What Doom Patrol Taught Me About Storytelling

The HBO series featuring the DC Comics’ misfit superhero team holds valuable storytelling lessons for writers.

On a whim, I recently began watching Doom Patrol, an HBO show about scientists, superheroes, aliens, and the joys and tragedies baked into our flawed human existence. While I expected the story to closely trace some variation of the standard hero’s journey, I was surprised to find something else entirely. It’s hard to explain exactly what the show is, but I can tell you that it’s weird, creative, funny, and brilliant.

I was also surprised at how much the show inspired me creatively. As I continue to work on my novel-in-progress, I find myself applying lessons from Doom Patrol to my narrative in a variety of ways.

Here’s a look at how the show tells its story so effectively — and ideas for how those qualities can propel your own creative writing.

Build a believable world of magical realism

As I sank into the story, it became clear that normal rules of time, space, physics, and chemistry didn’t always apply. The show paints a fantastical reality that is in many ways shaped like present-day Earth, but where the strange and unexplained happen all the time. And it does so in a way that lets viewers easily suspend disbelief and latch on for the ride.

As I explored in “Building Worlds that Captivate Readers,” world building requires not just wild imagination but internal consistency, thoughtfulness, and a core of realism within the cloud of fantasy. I admire how Doom Patrol strikes this balance and sets an example that writers can follow as we explore magical realism in our own work.

If you’re sculpting alternate realities, follow your imagination over the edge and to heights and depths beyond. But, just as Doom Patrol does, make sure that any magical worlds you build are ones that play by whatever rules you set, even if that means convincing the reader that there are no rules and anything can happen at any time. The more thoughtfully you craft the framework of your fictional world, the more your readers will welcome your world with open imaginations and accept it on its own fantastical terms.

Create characters that are truly unique

One compelling character is a huggable Leave It To Beaver-era bodybuilder who can flex his muscles and alter time and space. Another is a living street that welcomes the downtrodden, teleports around the world, sustains itself on positive energy from parties, and doesn’t adhere to gender binaries. And then there’s the alcoholic Knight Templar, who uses items like dead celebrities’ chewing gum to perform magical feats.

These are not average characters, and the offbeat creativity that went into crafting them is admirable. The characters you create in your own works do not need to be as wildly unconventional as this (though they certainly can be if it serves your storytelling), but the show’s example can be followed in subtler ways. When it comes to your characters’ goals, dreams, fears, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, fetishes — see how far you can push past clichés and into the unexpected.

Make your characters relatable (mostly)

While some figures in the show come off as caricature rather than character, the majority of humans, animals, and other creatures that populate Doom Patrol have depth and nuance. It’s clear that the writers care about their fictional creations, and that they have put in the time to imbue them with histories and internal motivations viewers can relate to.

No matter how outlandish your own characters may seem, invest the time to understand them as multi-dimensional beings with personalities, pasts, presents, and futures. The more vivid and alive the characters feel to you as the writer, the more engaging they’ll be to your readers — regardless of how completely normal or utterly bizarre they may appear.

Keep your reader guessing

At one point, a main character shoots an arrow at a tormenting monster and then somehow, magically (and for reasons that quickly become clear) catches the projectile before it hits home. In another, a heart-warming reunion stunningly melts into a tragic and violent betrayal involving an interstellar spirit. New characters emerge from the sky and vortices appear in the ground. Protagonists enter an alternate dimension through the throat of a donkey.

This all may sound weird — and it is — but it’s all skillfully executed, playfully wrought, and wonderfully unpredictable.

Fiction writers of all sorts can follow this example: eschew clichés and invest in creating plot and character developments that will catch readers off-guard. Again, these shifts don’t need to be as dramatic or wacky as many of those in Doom Patrol — and writers should never prioritize jagged shock value over solid storytelling — but taking the time to predict and then subvert readers’ expectations can help you write compelling material and be a pay-ff to your readers.

Play with traditional rules of storytelling

Occasionally, the fourth wall is broken and characters speak directly to the screen. Linear storytelling goes out the window early and often. At one point, a hero and villain argue over who gets to narrate the story to those watching the show and who wields the power that results from that honor.

Though some of these instances can feel gimmicky, it’s a worthy experiment and keeps the show feeling fresh and different.

As you write, why not follow Doom Patrol’s example and break out of standard storytelling modalities — third-person omniscient narrator, first-person narrative, etc.?

Have you ever tried writing fiction purely in the future tense or narrating from the point of view of a tea cup, tree, or bird? Try experimenting with different ways of telling your story and see what unexpected magic you come up with.

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