Based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name, the series features Jane (Diane Guerrero), Rita Farr (April Bowlby), Vic Stone (Joivan Wade), Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer and Matthew Zuk), Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser and Riley Shanahan), the Chief (Timothy Dalton), and Madame Rouge (Michelle Gomez) as the members of the eponymous Doom Patrol.

The first members of the Doom Patrol to be introduced in the series are Jane, the dominant identity of a traumatized woman with dissociative identity disorder; Rita Farr, who struggles to prevent her body from turning to a gelatinous state; Larry Trainor, who has an entity of negative energy living inside him; and Cliff Steele, whose brain was placed in a robot body following a car crash.

The second season sees the Doom Patrol joined by Dorothy Spinner, the Chief's daughter who possesses the ability to bring her imaginary friends to life.

While the members of the Doom Patrol face their own personal dilemmas and contend with the truth about the Chief, Dorothy inadvertently endangers the world when her powers threaten to unleash an ancient entity known as the Candlemaker.

In the third season, Dorothy's battle with the Candlemaker reaches its climax and the Doom Patrol suffers a tragic loss when the Chief finally dies of old age.

In the aftermath, the team go their separate ways as they struggle with their identities when the arrival of Madame Rouge in a time machine sets them on a new path as well as having an encounter with the Brotherhood of Evil.

[20] Other second-season castings that February included Abi Monterey as the Chief's superpowered daughter, Dorothy Spinner,[14] and Karen Obilom as Roni Evers, a military veteran with a mysterious past who Vic meets while attending a PTSD support group.

[54] The second half of the fourth season premiered on October 12, 2023 with the first two episodes, and the rest debuting on a weekly basis on Max until the series concluded on November 9.

The website's critical consensus reads: "DC Universe finds breakout material in this iteration of Doom Patrol thanks to a fully committed cast and the writing's faith in weirdness.

[61] Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated the series premiere 9.0 out of 10, praising its "wicked" sense of humor and the show's cast that "works incredibly well to form an entertaining dysfunctional family".

Its critical consensus reads: "As entertaining as the first, but with more emotional depth, Doom Patrol's second season explores darker corners without sacrificing any of its wonderful weirdness.

Its critics consensus states: "By adding strange new spices and a heaping tablespoon of unconventional plotting, Doom Patrol remains an endearing bazaar of absurd delights.

"[65] Rita Farr, Larry Trainor, and Cliff Steele from the Doom Patrol continuity were intended to appear in the original season 1 finale of Titans.

The Doom Patrol incarnations of Jane, Rita Farr, Vic Stone, Larry Trainor, and Cliff Steele make cameo appearances in the Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths", which depicts the series as taking place on the world of Earth-21.

Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Joivan Wade, Matthew Zuk, and Riley Shanahan appear in their respective roles from Doom Patrol through archival footage.