Doom Patrol
HBO Max
Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Tyme Patrol’
While I was watching this episode, it became clear to me that ‘Doom Patrol’ is by far the best live action series DC has ever made. Why did it take this long and why this particular episode? I really don’t know. It’s not even my favorite episode the show has made (‘Therapy Patrol’ and ‘Jane Patrol’ from last season still remain to be my top two episodes), but it became abundantly clear to me to during this episode the creators of the show can really make many different genres and themes work and yet remain consistent; an accomplishment most television shows cannot honestly claim.
The episode starts similarly to the premiere episode in which we see Dorothy being shown off at a circus, but this time it’s from the perspective of Niles Caulder so we finally catch a glimpse of what happened while the canopy was over Dorothy’s cage. I found it to be a very effective way to show off the sympathetic side of Niles before we begin to doubt his true intentions with the team and what he’s been hiding from them. Very similarly, I was impressed with the main story of this episode with Cliff, Rita and Jane going to find a way to get the continuum to help Niles live for longer after what happened in the last episode. I found the sequences with Dr. Tyme, while incredibly off the wall (whats new there?), amusing. I won’t spoil where he is, but it makes for A LOT of fun. We also get to see some darker and well acted out scenes at the same with both Cliff and Rita giving off very powerful monologues venting their frustration towards Niles and how he was responsible for them becoming monsters. Main story aside, the true standout of this episode was Larry Trainors side story in which he attends his sons funeral. While short, the few scenes we got were incredibly sweet and features quite possibly the best voice acting work we’ve seen from Matt Bomer so far in the show.
However, I do have a minor flaw with this episode and that was Cyborgs side story. It could be quite possibly too early to judge it, but I wasn’t feeling his side story in this episode. I felt like there could be better work done with how they’re setting up his arc but right I wasn’t feeling it nor did I think the relationships with other characters in this episode was particular interesting. It’s an interesting concept seeing Victor at group therapy and I hope we’ll see something better of it down the line.
Aside from a minor hiccup with Vics arc, this was a fantastic episode and yet another reason that really shows why Doom Patrol is such a diverse genre-defying show bringing action, humor, drama and a lot of heart.