Blu-ray Review: DOOM PATROL: THE FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON

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Apr 21 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Disclaimer: “Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray^TM I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

The fourth and final season of the Max series Doom Patrol has arrived on Blu-ray & DVD, providing a solid conclusion to the series. The fourth season premiere provides a nice recap and re-introduction of the characters to get viewers up-to-speed. This was great for me as I had somehow missed the third season and didn’t have time to watch both that season and this one for this review. Fortunately, I had no issues following this season not having seen the third.

As the third season came to a close, our team of metahuman misfits had acquired a time machine, and now this bargain basement sideshow has been working as a superhero team, aptly named the Doom Patrol (though “Doom Force” was initially suggested). They have already completed 7 successful missions as a team, with “Elasti-Woman” Rita Farr (April Bowlby) taking the starring role as the team’s new leader (a job no one else wanted). Rita still has a lot of ire for newest team member Laura/Madame Rouge (Michelle Gomez) after her betrayal last season, hence her given codename of “Dogshit McGivens”. Laura is determined to make amends for how she wronged Rita and the team last season, and, much like Rita, she has the ability to transform her body into anything. The rest of the team includes Dr. Harrison aka “Crazy Jane” (Diane Guerrero), who has many different personalities living in a place called The Underground; Cliff Steele aka “Robotman”, whose body has been replaced by a robotic suit; Larry Trainor aka “Negative Man”, who was exposed to massive amounts of radiation and now must wear mummy-like bandages over his body and face to protect others—he now has a new baby alien Negative Spirit called Keeg that he’s been trying to bond with; and finally Victor Stone aka “Cyborg”, but Vic decided to remove his tech last season, leaving him without powers, and now serving as the team’s I.T. guy.

As the season opens, the group finds itself transported into a dismal dystopian future, where they meet ghosts of themselves and learn that the world has been taken over by zombie butts (It’s exactly what you’re picturing)—one of these creatures they encountered last season must have escaped and spread. So now they must find a way to stop The Buttpocalypse from happening to prevent their ill-fated futures and save the world. However, this proves to be just one of the major things they are up against this season. As they go about trying to stop this Buttpocalyspe, The Doom Patrol also start to see ominous warnings that “Immortus Will Rise”. Who or what is Immortus and what do they want?! That is soon answered by Willoughby Kipling (Mark Sheppard) of the Knights Templar, who informs them that Immortus is an interdimensional deity capable of swallowing the entirety of existence whole, and it plans to do so by stealing the Doom Patrol members’ longevity.

In addition to these overall story arcs, the team members find themselves in several other wacky and wild adventures, including becoming teenagers, a comic book hero come to life, and discovering they are in a musical. The musical episode is so much fun, with 9 original songs with some really clever lyrics, catchy tunes and great dance numbers. It was easily the highlight of the season for me! We also see each of the Doom Patrol members go on their own personal journeys. While all of them are forced to face the idea of mortality with their longevity threatened, it is Rita who is hit the hardest by this. Meanwhile, Madam Rouge is on a journey of redemption, Jane is trying to figure out what happened to her personalities in the Underground, Cliff has a new hand that allows him to experience feelings for the first time in 40 years, Larry is trying to find a personal connection, and Vic is trying to find his bliss and purpose in life without his powers.

The season also introduces some fun and interesting new characters including supervillain Codpiece (Joseph Avail) who has a gun well you can probably guess where and his minion Stewart (Joseph Echavarria), whose cannon is on the other side; Dr. Margaret Yu (Keiko Agena), a scientist at the Bureau of Normalcy who is brought in to communicate with the butts including twin were-butts Teddy (Dylan Saunders) & Nicholas (James Smagula); psychic vampire Doctor Janus (Timeca Seretti); Casey Brinke aka “Space Case” (Madeline Zima), the superhero from Dorothy’s comic book who is pulled into the real world; Casey’s father Richard Frank aka Torminox (Tyler Mane) her archenemy from the comic; Rama aka Mr. 104 (Sendhil Ramamurthy), another Bureau experiment who can transform himself into any element on the periodic table and a potential love interest for Larry; and Vic’s old friend Deric (Elijah R. Reed). The season also sees the return of Wally Sage (David Annone) as the author of the Space Case comic, Dorothy (Abi Monterey) who left the team last year, and Isabel Feathers, who has a really fun, juicy role this season.

The fourth/final season of the series originally aired in 2 6-episode batches. However, all 12 episodes are presented here together, split evenly across 3 discs. The picture quality looks excellent, with rich beautiful colors, nearly flawless video, and a solid level of detail throughout. There’s a lot of wild and crazy things happening in the show that require CG, but the special effects are quite well done. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout and makes nice use of the stereo and surround channels to provide a fully-immersive experience. This is especially noticeable as the team go on their more action-packed adventures. The musical episode performances also sound fantastic. The three discs reside on trays in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, which is placed in a cardboard slipcase. Unfortunately there is no digital copy included, but the discs do contain three short behind-the-scenes featurettes with the cast/crew totaling about 10 minutes.

What’s Included:

Episodes:

All 12 episodes of the final season:
Disc 1 (3:10:36): “Doom Patrol”, “Butt Patrol”, “Nostalgia Patrol”, “Casey Patrol”
Disc 2 (3:06:00): “Youth Patrol”, “Hope Patrol”, “Orqwith Patrol”, “Fame Patrol”
Disc 3 (3:29:35): “Immortimas Patrol”, “Tomb Patrol”, “Portal Patrol”, “Done Patrol”
1080p / Widescreen 2.20:1
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French

Extras:
All bonus material can be found on disc 3

Unsung Heroes (2:52)
The cast and crew discuss the acting involved behind the Robotman and Negative Man costumes, working with their voice counterparts, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with executive producer Jeffrey Carver, and stars Matthew Zuk (“Negative Man”), Riley Shenahan (“Robotman”), April Bowlby (“Rita”), Diane Guerrero (“Jane”), Michelle Gomez (“Madame Rouge”) & Joivan Wade (“Vic”).
Transformation Patrol (2:43)
The cast and crew discuss the aging of the characters this season, the physical and emotional transformations they go through, the make-up process, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with executive producer Jeffrey Carver, make-up department head Leo Satkovich, and stars Diane Guerrero, Riley Shenahan, Michelle Gomez, Matthew Zuk, April Bowlby & Joivan Wade.
Off-Off-Broadway (3:52)
The cast and crew discuss the musical episode. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with executive producer Jeffrey Carver, choreographer Kiki Ely, director Omar Madha, and stars Joivan Wade, Michelle Gomez, April Bowlby, Diane Guerrero, Matthew Zuk & Riley Shenahan.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Highly Recommended

In its final season, Doom Patrol remains a solidly entertaining show, not only taking viewers on wild and wacky adventures, but also giving each of the characters their own personal final journey to explore. The season includes an amazing musical episodes, and ultimately builds to a really satisfying conclusion for the series and these characters we’ve followed for four seasons. The Blu-ray release features solid picture and sound, and includes a small but entertaining assortment bonus material. Unfortunately there is no digital copy included. That said, this is a must own for fans of the series, and recommended for anyone looking for a wild and wacky superhero show (though you should probably start at the beginning, or pick up the Complete Series release).