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andrasteI am currently five episodes into Doom Patrol, which I have been meaning to watch since it came out. Part of the reason I put it off is that, well, I've read the Morrison era comics and also seen Timothy Dalton in Penny Dreadful* and I am self-aware enough to know exactly what would happen when I watched it. I wanted to make sure the whole thing was out so I wouldn't be fretting between seasons, and it nearly is! Besides which, I need something to do with my HBO subscription in between Last of Us episodes. I am having a good time with it so far, but it's less that I've gotten freshly attached to Niles Caulder and more than I have finally pulled up in the Blorbo Bus to let him on.*
It's funny to reflect that Dalton wouldn't even have been in the frame for the part if Patrick Stewart hadn't gotten famous in America to the point where nobody was going to ask him to do a fake accent when they finally gave him the job nerds had been demanding he get for more than decade. (Well, a different fake accent from the one he got famous with, anyway. Although now I kind of want to see the timeline where Professor X is inexplicably from Yorkshire.)
This isn't even a Question and Rorschach or Superman and Hyperion situation. It's just that over time the X-Men became so much more popular and well-known than the Doom Patrol that, despite first coming into fictional existence a few months earlier, Niles Caulder now exists in the shadow of the other wheelchair-using man of questionable ethics who recruited a team of weirdo superheroes in the early sixties, to the point where I guess they have become quantum entangled. It's a hell of a thing when you become English in the TV version just because a completely separate character owned by a rival company was played by someone who was a Frenchman in Star Trek.
Now, obviously the casting also has plenty to do with Dalton's own previous work (not least his time as James Bond) and he's more than earned the role. In fact, all of the casting in this show is terrific - I'd heard the buzz about Brendan Fraser, but also a shout-out to whoever realised that Matt Bomer would be absolutely perfect for this version of Larry Trainor. It nevertheless amuses me greatly that there's a straight line from 'Star Trek producer Bob Justman takes a UCLA course that happens to have a certain actor doing a reading' to 'Timothy Dalton gets paid to flirt with a blue CGI horse.'
Given that Reginald Hargreaves is also played with a British accent - albeit by an Irish-Canadian - I am curious about whether the nationality swap of terrible superhero dads is permanent or whether the MCU is going to go back to comicverse canon and cast an American as the next Charles Xavier. (I mean, if they're asking me they should call Lance Reddick, but unfortunately I am not in charge of this decision.)
*I mean, among other things, but it's Malcolm Murray who's the relevant reference here.
*It is just as well for everyone that this is a very metaphorical bus. Any vehicle filled with my favourite characters would be unlikely to make it to the first intersection without something going catastrophically wrong.
It's funny to reflect that Dalton wouldn't even have been in the frame for the part if Patrick Stewart hadn't gotten famous in America to the point where nobody was going to ask him to do a fake accent when they finally gave him the job nerds had been demanding he get for more than decade. (Well, a different fake accent from the one he got famous with, anyway. Although now I kind of want to see the timeline where Professor X is inexplicably from Yorkshire.)
This isn't even a Question and Rorschach or Superman and Hyperion situation. It's just that over time the X-Men became so much more popular and well-known than the Doom Patrol that, despite first coming into fictional existence a few months earlier, Niles Caulder now exists in the shadow of the other wheelchair-using man of questionable ethics who recruited a team of weirdo superheroes in the early sixties, to the point where I guess they have become quantum entangled. It's a hell of a thing when you become English in the TV version just because a completely separate character owned by a rival company was played by someone who was a Frenchman in Star Trek.
Now, obviously the casting also has plenty to do with Dalton's own previous work (not least his time as James Bond) and he's more than earned the role. In fact, all of the casting in this show is terrific - I'd heard the buzz about Brendan Fraser, but also a shout-out to whoever realised that Matt Bomer would be absolutely perfect for this version of Larry Trainor. It nevertheless amuses me greatly that there's a straight line from 'Star Trek producer Bob Justman takes a UCLA course that happens to have a certain actor doing a reading' to 'Timothy Dalton gets paid to flirt with a blue CGI horse.'
Given that Reginald Hargreaves is also played with a British accent - albeit by an Irish-Canadian - I am curious about whether the nationality swap of terrible superhero dads is permanent or whether the MCU is going to go back to comicverse canon and cast an American as the next Charles Xavier. (I mean, if they're asking me they should call Lance Reddick, but unfortunately I am not in charge of this decision.)
*I mean, among other things, but it's Malcolm Murray who's the relevant reference here.
*It is just as well for everyone that this is a very metaphorical bus. Any vehicle filled with my favourite characters would be unlikely to make it to the first intersection without something going catastrophically wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-01 02:43 pm (UTC)Gosh, until I read that, I had genuinely forgotten that he was American in the first place.
Lance Reddick WOULD be great.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-02 10:09 am (UTC)He would be so great!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-01 05:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-02 10:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-01 10:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-02 10:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-19 05:22 pm (UTC)/waves (I was passing by on my Network feed and saw your post about your recent X-Men fic, then started browsing and saw your post about your excellent fic "Paper Dolls" and...)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-23 07:50 am (UTC)He's very good in it! And it's well worth watching assuming you like teams of dysfunctional superheroes.
(Hello! Always happy to see new people here!)