Tag: Mark Sheppard

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e05 – Youth Patrol

Wow, it’s so good.

Even for “Doom Patrol,” it’s so good. It’s a very “Doom Patrol” episode, too; the team has a mission, then something happens, and they have to go on a side mission. Given guest star Mark Sheppard finally reveals there’s a narrative reason for the main cast to remain young, it’s not impossible the show will finally acknowledge its way of detouring the characters through arcs instead of action sequences.

Though, it’s really only Diane Guerrero and April Bowlby who are “staying” young. Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan are a robot (exceptional physical performance from Shanahan this episode). Matt Bomer and Matthew Zuk are radioactive, so they probably don’t age regardless of magic. Then Joivan Wade and Michelle Gomez aren’t part of the original “Doom Patrol,” at least as far as how Timothy Dalton (who appears in recap footage) saved them from death.

Now, after three seasons, we’re getting some more details on that process.

Until Bowlby accidentally gets everyone cursed (not Bomer, sorry, he’s off on a mission), anyway. She wakes up from their adventure a couple episodes ago (last episode not featuring the regular cast and instead catching up with Abi Monterey, who’s not in the episode despite the recap only being about her) and discovers she’s not young anymore. But since Wade didn’t check on her, she misses the team briefing where Sheppard explains the season big bad is after their “longevity.” And it looks like Bowlby lost hers.

So she snoops around Dalton’s office and finds something she thinks will help. Instead, she curses everyone (not Bomer) with de-aging, initially hormonally, but eventually physically as well. With a furious Sheppard taking charge, they head off to Toledo in search of a cure.

They make it one pit stop before Gomez and Bowlby get into an argument and abandon the group, while Fraser and Guerrero find some fellow youths who know about a great party.

It ends up being an excellent episode for most of the cast. Oh, right—Bomer. He’s off trying to find the alien energy parasite baby and instead finds himself trapped in returning guest star Sendhil Ramamurthy’s flashbacks. It turns out they’ve got a lot in common. It’s a good arc. Excellent performances, but dealing with more significant issues than the rest of the team, who have some elementary problems they just can’t figure out how to solve.

Wade’s still upset old friend Elijah R. Reed has given up on him after not hearing anything for ten years, Guerrero’s feeling guilty about enjoying driving the body (and not feeling like it’s hers), and then Bowlby still really hates Gomez. Justifiably.

Outstanding performances from Guerrero and Wade, but Gomez. Wow, Gomez. She gets one hell of a scene. And Sheppard, too, gets far more textured scenes than his bellowing curses suggest.

It’s a great episode. Excellent direction from Chris Manley, but the script (credited to Shoshana Sachi) is just phenomenal.

Oh, and the music—Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell do even better work than usual, especially with Guerrero’s big scene.

So good.

Doom Patrol (2019) s03e04 – Undead Patrol

It took me a second to realize returning guest star Jon Briddell is not Robert Carradine. It took another second to remember the last time Briddell was on the show—they quickly remind the audience, but it was still the first season; it’s been a while. The keyword there being but. Or butt, as it were.

Briddell’s back with another scheme to destroy the Doom Patrol, with the team not in the best shape to deal with the threat. They’re recovering from their trip to the afterlife and coping with an unexpected and unknown houseguest. Ostensibly time-traveling Michelle Gomez has finally arrived in the mansion—she’s been on her way there since the season premiere end credits scene—and the team has questions for her. Gomez, however, doesn’t have any answers. Time travel gives you amnesia it turns out (something ever-welcome guest star Phil Morris confirms). All she remembers is she wants to talk to Timothy Dalton.

Too bad he’s dead.

So April Bowlby keeps an eye on Gomez—Bowlby’s pretty sure they’ve met even if Gomez is cagey about it—and they try to figure out what around the mansion might give Gomez some clues into her identity. Gomez doesn’t appreciate the help, which leads to Bowlby bitching to a surprisingly unsympathetic Matt Bomer. They hash out that hostility in an absolutely fantastic scene, juxtaposed against Diane Guerrero getting life advice from Brendan Fraser (and Riley Shanahan). Mostly it’s just Fraser (and Shanahan) bullshitting, but it’s an outstanding conversation performance. Shanahan doesn’t have an action sequence, just a fantastic “talk with his hands” sequence.

