Mild spoilers for Doom Patrol's Season 2 premiere below!
The Doom Patrol Season 1 finale ended with the titular characters saving Niles Caulder’s daughter Dorothy from the villainous Mr. Nobody and escaping the painting. However, that big rescue ultimately led to their next conundrum, which saw the dysfunctional heroes shrinking down to the size of toys. Even Danny the Street was now Danny the Brick. To that end, Doom Patrol’s April Bowlby recently compared the start of Season 2 to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and it’s pretty accurate.
The Doom Patrol Season 2 premiere kicked off with the team still tee-tiny and trying to deal with their new state of being. April Bowlby’s Rita Farr, who has experienced a variety of size and shape changes in life, started her superhero training with Cyborg, while Diane Guerrero’s Jane was predictably less than pleased with their predicament. It wasn’t long before the the show fully revealed the surprising place where the Doom Patrol took up residence after the shrinking: a toy racetrack. Speaking with TVLine, Bowlby discussed the team’s new living situation and why she liked it. Here’s what she said:
That was one of my favorite sets ever built. We basically live on Robotman’s race track, so they had to build a big version of that. It’s incredible. And Larry has to feed us, but I’ll leave it to your imagination to guess how he does that. We have these little tents and fake trees — it’s like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and it’s fabulous.
Larry does, in fact, feed them. As the only member of the group who’s still adult-sized, Larry is tasked with providing sustenance, which includes making everyone tiny pancakes with large dollops of syrup. When Larry peered down at the race track to look at his tiny friends, it was definitely reminiscent of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the beloved 1989 film that, well, shrunk the kids. It’s quite entertaining and delightfully odd, and I’d expect nothing less of Doom Patrol. If only Rick Moranis was around...
As her fellow Doom Patrol members tried adjusting to their new normal, Rita attempted to hold the group together with optimism. She aimed to take charge mainly because everyone else was pretty much falling apart to some extent. As it turns out, stepping up to become leader didn't go so well for her, and the team’s attitude certainly didn’t help. I’m proud of Rita for trying nonetheless.
April Bowlby also revealed that Rita comes to terms with what she “can and can’t control” in Season 2. Part of that acceptance is not focusing too long on the team’s shrunken situation. However, based on Bowlby’s excitement for the race car set, I take it she wouldn’t have minded if Rita stayed miniaturized for larger chunks of the season.
Doom Patrol Season 2 currently streams on both HBO Max and DC Universe. The first three episodes have been released, with a new episode dropping every Thursday thereafter. For more on what to watch, be sure to check out our 2020 summer TV premiere guide.
