The writers did an amazing job with the second season, the characters and their evolving storyline was fantastic! I can’t wait for the third season! “The Doom Patrol – The Complete Second Season” is highly recommended!
TITLE: The Doom Patrol – The Complete Second Season
TV SERIES AIR DATE: 2020
DURATION: 9 Episodes (461 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: January 26, 2021
Developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Phil Klemmer, Andrew Kreisberg
Directed by Harry Jierjian, Chris Manley, Glen Winter, Amanda Row, Kristin Windell
Written by Jeremy Carver, Arnold Drake, Tom Farrell, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, Shoshana Sachi, Eric Dietel, Tanya Steele, Tamara Becher, Chris Dingess, Neil Reynolds, 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
Abi Monterey as Dorothy Spinner
Hannah Alline as Pretty Polly
Stephanie Czajkowski as Hammerhead
Skye Roberts as Kay Challis
Lex Liang as Candlemaker
Mark Sheppard as Willoughby Kipling
Karen Obilom as Roni Evers
Bethany Anne Lind as Clara Steele
DC’s strangest group of heroes are back again to save the world – that is if they can find a way to grow up…both figuratively and literally. Following the defeat of Mr. Nobody, the DOOM PATROL now find themselves mini-sized and stranded on Cliff’s toy race car track. Here they begin to deal with their feelings of betrayal with Niles Caulder aka The Chief, while confronting their own personal baggage.
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 has received positive reviews from fans because of its more mature, adult comedy and dark comedy storyline.
Unfortunately, due to the novel coronavirus, the episode count for the second season was reduced to 9 episodes (compared to the first season’s 15 episodes).
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”.
- Dorothy Spinner – The daughter of the chief who has been locked up for so long, has now been released. Has the power to make her imaginary friends come to life.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Doom Patrol – The Complete Second 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.
The series 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.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“The Doom Patrol – The Complete Second Season” comes with the following special features:
- Doom Control: The Magic of Makeup
- Doom Patrol Season 2: Come Visit Georgia PSA
One thing that DC has done well, was in trying to figure out how to entice fans to watch their series but trying to make things different.
For example, they have the superhero-driven storylines with characters such as Green Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Superman & Lois and recently introduced, Stargirl. And even darker and more violent with “Titans” on
But they managed to create a storylines of not making it so superhero-driven and creating something unique, adventurous, crazy, tstyle of storyline with “The Legends of Tomorrow” but the even more crazier, dark comedy and more mature content with “Doom Patrol”.
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.
Back before the first season, The Doom Patrol perked my curiosity. How could they bring the storyline to a live-action series.
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 having watched both seasons, I can say that the first season was fun, but the second season is so much better!
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.
The team is led by The Chief, Niels Caulder, the medical doctor responsible for their treatment and giving them a place to live. But while he is responsible for saving their lives, they also hold a resentment towards him because he’s not straightforward with his intentions.
In season 2, relations become rocky when he introduces everyone to his daughter, Dorothy Spinner. A primitive woman, who looks as a child (when in fact, she’s over a hundred years old) and because she is young and not sure how to interact with people and control her emotions, she controls a dangerous power of bringing her powerful and dangerous imaginary friends to life.
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. In season two, we get to see Rita finally get into her past and the person who has been holding her down for so long, a mental block, that has now been opened. We also get to see Rita working hard in controlling her power.
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 in the first season, they didn’t get along. But now the two learned to co-exist and for Larry, he wants to make peace with his family that he has been away from for so long. But what happens when he tries to do that?
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. In season two, Cliff decides to try to initiate contact with his daughter. How will that turn out?
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. Jane is the belligerent identity that has been the primary and dominant identity but what happens when Jane must confront her personalities and her teenage personality, Miranda wants to come out and become the dominant one? And what happens when she comes in contact with someone that can threaten and kill her personalities?
Victor Stone/Cyborg is a young member of the Justice League of America but because of his relationship with the Chief and wanting to help the members of the Doom Patrol but also learning how to become a supehero. What happens when he falls in love with Roni Evers, a military veteran with a mysterious past? Also, showing the troubled relationship between Vic and his father.
The first series was more about introductions and the group trying to act like a team. Season two, the members have started to act like a team but are more cautious towards the man who helped him, The Chief, Niles Caulder. Especially now that he has bring his daughter into the house who looks innocent (albeit primitive) and with a power that can easily destroy humanity.
This second season was very good! In fact, I watched every episode in one sitting because I was captivated with the story.
I was a bit hesitant about Dorothy, because in the comic books, it works. But in live action, wasn’t sure how introducing a child to a mature storyline would be perceived.
In season two, not only did they manage to bump up the mature content (yes, this not for children, as there is nudity, numerous orgies and even ghosts having sex), violence and a lot of profanity.
But what made the comic books so intriguing and how they manage to make the second season so crazy, so hilarious but also managing to remind viewers that Dorothy, while she has the appearance of a girl (albeit primitive), her powers can be quite deadly.
I have to give Abigail Shapiro, the actress of Dorothy, a thumbs up of capturing the different emotions of this girl, may she be a loving daughter, or a girl wanting to know how to be a girl when she’s around Rita or others. But then seeing her go into angry mode and the episode when she unleashes her imaginary friend (or is it a demon?) known as Candlemaker. All I can say is “Wow!”.
But also the growth among the characters and also the fascinating twists that each character experiences. Writers did a great job on this! Especially, showing us how bad things can get with Niles!
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.
The writers did an amazing job with the second season, the characters and their evolving storyline was fantastic! I can’t wait for the third season! “The Doom Patrol – The Complete Second Season” is highly recommended!