The Brenaissance is upon us with Brendan Fraser not only growing emotional over his Venice standing ovation but also becoming visibly moved at news that people are rooting for him. While we await Fraser’s performances in The Whale and (further down the line) Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, there’s plenty of him on the way in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol Season 4. The show will return amid plenty of Warner Bros. Discovery upheaval, and that’s fantastic news, given the show’s cult following and stellar cast, including Matt Bomer as Negative Man and Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane (and her 64 incarnations). And towering above them all is the voice of the Encino Man star, unseen but very much heard (and felt) in one of the most layered voice roles ever.
This Season 4 teaser plays down the dramatic tones of Fraser’s Cliff Steele (and his tragic race-car driver origin story) and chooses to feature his free-wheeling exclamations to herald the return of the DC misfit superheroes. We do receive a “what the yeehaw f–” and a “Daddy’s home, sh*tlickers,” and Fraser fans will not complain. It’s a role where he gets to be angry and harsh and alternately soft and caring. That’s part of the show’s beauty: we get to know these scarred heroes who never wanted their superhuman talents in the first place, but they’re making the best (and worst) of them, and they’ve banded together as an unbreakable freak-force who might save this world:
Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them. Season Four opens with the team unexpectedly traveling to the future to find an unwelcome surprise. Faced with their imminent demise, the Doom Patrol must decide once and for all which is more important: their own happiness or the fate of the world?
Doom Patrol returns to HBO Max on December 8.
