With it still being pride month, I have decided to do a ranking relating to Doom Patrol. The show was a fantastic series that had incredible representation for the LGBT community. As far as comic book shows with heavy representation go, I don’t think any show did it with as much sincerity as Doom Patrol did. In honor of that, here is a ranking for every season of Doom Patrol:
4. Season 3: I’d like to start things off by stating that not a single season of this show was bad. They are all nearly perfect and each have their highs and lows. Season 3 just falls a tiny bit short compared to the others, but it is still fantastic. The season centers around the Doom Patrol struggling to move on with their lives after Niles Caulder, their not-so beloved leader, dies of old age. The team all resented the man for deliberately causing their accidents but they aren’t as happy with his unexpected death as they thought they would be. To make matters more complicated, an amnesia-stricken Madame Rouge arrives at the manor seeking their help to defeat a group called the Sisterhood of Dada before they can unleash an event known as the “Eternal Flagellation.” The group attempts to assist Rouge while also dealing with their own personal problems. Meanwhile, Rita takes Rouge’s time machine and loses her memories as a result, causing her to get mixed up with the Sisterhood and join their cause. As I said before, the season is still amazing. The writing is still at the top of its game, the characters are all still lovable and the episodes are just as weird and brilliant as ever. However, the one thing this season lacks compared to the others is a feeling of stakes. This is a rather self-contained story compared to the other seasons, which had a more urgent and world ending threat. The Sisterhood aren’t really the villains. They just want the world to face their own problems and they succeed in doing so. Other than that they aren’t really a malicious group. Rouge isn’t really the villain either. She’s a flawed character who makes mistakes but otherwise is a decent person deep down who ends up joining the team. The closest thing we have to a big bad this season is the Brain, and even then he only shows up sporadically throughout the season and doesn’t really end up becoming a legit threat aside from when he steals Cliff’s body. Despite that, this season is still amazing and easy to rewatch.
3. Season 4: It is a miracle that the final season of the show came out at all. It took an absurdly long time to air as the season had a mid-season break that nearly didn’t even air the final episodes. I’m still fully convinced that David Zaslav was going to greedily make this season another victim of his cruel tax write off scheme until Michelle Gomez had to speak up about her fear of the last episodes being shelved. That being said, this season is a beautiful farewell to our beloved team of misfits. During this season, the Doom Patrol is flung into an apocalyptic future while starting out their career as a superhero team. They discover that most of them have died due to the world now being ruled by werebutts, a bizarre species that the Doom Patrol released all the way back in season 1. After returning to the present, the team makes it their goal to prevent this apocalypse from happening. Unfortunately, the Doom Patrol are also forced to deal with a powerful time deity known as Immortus, who has her cult of followers steal the longevity that keeps each of them immortal. Now not only do the Doom Patrol have to stop these two threats from starting an apocalypse, but they also must contend with their upcoming possible deaths. The stakes in this season are higher than they had ever been before. Immortus isn’t nearly as good of a main villain as characters like Mr. Nobody and the Candlemaker, but she is still a fun final threat and the revelation that she was the wannabe actress Isabel Feathers was actually kind of brilliant. The endings each of the characters got were also beautiful. Some get a happy ending like Larry, Vic and Jane, while others are given a more bittersweet and uncertain ending like Rita, Cliff and Rouge. It never sugarcoats it by giving everybody a nice ending. Some of the characters do die and it is heartbreaking, but also masterfully written. This is one of the best final seasons of a tv show that I have ever seen and the only reason it isn’t in first place is because the next two seasons are even more perfect.
2. Season 2: I often go back and forth on which season of the show is my favorite and I was extremely close to putting the second season at the top spot. There was so much to love about this season. We see the Doom Patrol deal with the fallout from their Chief’s revelation that he was the one who caused the accidents that horribly disfigured them and ruined their lives. On top of that, they now must prepare for his death after he had traded his longevity and they have to figure out how they’ll look after his daughter Dorothy, a girl with the power to bring her imaginary friends to life, most notably the Candlemaker, a demon who has the ability to destroy the world if he is fully freed. The season is much shorter than the others, which in a different show wouldn’t leave much time for certain characters to get the attention that they need. However, each episode progresses the plot without seeming like filler, with every character still getting the right amount of screen time. Each episode also stands on its own, in a unique way compared to the other seasons, with each of them having a different theme or gimmick, such as the team being shrunk down or them throwing an adult themed party to save their friend Danny the Street. You could honestly watch any episode this season and understand the premise of the show without having seen the first season. If I could nitpick anything it’s that this season doesn’t have a proper end, due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing its production to halt. However, in no way are the writers at fault for this. Season 2 managed to be just as good as the first and in some ways surpassed it, but at the end of the day you just can’t beat the original sometimes.
1. Season 1: I don’t think there could have been anything else in the top spot. As much as I love the other seasons, there is something about the first season of Doom Patrol that is absolutely magical in all the very ridiculous and bizarre ways. We are introduced to our lovable band of misfits Cliff, Jane, Rita, Larry and Cyborg as they are forced to work through their trauma and rescue their leader Niles after he is abducted by the powerful supervillain Mr. Nobody, a hilarious yet also terrifying character who serves as the narrator for the season, which means that he can dictate the story as much as he is able to. To save their Chief, the team must learn to work with each other and go through all sorts of threats, both ridiculous and genuinely threatening. When this show was first announced, I really wasn’t sure how it would turn out. The most I knew about the Doom Patrol was from their appearance in the original Teen Titans animated series. However, I was blown away by the first season. Not only was it hilarious, but it genuinely made me emotional with installments such as Jane Patrol, an episode that is not only my favorite episode of the series, but one of my favorite episodes in all of television. Brendan Fraser, Diane Guerrero, Matt Bomer, April Bowlby and Joivan Wade were all incredible and the show wouldn’t be complete without their award worthy performances. In addition to that Alan Tudyk’s Mr. Nobody is one of the best villains in a comic book tv show, being one of the most threatening yet also funniest villains in DCTV history, with fourth wall breaking so brilliant that Deadpool would be jealous. Doom Patrol is still one of my top five shows of all time, and as much as I love the other seasons, that would never change even if they didn’t exist as this first season was all I needed to make me love it that much.
