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Hey you! Sure, you—are you rising much less and fewer enthusiastic about each new Marvel launch? Do the various completely different iterations of Batman inside the final 10 years have your head spinning? Effectively, you may simply have superhero fatigue.
Don't fret, it’s a fairly widespread analysis proper now. The excellent news is that there's a treatment: the Harley Quinn animated collection on HBO Max.
Sure, it's a present set within the DC Universe, starring lots of the identical superheroes and villains (and every little thing in between). And sure, it'd appear to be one thing that may solely add to your current fatigue. However, in actuality, Harley Quinn is the last word palate cleanser. Now in its third season, which premiered Thursday with its first three episodes (the remaining will launch on a weekly foundation), the present can solely be summed up in a single phrase: as Harley herself would put it, fan-fucking-tastic.
Harley Quinn is neither your typical superhero present nor your common cartoon. It’s completely for mature audiences, not solely due to its over-the-top violence, but additionally for Harley and her crew’s affinity for foul language. It is a present the place heads explode and Harley’s bat actually snaps bones in half, and even Poison Ivy drops an off-the-cuff F-bomb. What this quantities to is a fever dream starring essentially the most iconic DC comedian characters at their absolute most unhinged, and I imply this in one of the best ways attainable.
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Because it premiered in 2019 (on the DC-centric, now-dead streaming platform DC Universe), Harley Quinn has been persistently on prime of its sport. It’s fast-paced and hysterically humorous, but it surely’s most defining trait is how downright cynical it's about the complete superhero style. In case you suppose one thing like Prime Video’s The Boys is TV’s most provocative critique of superhero tales, simply wait till you watch Harley Quinn—you’ll by no means see your favourite characters in the identical gentle once more.
Living proof: The present tosses the played-out Joker/Harley Quinn romance proper from the beginning. From the primary jiffy of Season 1, Harley Quinn made it clear that the Joker is trash and Harley deserves higher. By the tip of that season, Harley (a never-better Kaley Cuoco) lastly made a 100-percent clear break from her poisonous relationship with the Joker (Alan Tudyk) and created her personal group of villains—consisting of BFF Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), King Shark (Ron Funches), Clayface (additionally Tudyk), and Dr. Psycho (Tony Hale).
Her aim was to be let into the villainous society known as the Legion of Doom. (Smash that tumbler ceiling, Harls!) Nevertheless, by the tip of Season 2, her dream now appears futile, as Gotham has been thrown into full chaos and the Legion has been rebranded because the Injustice League and all of the villains are given management of a sure a part of the town. Clearly, that doesn’t work out that effectively for anybody. That we nonetheless sympathize with the undoubtedly evil Harley Quinn throughout this, and in her efforts to be the largest villain of all villains, is simply one of many present’s many charms—this isn’t your typical comedian ebook adaptation, that’s for certain.
It’s been two years since Season 2 ended, means again in 2020. In that point, there have been 13 new Marvel motion pictures and exhibits and 4 new DC-centric movies. Sure, all that in simply 2 years—and lots of them have been lackluster at greatest.
The glut of superhero tales within the interim makes Harley Quinn's return really feel much more refreshing. Harley provides a recap at first for individuals who forgot what occurred in Season 2, however the primary issues to know are that the Joker is again to being the Joker, however on the straight and slim (or not less than his deranged model of that); Dr. Psycho turned in opposition to the group when Harley determined in opposition to searching for whole world domination; and King Shark and Clayface nonetheless stay the BFFs all of us wish to have.
Most significantly, after tons of build-up, Harley and Ivy are lastly collectively (yay!) and on their model of a pair’s vacation—the “eat, bang, kill” tour, naturally. They even stole Marvel Lady’s invisible jet to globe-trot in.
The await a superb Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy on-screen romance has been lengthy and infrequently disheartening, with a lot of guarantees and little follow-through. However Season 3 doesn’t disappoint. This season, the present masterfully juggles the unhinged romance between two villains with some downright heartfelt moments. Sure, there are many make-out scenes that can make followers go wild, however there may be additionally a stupendous emphasis on how this relationship helps every of them develop.
Tackling points just like the significance of communication and stability an unbiased particular person and a codependent particular person in a relationship isn't one thing you’d count on from such a violent, foul-mouthed cartoon. However that’s what makes Harley Quinn so distinctive: The present doesn’t shrink back from severe subjects. And higher but, it’s not afraid to carry an LGBTQ relationship right into a style notoriously hesitant to showcase one.
However even with all of the romance, Season 3 doesn’t skimp on the remainder of the good things. The present makes certain to maintain the jabs on the DC cinematic universe coming. One Joker-centric episode opens together with his very personal theme tune that comes with the now well-known “we reside in a society” phrase. Then you've gotten the precise James Gunn (director of 2021’s The Suicide Squad, starring Margot Robbie’s Harley) cameoing as himself, as he directs a biopic of Bruce Wayne’s (aka Batman) father Thomas Wayne.
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Batman has at all times been a determine in Harley Quinn, as Gotham’s biggest defender. And the present has by no means shied away from specializing in him not as a hero, however a person with deep psychological points. Season 3 actually goes the additional mile to indicate simply how damaged Batman is by actually going within his thoughts. Sure, all of the darkish corners of Batman’s psyche lastly get analyzed, and it's superb.
Harley Quinn has at all times checked out villains and heroes via a really cynical lens, daring to indicate the grey areas that superhero tales usually ignore: Good guys might be horrible folks, identical to dangerous guys might be fairly nice. Take Bane, the deep-voiced, masked-up dangerous man viewers could bear in mind from The Darkish Knight Rises.In Harley Quinn, he’s not a ruthless killer; Bane is a needy and deeply insecure particular person, who simply needs to be liked. To not say that Harley Quinn’s tackle Bane doesn’t have a style for blood, in fact: I’m nonetheless laughing about how he wished to explode a barista for misspelling his title “Bang.”
Up till this season we have now seen Harley wrestle with who she is, however, exposing characters’ insecurities is an enormous a part of Season 3, particularly in terms of Harley. Whereas we’ve watched her wrestle with who she actually is all through the present to date—is she actually a foul man deep down?—this season, we see the road between villain and hero get murkier and murkier.
The way in which that Harley Quinn distinguishes this model of the enduring character from all the opposite variations of her is at all times spectacular. It’s extremely troublesome to do one thing new on this style, particularly when followers are so acquainted and hooked up to current backstories and histories. But Harley Quinn has finished simply that, and Season 3 solely continues to outline this Harley as the perfect one on the market. Quite a lot of that is because of Kaley Cuoco, who nails Harley’s chaotic vitality and heartbreaking sincerity. She stays an absolute powerhouse within the position, making Harley completely lovable, even when she’s by chance releasing a homicidal maniac on harmless folks or abandoning mates for her personal egocentric acquire.
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The earlier seasons of Harley Quinn have been an absolute blast, however there's something about this season that actually takes the cake. It could be the pitch-perfect cynicism, with Harley at all times saying what we’re all occupied with the present state of the style—and, heck, the world. Or it simply could also be how Season 3 superbly develops our beloved characters, from Harley to Ivy to the slapstick-y Kite Man. It’s a Herculean activity to juggle so many characters and provides them significant story arcs, and Harley Quinn does this with experience.
The very last thing this Earth wants is somebody telling somebody to go watch a wonderful superhero present. However that’s not precisely what I’m doing: I’m telling you to go watch a present that will train you a factor or two about life and relationships—with an occasional knee-slapper concerning the DCU.
Now what are you ready for? As Harley would say, go fucking watch the brand new episodes!