Doom Patrol Season 3 Review

Overview

Like the two previous seasons before it, Doom Patrol season 3 absolutely hit it out of the park. Despite my love for the series, I was very nervous that the show might drop in quality after season 2. It’s not that I didn’t have any faith in it, but most of the Arrowverse shows like Arrow, The Flash and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow have dropped in quality after two great seasons. I was fully aware that Doom Patrol is not part of the Arrowverse, but a part of me still worried that the season could end up not being as great as the first two seasons. I was thankfully proven wrong as not only was this season incredible but it entertained me more than I ever could have imagined.

The season admittedly opened on an underwhelming note as Dorothy defeated the Candlemaker with relative ease by simply threatening that she will keep him trapped until he agrees to obey her. We waited over a year to see how the story of season 2 would be resolved and this was just a pathetic conclusion. I understand that COVID forced the season 2 finale to serve as the season 3 premiere but there were so many ways that they could ended the conflict on a better note. The Candlemaker was originally one of the scariest villains I had ever seen in a television show and became one of my favorite DCTV villains as a result. After seeing how his story ended, I can’t exactly say that I hold this opinion anymore.

However, despite the opening scene greatly disappointing me, the season premiere immediately won me back over by its second scene when the Doom Patrol discovered that Niles had finally died of old age while they were trapped in wax and Dorothy was defeating the Candlemaker. I will admit that I was not expecting this turn of events with the character. Part of me always knew that Timothy Dalton would not be part of the main cast on this show for that long. Even when I watched the first episode of the series I had a feeling that he would be the first of the main cast to leave. However, I did not expect him to leave this soon. I’m not sure if COVID had anything to do with Niles being written out of the show but I was devastated to see Timothy Dalton go.

In addition to Niles being written out of the show, the season premiere also saw the departure of his daughter Dorothy, who leaves the manor to go and bury her father. This honestly caught me even more off guard. I was fully expecting her to to stay as the previous season greatly built up the team preparing for Niles’ death and taking care of his daughter. Abigail Shapiro was honestly incredible in the role so it was sad to see her go but her exit was written beautifully, making her departure more easy to swallow.

The main story of the season revolves around the team navigating through their lives and figuring out how to move on without their Chief. While none of them are heartbroken about his death, they are still very much confused on how to feel and their confusion only adds more problems to their lives moving forward during the season. Despite resenting Niles for causing their accidents, they are pretty much more lost than ever before now that they don’t have his guidance.

Things take an even weirder turn during the season when Madame Rouge (who is suffering from amnesia thanks to time travel) arrives at the manor and recruits them to fight the Sisterhood of Dada, believing that they are planning something horrible. Their first encounter with the Sisterhood leaves them more broken than ever before, causing each of them to be greatly affected moving forward in the show. The situation only gets more dire when Madame Rouge regains her memories and goes to the Brotherhood of Evil for help, who instead betray her and steal Cliff’s body.

Towards the end of the season, the group makes a massive shift in their dynamic when they decide to finally become a team of superheroes. Despite feeling like they are unequipped to deal with supervillains, the team nonetheless decides to see how this pans out and get ready to go on their first and extremely bizarre mission. Despite telling themselves that they are not good enough for three seasons straight, our main characters finally gained the confidence that they needed.

Characters

This season had the biggest amount progression for each of our characters. Dorothy returned to the manor in the third episode and found a distraught Larry with the corpses of the team. In order to bring them back to life, Dorothy hired the Dead Boy Detectives, a pair of teenage ghosts who investigate paranormal activity with their close friend Crystal. She soon bonds with them and finds a connection that she could not really find with the Doom Patrol. Not long after, she decides to join them and leave the manor. It was surprising to see this happen but it was nice to see Dorothy get some closure while also parting ways on good terms with the Doom Patrol. I am going to miss Abigail Shapiro on this show but I hope that she appears in the rumored upcoming Dead Boy Detectives show. It would be a shame for her to just not appear again.

Despite dying in the season premiere, Niles returned one final time during the fourth episode. However, it was not in the way that I was expecting at all. Willoughby Kipling had resurrected Niles’ head to make him put in a good word for him with Baphomet, the talking horse head ghost with whom he is infatuated with for some reason. Despite him being alive, Niles’ living severed head was extremely unsettling, looking almost lifeless with a speaker put in his mouth to give him the ability to talk. When the team was turned into zombies, Niles sacrificed himself by willingly offering himself up for the group to eat his brain and cure them. It was a strange final farewell to the Chief but a fitting one nonetheless. I don’t know if Timothy Dalton will ever appear again on the show after this but I will not give up hope of Niles coming back. If he can appear as a talking severed head, then anything is possible.

