Peacemaker Season 2 (HBO Max)

If James Gunn is the answer to DC's problems, I don't wanna know the question.

Let me be clear. That sucked. You cannot coast a shitty unfunny show on an amazing main title sequence. It's weird this show thinks you can.

Just to give you a clue of how unfunny the show is they have the male shrink telling Harcourt she suffers from toxic masculinity. Aside from being a fucking ridiculous notion, the idea is so annoying because it's asking us to believe the character we saw in season 1 was actually more interesting than she was. Not buying it.

Speaking of retcons, there is absolutely NO good explanation for the Universe switch, and Guy and Hawkgirl appear in the recap now not because it's what's best for the new DCU, but because it's what's best for James Gunn's pet projects. But it's confusing and nonsensical. Wrong guy to run the franchise.

The ending was horrible and predictable. I'll forgive one of those in a plot twist. Not both.

I tried. I did. I got to the orgy and I was like "I've had enough." Seriously. Ugh. Is everybody who makes superhero stuff actually a 14 year old misogynist? Because that's the demographic they appear to be targeting. And I believe that distinction IS important when discussing adult-oriented superhero projects. This show is adult in the exact same way Scary Movie was. And I refuse to fucking take it seriously, no matter how much pathos they try to pile on top of Chris. It's ridiculous. 1 star.

I am extremely unhappy. Normally, I take shitty TV shows in stride, but there is something about this specific show sucking as much as it does, in the ways that it does, that bothers me in a way most crappy stuff I bash doesn't. And I don't know why that is. I'll try to figure it out in this review.

The show is basically unending nihilism and misogyny, layered with some genuine drama. James Gunn believes the genuine drama is the thing that will make viewers forgive both of the former things. I question not only why it should, but how it is television has decided that nihilism and misogyny is just fine as long as there are dramatic beats surrounding it? It's not, right? Am I weird for thinking that?

Titans was a similar exercise in depravity, but that was pretty much ALL depravity with no redeeming virtues. Why is this bothering me more? Maybe because I believed the writers of that show were sociopaths and I don't believe that about James Gunn. Maybe the heartfelt stuff is almost a tacit admission the horrible stuff is actually horrible, and the fact that James Gunn doesn't care, or worse, thinks that makes compelling television, is far more troubling to me than a purely shitty show written by writers who have no clue what they are doing.

The things this show does wrong feel knowing and deliberate for that reason. Worse, that fact suggests to me Gunn has chosen to present the DCU this way so early on because he thinks that type of storytelling is compelling. Or worse than that, he believes this is what the fans want and is simply giving it to them. That last idea haunts me because he is probably right about that. I feel extremely squicked out by most superhero comics, and the idea that superhero TV shows have decided to stop being gateway projects to get general audiences into the various comic books, and turned into giving toxic dudebros everything they ever wanted is fucking disturbing. Am I wrong? Tell me how I am. Please. I'm begging you. I don't want to be right.

I have expressed serious doubts about Gunn's ability to actually fix DC's myriad problems. I believed he would fail. And this episode means I hope he does. I think if this is his idea of what a unified DC film / TV Universe is, DC Comics isn't just worse off for it. Society is.

I hear Superman is good. I have no doubts I will enjoy it when I get the Blu-Ray. But both this show and Creature Commandos tell me that it will also be the franchise's high point and it will all be downhill from there. I mean, it blew up pretty big opening weekend, but the box office eventually limped along so that it actually will wind up making less money than Man Of Steel. While that is so, explain to me how DC is in good hands with James Gunn. I don't see it.

I feel like if I go in-depth about everything in the episode that bothered me this review would become three times its length, so I'll get across the bullet points as quick as I can. Bear with me.

Harcourt traumatizing the abused woman trying to help her was despicable, especially since Gunn seems to believe I should be on Harcourt's side. I think Harcourt walking around in public with a busted face makes a statement and she can't be surprised how normal people react to it.

