Doom Patrol: Possibilities Patrol
September 24, 2021 6:58 AM - Season 3, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Yay!
Random Notes:
*Last season left us in a pretty dark place, but the show wasted no time getting us out of it. I forgot all the particulars, so I was briefly like, "Wait -- why is everybody covered in cum?" and it wasn't even a joke, because a season finale that left our heroes cocooned in paralytic cum just seems like something that would happen on this show. I forgot all about the Candlemaker drenching everybody in wax and stuff. But then I was like, "Wait -- wasn't the Candlemaker a pretty big deal? I thought the world was about to end or something?" but honestly, I don't feel like going back to find out now, because I thought the last few episodes of last year were kinda wonky (covid), and I'm just as willing to move on from them as it seems like the show is. So let's do it!!
*I didn't love the Miranda story last year, and I'm not really any crazier about it now, but it was nice to see Jane and Kay reunite with the rest of the Underground and evict her. The Underground is really neat, and I'd love to see more of it without all the sturm und drang. Interesting that the plane and the puzzle pieces are both symbolic elements from the opening titles made literal; wonder what else we'll see incorporated into the story this season?
*Basically every scene with Dorothy crying makes me want to cry, but I think it's important to point out that I'm not crying, you're crying. It's you.
*I don't want to speculate too much on where this is all going, because,...well...there are two more episodes just sitting there that will probably explain it all, as soon as we all get a chance to watch them. I'm guessing comments will be a little light here, and in the entry for the next one. But I loved this episode, and I'm so happy to see the show back on track after a very (understandably) shaky second half of a season -- I'm happy to see it back at all, when it was hard to know what the demise of DC Universe would mean for its future. This is a really special show, and I'm glad HBO is willing to let it be its weirdass self.
Random Notes:
*Last season left us in a pretty dark place, but the show wasted no time getting us out of it. I forgot all the particulars, so I was briefly like, "Wait -- why is everybody covered in cum?" and it wasn't even a joke, because a season finale that left our heroes cocooned in paralytic cum just seems like something that would happen on this show. I forgot all about the Candlemaker drenching everybody in wax and stuff. But then I was like, "Wait -- wasn't the Candlemaker a pretty big deal? I thought the world was about to end or something?" but honestly, I don't feel like going back to find out now, because I thought the last few episodes of last year were kinda wonky (covid), and I'm just as willing to move on from them as it seems like the show is. So let's do it!!
*I didn't love the Miranda story last year, and I'm not really any crazier about it now, but it was nice to see Jane and Kay reunite with the rest of the Underground and evict her. The Underground is really neat, and I'd love to see more of it without all the sturm und drang. Interesting that the plane and the puzzle pieces are both symbolic elements from the opening titles made literal; wonder what else we'll see incorporated into the story this season?
*Basically every scene with Dorothy crying makes me want to cry, but I think it's important to point out that I'm not crying, you're crying. It's you.
*I don't want to speculate too much on where this is all going, because,...well...there are two more episodes just sitting there that will probably explain it all, as soon as we all get a chance to watch them. I'm guessing comments will be a little light here, and in the entry for the next one. But I loved this episode, and I'm so happy to see the show back on track after a very (understandably) shaky second half of a season -- I'm happy to see it back at all, when it was hard to know what the demise of DC Universe would mean for its future. This is a really special show, and I'm glad HBO is willing to let it be its weirdass self.
And yeah, this episode very definitely felt like the _actual_ S2 finale up until the Mistress showed up.
posted by Kyol at 8:35 AM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Kyol at 8:35 AM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was kind of meh for a good chunk of this, mostly because it seemed to be wrapping up a bunch of plot threads that I didn't really remember very well from last season. But then the last 10 minutes or so got me very excited. The song from the musical, everything Melissa Gomez did, Constantine Willoughby digging up Niles' head, that's the Doom Patrol I love.
posted by Ragged Richard at 1:25 PM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Ragged Richard at 1:25 PM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Rita's outfits, as always were fabulous. I love that red cloak/coat!
It seems like there's a disconnect that I never noticed before between Matt Bomer's voice and Larry Trainor's body. I don't know if it's because of COVID-19 filming techniques or something else.
I'm not too sure if I'll be able to cope with this season, given how Cliff's story is likely to progress. I turn to this for light escapism. This won't be that for me.
posted by sardonyx at 10:17 AM on September 25, 2021
It seems like there's a disconnect that I never noticed before between Matt Bomer's voice and Larry Trainor's body. I don't know if it's because of COVID-19 filming techniques or something else.
I'm not too sure if I'll be able to cope with this season, given how Cliff's story is likely to progress. I turn to this for light escapism. This won't be that for me.
posted by sardonyx at 10:17 AM on September 25, 2021
In the last 2 seasons I would say Jane's plots haven't particularly gripped me, but i think it's because I'm never going to connect to some of the dynamic between Kay and the alters and amongst themselves. Yet, that groundwork was laid, and i legitimately teared up from when Kay showed up and did the work to save herselves. And then to have Jane wake up and see her aboveground family was trying to save her too.... Ahhhh.
