The first season of the DC Universe Original Doom Patrol TV series was truly wonderful in all the weirdest ways. Ostensibly about a group of “superheroes” (kind of) who are kind of like a way more fucked up version of the X-Men, the show (like the comic) was less interested in traditional superheroics, and more interested in an avant-garde exploration of the damaged psyches of these strange individuals. Their greatest enemies are the Brotherhood of Dada, who aren’t trying to destroy the world but rather prove that everything is meaningless nonsense. Like that time they kidnapped Paris and trapped it in a painting.
The first season begins with a journey down the butthole of a donkey who speaks with its farts, segues into Kaiju sex between a giant rat and a messianic cockroach, passes through a sentient genderqueer street named Danny, and somehow still finds a way to invoke Chumbawamba in a surprisingly touching and emotional way. The show’s biggest “villain,” as it were, was the US Bureau of Normalcy, determined to make all the freaks and queer people and people with disabilities fit into some idyllic Pleasantville mold.
Needless to say, I could not recommend it more highly, regardless of whether you typically enjoy “superhero”-fare. It’s just some gloriously bonkers abstract art about a bunch of damaged people trying to connect with one another.
For Season 2, the show has graduated from DC’s proprietary Universe app to HBO Max, beginning June 25. And this season introduces paranormal investigators, the SeX-Men! Captain Kiss, Lieutenant Cuddle, and Lieutenant Torture were originally introduced as sort of S&M GI Joe allies to the Doom Patrol; this time around, they appear a bit more villainous. Either way, if Season 2 is even half as wild as Season 1, it’ll be worth watching.
Plus, it’s got Brendan Fraser.