In Review: Doom Patrol – Ezekiel Patrol

Synopsis: In the wake of the chief’s revelations, the members of the Doom Patrol go their separate ways. When Mr. Nobody hatches a new plan, the team must reunite to help the Chief with a new, unexpected — and weird — threat to the world.

Review: The season finale sees our heroes deal with their issues and also come together on Danny the Street to fend off a Giant rat and a Giant Cockroach by the name of Ezekiel.

The Story

Having learned about Nile’s shady past in last weeks episode the team splits off and go their separate ways before hearing an explanation for why Nile’s did what he did. Rita begins a fresh life teaching acting to a bunch of students that would rather not learn and Larry sets about training himself to see how long he can exist without the Negative spirit within him, which is something that comes in handy during the final fight.

When things start to go a bit weird on Danny the Street, which has been taken over by a Giant Cockroach and a Giant Rat. Mr. Nobody realizes he has bitten off more than he can chew and reunites the Doom Patrol with Niles in order to help him with a bit of pest control. But Mr. Nobody and his plan have not accommodated for his own best interest.

Back together again. The team focuses on defeating the cockroach while simultaneously helping Niles to rescue his daughter Dorothy who happens to be the most powerful girl in the world.

The Acting

All the actors do an amazing job in this episode when you consider the amount of CGI goings-on that they are having to react too. Alan Tudyk is outstanding as always as Mr. Nobody who has lost control of his own plans and winds up needing some help from the Doom Patrol to tidy his mess up.

I really enjoyed a scene in which April Bowlby as Elasti-Girl gives Mr. Nobody a pep talk. Saying that being a nobody is far better than being nothing.

Overall

This episode resolves most of what it has to resolve but leaves things open for a second series.

The CGI of the Giant Rat and the Cockroach is really well executed and the scenes in which the team have to take them on are an absolute hoot. It was like Doom Patrol with a pretty big hit of Looney Tunes.

A friend of mine is actually put off by Doom Patrol because she thinks it is another formulaic take on The Watchmen. Anyone who thinks that is rather mistaken. Sure it has some fairly messed up characters in it. But that is where the comparison ends. All the characters have been on a journey this season and they have been fun to watch. Sometimes difficult to watch, but there has always been a bit of humor there too. Which was never the case with Watchmen.

To anyone coming to this series as a newbie. I say give it a chance. You will need a few episodes for it to get going. But the eventual pay off is well worth the perseverance.