Doom Patrol S01E08 Review: Danny the Street

Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 8: Danny Patrol

"Danny the Street" is one of the more bizarre parts in the Doom Patrol comics that felt like it came in from a completely different genre. Something like the SCP foundation, perhaps. And yet it originated in the comics (one that, unlike most of this season of Doom Patrol's inspirations, I've actually read), and to see it adapted pretty dang faithfully into the TV show certainly earns me a thumbs-up. The idea of Danny the Street is a pretty bizarre, surreal one. It's a teleporting sentient street that communicates with the people who enter it with little banners, screens, letters and whatnot, and that alone would've made for a pretty fun character! The fact that it's fighting a Men-in-Black style organization called the Bureau of Normalcy, and it also basically plays a role as a shelter for people who doesn't fit in regular society? Oh, and Danny is gender-queer, and a good chunk of the vibe of Danny's episode does include Danny, the ex-agent drag queen Lee Karupt (a great 'face' for Danny because this still has to work on a TV screen), and Larry trying to figure out how to embrace their true self.

A good chunk of this episode has the Doom Patrol once more split up into two groups. Victor and Larry go off to investigate the enigmatic Danny the Street, who's also looking for Chief. After the initial weirdness of a sentient street has gone over their heads, Cyborg's chronic hero syndrome plays up and he basically wants to protect Danny and their inhabitants from the Bureau of Normalcy (the name!). It's utterly bizarre and yet so surreal and heartwarming. Larry himself is still struggling about his own identity as a gay man and the sheer amount of self-loathing that Danny tries to get Larry to open up to does lead to a very beautiful singing, self-acceptance moment... that only the audience gets to witness. The stark contrast from the sheer energetic Glee-esque joy that imaginary-Larry has dancing around and the stark depressing scene as he lamely rejects the chance to karaoke and express himself? A pretty dang amazing scene. The episode doesn't even try to use superpowers as a stand-in for non-binary-sexuality anymore and as far as Danny and Larry are concerned they sort of go hand-in-hand... but Larry sure does need some one (or some place) to show him that, hey, embracing your true nature as a so-called 'freak' is actually normal.

The actual plot against the Bureau of Normalcy is honestly not that tense. The team, led by Darren Jones, gets beaten up by the ex-agent Maura Lee Karupt. And that's a pretty solid, self-contained storyline... but far more interestingly is that the Bureau of Normalcy was the people who captured Larry Trainor after his accident, and experimented a lot on him and the Negative Man. The fact that the Bureau of Normalcy is basically the stand in for homophobia where Larry, Danny and Lee Karupt are concerned is honestly one that ends up seamlessly working into the episode. Very cool, and even if the episode is stand-alone I really did enjoy this little outing.

The B-plot, on the other hand, gets more of a shrug from me. Don't get me wrong, Cliff, Rita and Jane are fun characters that are dear to my heart. And Jane's 64 personalities do admittedly lend themselves well to an episode-of-the-week format. But after Rat-Cliff was mean to Jane last episode, one of the more dangerous personalities, Karen, ends up taking over and she's a completely loony 'aaaa I want to get married' saccharine romantic-head. The problem is, she's also got mind-control powers and it's up to poor Rita and Cliff to try and stop Karen from completely ruining some poor dude's life. For the most part, I feel like this story is more set up as a contrast to Larry's huge moment dealing with Danny the Street -- Rita's made a lot of progress in forgiving some of her past sins, and Cliff gets to befriend a random kid in a robot costume.

Ultimately Karen gets shunted off in a little internal fight with the other Jane alters, which is the cliffhanger for the next episode.... but, again, other than the Crazy Jane centric episode setup for the next episode on my DC Universe list of episodes, the Karen stuff feels a bit more throwaway.

A very fun episode that truly embraces the weirdness of the genre .

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Danny the Street debuted in the comics in Doom Patrol #35, a living and sentient street that can magically and seamlessly place themself in any urban landscape, and can interact with any other being through visual printing within their body. Danny spends most of his time travelling the globe and acting as a shelter for the outcasts of society. Danny's flamboyance and penchant for cross-dressing would later be retooled into him being a gender-queer street.
• Darren Jones in the comics is the leader of the Men from NOWHERE, an organization somewhat equivalent to the Bureau of Normalcy. 
• We get yet another Crazy Jane personality, Karen, who can cast 'love spells' and is obsessed with a dude named Doug.