Superheroes are more present in media than ever before. They dominate movies and television. From the CW to Netflix to Disney+, superheroes are a hot commodity. With Warner Bros. owning DC Comics, there are plenty of superhero shows on their Max streaming service. Titans and Peacemaker come to mind, with shows based on Penguin and Creature Commandos on the way. Yet, one that certainly stands out is Doom Patrol.

While its first season made its underseen debut on the short-lived DC Universe, Doom Patrol has found a new home on HBO Max. Three more excellent seasons have come out since the switch. The fourth season has been split in two parts, the second of which was released on the 12th of October. The show will come to a close with its 12th and final episode of Season 4 on November 9, 2023.

Updated October 21, 2023: In honor of the recent release of the fourth and final season of the most brilliant, underrated show, this article has been updated with more reasons why Doom Patrol is one of the best superhero shows streaming.

Largely based on Grant Morrison's legendary run on the comic series, Doom Patrol is about a truly strange group of superheroes played by Brendan Fraser as Robotman aka Cliff Steele, Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor, Joivan Wade as Cyborg AKA Vic Stone, Diane Guerrero as Jane, and April Bowlby as Rita Farr. They are led by Timothy Dalton as their wheelchair-bound chief. There's nothing else quite like it on the air right now or anything in the superhero media landscape.

Let's explore a few reasons this show stands out among the current glut of superhero shows.

Surreal Meets Silly

If you had to sum up Doom Patrol with one word, "odd" might be the best option. To give just a taste of the show's bizarre world, there is a character named Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man (Alec Mapa) who, in addition to other transformations caused by an experiment gone wrong, gains a Velociraptor head that he constantly argues with. This only begins to scratch the surface of all the weirdness going on.

However, the show goes to great lengths to ensure that no matter how strange it gets, there is a reason behind the madness. Surreal and Dadaist moments are used for laughs and to explore the characters' psyches and tell a compelling story. Doom Patrol is often very silly but always with a purpose beyond shock value.

One of the best ways the show uses its peculiar world productively is in its exploration of identity. This mainly focuses on explorations of the gender of sexuality (though not exclusively, as season three features Vic Stone figuring out what it means to be both Cyborg and a Black man). For example, the character Larry Trainor is gay, like the actor who voices him, Matt Bomer. Larry struggles with expressing his sexuality due to the old-fashioned world he comes from and his current disfigurement that requires him to wear bandages at all times.

The show also features Danny the Street, which, as their name implies, is a sentient street. Having a non-binary street as a recurring character is not something most shows would do, but Doom Patrol's unique world allows for their identity to be celebrated.

Doom Patrol, Assemble!

What keeps the show grounded while its plot goes wild are the excellent performances from the core and supporting casts. While it's truly an ensemble cast, of particular note are Brendan Fraser and Diane Guerrero. Fraser voices former race car driver, Cliff Steele, while actor Riley Shanahan is the actual person in the Robotman suit. Cliff could be an incredibly unpleasant character due to his obstinate nature, but Fraser's vocal performance gives so much pathos to the character, even when he's dropping f-bombs left and right.

Guerrero's performance as Jane is similarly stunning. Jane has dissociative identity disorder, and 64 alters (different personalities). Playing that complex a character would be a challenge for any actor, but Guerrero makes it look easy with a stunning performance that is both nuanced and dignified.

This Tin Man Has a Heart

A great cast and a fun world would be enough to make the show entertaining, but the writers clearly wanted to make something with more depth. Each Doom Patrol member went through their own traumatic experience to gain their superpowers, and the show explores their respective difficulties with grace. These tragic backstories aren't one-note like they are in many other superhero origin stories.

Each member of the Doom Patrol went through a specific crisis to become the hero they are today, but their hardship extends beyond that single moment. Just like in real life, their trauma is not neatly contained within a single event; it's messy and obtuse. The show is ultimately about how the characters deal with that trauma, how these broken people deal with their past mistakes, and the harm done to them by others.

These are characters that have been through some serious trauma. Yet are all in one way or shape "deformed" and do not fit society's definition of normal. Yet they persist and endure and learn to accept themselves as they are. They might not be perfect, but they are not broken. With the help of one another, they cannot only save the world but each other.

Powerful Despite Their Oddness

There is nothing ordinary about the superheroes of this show, yet the peculiar strangeness of the characters' bodies, personalities, and general demeanor does not reflect the seriousness of their superpowers. Robotman's mechanical body endows him with superhuman speed, endurance, and strength. Larry's possessed body is filled with radioactive energy, permitting him to generate small explosions and even fly. Jane is a woman with 64 different personalities co-existing inside of her, and each personality has its own singular superpower. Among the 64 personalities are Flaming Katy, a being made of fire, Lucy Fugue with electrical powers, The Wall-Crawler, and the Hammerhead, who shows signs of super strength. She also has flight abilities and mind control.

The show creates an intricate balance between making its superheroes strange verging on ridiculous, and giving them regular superhero powers to keep the show from being categorized as pure comedy-drama with no traces of superhero elements. The show might be ridiculously funny, but make no mistake, it's still a superhero show that will delight those who love this genre.

Humor Is the Right Amount of "Too Much"

Some viewers will only watch Doom Patrol because of how funny it is. It will most likely draw in Deadpool-like fans who want to laugh more than see people fly. The show is an effortless, nonstop, laugh-provoking comedy with superhero characters who don't even take themselves seriously. They burst out laughing when they hear someone call them the Doom Patrol superhero group, and they find it hard to relate to something serious.

It's not only what characters say to each other; it's also how they are conceptualized, their struggle to feel like "normal superheroes," and the bizarre elements that are added just to tilt the show towards a humorous ridiculousness that speaks to the audience's need to just relax and laugh. If a threat is to be introduced, it is either presented hilariously or followed by a joke of some sort, and the tone is never purely tragic despite the serious themes that have been tackled.

Doom Patrol embraces its status as a comic book adaptation. Where many adaptations try to downplay their silly aspects to the point of grounded realism or, on the opposite end, go so far into comic book absurdity they cannot take themselves seriously, Doom Patrol finds the right balance. It can have crazy silly ideas like a ghost orgy or killer werewolf butt monsters but also know to take a moment to embrace the humanity of someone reconnecting with their family after years of being away or making a break through their own personal journey. Doom Patrol is mature enough to be silly.