Flurry isn't just a misogynistic piece of shit. His bird blindness thing is stupid. And unfunny.

Chris and Adrian cleaning up the alt-Peacemaker's body reminds me of a sad truth: Every death in fiction makes a statement, so you'd better be REAL careful about the statement you are making. James Gunn either doesn't agree, or he does, and his statement is simply appalling. It could be either thing.

The text chain with Alt-Harcourt at the end pissed me off, because this is television, and we know Chris is gonna sleep with her under false pretenses. Him doing so under these SPECIFIC false pretenses is literally rape, and either Gunn is just gonna pretend it isn't, or he's going to acknowledge it, and believes turning Chris into a rapist is dramatically interesting, and a swell thing for the "poor, conflicted guy" to "redeem" himself from down the line. It's like television learned absolutely NOTHING from Spike on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Or if they did, they learned the wrong thing.

Am I jumping to conclusions? Are my conclusions so fucking horrible and harsh the show does NOT deserve to be leveled with those specific accusations? I'm willing to entertain the second thing. Here's the thing. Why the FUCK should I trust the sexual morality of a show where a character says he never learned about Pokemon because he was two busy having two chicks suck his dick? Tell me WHY the benefit of the doubt about the rape scenario they are teasing should be given to a show that does THAT, and believes it's a funny joke.

The irony? Buffy The Vampire Slayer never did ANYTHING remotely like that! And that show introduced Xander Harris, basically Patient Zero for the incel movement. And I'm supposed to believe the show is gonna handle THIS sensitively, and believe Alt-Harcourt will see through Chris and fucking smack him down before anything happens?

I always question why viewers trust television producers. What I REALLY question is why viewers trust television producers that give them absolutely no reason to do so.

If you think I am being an unfair asshole for saddling James Gunn with a rapist-enabling attitude before even SEEING where this is going, I will remind you HE wrote the line "I was too busy having two chicks sucking my dick." I didn't. And fuck, just to BRING home he thought it was funny, it's actually expanded in the tag. Gross.

James Gunn thinks fans will like and respond to this shit. That's bad. He's probably right, which is fucking horrifying to me.

Any good things? One REALLY good thing, but thinking about it pisses me off too. I thought Rick Flag Sr.'s reaction to the truth about Peacemaker killing his son was great. Earned pathos and I'm totally on his side, which is a good trick for a character introduced only last episode.

But the clips from The Suicide Squad bugged the shit out of me. James Gunn is playing FAR too fast and loose with what from the Extended Universe is now DC Universe and it confuses an issue a less narcissistic creator than Gunn would have simply sidestepped by rebooting EVERYTHING. But because Gunn has actual skin in the game, this "new" continuity is far more confusing than it should be, and saddled with baggage it never should have been saddled with. This show should have simply been canceled and all the characters from here and The Suicide Squad should have been entirely recast. Gunn fucked up DC making a clean break because his own career and pet projects were more important to him than the studio's long-term health. I said he is the wrong man to "fix" DC? That! That!

Talking it out makes me realize why this angers me more than Titans. James Gunn actually knows better. And is writing a shitty and horrible TV show purposefully because he believes fans want it this way. He is not the same level of an incompetent storyteller Geoff Johns, Akiva Goldsman, and Greg Berlanti were. The fact that he's putting in the pathos to begin with proves it, and almost makes the show's terribleness utterly unforgivable. This level of toxicity isn't because Gunn doesn't know any better. It exists despite the fact that he clearly does. That is fucking disturbing and appalling. 1 star.

Better than the first two weeks, but so was The Phantom Menace.

It's pretty obvious the Smiths are the bad guys in the "Good" Universe. The biggest clue being that the dead Chris is pretty much a much worse person than our Chris in every respect. The idea that the Smiths are a crime syndicate is easier to believe than the idea that they are a family of superheroes.

Also, only white people are seen in this dimension. The Smiths are probably a super family of white supremacists.

