Doom Patrol: Evil Patrol
November 5, 2021 5:15 PM - Season 3, Episode 9 - Subscribe
Rita turns to the Doom Patrol for defense against the Brotherhood of Evil, but our heroes have a lot going on, man.
I thought it was pretty low of The Brain to stick Cliff in a jar instead of just letting him have the tall Roomba thing he'd been driving around.
posted by jordemort at 8:41 PM on November 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by jordemort at 8:41 PM on November 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
But at least he was nice enough to label the jar "Cliff Steele" before tossing it into the swamp.
posted by ejs at 9:43 PM on November 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by ejs at 9:43 PM on November 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
"Your absurd and overly complicated problems are not welcome here."
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:10 AM on November 6, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:10 AM on November 6, 2021 [5 favorites]
I want to know where Larry got that shirt. Did he buy it with the baby sling after he decided to adopt the alien slug? Has he had it sitting in a drawer for decades in case he ever woke up the kind of person who wears Hawaiian shirts, like he woke up one day the kind of person who drives a black school bus? (No shade, I have those outfits too.)
The entirety of Rita’s Master Plan was solid gold, but I died at her in the background debating with herself and then furiously crossing out WEIRD ALIEN SLUG.
It’s one thing to know CGI animation has gotten really good, and another to know that even CGI that’s just pretty good can perfectly capture a giant ape doing the “oh noooo I can’t hear you” gesture while taking twenty minutes to passive-aggressively make a smoothie.
I wish it had come out a little more earlier in the episode, but it makes total sense to me that Rita’s life with the Sisterhood feels way more immediate and important than the relationships she had with these people she hasn’t seen or thought about or even missed in thirty years. She is stepping up and getting the DP to work as a team in a way they don't do a ton of, but at this moment they're her team mostly because she doesn't have access to her real team.
Especially the past few episodes I’ve been thinking about this 2015 article by Robert Jones Jr. (aka @sonofbaldwin), Humanity Not Included: DC’s Cyborg and the Mechanization of the Black Body. He's not a fan of the character and is obviously not writing about this specific take (who I like a lot), but it's been really interesting to have this perspective in mind as the show gets deeper into what Cyborg represented to Silas and what it came to mean to Vic as Black men.
posted by jameaterblues at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
The entirety of Rita’s Master Plan was solid gold, but I died at her in the background debating with herself and then furiously crossing out WEIRD ALIEN SLUG.
It’s one thing to know CGI animation has gotten really good, and another to know that even CGI that’s just pretty good can perfectly capture a giant ape doing the “oh noooo I can’t hear you” gesture while taking twenty minutes to passive-aggressively make a smoothie.
I wish it had come out a little more earlier in the episode, but it makes total sense to me that Rita’s life with the Sisterhood feels way more immediate and important than the relationships she had with these people she hasn’t seen or thought about or even missed in thirty years. She is stepping up and getting the DP to work as a team in a way they don't do a ton of, but at this moment they're her team mostly because she doesn't have access to her real team.
Especially the past few episodes I’ve been thinking about this 2015 article by Robert Jones Jr. (aka @sonofbaldwin), Humanity Not Included: DC’s Cyborg and the Mechanization of the Black Body. He's not a fan of the character and is obviously not writing about this specific take (who I like a lot), but it's been really interesting to have this perspective in mind as the show gets deeper into what Cyborg represented to Silas and what it came to mean to Vic as Black men.
posted by jameaterblues at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
I just have to say that wide-trouser and jacket outfit Madame Rouge had on while visiting Boca was absolutely stunning.
I too, loved Rita's hand-written (with perfect, beautiful penmanship) Master Plan, and her active updating of it as the meeting progressed.
It’s one thing to know CGI animation has gotten really good, and another to know that even CGI that’s just pretty good can perfectly capture a giant ape doing the “oh noooo I can’t hear you” gesture while taking twenty minutes to passive-aggressively make a smoothie.
This! This is exactly the point worth making about this episode. The creepy shafshifting baby was fine (for various definitions of fine), but watching Monsieur Mallah display passive aggressive (and somewhat aggressive) behaviours to indicate his frustation with the whole Madame Rouge situation was pure entertainment.
posted by sardonyx at 1:47 PM on November 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
I too, loved Rita's hand-written (with perfect, beautiful penmanship) Master Plan, and her active updating of it as the meeting progressed.
It’s one thing to know CGI animation has gotten really good, and another to know that even CGI that’s just pretty good can perfectly capture a giant ape doing the “oh noooo I can’t hear you” gesture while taking twenty minutes to passive-aggressively make a smoothie.
This! This is exactly the point worth making about this episode. The creepy shafshifting baby was fine (for various definitions of fine), but watching Monsieur Mallah display passive aggressive (and somewhat aggressive) behaviours to indicate his frustation with the whole Madame Rouge situation was pure entertainment.
posted by sardonyx at 1:47 PM on November 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
I have to admit I love the Brain and Monsier Mallah. The dancing scene was just delightful and it's interesting to see a character reveling in the body that Cliff considers a prison. The body actors do such amazing work on this show.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:10 PM on November 7, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 2:10 PM on November 7, 2021 [6 favorites]
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I was writing more about what I loved in this episode and realized I was just describing the whole episode, so I'll stop now. But special mention goes to the deranged Baby Rouge fight and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah having put out an album (that sounded wonderful). Oh, also, Jane and Cliff saying "Keepaboo!" in Larry's dream to Larry's dismay. Such an excellent piece of dream logic.
posted by ejs at 7:31 PM on November 5, 2021 [4 favorites]