I think it’s about time this show get its own thread, given that it’s pretty much the coolest thing currently showing on TV. The first DC series I can love without caveats. So has anybody been watching this? Because no matter how good you think it’s going to be, it’s better. Weird, endlessly inventive and surprisingly emotional. The cast is stacked too. Brendan Fraser gives a remarkably sympathetic performance with almost nothing to work with and Alan Tudyk is fantastic as a villain whose power appears to be that he can break the fourth wall.
I hope the show manages to find a wider audience because it sure as hell deserves it.
Fraser is definitely the heart and soul of the show. I hope by the end of the season someone makes a YouTube compilation of all the times he says “The Fuck?”.
I’m also really impressed by Diane Guerrero. She’s done a splendid job with all the different personalities so far. It doesn’t hurt that she’s also very easy on the eyes.
I’m sort of curious if Fraser and Bomer are actually doing the on set work outside of the flashbacks and doing a voiceover. Props to Fraser if he’s actually putting on that suit, and not just using a stand in.
They use stand ins when in costume. Bomer talked about it in an interview:
You share the physicality of this role with another performer. What’s that experience like? Have you tried to do anything to create a continuity between your performances?
BOMER: I wish that we had. I wish I could say that we did some mime workshop together, or something. I would have been game to do it, in spades, believe me. It was just the nature of the piece that, due to schedules and how it all worked out, it was more Matthew Zuk, who is phenomenal and does the physical work. We correspond via email, phone call and text, and then, whenever I’m down in Atlanta, we spend a good amount of time together and talk about the character. It’s really unique. It’s not like voicing animation, where you voice the role, and then they animate to you, and you go back and do a polish. It’s really a true collaboration, in that I just throw spaghetti at the wall, he does his stuff, and we go back and polish it, at the end. There’s no precedent for it. I don’t know that anybody’s ever really done something like this before, so we’re still figuring out the best way to do it. I love it. It’s a really unique challenge that I’ve never faced before. I don’t know any other actor who’s ever shared a role, physically, with somebody else, but then also come in and embody it, at certain points.
Yeah, but it handles dark well. It’s not a stylistic, overwrought “we’re so mature!” feeling at all. It’s compelling and serves a purpose - the characters are better off for it because you cheer for them during the lighter moments, like they deserve some respite. That’s the other thing - considering how crazy it gets, the show balances tonal shifts really, really well.
Oh I agree it balances the light and dark very well. I just thought what happened to the original Doom Patrol was really depressing. My Grandmother’s dementia was really bad towards the end so their final scenes hit a little too close to home for me. If anything, it makes me hope that they kick Niles to the curb at the end of the season. The more we learn about him, the more he seems like a bastard.
I thought they did a good job of visualizing Mr. Nobody’s power from the comics (draining the sanity from his victims). The pinata massacre was both funny and disturbing.
Leaving for vacation tomorrow–will binge the remaining episodes out there to get caught up. Work has been insane so I want to do nothing but go to bed when I get home at night.
“A sentient, gender-queer, teleporting street named Danny who’s being hunted by the secret Bureau of Normalcy needs help from Niles – but gets Vic and Larry instead.”
This show makes a talking raccoon seem normal by comparison.