The team’s got Joivan Wade fiddling with the time machine, which is where Morris shows up for an impromptu argument. Wade confronts him with the things he learned from his dead mother last episode, and Morris has a volatile reaction. The show does just shoehorn Morris in—how does he get to the mansion so fast; he’s got to have a STAR Labs transporter—but it’s a great little scene thanks to Morris’s phenomenal performance.

However, all of this angst is just the beginning because Mark Sheppard needs the team’s help. And in return, Gomez might get the chance to talk to obviously dead Dalton, who Sheppard reveals is dead but not comic book TV show dead. The show hinted at Sheppard’s return at season premiere end credits cutscene along with Gomez’s, but it didn’t seem like he’d be back so soon. It ends up being a very good outing for Sheppard, as unexpected events foul up everyone’s plans.

There are a lot of laughs and a lot of gross-out gags in those unexpected events, with the show ending up with three profoundly, delightfully disgusting moments. The grossest might not even be the most visually icky. It’s an absolutely inspired episode, with great performances from the main cast. Even Guerrero, in part thanks to the plot.

It’s one heck of an episode.

It took me a second to realize returning guest star Jon Briddell is not Robert Carradine. It took another second to remember the last time Briddell was on the show—they quickly remind the audience, but it was still the first season; it’s been a while. The keyword there being but. Or butt, as it were.

Briddell’s back with another scheme to destroy the Doom Patrol, with the team not in the best shape to deal with the threat. They’re recovering from their trip to the afterlife and coping with an unexpected and unknown houseguest. Ostensibly time-traveling Michelle Gomez has finally arrived in the mansion—she’s been on her way there since the season premiere end credits scene—and the team has questions for her. Gomez, however, doesn’t have any answers. Time travel gives you amnesia it turns out (something ever-welcome guest star Phil Morris confirms). All she remembers is she wants to talk to Timothy Dalton.

Too bad he’s dead.

So April Bowlby keeps an eye on Gomez—Bowlby’s pretty sure they’ve met even if Gomez is cagey about it—and they try to figure out what around the mansion might give Gomez some clues into her identity. Gomez doesn’t appreciate the help, which leads to Bowlby bitching to a surprisingly unsympathetic Matt Bomer. They hash out that hostility in an absolutely fantastic scene, juxtaposed against Diane Guerrero getting life advice from Brendan Fraser (and Riley Shanahan). Mostly it’s just Fraser (and Shanahan) bullshitting, but it’s an outstanding conversation performance. Shanahan doesn’t have an action sequence, just a fantastic “talk with his hands” sequence.

The team’s got Joivan Wade fiddling with the time machine, which is where Morris shows up for an impromptu argument. Wade confronts him with the things he learned from his dead mother last episode, and Morris has a volatile reaction. The show does just shoehorn Morris in—how does he get to the mansion so fast; he’s got to have a STAR Labs transporter—but it’s a great little scene thanks to Morris’s phenomenal performance.

However, all of this angst is just the beginning because Mark Sheppard needs the team’s help. And in return, Gomez might get the chance to talk to obviously dead Dalton, who Sheppard reveals is dead but not comic book TV show dead. The show hinted at Sheppard’s return at season premiere end credits cutscene along with Gomez’s, but it didn’t seem like he’d be back so soon. It ends up being a very good outing for Sheppard, as unexpected events foul up everyone’s plans.

There are a lot of laughs and a lot of gross-out gags in those unexpected events, with the show ending up with three profoundly, delightfully disgusting moments. The grossest might not even be the most visually icky. It’s an absolutely inspired episode, with great performances from the main cast. Even Guerrero, in part thanks to the plot.

It’s one heck of an episode.

Doom Patrol (2019) s01e04 – Cult Patrol

No way, Willoughby Kipling (Mark Sheppard) is a real comic book “Doom Patrol” character. Is he a desperate Constantine rip-off in the comic or just in the show? I seriously thought they had to really quick come up with a character when they couldn’t make the Constantine cameo work. Like I thought it was seriously they couldn’t decide whether to let Matt Ryan be on the show.