And if the dimension IS fucked up enough, little kids still WILL be saying they love them while women show them their titties.

I get the sense that Judomaster is some sort of fan-favorite character but I never got the appeal. I don't like Adrian much either, but like, I get why he's weird and funny. The kid is just off-putting.

I am thinking nothing but bad things about the potential Chris and Alt-Harcourt ship and the show is doing NOTHING to alleviate those worries.

Learning that Harcourt hates Chris for real and the reasons why are quite interesting. Part of me understands it, and part of me thinks they didn't need to saddle her or the show with this. But this was supposedly always the plan, so James Gunn thinks differently.

Better than Jar-Jar, but is that the bar now? 2 1/2 stars.

The ending kind of petered out, but the rest of the episode was surprisingly solid. I've hated this season so far but this actually worked.

Economos in the van basically shitting all over Judomaster and Fleury is great. I never liked the character and now suddenly I do.

Him talking about the wink to Bordeaux was perfect comedy. Nobody ever heard of a wink to say they were all in this together. And when Fleury is about to flip out after John spits on him (seriously, what kind of adult does that?) she winks at him. To let him know they are all in this together.

Economos is right that Bordeaux IS actually paid to put up with his shit. Good insight there.

The biggest hint to me that The Perfect World is a White Supremacist nightmare is the show pairing him up with Adebayo while exploring it. I expect real pain in the weeks ahead.

It makes sense Flag Sr. and Harcourt have a previous friendship considering she loved his son and he was her only friend. And if she thinks that from Flag's perspective his mission is the right one, she's not actually wrong. Hell, she wouldn't be wrong if she actually agreed with him.

I liked it and it's been awhile since I sincerely liked an episode of this show. 4 stars.

So basically, as far as Chris and Mirror Harcourt go, James Gunn is telling a rape story. Worse, he doesn't seem to understand that that is what he is doing.

Economos talking about how his and Harcourt's bravery is not on the same level is interesting.

Judomaster not putting up with Fleury's shit.

Not completely terrible, but a rape story is a rape story. 2 stars.

Yeah, didn't dig it.

I think the problem is the horrific scenario with Adebayo is played as humorous at the end. It's not. At all. And we all saw it coming, and I don't appreciate the show trying to cutesy up Nazism to make it more palatable to viewers having to view racism's ugliness. No, instead, James Gunn decides to make it a funny chase scene.

I get why Mirror Adrian hates Peacemaker. Totally. It's good to know decent people exist in this Universe. I loved him mirroring back our Adrian's nonsense. It was cute and funny.

So I'm supposed to be impressed they included Lex Luthor? Because I'm not.

Economos has a big fucking mouth. Whatever bad shit happens from this point forward is 100% on him.

This is not a premise for a show as goofy as this. It's not playing right. 2 1/2 stars.

I thought it was extremely interesting that Auggie on Earth X wasn't a Nazi, and in fact disagreed with that whole ideology. And the fact that he was killed anyways by Alt-Vigilante says Chris is right when he says the problem is probably him.

Adebayo's statement that Earth X isn't really much different than ours is provocative. Not just because it's true. But because the entire reason DC Comics created Earth X to begin with was to show how fucked up and evil things could have gotten under different circumstances. Peacemaker suggesting things aren't really any more fucked up at all is a true message, and a frankly terrifying one.

Maybe 20 years ago that idea would be bullshit. Now? It's not.

Auggie saying he sensed a darkness and evil in his counterpart however is something working against that theory. It doesn't suggest our Earth is more evil. Instead it feeds into the opposite polarity of most alternate universe stories.

Still Auggie being a good guy in that evil Universe was indeed a surprise.

I was trying to work out how Pokemon would be created in a Nazi world, and then I remembered Japan was part of the Axis. All right then.

