Doom Patrol: Dumb Patrol
July 25, 2020 8:14 PM - Season 2, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Our heroes are infected with a magical virus that gives them bad ideas, which is mostly surprising because I assumed they already had been infected with a magical virus that gives them bad ideas. It would have explained a lot. Anyway, here we go.
Speaking of the score - I can't remember the last show where I willing let the title cards play instead of skipping it. I love the intro song.
Cliff's body being impervious? Sure. His clothes? Naw, man.
Cute that Larry wears the lapels of his bomber jacket on top of the lab coat disguise.
Mark Sheppard playing Mark Sheppard - hooray!
Chief's mobility chair? Not woods-rated, not even close.
Interesting that the Ancestor Demon looked like it was in stiletto heels.
posted by porpoise at 1:05 AM on July 26, 2020 [5 favorites]
Cliff's body being impervious? Sure. His clothes? Naw, man.
Cute that Larry wears the lapels of his bomber jacket on top of the lab coat disguise.
Mark Sheppard playing Mark Sheppard - hooray!
Chief's mobility chair? Not woods-rated, not even close.
Interesting that the Ancestor Demon looked like it was in stiletto heels.
posted by porpoise at 1:05 AM on July 26, 2020 [5 favorites]
Love the call out of Alan Tudyk doing voices on Harley Quinn as an explanation as to why he wasn’t in the painting/episode.
I wanna know Miranda’s secret and deeply terrible idea - I could just do a whole show of The Underground and it’s mechanisms/framework.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 9:32 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
I wanna know Miranda’s secret and deeply terrible idea - I could just do a whole show of The Underground and it’s mechanisms/framework.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 9:32 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
Cliff landing intact and pretty close to home seems like a stretch even on the assumption Niles planned it that way, but he was shot out of a spaceship powered by a magic goat head so you know, whatever, an Animal Vegetable Mineral Man background joke is always most welcome. (Someday it may get old to stick random sex ghosts in the background, but that day is not today.) I wonder if Niles did it this way so Cliff would tell the others he and Dorothy were staying in space.
I'm a little sorry we didn't get to see the scene of Vic attempting to explain his roommates to Roni, though I'm gonna guess that no way is a radioactive mummy the weirdest person she's ever met.
The visual of Larry and Flit trying to sneak back into the hospital ""in disguise"" was so dumb and it made me laugh so hard.
I genuinely appreciate that the scants plot ends with Vic, Roni, Larry, and Kipling (and arguably Cliff and Niles, and maybe also Miranda) all immediately doubling down on their bad ideas. (I'm not sure how exactly Larry avoided the Bureau of Normalcy at the end, though I also don't know why the Bureau hasn't just gone to Niles' house and waited for him to come outside. At least in 1977 they knew he was there as one of Niles' side projects and it could not possibly be that hard to figure out he's still there now, but again, whatever.) I do wonder where the uma jelly is going to figure into all this (did we ever figure out what it actually does? just get the scant queen high as balls?)
Rita is...maybe getting into this for the right reasons? Or as right as you're going to get, in this version of the universe.
posted by jameaterblues at 1:41 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm a little sorry we didn't get to see the scene of Vic attempting to explain his roommates to Roni, though I'm gonna guess that no way is a radioactive mummy the weirdest person she's ever met.
The visual of Larry and Flit trying to sneak back into the hospital ""in disguise"" was so dumb and it made me laugh so hard.
I genuinely appreciate that the scants plot ends with Vic, Roni, Larry, and Kipling (and arguably Cliff and Niles, and maybe also Miranda) all immediately doubling down on their bad ideas. (I'm not sure how exactly Larry avoided the Bureau of Normalcy at the end, though I also don't know why the Bureau hasn't just gone to Niles' house and waited for him to come outside. At least in 1977 they knew he was there as one of Niles' side projects and it could not possibly be that hard to figure out he's still there now, but again, whatever.) I do wonder where the uma jelly is going to figure into all this (did we ever figure out what it actually does? just get the scant queen high as balls?)