Same they didn’t push for it.

Sheppard’s a disappointment. He’s not all-bad, he’s just lackluster. The character is buffoonish. So if it’s accurate, it’s “Doom Patrol” writer and character creator Grant Morrison having a piss at Alan Moore and managing to cover himself in his own stream like usual, and if it’s inaccurate, writers Marcus Dalzine and Chris Dingess are just doing a bad job.

Doesn’t really matter because the episode’s still pretty effective and walks back last episode’s walk back of April Bowlby’s agency. She spends this episode disinterested in helping Sheppard stop the apocalypse—involving teen sacrifice Ted Sutherland, who’s pretty good in a role where it doesn’t matter but Sutherland is good, which helps Bowlby because he’s what inspires her to become a hero. She’s got a pretty cool hero moment; it comes with a lot less asterisks than the rest of the team’s heroic displays. Joivan Wade gets a fairly big set piece where he bonds with Sheppard in a fight against a bunch of inter-dimensional cultists trying to get to Sutherland.

It’s appropriately amusing. The show’s hitting a lot of solid character development moments, it’s just also still got some liabilities.

Matt Bomer’s around trying to get his electric spirit under control enough to help with Diane Guerrero and Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan as Robotman go into the alternate dimension. There they face off with these live action Muppet types. Maybe not Muppets, but if Henson Company made a fantasy TV series with live action actors in it in the late eighties. However you’d accurately describe it, it’s a delight.

Fraser and Guerrero are in a funk because Fraser killed a bunch of Nazis last episode and doesn’t feel bad about it. It’s eh. Neither of them are really good enough for it to matter and their cliffhanger is awesome so it’s fine. Better than last episode, not as good as the one before, but better than the pilot for sure. “Doom Patrol”’s rocky.

Glad it’s got a solid effects budget.

In the Name of the Father (1993, Jim Sheridan)

In the Name of the Father falls into most true story adaptation traps. It has a really long present action, which is unevenly distributed through the runtime. There’s a framing device introducing Emma Thompson’s appeals lawyer first thing–with her popping in from time to time to remind the viewer of the device. That device helps orient Daniel Day-Lewis as a teenager at the beginning (or just a little older), but it’s still a true story adaptation issue.

And it wouldn’t work without Day-Lewis. Director Sheridan doesn’t seem to enjoy the courtroom moments in the film, making Thompson a side character. Not just a side character, but one without much depth. The role works thanks to Thompson’s sincerity and some effective writing from Sheridan and co-screenwriter Terry George.

The framing device doesn’t cover the film’s entire runtime; eventually the turntable needle catches up in the present action. The flashback is Day-Lewis’s personal growth throughout the film, something Sheridan and Day-Lewis are subtle about. There’s a big moment for changing him, sure (it’s a true story adaptation after all), but the groundwork is already there. Responsibly handling the narrative fallout is where Father distinguishes itself.

The film is always well-acted, whether good guys (Pete Postlethwaite is fantastic as Day-Lewis’s always upright father who ends up falsely imprisoned too) or bad guys (Don Baker and Corin Redgrave).

But Day-Lewis, and the true story, are the whole show. Sheridan expertly facilitates them to their successes.

3/4★★★

CREDITS

Produced and directed by Jim Sheridan; screenplay by Sheridan and Terry George, based on a book by Gerry Conlon; director of photography, Peter Biziou; edited by Gerry Hambling; music by Trevor Jones; production designer, Caroline Amies; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis (Gerry Conlon), Pete Postlethwaite (Giuseppe Conlon), Emma Thompson (Gareth Peirce), John Lynch (Paul Hill), Corin Redgrave (Robert Dixon), Beatie Edney (Carole Richardson), John Benfield (Chief PO Barker), Paterson Joseph (Benbay), Marie Jones (Sarah Conlon), Gerard McSorley (Detective Pavis), Frank Harper (Ronnie Smalls), Mark Sheppard (Paddy Armstrong) and Don Baker (Joe McAndrew).

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