Judomaster and Ade bonding was for me the best part of the episode. I wish the show was all that. I don't think if I were Ade I would be defending Chris overlooking the Nazism, and that's the part that didn't ring true. For real, I had expected this whole thing to cause a rift between them, because it frankly should have. The idea that it didn't can be chalked up to the fact that James Gunn is a clueless white dude. Plausible. Or it could be when Adebayo talks about how Earth X isn't actually too much worse about this stuff than our Earth she was being sincere. Or maybe it's both. Either way it's not the narrative choice I would have made in Gunn's place. But I might be able to live with it. I don't know how Black viewers will take that. Then again, I'm just your average clueless white dude.

This was a good episode in an otherwise shaky TV series. 4 stars.

Not okay with the cliffhanger, ambivalent about much of the rest of the episode.

Adebayo's monologue about what Chris means to her is the heart of the episode, as was learning the moment between Harcourt and Chris was a kiss that MEANT something to her. The 11th Street Kids forming their own agency and including Fleury and Judomaster was rewarding. It's just... this show, you know? Sometimes it's too much.

I was getting serious Doom Patrol vibes from the Universe with tiny gremlins and candy meadows. James Gunn wants me to find this disturbing, hilarious, twisted, and metal, and the word crossing my mind is "Enough". It's not hardcore or subversive. It's what a person who doesn't understand either thing would portray that as. It's tiresome and boring.

It is. You can slam me for my negative reviews all you want, I am MORE than fair to crap that actually interests me. Shit like this has me checking the clock or sighing in resignation.

When Adrian talks about threatening the judge, Adebayo has a good point in asking how he thinks he's a hero. But the most disturbing thing about Adrian is how he sexualizes his own mother. And then he blames her and other people for "putting those images in his head". They were always there, dude. You just talked YOURSELF into analyzing them, you weirdo.

Oh, so Rick Flag Sr's a bad guy. That actually tracks. I mean I feel like in Creature Commandos the asshole was legit incompetent, and although he appeared to mean well then, he kept making dumb mistakes that fucked up the heroes. So it's no surprise to me he doesn't give a shit about helping humanity, or that he doesn't care about any of his people who were killed. The absolute fucking irony? Chris cares more that he killed Rick Jr. than Flag does the men who work under him.

The Foxy Shazam thing was a great tie-in for the main title, and a real crowd-pleasing moment in a mostly frustrating episode.

I mentioned I liked learning about the kiss. It's WAY better than a drunken one-night stand. Because this is not Harcourt having shitty judgment. She actually let this guy she secretly loathes get under her skin, and surprise, her entire reason for being, loathing this guy, no longer exists. That is pleasingly messy and interesting.

I think the best moment for me between them was when Chris stops the fight with the freckled dirtbag. Because I don't LOATHE Chris I instantly saw why he did it, but she snarls that he's trying to protect her like a big man. No, he's trying to protect the guy she's about to wreck, get arrested over, and ruin their nice night over. The fact that this never occurs to Harcourt does not tell me Harcourt has no redeeming qualities. It's that she truly believes Chris doesn't. For real. She never even considered the likeliest explanation because it means Chris is a nice guy and not a total dick.

We kept hearing hedges over whether the show will even be back or not, and the cliffhanger grates for that reason. I'm sure it's a very fine way to create buzz and demand, but fuck, I don't like being used for that purpose. I believed Gunn when he said the ending would move DC Studios forward. It really doesn't, and the next time he says something like that I won't believe him.

I don't even know WHY I took that shit at face value to begin with. I loved the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies and Holiday Special, but every single one of James Gunn's DC projects is problematic. I LIKED Superman 2025, but watching it I got the distinct impression it's a movie I'd like less and less every time I rewatched it. Gunn has no credibility for this franchise, and I'm dumb for believing he had even a LITTLE. I won't be making that mistake again.

Whatever. This worked for some of the quieter moments, but fucked up the big picture stuff. Somehow I never pictured that ever being Gunn's actual problem, but here we are. 3 stars.