There is a lot of potential for the series and I like the direction “The Doom Patrol” is going right now and I really enjoyed each episode! An edgy, cool and entertaining first season, “The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” is recommended!
TITLE: The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season
TV SERIES AIR DATE: 2019
DURATION: 15 Episodes (775 Minutes)
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Subtitles: English SDH and Espanol
COMPANY: Warner Bros.
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2019
Directed by Dermott Downs, Carol Banker, Rob Hardy, Harry Jierjian, Chris Manley, Stefan Pleszczynski, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Rebecca Rodriguez, T.J. Scott, Rachel Talalay, Glen Winter, Wayne Yip
Developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Phil Klemmer, Andrew Kreisberg
Written by Jeremy Carver, Arnold Drake, Tom Farrell, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, Tamara Becher, Shoshana Sachi, Marcus Dalzine, Chris Dingess, Neil Reynolds, Robert Berens, Eric Dietel, April Fitzsimmons
Executive Producer: Greg Berlanti, Jeremy Carver, Geoff Johns, Sarah Schechter, Glen Winter
Co-Executive Producer: Neil Reynolds, Tamara Becher, Dermott Downs
Produced by Gideon Amir, Marcus Dalzine
Co-Producer: Jennifer Lence, Carl Ogawa
Associate Producer: Daphne Raves
Music by Kevin Kiner, Clint Mansell
Cinematography by Magdalena Gorka, Scott Winig, Chris Manley
Edited by Brian Wessel, Sara Mineo, Marc Pattavina, Brandon Hwang, JD Dawson, Harry Jierjian
Casting by David Rapaport
Production Design by Graham “Grace” Walker
Art Direction by ACameron Beasley, Colin De Rouin
Set Decoration by Bob Kensinger, Kristen Donaldson
Costume Design by Carrie Grace, Laura Jean Shannon
Starring:
Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane/Kay Challis
April Bowlby as Elasti-Girl/Rita Farr
Alan Tudyk as Mr. Nobody/Eric Morden
Matt Bomer as Negative Man/Larry Trainor
Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele and voice of Robot Man
Joivan Wade as Cyborg/Victor Stone
Timothy Dalton as Niles Caulder/Chief
Riley Shanahan as Robotman
Phil Morris as Silas Stone
Julie McNiven as Sheryl Trainor
Kyle Clements as John Bowers
Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray): Following the mysterious disappearance of The Chief these reluctant heroes will find themselves in a place they never expected to be, called to action by none other than Cyborg, who comes to them with a mission hard to refuse. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray, which I am reviewing in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.
Way back in June 1963, a superhero team known as “The Doom Patrol” made their debut on “My Greatest Adventure”, a DC comic book, which would eventually change names to “The Doom Patrol”.
Dubbed as the “World’s Strangest Heroes” and while that remained consistent, there have been changes, reboots, numerous characters that have appeared in the comic books, but there was always an interest in the characters and now “The Doom Patrol” has received a live action web TV adaptation for the DC Universe streaming site and was recently renewed for a second season and will appear on DC Universe and HBO Max.
And the 15-episode first season will be released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The series revolves around a group of people who have been changed forever and have been given a second chance at life as superheroes, despite being a group of unlikely superheroes and must somehow find a way to work together.
The series revolves around the following characters:
- Cliff Steele/Robotman – A former NASCAR racer who was racing and finds out that his wife is having an affir with his pit crew manager, loses control and gets into a tragic accident. His brain is transplanted into a robotic body. Very powerful, very sarcastic and also likes to cuss a lot.
- Rita Farr/Elasti-Woman – A former, popular diva actress who fell into toxic liquid during a movie shoot and emerged as a blob. Rita has a difficult time trying to keep her body to normal as certain emotions makes her turn to a blob, but as she gains control of her body, she finds out that she can stretch, shrink and grow.
- Larry Trainor/Negative Man – A former pilot who is torn as a man who is married with a child and also is a gay man with a lover. He ends up crashing into negative energy and is burned from head to toe and has to wear bandages to cover himself. Inside of him is a negative energy which he is constantly fighting with and and arguing with.
- Kay Challis/Jane – A person who has 64 distinct personalities, each having their own super power. No one knows who they are talking to when they are with her because she is often changing personalities and is a live wire with a hot temper. May it be the aggressive Hammerhead, the woman with vocalization power Silver Tongue, a cockney woman named Penny Farthling, a woman with electrokinesis power named Lucy Fugue, the Weird Sisters, a school-age girl named Miranda, a man-hater named Black Annis, Dr. Harris – a woman who can persuade anyone and more.
- Victor Stone/Cyborg – A member of the Justice League, he decides to help lead the Doom Patrol as they search for the team leader, Chief. Half human/half machine with super technology and strength
- Niles Caulder/The Chief – The leader of the Doom Patrol and a leading doctor in medical sciences. Finds those who are in need and are “on the verge of death in need of a miracle”.
