DOOM PATROL Season One

DC’s most f**ked-up heroes

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD

Showrunner Jeremy Carver

Cast Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby,

Brendan Fraser, Timothy Dalton

Doom Patrol is a bit shit. Not the most eloquent critical analysis, sure, but let’s deal with this potty-mouthed DC show in terms it understands. Meta, right?

Thing is, the show knows exactly what it is and doesn’t care. So if you’re willing to embrace its coincidence-heavy plotting, gratuitous excesses and shouty dialogue as cartoonish byproducts of a central fourth-wallbreaking conceit then, yeah, there’s actually some kind of crazed genius going on here.

Combining a gross-out grindhouse vibe with Deadpoolstyle meta-referencing, Doom Patrol sees some of DC’s most dysfunctional superheroes – Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, Cyborg, Crazy Jane – brought together for perhaps not-so-altruistic reasons by the mysterious Chief (Timothy Dalton) and, basically, bickering loads. Then supervillain Mr Nobody (a rantingly over-the-top Alan Tudyk) starts manipulating them through the medium of voiceover and the Chief vanishes.

The ensuing search for him features a sentient, teleporting, genderqueer street; a bubble universe up a donkey’s arse; a mass shared orgasm, and loads more weirdness. Amazingly, among all this there’s some genuine heart provided by the characters’ tragic backstories.

There are cringy moments that don’t work, a couple of episodes misfire badly and the finale is a noisy mess. But if you like your cult entertainment turned up to 11, this is the real shit.

Extras Seven deleted scenes, (eight minutes); gag reel (five minutes); a featurette on the locations (five minutes). Dave Golder

Grant Morrison created Mark Sheppard’s character as a Constantine knock-off because he couldn’t use him in the comics.