Review: Doomsday Brothers “The M Word”

 

 

Overview:

During a drunken talent show, Rafe allows his insensitive side out and expresses how he really feels about mutants.  His friends are quick to disgrace him for his prejudice and strip him of his employment as town protector.  Though tables turn quickly when Veejay shows up with a cure that inadvertently causes Rafe to mutate.

Meanwhile, the bunker is about to have company as AENUS announces his pregnancy.  Judith, always merciless, plans to seize the opportunity and manipulate her way to freedom.  But emotions run on overdrive when the psychotic AI baby arrives.

 

Our Take:

It is unfortunate to think that racism could survive the apocalypse.  However, that is what this episode takes on through Rafe’s insensitive treatment of his mutant compatriots.  And in doing so, the show walks a very fine line between being entertaining and being tone-deaf when it comes to social prejudices.  A dangerous game to play in this current cancel culture.

Acknowledging the existence of diversity between the “normies” and the mutants was inevitable.  Although, this storyline could have had a much different direction.  As hideous as some of the mutants are, they are the majority in doomsday.  As far as we have seen there exist four humans, and a plethora of mutants each featuring different abnormalities.

Leave it to boisterous Rafe to cause friction between the races.  Enough so that the town’s actions of disavowing their protector was a valid move.

Things get touchy as the story proceeds.  Veejay seems relatively unmoved by his return to normalcy.  Unfortunately, the rest of the townspeople are not as comfortable with what they look like.  While being a mutant would suck, it is unhealthy for them all to want to be rid of their uniqueness.  A more strategic plot would have had these characters show pride in their mutations and disregard the “cure” before the conclusion.

Meanwhile, Judith and her AI companion, AENUS, have been through some awkward adventures together. And having AENUS going through his own pregnancy is some top-level content.

Besides the emotions, and Judith’s opportunistic gaslighting, this side-plot takes some strange turns.  At the top of the list is how swiftly Judith was about to murder her friend’s child for another chance at freedom.  Thankfully, she shows a humane side.  And the results are even more bountiful with the brattiest AI baby that you will ever see.

Honestly, AENUS’s child is one of the best characters to hit this show.  His whiny and disrespectful behaviour was enough to hate him instantly.  A fact that also makes him completely lovable. Sometimes there are characters that you hate so much that you can’t help but respect them.  And this stupid baby was one of those unique designs.

But the whole B-plot was worth its weight with a punctuating line from AENUS: “children really are the worst”.

Truthfully, while the episode could have been more tactful, they managed to pull off another great edition.

A microcosm of that would be Rafe’s mutation.  This was our chance to see Rafe in the form he would have taken had he mutated along with everyone else.  It could have been anything, something awful and grotesque, or creative and unexpected. Instead, they opted to have the same basic character but muddled up to look hideous.

It was good.  It looked good.  It did the job and got the jokes across.  But the ambitious twists and decisions that have been separating this show from others were missing in this particular piece.  With two episodes left in the season, we can hope for some of that defining storytelling finish off the set.