- Eric Morden/Mr. Nobody – A living shadow who drains the sanity of others. The antagonist who defeated the first Doom Patrol and is now waiting to take on the new Doom Patrol.
VIDEO:
“The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 aspect ratio). The picture quality for this series is very good. With its high production value and many outdoor scenes, overall picture quality shows very good detail, especially with closeups.
I didn’t notice any major banding issues or artifacts.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The series is crystal clear when it comes to dialogue and action sequences.
Subtitles are in English SDH and Espanol.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” comes with the following special features:
- Deleted Scenes – Each disc features short deleted scenes.
- Gag Reel – (4:36) Bloopers from the first season of “Doom Patrol”.
- Doom Patrol: Come Visit Georgia PSA – (5:06) About shooting “The Doom Patrol” in the state of Georgia and the diversity the state has in shooting in areas that look like they are shot other cities or countries.
EXTRAS
A digital code for “The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” is included.
I am a big fan of DC’s quarky series, may it be the Vertigo titles such as “The Sandman”, “Death”, “Animalman”, “Hellblazer”, “Shade the Changing Man” and “Y: The Last Man”, there is one title that I have always gravitated to, even though they were not always looked at as a significant super hero group and that is The Doom Patrol.
And as the character John Constantine (of “Hellblazer”) is currently featured in DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow” series, The Doom Patrol is now receiving a live action TV web adaptation for DC Universe.
And I have to say that I was shocked and surprised with the announcement, because as “Titans” was expected, The Doom Patrol perked my curiosity.
With DC Universe giving us a “Titans” series which is dark, humorous, action-packed and also featuring a lot of violence and profanity, I figured that the DC Universe would be the perfect place for “The Doom Patrol” especially if there was a connection to Grant Morrison’s run when the group appeared on the Vertigo imprint (1993-1995) and other comic book runs after it, including Keith Giffen and Gerard Way’s run from the comics books.
And I have to say that after watching all 15 episodes, I really enjoyed “The Doom Patrol” series.
For one, I like how the series was able to take these individuals who are flawed characters and live a life with abilities which will prevent them from ever integrating society as normal people. In some ways, their torment is facing how they were as individuals in society and now how they can move on, as they are today and use their abilities for good.
Rita Farr was a former Hollywood actress who was really mean, abusive and egotistical until she fell into toxic liquid which altered her body chemistry preventing her from ever acting and forever being part of society, as emotions make her into a blog and not knowing how to control herself for the last sixty years.
Larry Trainor is a former pilot from the WWII years who had a wife and child, but lived during a time when homosexuality was not possible in society and thus lived a secret life and now since his accident, has to wear bandages like the Invisible Man because he was burned from head to toe. To make matters worse, he has lived with a entity within him and they don’t get a long.
Cliff Steele was a former NASCAR racer who put racing as his life and unfortunately, on the day he finds out his wife had an affair with his NASCAR crewmate, he got into an accident which ended his life (and also his wife), but given a second chance when Niles Caulder/The Chief puts his brain into a robot man. Cliff still has his memories, his emotions but he is forever stuck in the body of a robot, always wanting to get close to his daughter and let her know that he is alive, but not sure how.
Kay Challis is a person who has 64 multiple personalities, each with their own power and because they each are battling for control to come out, she can never be with anyone because she is often changing, each with different levels of temperament and age.
And the other part about what I enjoy about this show is that Victor Stone/Cyborg is included.
For those who are wondering why Cyborg is not a member of the Titans, the goal was to show him younger and learning to become a hero and that is through his experiences with the Doom Patrol before he may eventually join the Titans.
But I do like how the character is utilized, also showing the troubled relationship between Vic and his father.
Now, whether or not we will see other characters from the comic book series will be interesting to see. We have seen the DC TV series bring in new faces and integrate them to the show, but with the primary characters integrated for season one, it will be interesting to see what the series creators will have in store for season two.
The fact they managed to incorporate Mento, Celsius, Lodestone and Tempest (Joshua Clay) into the series for the first season was a plus!
So, for the most part, I am enjoying what DC has created. While different from the Arrowverse, the DCU series are darker, edgier, humorous but also violent and more mature.
Before DC consolidated all their comic titles, their Vertigo series was edgy, creative, darker and also fits the style of the series that are featured in the DC Universe series. So, I am really hoping we can see characters from the Vertigo imprint in possibly appearing in “The Doom Patrol”.
Needless to say, there is a lot of potential for the series and I like the direction “The Doom Patrol” is going right now and I really enjoyed each episode!
An edgy, cool and entertaining first season, “The Doom Patrol – The Complete First Season” is recommended!