Definitely Done Patrol

Sadly the Doom Patrol TV series has ended. However, it did so exceedingly well, and with a proper send off.

At least three of the main characters from the start of the show ended up dead. That's not bad for the Doom Patrol. Heck, the entire team died at the end of their first comic book run, and one of the later runs was focused on the idea that the three main individuals appearing in it had been dead for years, and the ones we were reading about were copies in a sorta Ship of Theseus way .

Everyone got some form of closure, some got, "and the adventure continues," and three characters ended up with nice "happily ever after with a romantic partner" endings.

Note, none of these groups (dead, romantic, continues) are mutually exclusive... Larry may have all three (I'm not sure if "turning into a sun" equals death or its a different kind of transition.) 

But that's the Doom Patrol for ya! 

This show was amazing, it continued to pull references from every run of Doom Patrol comics, plus it made up up new stuff based on where the actors playing the roles excelled.

Having a couple songs in previous seasons, and then hearing Diane Guerrero in Encanto, I was convinced a musical episode would be perfect. And it was insane and wonderful beyond my wildest imaginings. Defining a reason that it all happened in story, and not diminishing the normal levels of oddity and freakishness of the show made it that much better.

Guerrero continued to be a high point of the show as the many (and new) versions of Jane.

Rita, Larry and Cliff continued to display more complex depths to their characters, mostly through accepting their failures, of which there were many, varying between sweet, hilarious and heartbreaking types.

I introduced my enjoyment of this series in a George Award post. Little did I know that the shapeshifting Madame Rouge would show up, played by Michelle Gomez, and knock the profanity out of the park even further.  I think the Scottish accent helped.

This divided season gave the cast more acting enhancements by having them reduce and advance in age, travel through time and meet themselves of the past and future, and battle between the ideas of pre-destination and free will.

Dorothy came back for a bit, and was as adorable as ever, but was also getting older, and more complex. Time travel gave us outstanding return visits with the Chief and Willoughby Kipling.

For the final season, new additions to the cast kept up the same levels of quality the show has provided all along. Reimagining General Immortus as a frustrated small town theater actress given reality warping powers was inspired given the nature of this series.

Grounding Cyborg with a connection to his friends, particularly Deric took his story in a different direction than a cliched romance would.

Including Mr. 104 as another deep dive DC individual with a new, weird power set fit the show's aesthetic, and gave resident "wet blanket of truth" Larry a unique new chance at love.

Casey, a fictional character (Space Case) brought to life by Danny the Street/Ambulance (and brought to real life by The Nanny's Madeline Zima) was a perfect addition to an already weird group. Tyler Mane returned to supervillainy as her space conquering Dad. Casey coming to terms with being part of reality and bonding with Dorothy and Jane were some of the most honest and pleasant moments amidst the weirdness.

There's a lot to be said for an ending executed so well that, while I am going to miss this show a great deal, it provided enough of a satisfying conclusion to the narrative that I'm fine if it doesn't continue. If it was a comic book run, I'd classify it with Moore's Swamp Thing and Ostrander and Mandrake's Spectre. In both cases I haven't wanted to see further adventures of that specific version of the character because it would taint excellent finales.

 

The fact that the butts returned, were a major force in directing the narrative, and had several full blown and plot relevant musical numbers outside of the musical episode was a nifty bonus.