How Doom Patrol shows recovery and rehabilitation with humor and strangeness.

Doom Patrol is the answer the chronic illness community has been waiting for when it comes to positive and real representation in media. It shows the raw, uncut and real journey of recovery. The HBO and DC Universe television show teaches the lesson along the way. People with different capabilities all have value.

“The Mind is the Limit” quite literally repeats in the opening scenes of Doom Patrol. It’s a powerful sentiment, and whether it’s being said, or being expelled out of a donkey’s butt, you can find that lesson echoed throughout the entire show. 

Each character has something that makes them “flawed” and we see how they deal with their capabilities and disabilities. One character, Larry Trainor aka Negative Man literally fights with another being inside his body. It’s the perfect personification of what it’s like to live with an illness. 

It’s refreshing to see characters of different capabilities. Whether it’s showing us the story of what it’s like to be afflicted with a physical impairement like Cliff aka Robot Man who has lost his entire body (excluding the brain), or the struggle with mental illness like Crazy Jane and her 64 alternate personalities, Doom Patrol shows the viewer the mental anguish that goes into recovery, and being ill in general.

The 5 Stages of Grief get a close up in the lives of the characters.

The show does a magnificent job of showing us the 5 stages of grief that come with becoming disabled or ill. For instance, Cliff’s denial and isolation is seen in the very first episode after Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman and The Chief do a devastating reveal to him about what he is now.

“I can’t eat. I can’t feel,” Cliff exclaims at one point during his rehabilitation. The frustration and shakiness in his voice is enough; Cliff doesn’t need to show facial expressions to communicate his wrestle with recovery. “Just walk up the goddamn steps.”

In the same vein, Doom Patrol also shows what it’s like to be well and then suddenly lose your health and lifestyle. When we are introduced to both Larry and Rita, they are living their best lives at the top of their respective fields, until they are infected with their illnesses/capabilities/superpowers.

A lesson for all: Disabilties do not define you.

The DC Universe through Doom Patrol gives the disability/capability community the refreshing take they’ve known all along: Your afflictions do not define you, no matter what kind of illness it is. Be it mental or emotional like PTSD and manic depression, or internal disease like cancer or autoimmune issues, every person still as worth.

Doom Patrol delivers on representation of all sorts of visible or invisible capabilities, and touches on the internal struggles of each. From Rita’s superficial tendencies to Larry’s struggle with who he his, each character has their own underlying trauma to digest.

”Do you remember what it felt like to be normal?” Crazy Jane asks Cliff, while they get to know each other in a scene from Season 1, Episode 1.

Most importantly, Doom Patrol shows the viewer the power of banding together. When dealing with different illnesses, to approach each other with understanding and compassion is the true sign of intelligence of worth. Everyone has the capability to have a superpower after all.

Doom Patrol Season 3 returns on September 23 on HBO, with great expectations.