My Thoughts on Doom Patrol: Season 4 (Final Season)

Where to watch: Max (U.S.)/Crave (Canada)

NOTE: This review may contain a few small spoilers for Doom Patrol's final season, but I'll try to avoid them.

Doom Patrol is a series that quickly grew on me right from its first episode. Adapting one of the lesser-known teams of DC superheroes, this series was originally conceived as a spin-off of fellow DC Universe Originals series, Titans, before it was eventually re-tooled to take place in its own separate, self-contained universe.

Doom Patrol was also the series that arguably cemented the DC Universe Originals catalogue as delivering some of the best, boldest and most creative superhero TV of the modern era.

Doom Patrol may have started on the short-lived TV library of the DC Universe Infinite app, but it quickly made the leap to Max starting with its sophomore season (and was, in fact, the first DC Universe Original series to do so), reflecting its mature, ambitious storytelling. Functioning as more of an eccentric character study than a true action-adventure series, I'd even go as far as to suggest that Doom Patrol was, in fact my favourite TV show for a while. That made it rather crushing to hear that Doom Patrol, alongside its cousin series, Titans, would be concluded with its fourth season, as a result of DC's widespread TV purge that followed the formation of DC Studios, and the conception of the all-new 'DCU' franchise.

I was admittedly pretty late to the party when it comes to Doom Patrol's fourth and final season, despite my avid love of the show. This is both a symptom of Doom Patrol's final season emulating Titans by being split into two halves, which were spaced over a year apart by Max in this case for some reason, and the fact that I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to the series on a personal level. Finally though, having also recently wrapped up Titans, I decided it was only right to finally see through the last episodes of Doom Patrol.

Fortunately, I was happy to see that the series delivered a pretty fantastic ending, albeit also a fittingly emotional one.

Despite the previous Season 3 ending on a note that could have easily concluded the show, had Discovery opted not to renew it following its merger with Warner Bros., Season 4 nonetheless outdid Doom Patrol's previous batch of Max episodes in the best way. This final season even begins with a very quickly mounting sense of finality and impending tragedy to boot, a refreshing contrast from Titans' final season, which just operated like it was business as usual, never truly functioning as a palpable climax to that show.

Doom Patrol's final season meanwhile drastically reinterprets a familiar villain to the team from DC Comics lore, General Immortus, now re-envisioned as an eldtrich, extra-dimensional entity whose cult-like followers are desperate to summon them. This comes at the cost of most of the lead Doom Patrol characters having their immortality stolen, save for Vic Stone, who is now tech-less, and has left the mantle of Cyborg behind. With most of the team thus now rapidly aging, and their chances at superhero glory now dwindling more than ever, the various Doom Patrol members, alongside their returning frenemy, Madame Rouge, have to try and rally to stop Immortus, before a foretold apocalypse comes to pass.

I don't want to spoil a single surprise across Doom Patrol's reliably bizarre final twelve episodes, but I will say that the series' continued commitment to 'only bad ideas' gonzo storytelling remains impeccable for its last bow. There are several all-new characters introduced from the Doom Patrol's exploits in DC Comics lore as well, many of which add their own charming stamp to Doom Patrol's final season. These new character additions can also sometimes be one of this season's few drawbacks though, as some of the lead characters' final resolutions fall back on sudden relationship changes that don't feel like they had enough room to breathe during just one climactic season.

Outside of that minor gripe though, Doom Patrol's final season deals with some predictably heavy themes, as most of the leads are not only threatened with imminent retirement, but also thankless and rapid death after losing their immortality. These wannabe superheroes have already lived for far too long, and their final exploits deal with ideas relating to loss, failure, disillusionment, being forgotten, and finding meaning in an otherwise confusing, unsatisfying existence.

True to form however, Doom Patrol's final episodes take on these heavy themes with a lovably tragicomic wink, perfectly balancing colourful weirdness with a creeping sense of existential despair. The team's final enemy is truly their mightiest and most shocking yet as well, and on that note, the surprise twist behind how Immortus is portrayed in this series is bound to shock and delight DC fans, even if it deviates wildly from how this villain has been conventionally portrayed in DC Comics lore.

I'm sad to see Doom Patrol go, but I'm happy to see the series end on such a superb note, without ultimately overstaying its welcome. Whereas I feel that Titans could have reasonably gone on for another couple of seasons, I also feel that Doom Patrol moved toward a natural and fitting conclusion with Season 4, and I couldn't have asked for a better ending to this show, even when it sometimes broke my heart.

The most painful part about Doom Patrol ending however is that I have no idea when, or even if these characters I've come to love so much will see another live-action interpretation in my lifetime. Obviously, Cyborg is bound to have a continued presence in DC media, being a flagship Justice League superhero at this point, but The Chief, Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman, Crazy Jane and Madame Rouge? I'm not so sure. At the very least, some Doom Patrol characters have been featured in recent animated DC projects such as My Adventures with Superman, but a blockbuster live-action series like what we got with this Doom Patrol show? Well, when it comes to that, I'm really worried that this DC adaptation effort will be one-and-done for the foreseeable future.

Even so, I'm glad that we got the four seasons of Doom Patrol that we got. This series stands as perhaps the best example of the outstanding creative possibilities that were afforded by the short-lived DC Universe Originals initiative, something that I doubt will be maintained in the upcoming DCU franchise, at least to this extent. Doom Patrol was a series made for discerning, and only slightly damaged superhero TV fans, and I don't know when we'll see anything else quite like it. I guess that ultimately makes this show even more special though, and it's only right that such a special DC series excellently stick the landing with a truly memorable, bittersweet ending.

IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 9/10