Doom Patrol: Casey Patrol

December 22, 2022 7:03 PM - Season 4, Episode 4

Dorothy is living in her own private Idaho on Danny, working through her feelings about her dad, when an alien threat invades that even her imaginary friends can't save her from -- so it's time to make a new one.
posted by kittens for breakfast (5 comments total)

Random Notes:

*The "internet" tells me Casey Brinke was introduced in Doom Patrol #1 (2016). It may surprise you (or it may not surprise you at all!) to learn that I have almost no interest in modern comics, and so this character is completely new to me. However, and this won't surprise you, I adore Madeline Zima and you probably do too; so welcome aboard, Casey!

*Given the relatively recent creation of Space Case, all resemblances between her father and Marvel's Thanos are definitely not coincidental. Thanos, of course, was not invented for the MCU -- he first appeared all the way back in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973) -- but his relationship with his daughter Nebula was a much larger theme in the recent films than in the comics. Casey's robotic leg brings to mind the many cybernetic enhancements Thanos performed upon Nebula in the MCU -- chillingly, each took place only after Thanos deliberately amputated a piece of his daughter after she was defeated in battle, in hopes of making her "stronger." Any parallels between Casey and her father, and Dorothy and her own, would seem to be the point.

*What a difference a few years make, huh? I feel like Danny's introduction to this show was sweet and full of fanfare...and here we are on the cusp of 2023, and they have become a much-needed haven for transpeople. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be going anywhere if I were trans, thank you very much. I'd be quite happy to stay. Sucks out there.

*I'm not 100% sure where the Dr. Janus story is going, but the Doom Patrol comics and related ephemera are no strangers to metafiction.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:27 PM on December 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

I loved this episode, but then again, Danny episodes are always great.
posted by Pendragon at 2:15 AM on December 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

In a thread about an earlier episode, somebody posted that they miss Timothy Dalton. My reaction to that was, that with his character gone, at least we don't have to put up with Dorothy anymore, and I'm so glad of that fact. I should have known better. I just have zero interest in her, and by extension, her situation with her imaginary friends, her necklace and now her new comic book friend. During this episode, I kept waiting for her to disappear from the screen and for characters I actually want to see show up.
posted by sardonyx at 7:19 PM on December 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

I love Danny but I definitely didn’t need a whole damn Dorothy episode. At least give me a b-plot :(

Casey mostly just made me miss Flex Mentallo
posted by jordemort at 8:51 PM on December 31, 2022 [3 favorites]

This didn't feel like a Danny episode at all -- it was a damn Dorothy episode (to quote jordemort). A boring, ineffective storyline that I'd hoped was done with, but then they bring it back for god knows why and who cares? This episode highlighted what feels so off about this season: what's the point of any of it? The brief scenes about ongoing anti-trans hatred were touching -- and very depressing, given that it's 2022/2023, and one would hope that such a storyline would feel like something from the dark past, not the all too dark present. But beyond that, meh, what's the point? And as much as I like Madeline Zima, Space Casey was a boring-ass character because she did not own the ridiculousness of the character. I felt like I was watching her rehearsing, her portrayal was so limp. And the climax of the episode -- who cares about a touching resolution between a father and daughter we've never seen before and who are also both fictional within the story anyway and probably will appear maybe 1 more time? What a waste.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:01 AM on January 2, 2023 [1 favorite]