**This review contains some minor SPOILERS**
Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube
In its fourth and final season, the always quirky “Doom Patrol” stumbles with disjointed storytelling and a bit too many moments of character arc regressions to tell an impactful final story. However, the characters’ have their emotional connection to the audience and their trials and tribulations are still compelling.
The main plot suffers from having two seemingly unconnected plotlines, and while typically one could expect these to come together properly by the end of the season, they never do in a satisfactory way. The season premier sets the stage with the were-butt apocalypse, and the first mention of the coming of Immortus. While each of these arcs get a decent buildup, the were-butts end up feeling like they were forgotten and then shoehorned into the final batch of episodes as an afterthought.
As far as the individual character arcs, they weren’t as strong as some of the previous seasons. Cliff’s was the most frustrating as we once again see that he really hasn’t learned anything and is stuck in his self-destructive ways. Larry’s story seemed to lack direction at first, but despite feeling a little rushed, the love story with Mr. 104 allowed Larry some decent character growth. Jane’s own love story was not as well executed, with her connection to Shelley feeling like a nice continuation of their flirtation from last season being dropped abruptly and replaced with an out of nowhere tease of a romance between her and Casey. Vic’s desire to distance himself from Cyborg felt weak at first, but once he explained why he felt the way he did, it made more sense. (But the resolution to his dilemma wasn’t too satisfying.) Both Rita and Laura’s stories were pretty intertwined, and they alternated between emotional reconciliation and some painful regression. As far as the big bad goes, Immortus was finally revealed late in the season and was a pretty interesting twist. But the character was such a wildcard it ended up killing the momentum of third act.
As usual, the show had some fun and trippy characters and locations, with pretty good special effects helping to bring it all together. The humor was once again the show’s strong point, but the emotional moments also continued to land. And while there had been musical/dance numbers in previous seasons, the unexpected musical episode worked well and didn’t feel remotely out of place with all the other crazy stuff that happens on this series.
The final season of “Doom Patrol” had a hard time overcoming two major story arcs that never truly meshed and some interesting character arcs that never got paid off. While the show didn’t wrap things up as well as it could have, there were some beautiful and bittersweet moments that helped send this band of misfits off.
**1/2 out of *****