Among all the shows on DC Universe, Doom Patrol was the biggest surprise. Few shows manage to be so unpredictable and unapologetically weird while keeping a strong focus on what the audience came to see. It’s a fun watch, and one aspect that makes each episode fresh is the unique approach the show takes to its story structure.

While most episodes end with the standard cliff-hanger, Doom Patrol tends to begin on a brand new character with no previous context in an unfamiliar setting. Off the bat, it’s often unclear how this new character relates to the main story of our heroes, but they always find their way in the story later in the episode. This method of storytelling works well when considering the show’s tone and themes.

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It’s a great way to keep the audience on their toes while being consistent enough to follow. It may cause some confusion, but after a couple of episodes, people can trust their commitment to this new character will be rewarded. Considering our main characters often feel the person is an unknown element being thrown into their lives, it makes sense to give the audience that same feeling. However, if the characters appeared to jump in randomly, it wouldn’t have the same impact, since the audience isn’t getting rewarded for the effort they already put in.

The best comparison is a police procedural, as many of them start with cold opens on unknown characters. The difference is if you watch an episode of CSI, and it opens on an unfamiliar character, you know this person will either discover a dead body or get murdered. With Doom Patrol, there’s no guarantee how they’ll cross paths with the main characters.

Additionally, it keeps the story flowing. The momentum their appearance later in the episode has isn’t then interrupted by a flashback or exposition. The audience has everything they need moving forward, and it adds to the humor.

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This method also works to accompany the themes of the show. Like many team-up shows and movies, Doom Patrol is about people coming together to form a surrogate family. They were all deemed “freaks” by others, but the audience gets to understand their pain and emotions without that bias. So why shouldn’t anyone else get that same chance? By learning about characters before their “incident,” we learn what they’re like and what they care about before knowing if they’re a friend or foe. The show forces us to see these new characters how each one of our heroes wants the world to see them.

A great example of this comes from Episode 13, “Flex Patrol.” The episode opens on Flex Mentallo in 1964 when he simply wants to have a nice picnic. The scene introduces his powers, how he helps people, and his greatest motivation -- his love for his wife. From then on, the audience doesn’t have to second guess his value to the team and feels the emotional impact when his wife is threatened. We understand Flex as a person first, weapon second.

The typical way to handle a character like this would be to have the main characters solve what could motivate him so the audience learns when they figure it out. The notion behind this is to keep the audience and protagonist on the same page, but it turns this new character into a plot device instead of their own person.

In the age where TV anti-heroes are so popular, why are shows still afraid to empathize with someone who might be off-putting? It’s a fresh approach to a tired formula that would add another layer of complexity to a story and possibly create more fan favorites.

This idea of a complete cold-open should also be used much more in the age of binge-watching. So many shows are “binge-able” by directly connecting the closing scene of one episode to the opening of the next. This device is best utilized in Stranger Things. Season 3's “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” ends with an infected Billy committing murder and the succeeding episode begins with Eleven having visions of another disappearance Billy’s responsible for. While this makes it easy to follow in one sitting, it doesn’t offer a murder the same dramatic weight if we had time to dwell on it. If the next episode started on a scene that felt lighter and unrelated, the audience has time to dwell on what they just saw instead of being thrust back into the story.

Doom Patrol may deter some viewers, but those who followed through with it found a rewarding story and a fun new experience. When new stories come up, they may need a new way to tell them. New shows should be willing to work outside conventional thinking like Doom Patrol.

Streaming now on DC Universe, Doom Patrol stars Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele, Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor, Diana Guerrero as Crazy Jane, Alan Tudyk as Mr. Nobody, April Bowlby as Rita Farr, Joivan Wade as Vic Stone and Timothy Dalton as Niles Caulder.

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