I was also ready to move on from the whole candlemaker arc, but what a pity they didn't have the airtime to give it a proper emotional finish to it in the season it was meant to be
posted by cendawanita at 12:48 PM on September 25, 2021
I was also ready to move on from the whole candlemaker arc, but what a pity they didn't have the airtime to give it a proper emotional finish to it in the season it was meant to be
posted by cendawanita at 12:48 PM on September 25, 2021
I was actually hoping that we'd be done with Dorothy forever, but it looks like that won't be the case. At least her main arc was wrapped up quickly. Maybe mourning Dorothy will be a more compelling character.
posted by sardonyx at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by sardonyx at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
I felt she overtook the entirety of the last season and overwhelmed everybody else.
Maybe it's just that she's a kid and I'm not really interested in watching shows about kids. Maybe it's just that she was the last addition and threw the balance off that the other main characters had already established. I'm not sure I can nail it down any more specifically than that.
posted by sardonyx at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
Maybe it's just that she's a kid and I'm not really interested in watching shows about kids. Maybe it's just that she was the last addition and threw the balance off that the other main characters had already established. I'm not sure I can nail it down any more specifically than that.
posted by sardonyx at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
I was reminded partway through this that last season was supposed to have another episode at the end. As it was, the instantaneous resolution of the Candlemaker (for now) made it a little frustrating how long it took to get around to him, and the characters heading off into their own plots felt a lot more like the way you’d end a season than start one. I was definitely hazy on some of those plot threads, but I’m glad to have the show back and I’m interested in where all this goes.
Being able to walk into your friend’s house and see him dead on the dining room table covered in half-frozen bags of peas and go “you know what maybe that’s a stasis experiment” and go on with your day seems like an essential part of being friends with Niles.
Also it looked a lot like Danny’s an ambulance now, which makes me happy.
posted by jameaterblues at 9:42 PM on September 25, 2021
Being able to walk into your friend’s house and see him dead on the dining room table covered in half-frozen bags of peas and go “you know what maybe that’s a stasis experiment” and go on with your day seems like an essential part of being friends with Niles.
Also it looked a lot like Danny’s an ambulance now, which makes me happy.
posted by jameaterblues at 9:42 PM on September 25, 2021
I totally missed the thing about Willoughby Kipling, and presumed I'd somehow zoned out or fallen asleep for a minute, but I'm informed this is a fuckin' post-credits sequence?! What is this, a Marvel movie now? Okay. Going back in!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:01 AM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:01 AM on September 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
Yay indeed, so happy to have the show back!
I suppose we’ll never know what the original intention was for season 2’s finale, but I can’t help but feel this wasn’t it. In season 2, Dorothy manifests a giant hammer to do battle with the Candlemaker, but in this episode she just traps him on the moon until he decides to play nice, which takes literally two minutes. Surely there was more planned?
(My prediction was: since (a) the Doom Patrol was explicitly founded to protect Dorothy, (b) the Candlemaker was able to enter the Underground, and (c) the Negative Spirit could send people into the Underground too, I thought the Negative Spirit was going to send projections of the Patrol into whatever mental realm the Candlemaker took Dorothy to and they would all work together to defeat him. It really seemed like the show was building up to that!)
I think of episodes of this show as being charted on a coordinate plane with “maudlin” as one axis and “wacky” as the other. This one was pretty high in the maudlin factor with little wackiness to leaven it. I loved Rita’s “my bees” speech (complete with farting pantomime donkey) but Cliff’s rant at ghost Niles felt like overly well-traveled territory.
Anyway, so excited for the rest of the season, and so glad the sex ghosts are still sticking around! And thanks kittens for breakfast for making these posts. Here’s hoping HBO doesn’t drop three episodes every week, like it does for every “non-prestige” show I watch. (The Undoing and Mare of Easttown come out one episode at a time, but Search Party and Made for Love get their whole seasons dumped in the space of two weeks. What’s up with that?)
posted by ejs at 10:23 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I suppose we’ll never know what the original intention was for season 2’s finale, but I can’t help but feel this wasn’t it. In season 2, Dorothy manifests a giant hammer to do battle with the Candlemaker, but in this episode she just traps him on the moon until he decides to play nice, which takes literally two minutes. Surely there was more planned?
(My prediction was: since (a) the Doom Patrol was explicitly founded to protect Dorothy, (b) the Candlemaker was able to enter the Underground, and (c) the Negative Spirit could send people into the Underground too, I thought the Negative Spirit was going to send projections of the Patrol into whatever mental realm the Candlemaker took Dorothy to and they would all work together to defeat him. It really seemed like the show was building up to that!)
I think of episodes of this show as being charted on a coordinate plane with “maudlin” as one axis and “wacky” as the other. This one was pretty high in the maudlin factor with little wackiness to leaven it. I loved Rita’s “my bees” speech (complete with farting pantomime donkey) but Cliff’s rant at ghost Niles felt like overly well-traveled territory.
Anyway, so excited for the rest of the season, and so glad the sex ghosts are still sticking around! And thanks kittens for breakfast for making these posts. Here’s hoping HBO doesn’t drop three episodes every week, like it does for every “non-prestige” show I watch. (The Undoing and Mare of Easttown come out one episode at a time, but Search Party and Made for Love get their whole seasons dumped in the space of two weeks. What’s up with that?)
posted by ejs at 10:23 AM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thank you, ejs! It looks like HBO is going to a normal weekly schedule after this, but I guess We Shall See.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:46 PM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:46 PM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
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Like, did the show just drop that? I haven’t watched the second two episodes so maybe this is a premature comment.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 7:38 AM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]