Doom Patrol: The Complete Second Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Doom Patrol: The Complete Second Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I opened up my review of Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season by stating “One of my biggest pet peeves of the modern era of streaming is the fractured nature of the medium. It used to be Netlix, Hulu and some Amazon prime, but now EVERYONE and their mother has a streaming service.”, and I still stand by comment. It’s gotten super annoying to have to deal with 3-7 or more different streaming services to get what you want. The short lived DC streaming service was kinda cool, but I had a suspicion that it’s longevity wasn’t exactly in the highest probability margins (even though it gave birth to two REALLY good shows, and one solid one), and I was correct. The DC streaming service is now dead, but luckily the shows (well most of them at least, *sobs for Swamp Thing) have been shifted over to HBO Max where Warner has kind of made all of their subsidies into a digital streaming mecca (who knows if this will last long, or if they will rival Netflix, Hulu and Prime for content and quality).

Doom Patrol has always been seen as a knockoff of X-Men by most of the general public, even though Doom Patrol actually came out several months before X-Men #1 even hit stores. It starred a rag tag group of outcasts led by a cripple in a wheel chair. It was dark before it was popular to be dark, and had some great story lines. Yet fate had it play second fiddle to Marvel’s mutants and has largely been lost to time outside of the paper comics themselves. Luckily DC has been digging deep into their non Arrowverse and Batman worlds to bring out some real gems (again, I’m going to sob for our dearly departed Swamp Thing) with Doom Patrol leading the pack.

Doom Patrol is hilariously irreverent, and blends in dark humor, action, drama, and sheer vicious absurdity that makes it pretty obvious that this isn’t a show that can survive on basic cable or broadcast TV in the Arrowverse. Devoid of the angst and shackles that comes with that behemoth, Doom Patrol dives straight down Alice’s rabbit hole into a 50s style world of crazy villains and even crazier heroes. Season 2 comes in after the battle with Mr Nobody (Alan Tudyk) and has now found them all miniature versions of themselves, stuck on Cliff’s toy race track.

The team has to come to grips with their feelings for Niles, e.g. the Chief (Timothy Dalton), after they found out last season that he was actually RESPONSIBLE for their varying degrees of disfigurement. The sheer rage from Robotman (Brendan Frasier) is palpable, while the rest of the looney bin of super heroes finds their own way to grieve. With Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero) it all depends on who is in the drivers seat of her many personalities, and with Elasti-girl (April Bowby) it’s much more dramatic and soapy in nature. However, they also have to say hello to the newest member of the team, Dorothy Spinner (Nile’s Daughter) whose powers remain disturbingly mysterious, even though they are supposed to hearken the end of the world as well.

Season 2 ends with a MASSIVELY tense cliff hanger for season 3, and had me actually screaming at the screen as the show cut to black. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! I have to wait another year for the show to come out again!!! gahhhhhhhhh!! Yes, it was that kind of cliffhanger. The show doesn’t always keep you at the edge of your seat like the finale, but it’s still one of THE best super hero show out there. The show’s main focus is really the character study and interpersonal relationships that happen with the character. The introduction of Dorothy adds a massive weight to the series as we regain focus on Niles and his fading will to live, as well as the Crazy Jane’s persona of “Baby Doll” who acts as a second daughter for him to anchor to. Negative man’s crushing weight is finally lifted and Cyborg’s struggle to deal with the constant pain and agony of being who he is adds some nice chops to the show.

While the show is technically “more of the same thing we loved in season 1”, it’s also an expansion of the show, giving us deeper looks into the character’s souls, and some INSANE battles along the way. Whatever your opinion on the show, you can’t deny that it is one of the wackiest and crazies shows out there. Sadly the last episode was scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so the 9 episode series is a BIT cut short from the final 10th episode which was supposed to fill in some of the blanks. It’s in no way a death knell to the show or a major blow, but if you know what you’re looking you can see some of the things that were glossed over.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

If you’ve seen the first season, you know what to expect from the second. The show uses a very heavy red sandy color throughout, using soft focus shots and smoothed imagery to give the show a sort of hazy, dreamy look to it. It’s very nicely detailed with excellent colors and fantastic nuances, but it is also a very stylized show. The heavy red sand color permeates everything, giving even the bright daylight shots a hint of that rust color. Blacks are generally VERY good, although they do suffer from some crush in low light indoor shots. Otherwise, this is an excellent release that mirrors the excellent season 1 release.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is just as excellent as the video score, and is again, more of the same if you’ve seen season one. The show bounces around from quiet dialog centric portions to full on action scenes. Though the vast majority of the show IS rather front loaded as the drama forces the mix down just a bit. Vocals are crisp and cleanly replicated in the front of the room, while subs are forcefully banging during the super hero battles. Surrounds aren’t wildly used, but still used effectively enough with said action bits as well as the score. A good track that check off all the right boxes and whose only real “fault” is simply being a more interpersonal drama based super hero show vs. Nonstop action.







Extras:

• ALL nine one-hour episodes of the show
• The Transformers: Doom Patrol's Make-up FX
• Doom Patrol – Come Visit Georgia PSA

Final Score: ​

Doom Patrol is EASILY one of the best DC comics shows out there at the moment, but it is also one of the most unique and different shows as well. It doesn’t fall under the same preachy umbrella as the Arrowverse, and it isn’t angsty and structured like a typical superhero either. Kind of like Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol is it’s own thing and paves it’s own path, which is going to mean you’re either going to love it, or be really turned off by the crazy show. The Blu-ray is once again solidly on point for technical specs, although the extras are even slimmer this year round. Still highly recommended though.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Timothy Dalton, Matt Bomer, Timothy Dalton, Riley Shanahan
Created by: Jeremy Carner
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 405 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 26th, 2021

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will have to catch season 1.