty, realistic, human stories of the Marvel Netflix series, and the DC Comics series soon took a backseat in my television priorities, until eventually, I stopped watching them altogether. With too many soap-opera style plotlines and convoluted action set pieces and villains plaguing the DC-TV universe, I thought there would never be a show that would live up to my expectations.

That was until “Doom Patrol” blew them out of the water.

At its core, “Doom Patrol” is a story about disabilities, abnormalities, and trauma (both physical and mental), and how we learn to live with them. The heroes aren’t jacked, rich, genius, or beloved; they’re broken, flawed, damaged individuals whose self-hatred and isolation is caused by the very powers that make them “unique.” Over the course of it’s 15 episode first season, the team’s main plotline isn’t just stopping a big bad and saving their mentor, but rather a narrative about self-love, self-acceptance, and finding your worth—and your family—in a world that doesn’t want to accept you. 

So who are these "band of misfits" that make up the Doom Patrol?

We are first introduced to Cliff Steele aka Robotman (voiced excellently and comedically by Brendan Fraser) through his own eyes; a scratched, curved window frame that keeps turning on and off as he is operated on and put together over the course of 8 years. A former Nascar driver who was the sole survivor of a terrible car accident, Cliff is now a human brain held inside a rusted, poorly welded together robot body with incredible strength and endurance. But it’s clear that Cliff isn’t too happy about surviving, as he angrily declares during his physical therapy: “I can’t even walk! I can’t feel, I can’t smell, I can’t eat, and I’d sure as hell like to do something for myself today.” Reduced to a human mind trapped in an ultra-strong tin can, the only thing Cliff can feel is regret and grief over the loss of his family and how poorly he treated them.

Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (my personal favorite member of the team) is a former hot-shot NASA pilot who was burned, radiated, and deformed—and now living with an extraterrestrial negative spirit trapped inside him—after a test flight gone wrong. But Trainor’s nickname isn’t simply based off his new powers; its his tormented soul, his self-hatred and isolation of being a closeted gay man in middle-century america, and his own negativity from pushing away the man he loved and betraying his former family.

Rita Farr was once a bombshell, beloved 50’s movie star who was as talented as she was conceited. After exposure to a poisonous volcanic gas on a movie set, she loses control of her body, turning into a disgusting blob of her former self. With her beauty gone and her career in ruins, she tries to forge ahead and attempts to control her malleable, shapeshifting abilities, while still being focused on her past but no longer having an identity.

The most obscure—and most powerful—member of the team is Crazy Jane: a traumatized young female suffering from split personality disorder with 64 different personalities, each with their own individual superpower ranging from teleportation, fireballs, electricity, and even making razor sharp weapons out of any word she speaks. With a performance that puts James McAvoy’s character from “Split” to shame, actress Diane Guerrero shows the true severity of Jane’s condition, while making the audience empathize with a victim of abuse and a scared, troubled outcast.

Rounding out the team is legit superhero and wannabe Justice League member Vic Stone aka Cyborg, who acts as both an outsider looking into the crazy, absurd world of these characters, while also being a symbol of what the team could accomplish if they overcame their fear and self doubt.

As I said before, the series’ main drive is the characters overcoming their problems and personal fears. For myself and many other fans, fear is the main villain of the story. But that doesn’t stop the show from delivering a fun, fantastic, fourth wall breaking supervillain who has real control and power over the team and the narrative.

Mr. Nobody, performed and voiced by the always excellent Alan Tudyk, is the show’s narrator and main antagonist. But unlike most narration, the series uses it in a smart and clever new way in a Deadpool-style self aware method, directly referencing the audience, streaming service, comic book lore, and heavily embraced absurdity that the show thrives off of. The villain is a fun and nuanced character in a meta and self-referential control over the story, but also poses a serious threat to the team as he plays into their deepest fears and sticks under their skin all season long.

Despite being on two lesser known streaming services, the production budget and special/practical effects are given great funding and are never wasted, always being put to great use for dramatic effect, fun action scenes, or making flashback scenes look just as real as the superpowers on screen. The set design is also exceptional, as the series is given a new, absurd, and beautiful location with each episode, including but not limited to: a pocket dimension inside a magic donkey, an Area-51 style metahuman and abnormal creature prison, and a teleporting sentient genderqueer street named Danny (and no, that last one isn’t a joke).

All in all, “Doom Patrol” is a fun, fresh, and smart new series that puts any of the CW comic book shows or Marvel’s Netflix series to shame. It is a creative, nuanced story that does for DC comics what “Guardians of the Galaxy” did for Marvel, making fan favorite characters out of a lesser known C-list level superhero team. Through great performances, an excellent screenplay that is both heartwarming and hilarious, and an all around original story, “Doom Patrol” has risen to my list as not only my favorite superhero show, but my favorite Television series, period.

Conclusion: “Doom Patrol” is a character driven series that puts development and personal problems first, with a backdrop of action, sci-fi, mystery, and absolute absurdity. What makes this show unique isn’t just how weird, crazy, and whimsical the ideas, characters, and locations are, but how it keeps its audience entertained and moved by putting the “human” in “superhuman.”

Rating: 10/10.

The entire first season of “Doom Patrol” is available on the DC Universe and HBO Max streaming services, along with purchase options available via Blu-Ray, Youtube, and Amazon Prime Video. Its second season airs on Fridays on DC Universe and HBO Max  until the season finale on August 6th.