TV

[moon_custafer]

Andrew’s been enjoying Doom Patrol, especially as he’s a fan of the comics, so having seen a few comments on Umbrella Academy, I suggested he check it out as it appears to have a similar superhero-gothic/dysfunctional family theme. He just watched the first episode; I think he likes it.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

Well, Doom Patrol is a DC comic that began in the Silver Age, but Andrew’s favourite version of it is the Grant Morrison relaunch that really amped up the weirdness. The tv series includes Pierce Brosnan as the team’s manipulative-bastard leader Dr. Calder and Brendan Fraser as the voice of Cliff/Robot Man. Cliff’s a brain in a robot body— one thing the tv series emphasizes is that most of the team, due to their various conditions, don’t really age, and in this version Cliff’s car crash was in the 1980s, Negative Man was a test pilot in the 1960s, and Rita was a movie star in the 1940-50s (in the comics she could primarily shrink and grow— here she’s like Clayface in the Batman comics, able to change shape but with the need to really maintain focus or she turns into a giant lump of silly putty. I suspect that the makeup department has deliberately made her look beautiful in a slightly-too-much way, like she looks like her idealized memory of herself in her heyday.)

Meanwhile, Umbrella Academy is based on the Dark Horse comic written by Gerard Way (formerly of My Chemical Romance) and involves seven of a number of “miracle babies” who were all born at the same moment on the same day in 1989 to women who up till that point had shown no sign of even being pregnant, i.e. real Midwich Cuckoos-type stuff, except that they appear to be humans trying to deal with weird superpowers, plus the emotional trauma of having been raised by a weird billionaire who tried to mould them into a superhero team. Also one of them, due to some time-warp business, is currently a fifty-eight-year-old mind stuck in a thirteen-year-old body and also in love with a mannequin named Dolores (I’m guessing Way saw the George Pal Time Machine.)

Correction re: Niles Caulder

[dewline]

He's played by Timothy Dalton.

Re: Correction re: Niles Caulder

[moon_custafer]

Oops, right. I always get those two mixed up. Dalton was a much better Bond, though.

[sovay]

Well, Doom Patrol is a DC comic that began in the Silver Age, but Andrew’s favourite version of it is the Grant Morrison relaunch that really amped up the weirdness.

I had no idea this had even been adapted for TV. I look forward to the Brotherhood of Dada!

[moon_custafer]

Oh I forgot to mention that the voiceover narrator is Mr. Nobody (voiced by Alan Tudyk). I particularly liked how he opened the second episode by summarizing the story so far, then commanding: “Right, roll the pretentious opening credits”: https://youtu.be/yK5oeV_JYy0