It’s off to the races, or I guess just the R/C track in this case, in a sophomore series premiere from everyone’s favorite family of freaks in “Fun Size Patrol.” So has the wait been worth it for the world’s strangest heroes? Let’s dive back into Doom Patrol and see if it’s still as great as the first go-round. Here’s five thoughts and remember, as always, beware of spoilers.
1. Fast Track, Slow Start
To be honest, this episode isn’t exactly thrilling. Second season debuts can be tough as they need to balance reintroducing the cast of characters and setting up storyline threads but here it feels plodding at times. That’s not to say there aren’t some interesting beats here, and the show is as visually interesting as ever with the tiny town our titular titans – -well, one of them is, at least–find themselves currently residing in. Cliff’s race around the R/C track is an especially fun sequence that takes advantage of both his character traits and the current setting, as well as giving him some screen time with Dorothy, Chief’s daughter who had been hidden away until last season’s end.
Beyond that “Fun Size Patrol” presents our status quo for moving forward: Vic is having glitches or hallucinations depending upon how you look at it, Jane has withdrawn and is abusing substances again, Rita is trying to gain control of her stretching powers, Larry’s negative spirit is showing him visions of his son he left behind, and Cliff is…punching rats. The beginning of the episode also sets up Dorothy’s power set and imaginary friends but much of this feels forced and like a chore that needs to be done before we can play with our toys.
2. Pancakes!
I’ll never not watch a scene of Larry making tiny foods. I wish we could just keep the cast in their miniature moress forever. It’s another great example of how inventive the showrunners and set designers on Doom Patrol are and feels like a throwback to our initial introduction to Larry in the kitchen cooking to AD/DC. Someone give this mummy of a man his own cooking show or we are all otherwise deprived of the content we are truly starved for.
3. The World’s Tiniest Joint
Much of the heart of the show last season was to be found in the relationship between Cliff and Jane and how Cliff came to view her as something of a surrogate daughter. While the end of the season found that bond strained the scene where the two lean against Danny, who is now a brick, is a part of the episode that finds its mark. Diane Guerrero and Brendan Fraser have developed a wonderful chemistry with their push-pull back-and-forths as they pivot from her calling him “the world’s tiniest narc” to a conversation about what Chief must have fucked to produce Dorothy. Their dynamic is a crass unspoken fondness for each other that always comes across to the audience.
4. Mrs. Brown You Have a Lovely Daughter
Willoughby is also brought back in “Fun Size Patrol” and this awful bastard is always a welcome presence in Doom Patrol. There’s just something about a smarmy Brit with magic that makes you almost wish he was a certain other DC practitioner of dark arts. But Mark Sheppard’s performance warrants his inclusion even if he could be a bit blonder and chain-smokey-ier.
5. It Killed the Baby!
Doom Patrol revels in its trademark weird and horrifying moments with “Fun Size Patrol” as the climax sees Dorothy find the rats she believes Cliff has been feeding, and what happens next can only be best described by Jane as the “natural order.” There’s a lesson to be learned here: nature is awful and violent and disturbing, and you should never trust someone who claims it is beautiful. Rat babies are bad enough to begin with. What happened here was just unnecessary.
My initial review of the series premiere as well as the second episode were both actually quite harsh, but by the third episode I was hooked on Doom Patrol so it is my hope that this season will pick up quite quickly. But it is certainly disappointing to start off with a first installment that, despite some of the great moments I mention here, otherwise feels meandering and unfocused. Here’s hoping it recaptures that magic which made it my favorite DC Universe show to date.
