If fans of Doom Patrol were concerned the superhero drama would be stripped of its inherent weirdness as it expanded from DC Universe to the more mainstream HBO Max, they needn't have worried: The second season is every bit as bizarre, and arguably twice as dark, as the first.
Not pausing to allow its new, larger audience to find its footing, the new season picks up shortly after the previous one, with the team -- save for Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer) -- reduced to the size of roaches, and living in the toy race track at Doom Manor. The whimsical, Wes Anderson-style setting would make the perfect backdrop for a quirky comedy adventure if it weren't for the anger Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser) and Jane (Diane Guerrero) feel after learning Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton) was responsible for the tragic events that created each member of the Doom Patrol. Oh, and if they weren't also saddled with Niles' long-estranged daughter, Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Shapiro), a child with a simian face who can conjure imaginary friends capable of destroying the world.
Between the visual gags (teeny-tiny pancakes prepared by the full-size Larry, toys race cars, and Cliff wearing the pelt of the rat he just killed) and the recriminations, there's probably enough material in the season premiere, "Fun Size Patrol," to stretch out over multiple episodes. However, Doom Patrol merely uses it as a launch pad for what appears to be Season 2's major dilemma (Niles' sudden mortality) and its unifying theme (the traumas bad parents visit upon their children).
The latter manifests most obviously in Niles, who hid away Dorothy for 90 years within the sentient Danny the Street, even as he horribly damaged each of his surrogate children -- the Doom Patrol -- in search of ways to prolong his own life, so as to protect her. But we also see that Larry was a terrible father, more likely to express disappointment than love. Cliff's shortcomings have everything to do with Niles allowing his daughter to believe he's dead, while Rita Farr (April Bowlby) and Vic Stone (Joivan Wade) each bears the scars, emotional and physical, of a manipulative parent.
Whether repeated visitation of that "bad parent" theme will grow tiresome over the course of the season is an open question (the penultimate episode is titled "Dad Patrol," so make of that what you will), but the three episodes provided for review break up any potential monotony with zany threats of the week that another series might give their own story arcs: the Silver Age comic book villain Doctor Tyme, who here believes humanity peaked at a roller rink on a night in 1980; and the far more menacing Red Jack, introduced in Grant Morrison and Richard Case's redefining run on DC's Doom Patrol. Although the Terrible Doctor Tyme is played largely as a joke -- hey, he has a clock for a head, and skates to disco music -- Red Jack, the serial killer with a connection to Niles' youth who feeds off suffering, certainly feels as if he has more life in him. However, despite his apparent power level, he's treated as nearly as disposable as Doctor Tyme.
Without the cutting commentary of last season's wholly unreliable narrator, Mr. Nobody (Alan Tudyk), Doom Patrol leans hard on Cliff Steele for humor to slice through the gloom in these early episodes. But as fun as his bursts of creative cussing are, even a Robotman can bear only so much weight (and Danny the Street, now a mere brick, is unable to help). As a result, there are times when the series threatens to sink into melancholy.
Thankfully, however, Bowlby's Rita Farr remains the emotional heart of the series, lifting even the most downbeat moments. Previously a broken figure who used stories of her Hollywood past to disguise her own fragility, the Rita of Season 2 is utterly changed, underscored by flashbacks to her first meeting with Larry. Now determined to become a superhero, Rita proves herself both the team's, and Larry's, anchor, even when she may not want to be. Any scene becomes infinitely better with the addition of Rita.
With a smaller episode order (nine versus Season 1's 15), and a larger potential audience on HBO Max, Doom Patrol has much to prove this season. But if these first three episodes are any indication, the series will once again live up to the team's well-earned reputation as the World's Strangest Heroes, in record time.
Starring Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane, April Bowlby as Rita Farr, Joivan Wade as Victor Stone, Abigail Shapiro as Dorothy Spinner, Brenan Fraser as Cliff Steele, Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor and Timothy Dalton as Niles Caulder, new episodes of Doom Patrol arrive each Thursday on DC Universe and HBO Max.