Doom Patrol (2019) s02e05 – Finger Patrol

I’m not great at tracking the “Doom Patrol” creatives but I remembered Chris Dingess was working out and Shoshana Sachi was one of the good writers, so I had good feeling going into Finger Patrol and it does not disappoint. Maybe the most surprising part is how well things work out for Joivan Wade and Karen Obilom, with Wade… good in the arc? In fact, he carries some of their scenes now. It’s a really fast improvement.

The Wade and Obilom arc starts as Wade and Robotman (Brendan Fraser voicing, Riley Shanahan perambulating) go to visit Wade’s dad Silas Stone (wonderful to see in his first appearance this season) and then Wade decides he’s got to resolve the Obilom situation. Meanwhile Fraser has decided it’s time for them to become a crime-fighting duo, which goes horrifically, comically wrong. Because, of course.

Back at the mansion, Timothy Dalton is positively gleeful daughter Abi Monterey is playing with Diane Guerrero’s child-like personality. It comes right after a truly terrible scene with Guerrero having it out with Dalton about their past; it should be good, it seems to be well-written, and you can see Guerrero… trying… but every time it could connect, it doesn’t.

It’s rough. So rough the obnoxious child personality is a welcome break.

Is it a good idea for Guerrero and Monterey to play given their incredible abilities and inability to control them? Probably not, but Dalton is a terrible father.

Speaking of terrible fathers, this episode seems to be a resolution—for the time being—to the John Getz as Matt Bomer’s son subplot, which has Bomer and April Bowlby (who gets a very good C plot about trying out for community theatre) going to help Getz and the other men in the family clean out a house. Shocking and upsetting revelations abound.

It’s a really good episode with truly distressing finales for most of its arcs; Dingess and Sachi’s structure is phenomenal.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e04 – Sex Patrol

At some point someone working on “Doom Patrol” decided they weren’t messing around and gave Alan Mingo Jr. a truly devastating speech about transgender people’s humanity—to Joivan Wade—and it’s a wow aside in the episode. Sex Patrol goes all the way from hilarious to terrifying to, well, titillating but when Mingo delivers that monologue… everything else stops (in just the right way).

Mingo is back because Danny the Street is in trouble and they called out to all the for Danizens (Danny the Street is so well done I’m just going with it). Mingo—along with gone since last season but still as scantily clad and wholesome as ever Devan Long—shows up at the mansion, interrupting Timothy Dalton trying to lie to Abi Monterey about things being okay, and get the literal party started.

Monterey, despite being an almost life-long Danizen herself, never got to go to a Danny party and she really wants to stay up for this one, which gives the episode it’s fantastic “Hours til Bedtime” device. So good. Not sure if it was writers Eric Dietel and Tanya Steele who came up with it but it’s perfect.

The episode mostly follows Monterey and her attempts to stay up late without Dalton finding out. Only she’s got a terrifying invisible monster friend who’s telling her she needs to start a lot of real trouble, which leads to a very difficult arc for Monterey. Her casting is really working out for the show.

But while the narrative follows Monterey it’s because the bigger plot line needs to have some surprise value for maximum effect. See, April Bowlby needs a big favor from Long and neither of them really understand the ramifications of him granting her request. But it leads to a fantastic, action-packed finale….

Right before the appropriately terrifying, absolutely heartbreaking cliffhanger. Because it turns out the real plot line of the episode—and the season so far, actually—is how the entire team are bad dads. Except Wade. He’s just on his way toward it. And Bowlby. Though she’s got the bad dad in her too.

The hopeful part is it’s about why they shouldn’t be bad dads. But it also might be too late.

So good. And also frequently hilarious because of the Robotman (Brendan Fraser talks, Riley Shanahan walks) ecstasy subplot.

Not a typo.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e03 – Pain Patrol

Samira Radsi directs a positively unnerving episode here, doing both social awkwardness in the extremes and then, you know, traditional inter-dimensional evil who was Jack the Ripper—is Red Jack (Roger Floyd, who looks like a cross-between Hellraiser and Stanley Kubrick’s Phantom of the Opera) a Redjac from “Star Trek” reference? Cute. The most likable thing Grant Morrison’s done.

Anyway.

While Timothy Dalton and April Bowlby are trying to rescue Matt Bomer from Floyd—the way the episode picks up from the previous episode’s cliffhanger, which itself had been a C plot throughout, is really smooth. “Doom Patrol: Season Two” has a very nice assuredness about it. This episode’s script—Tamara Becher and Tom Farrell—is excellent as well. Things have come together quite reliably.