Rita is...maybe getting into this for the right reasons? Or as right as you're going to get, in this version of the universe.
posted by jameaterblues at 1:41 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
This was a great episode! I don't mind at all that things like Cliff's re-entry completely defy reality (even if his body and clothes could survive re-entry, his brain would have been turned into soup on impact), when they set up such delightful scenarios as Cliff walking across America getting murderously angry and having to record shout-outs to the homies to make a phone call.
The premise of little creatures being the embodiment of bad ideas recalled the deformed chick-creature from Legion, but I was delighted to see that the Scants were basically Sea Monkeys. The Patrol acting dumb was hilarious, especially the hospital plan. And as dumb as Beardhunter's idea to camouflage himself was, it worked, so who's laughing now?
I loved people calling Miranda "Nice Jane."
The absolutely excellent Knights Templar film about the Scants said that the Uma jelly gives the queen power, which was illustrated by eye lasers. Not sure what Roni plans to do with it, though. The normal reasons someone would steal a (presumably) temporary power-up don't jibe with what we know about her.
posted by ejs at 2:55 PM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
The premise of little creatures being the embodiment of bad ideas recalled the deformed chick-creature from Legion, but I was delighted to see that the Scants were basically Sea Monkeys. The Patrol acting dumb was hilarious, especially the hospital plan. And as dumb as Beardhunter's idea to camouflage himself was, it worked, so who's laughing now?
I loved people calling Miranda "Nice Jane."
The absolutely excellent Knights Templar film about the Scants said that the Uma jelly gives the queen power, which was illustrated by eye lasers. Not sure what Roni plans to do with it, though. The normal reasons someone would steal a (presumably) temporary power-up don't jibe with what we know about her.
posted by ejs at 2:55 PM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
I've been behind on this show all season, and I've finally managed to catch up. This episode feels a lot more like the first season, I'm guessing because Dorothy wasn't in it. Her character really has been an emotional and story-plot drain this season, but I will say I pretty much agree with everybody here on everything. I will add, however, that I love Rita's beekeeping outfit, especially her brooch.
I'm not going to bother echoing all of the great things and neat little points that people have already pointed out. I think she should have had the zipper pulled all the way up (or up at least high enough to close under the netting, but that's a minor quibble.
I'm also glad that Cliff's daughter seems to be giving him a chance to tell his side of the story.
posted by sardonyx at 6:52 PM on July 29, 2020
I'm not going to bother echoing all of the great things and neat little points that people have already pointed out. I think she should have had the zipper pulled all the way up (or up at least high enough to close under the netting, but that's a minor quibble.
I'm also glad that Cliff's daughter seems to be giving him a chance to tell his side of the story.
posted by sardonyx at 6:52 PM on July 29, 2020
"Revenge by Marmaduke! This is happening!" I love this line so much.
And I love that Animal Vegetable Mineral Man's dinosaur head, Dolores, wrote a memoir that personas in the Underground are reading and discussing. I would totally watch an entire Underground Book Club series.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:08 PM on June 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
And I love that Animal Vegetable Mineral Man's dinosaur head, Dolores, wrote a memoir that personas in the Underground are reading and discussing. I would totally watch an entire Underground Book Club series.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:08 PM on June 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
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*Cliff doesn't catch on fire upon entry into Earth's atmosphere, and is none the worse for wear. Why not! It seems lucky he landed somewhere in the continental United States, which strikes me as statistically unlikely.
*The Scant infestation has obvious parallels to our benighted Real World, but I imagine most or all of them are purely coincidental.
*I liked the way our heroes performed stupidity not by blundering around and slipping on banana peels, but by striding -- with absolute confidence -- from one wholly unnecessary moronic disaster to the next. This, too, rings a bell.
*More Animal Vegetable Mineral Man, stat.
*As bleak a scene as Niles sending Kipling after Dorothy is, I'm not terribly worried Kipling is going to assassinate our little girl. I am, however, a little concerned for Kipling.
*On a technical note, this episode and last featured what I'm pretty sure are several new musical themes. Good stuff.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:32 PM on July 25, 2020 [2 favorites]