How Doom Patrol carries on the work of Norman Lear

The A.V. Club

"It’s an odd comparison, I’ll grant," says Alex McLevy of the DC Universe series. "Lear is a true icon of the medium, a pioneering and revolutionizing force whose résumé teems with some of the most admired and influential sitcoms ever made: All In The Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times, One Day At A Time, Sanford & Son. Doom Patrol is a superhero show with a recurring character who tracks people by eating bits of their hair. American television has absorbed the DNA of Lear’s output so deeply that his latter-day influence is difficult to quantify. It’s rare to find scripted comedies that aren’t indebted to him, even when it’s not explicit. But what makes Doom Patrol’s Lear parallels interesting is all the ways the show seems to rebut his shows’ structures and aesthetic while subtly embracing their spirit. So let’s look at what these canonical shows have in common with an obscure bunch of DC also-rans swearing up a storm on a niche streaming service." Doom Patrol and Norman Lear shows, he says, have storytelling that is painfully intimate, both confront hot-button social issues while avoiding soapbox moralizing or "very special episode” treacle, they both take place in a heightened reality and they're both funny.