Okay, except Diane Guerrero, who has an intervention subplot with the other personas and it’s terrible because the acting is so bad but it’s just the show. Like. It’s worth waiting through the bad for the good.

Enough about her. Well, in a second—she’s on the bus with Cliff the Robotman (Brendan Fraser voicing, Riley Shanahan moving) and Fraser has gone to confront his daughter Bethany Anne Lind. See, the episode opens with Dalton having to tell Fraser to stop swearing in front of Dalton’s daughter, Abi Monterey, which sets Fraser off. Guerrero’s asleep on the bus. Done.

So Fraser’s trying to work up the courage to talk to Lind but doesn’t have Guerrero around to consult and it’s going to turn out he really, really needed to consult someone. It’s an excellent Robotman episode in terms of character development and sort of exploration—yeah; Fraser’s arc this episode is a character study. It’s real good.

Is it as good as the Dalton and Bowlby have to save Bomer, who’s Floyd got hanging over a bunch of people dying from Bomer’s exposed radiation? Maybe? But the action horror movie plotting—interspersed with wholesome (well, eventually) flashbacks to Bowlby and Bomer first becoming friends—really works.

Of course, I haven’t even gotten to Joivan Wade, whose still in Detroit trying to do things on his own. This time it means hooking up with Karen Obilom and discovering she’s full of surprises and secrets. Obilom doesn’t exactly carry the scenes, but she’s good enough—even when Wade’s faltering—the scenes get through. Though the timeline on Wade is really confusing at this point as far as his initial recovery and time superheroing.

There’s even a Nick Cave song at the end. It’s all so good.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e02 – Tyme Patrol

Tyme Patrol is packed; writers April Fitzsimmons and Neil Reynolds make the subplots seem just as big as the main one, which has the team trying to steal some time travel goo from an infamous time traveller (the titular Tyme, voiced by Dan Martin while Brandon Perea handles the, um, roller-disco). He ends up having a surprisingly affecting subplot with April Bowlby, who gets her first great material this episode as she has to take over the team with Robotman (Brendan Fraser, who’s good this episode, voicing and Riley Shanahan moving) no longer wanting to play the part. Also because Joivan Wade has run off.

Doom Patrol (2019) s02e01 – Fun Size Patrol

“Doom Patrol” starts off answering the outstanding question—who is Chief Timothy Dalton’s daughter? Her name’s Dorothy, which could be perfect but I don’t want to get ahead of myself hopefulness-wise with the character. She’s half-twentieth century human, half-20,000 century BCE human. Abi Monterey—who’s not in the opening title credit roll—plays the part, in makeup a little bit less than, say, Kim Hunter in the original Planet of the Apes.

Oh. Right. The episode opens with Monterey in a cage in a 1927 London circus with the ringmaster taunting her as an “ape girl” and torturing her conjured reindeer-bear monster. Then the bigger monsters come out. We don’t get to see them unfortunately, but we do get to see Dalton and Monterey reunite.

Fast forward ninety years and she’s still basically a tween. A young, energetic one.

Except the team is all in a bad mood because they’re still tiny from last season finale—they’re living in a campground on the miniature train table—though it’s for racing electric cars because it’s TV and electric cars work on TV–and Monterey exhausts them. Well, most of them.

Monterey gets along with April Bowlby for the most part, but she’s more drawn to Diane Guerrero and Robotman (Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan, who I wasn’t sure was back the movement’s so different). And Guerrero and Fraser have no time for Monterey. They’re both mad about Dalton experimenting on them. No one’s particularly happy about it but Bowlby and Matt Bomer are a little more laissez-faire, presumably because they’re older.

Meanwhile, Joivan Wade just wants to be big again so he can leave. Bowlby wants him to stay—and wants him to train her to be a superhero—but Wade’s not buying it. Even though Wade’s not quite good enough, the show’s use of him as the “traditional” superhero works out and his relationship with Bowlby always has great energy.

Good script from Jeremy Carver and Shoshana Sachi; it’s a good refresh on the cast after the season finale and nice setup for the second season, with some forecasting on the upcoming perils.

Really good Timothy Dalton. Guerrero’s… not better. Monterey seems to be a good addition. Excellent music from Clint Mansell and Kevin Kiner. Though the special effects seem off.

Oh, and Mark Sheppard is better than last time with his cameo here. He’s not a goof anymore.

Sadly Fraser’s in-person flashback cameo is probably his worst work on the show so far, like his experience voicing Robotman has led to him later making bad acting decisions.

But it’s a good episode and a successful launch for the season.