This season also introduced us to the shapeshifter Laura De Mille/Madame Rouge, who pretty much served as the replacement for Niles. Madame Rouge is one of the more well known villains from the Doom Patrol comics. However, the show presents her in a much different way than one might expect. Through the first half of the season, Rouge suffers from amnesia due to her time traveling from from the 1940s to the present day. After meeting our main characters, she tries to get them to fight the Sisterhood of Dada, whom she has an important past with. Serving as almost a mirror to Niles, Rouge was close with the Sisterhood and was more or less their leader before she betrayed them to the Bureau of Normalcy in order to gain more power. Afterwards, she starts to lack a purpose and jumps from one group to the next in a desperate need to feel important. She also becomes fierce rivals with Rita who meets her when she herself travels back in time and bonds with the Sisterhood because of her amnesia. At the end of the season Rouge joins the Doom Patrol, looking to atone for her actions after losing her place in both the Sisterhood and Brotherhood of Evil. Michelle Gomez is absolutely wonderful as Madame Rouge and I look forward to see where they take the character in season 4.

The leader of the Brotherhood of Evil known as the Brain more or less served as the big bad of this season. I say more or less because this season didn’t really have a main villain. The first two seasons each had a clear cut big bad with Mr. Nobody and the Candlemaker, but season 3 takes things in a different direction by having a more self-contained story. However, the Brain is pretty much the main threat towards the end of the season. That’s not to say that he was an underwhelming antagonist. On the contrary, the Brain is one of the most entertaining characters I have ever seen appear in the series. His pathetic overconfidence and Woody Allen-like voice just made him so engaging and hilarious to watch. After briefly appearing throughout the season in short scenes, he soon enters the spotlight when he is brought back into the fold by Madame Rouge, who emboldens him to steal Cliff’s body for himself. After betraying Madame Rouge, he is defeated when she takes Mr. Nobody’s giant robot and tears him in half. He is then abandoned by his right hand gorilla Monsieur Mallah and seemingly killed by Rita, who pours scalding hot tea on his exposed brain when he attempts to recruit her. I’m not entirely sure if Rita truly killed him or not but I do hope that we see the archenemy of the Doom Patrol appear in the future.

Now moving onto our main characters, each of them go through a unique and captivating story during the season. After stopping Roni from committing an act of terrorism and letting her get away, Vic is ousted from S.T.A.R. Labs, who cut off all of his support as punishment. After his encounter with the Sisterhood of Dada, Vic makes a massive change in his life by going through a surgery that gives him synthetic skin. This makes him look normal but causes him to lose his powers as Cyborg. Unfortunately for Vic no one is in favor of his new physical change, not even his own father. Despite losing his abilities as Cyborg, Vic’s heroic qualities still remain and he joins the Doom Patrol when they finally decide to become a team of superheroes. Vic’s story during the season was very poignant as not only did he grow and change as a character but the commentary on his status as an African-American was very well handled. Meanwhile, Joivan Wade just absolutely crushes it in this role.

Larry starts his story in the season by leaving the manor to go to space, believing that he will be able to find closure. Unfortunately, this proves to be anything but the case as the Negative Spirit unexpectedly leaves his body for good. Larry understandably feels betrayed by the Negative Spirit’s sudden departure as he had grown to see him as his friend. Larry then receives another emotional blow as he attempts to once again reconnect with his son Paul who simply gives him a reminder that he wants nothing to do with him. When a Negative Parasite comes out from Larry’s body, he sees it as an opportunity to once again be a father and eventually gets rewarded for his efforts when a Negative Spirit baby emerges from the larva and enters him. Matt Bomer is wonderful as always in the role and Larry’s story in this season is once again emotional and beautifully handled.

After defeating Daddy, Jane reestablishes herself as the primary persona for Kay and is able to connect with her in a much better way at the beginning of the season. However, things take a turn when Kay expresses her desire to go up on the service. Jane is at first all for this and lets her go. However, the other personalities, particularly Dr. Harrison get nervous about Kay’s newfound freedom and attempt to sabotage her happiness. Jane does her best to look out for Kay and prevent this. Unfortunately, Kay soon decides that she doesn’t need Jane and the other personalities and wants to be her own primary, even saying to Jane that she wishes she was dead. It doesn’t take long for Kay to lose control and realize that she is in over her head. She soon disappears when she accidentally destroys the Underground. In a desperate attempt to save her, Jane gives up her position of primary to Dr. Harrison. Jane’s story in this season is incredible and like always Diane Guerrero gives an absolutely perfect performance. I am genuinely curious as to how Jane will resolve her story with Kay next season as her disappearance leaves things intriguingly open.

