Doom Patrol: Hope Patrol
January 8, 2023 12:48 PM - Season 4, Episode 6 - Subscribe
The team resists the threat of Immortus, but is Immortus the salvation of humanity?
Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful, and a complete waste of time.
posted by sardonyx at 8:28 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by sardonyx at 8:28 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I feel like this season suffered a "way too much going on without really clarifying anything" series of time-wasting shenanigans, which also recently turned Titans into a similarly unwatchable, boring mess.
Back when I was hooked on all the Berlanti-helmed live-action DC series on the CW, I was so excited to finally have something comparable to the very high-quality, well-written animated shows featuring many of the same characters (Teen Titans, Young Justice, etc.). But then at some point, The Flash, Arrow, and Batgirl all devolved into confusing, repetitive drivel. (The one exception being Legends of Tomorrow.)
Not sure if this has anything to do with the recent takeover at HBO Max, but if so, it's very disappointing. Maybe this development was just as inevitable as it was with the CW-based shows.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:08 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Back when I was hooked on all the Berlanti-helmed live-action DC series on the CW, I was so excited to finally have something comparable to the very high-quality, well-written animated shows featuring many of the same characters (Teen Titans, Young Justice, etc.). But then at some point, The Flash, Arrow, and Batgirl all devolved into confusing, repetitive drivel. (The one exception being Legends of Tomorrow.)
Not sure if this has anything to do with the recent takeover at HBO Max, but if so, it's very disappointing. Maybe this development was just as inevitable as it was with the CW-based shows.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:08 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Per AVClub, Doom Patrol has been cancelled. Per James Gunn on Twitter, this decision predates his takeover of the DCEU. I'm not surprised or especially disappointed -- I think the show lost the plot when COVID hit, and never fully recovered from the wobble the pandemic threw into production -- but I am hopeful that the advance notice will give the show a chance to arrive at a satisfying conclusion.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:11 AM on January 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:11 AM on January 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
This isn't going to be my favorite season but I think I'm less down on it than some, either because I'm catching up all at once or I've got more tolerance for what is for sure some dicking around. I'm not counting on all this Immortus stuff to come to much, but I'm still basically enjoying the ride. I was actually only confused that everyone was so sure Cliff still had his longevity to begin with, and kept waiting for that to be a last minute rug pull; his brain's the only part of him even subject to human aging and he very recently developed a brain disorder that mostly affects older people.
I may or may not ever go back to try and figure this out, but I was always confused about this part of Niles' whole immortality project. He decides he has to outlive Dorothy to protect the world from her, okay, and in his attempts to do this he gets Rita, Larry, Jane, and Cliff. I couldn't figure out why he kept bringing in these "experiments" when he already hadn't aged a day in the intervening century, and thought he was maybe trying to replicate some form of longevity unique to their situations that would work better than whatever he had. But if he just kept finding these people and dosing them with Immortus juice, was longevity still the point, or was he trying to spread out the pieces Immortus would need to do exactly what it's now doing? I'm not sure even that makes all that much more sense, I don't really need a coherent explanation to enjoy the show for what it is, but I do wonder what I'm supposed to understand was going on there.
posted by jameaterblues at 1:36 PM on March 25, 2023
I may or may not ever go back to try and figure this out, but I was always confused about this part of Niles' whole immortality project. He decides he has to outlive Dorothy to protect the world from her, okay, and in his attempts to do this he gets Rita, Larry, Jane, and Cliff. I couldn't figure out why he kept bringing in these "experiments" when he already hadn't aged a day in the intervening century, and thought he was maybe trying to replicate some form of longevity unique to their situations that would work better than whatever he had. But if he just kept finding these people and dosing them with Immortus juice, was longevity still the point, or was he trying to spread out the pieces Immortus would need to do exactly what it's now doing? I'm not sure even that makes all that much more sense, I don't really need a coherent explanation to enjoy the show for what it is, but I do wonder what I'm supposed to understand was going on there.
posted by jameaterblues at 1:36 PM on March 25, 2023
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It's not clear to me what, if anything, is going on with Jane and The Fog -- did that scene even really happen? Is The Fog working for Immortus to steal Jane's mojo? Has The Fog always owned an eerie bakery?? It's strange that there can be six plodding hours of this and so few answered questions.
There were some nice moments in this, but it's all so filler-rich that I think any normal person could be forgiven for dicking around on their phone. I've just gotten into the Spelling Bee on NYT, and it's great! If anyone wants to talk "the Bee," I'm here for it!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:58 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]