Cliff’s story this season is very tragic like always but far more uplifting than the previous two seasons. He has finally gotten the relationship with his daughter that he had been craving since he woke up in the robot body after his accident. He even now has a baby grandson. Despite things going well for Cliff, he has now been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, revealing that his faulty movements were not because of his robot body but rather because of his failing brain. Cliff soon becomes addicted to the sketchy side of the internet, recklessly spending his money on things like unsafe medication, pop up ad games and even a prostitute to chat with online. It is soon revealed that Cliff’s new addiction stemmed from him wanting to relive his glory days as a famous race car driver. This nearly alienates him from his daughter, who thankfully gives him another chance after realizing that the meds fueled his erratic behavior. Unfortunately, the Brain soon abducts Cliff and steals his body for himself, forcing him to pilot one of the Brain’s old jars. Cliff eventually gets hold of Mr. Nobody’s giant robot and it becomes his new body. Cliff’s story is once again great. It was nice to see him get some much deserved happiness after so much misery in the last two seasons. This also might be Brendan Fraser’s best season yet as the character as his acting is just taken to new heights. Riley Shanahan (and Matthew Zuk as Larry for that matter) should also be given just as much credit for portraying Cliff physically. It should be interesting to see where Cliff’s story goes from here and if he will get his old body back or just be stuck in this new giant robot.

Rita perhaps had the most important story this season. After Niles dies, Rita is left with a key that lets her start a career as a superhero. However, she refuses to use it, believing that she is not good enough and only makes things worse. After Madame Rouge arrives, Rita attempts to bond with her, being intrigued by her mysterious circumstances and just like her she is looking for a purpose. When she is blown off by the Doom Patrol after they come back broken from their encounter with the Sisterhood of Dada, Rita takes Madame Rouge’s time machine and travels back to 1917. As a result, she loses her memory and is captured by the Bureau of Normalcy. Rita soon forms a strong bond with the Sisterhood, who let her into their group and give her the name Bendy. Without her insecurities to hold her back, Rita is able to use her powers with ease and even forms a romantic relationship with one of the members named Malcolm. However, things soon come crashing down for her as she becomes a witness to the moment in which Madame Rouge betrayed the Sisterhood and accidentally got Malcolm killed. Now fueled with rage and a desire for revenge, Rita gains back her memories and travels back to the present where she attempts to rally the Doom Patrol to take down Rouge. Unfortunately, due to the broken nature of the team, she fails miserably and is left without a purpose once more. However, after seemingly killing the Brain and giving up her vendetta on Rouge, Rita soon finds a new sense of purpose after she stops Cliff from accidentally destroying Cloverton. She successfully convinces the others to become the superhero team that they were meant to be, even stepping up as their unofficial leader.

Standout Character

The standout character for me this season has to be Rita. Within one season she has gone from the least confrontational member of the Doom Patrol who constantly blobs out due to her belief that she only makes things worse and can’t do anything right to the most confident member of the team who can guide our heroes in the direction that they truly need to be set in. This is easily April Bowlby’s best season yet as the character. She honestly deserves an award for her performance.

Favourite Episode

While most if not all of the episodes from this season were amazing, my favorite episode has to be Subconscious Patrol. Seeing each of the characters go through the Eternal Flagellation and meet their subconscious selves was amazing. My favorite encounters were an adult Kay seeing Jane and the other personalities as puppets and Cliff seeing his human self in his most shameful moment in which he left his five year old daughter in the car for hours while he cheated on his wife with a stripper. Each moment was both hilarious and heartbreaking. Brendan Fraser also delivered his best performance in the show so far as Cliff’s human self, who breaks down in tears as he looks back on his faults. Fraser honestly deserves an Emmy and a Golden Globe for this episode. In my opinion, this was the best performance that he has ever given in his career. I never imagined anything topping Jane Patrol as my favorite episode from tv but Subconscious Patrol has somehow managed to do just that.

Worst Episode

I’d just like to say that none of the episodes in this season or the show for that matter are bad. They have all been incredible in certain ways. However, because all of the episodes in this season were amazing, I have to say that Possibilities Patrol was the weakest installment. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved the season premiere. However, the conclusion to the story with the Candlemaker did hurt the episode greatly and caused it to be my least favorite installment from both the season and the show. However, the show is clearly doing something right if that has been my only truly negative feeling for the entire series so far.

Episodes & Their Ratings

Episode 1: Possibilities Patrol – 8.5/10
Episode 2: Vacay Patrol – 10/10
Episode 3: Dead Patrol – 10/10
Episode 4: Undead Patrol – 10/10
Episode 5: Dada Patrol – 10/10
Episode 6: 1917 Patrol – 9.6/10
Episode 7: Bird Patrol – 10/10
Episode 8: Subconscious Patrol – 10/10
Episode 9: Evil Patrol – 9.5/10
Episode 10: Amends Patrol – 10/10

Average rating – 9.8/10

Our Overall Rating 9.4/10

Just like the first two seasons, Doom Patrol season 3 was incredible. I can’t exactly say that it’s the best season ever as the opening scene did slightly affect the score, but the characters, story and entertainment value was still delivered phenomenally. I can easily confirm that this is my favorite show of all time. Even if everything starts to go downhill after this, I can absolutely say that the first three seasons of this show have all been amazing.

Does It Deserve Another Season?

With season 4 already underway, I can safely say that this show doesn’t just deserve a new season, but multiple new seasons. Despite my fears going in, the quality of this season showed me that Doom Patrol has not run out of fresh new ideas and should be able to continue for as long as Jeremy Carver and the writers want.