Recently, James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker came to its season one finale. Confirmed for a second season, the television sequel to the summer 2021 film The Suicide Squad featured uncommon elements for both the superhero genre and television as a whole. Was this series worth watching, and is the second season worth waiting for? In my opinion, the answer is a definite yes.
I’d like to talk about some of the issues I had with season one before we move on to the more enjoyable parts of the series. One of the elements that didn’t always work was the humor. A common opinion that I’ve seen about director James Gunn is that some of his humor is meant to be “edgy,” bordering on offensive just for the sake of it, and I can agree with that assertion. There were genuinely great, comedic moments in the series, and I often found myself laughing out loud. But a few of the jokes relied on being specifically risky and more focused on gross-out and sexual humor, and they didn’t land as well as other moments did.
The “will they/won’t they” element between characters Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Peacemaker/Christopher Smith (John Cena) also came across as an overused and tiring trope.
Despite its flaws, the show certainly has some positive elements. Firstly, the title sequence is awesome due to having a complete dance number as the credits rolled. While dance numbers have happened often in films and tv shows, to have a full choreographed sequence for the show’s intro was phenomenal. It’s incredibly fun and I can never skip it.
In regards to Peacemaker as a character, the writing was strong. The narrative follows what was first established in The Suicide Squad in that he is just not a great guy. We learn quickly that he was raised by his terrible, racist and homophobic father, and much of the first season is Smith being educated on his own comments that he makes, as he tries to understand his mistakes and learn from them. By the finale it is evident that Smith is trying to do better.
Most of the show’s cast was fairly well-written and pleasant to watch, Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante was definitely a stand-out character of the season due to his acting and the character’s fighting abilities. Like with every character, he had some not-so-great moments, at times making incredibly ignorant comments like Peacemaker does, but he is also called out for them. Vigilante seems like the kind of character who means well, but just doesn’t always go the right way about doing so.
Leota Adebayo, played by Danielle Brooks, was another one of the show’s most interesting characters. She’s strong, resourceful, and ready to stand up for what she believes is right. It was awesome to see a queer woman of color as one of the show’s central characters, and she is such an essential part of the team and the series. The friendship that she builds with Smith is a fascinating one, especially because she doesn’t let him get away with being ignorant. She’s the character we follow almost as often as we follow Smith, and we’re able to truly understand the conflicts she has, with wanting to make her mom proud, while also maintaining her friendships with the team members.
The strong LGBTQIA+ representation was also powerful. While some moments were weakened by weird comments often made by Smith about Adebayo’s relationship, her marriage to Keeya, played by Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, was shown to be incredibly strong and healthy, being able to withstand Adebayo’s hectic and dangerous job. Not only was Adebayo established as a lesbian at the show’s beginning, but Peacemaker was later confirmed as bisexual. While not depicted as explicitly as the former, Peacemaker’s bisexuality was alluded to in several pieces of the show’s dialogue, and would eventually be confirmed and covered in multiple online news outlets. I was incredibly happy to see more bi representation in the superhero genre, and I hope that the show further explores Smith’s identity in the second season. While representation of minority groups still has to improve in the television and film industries, this show did a fairly decent job at depicting a same-sex couple and a bisexual man.
I also thought it was great to see many of the women characters not take the insults from the male characters in the show, often firing back or calling them out on their comments. The environment that the women are placed in is clearly male-dominated from the start, and it was exciting to see each of them attempt to combat the patriarchal system in their work fields.
Smith’s pet eagle, ironically named Eagley, was one of my favorite parts of this show. While I was definitely worried for the safety of my other favorite characters (Gunn, the creator, tends to kill off important characters towards the end of a film, thanks James), Eagley was the one who I was holding my breath for quite often. While not having much screen time, Eagley had many sweet moments with Chris, such as “hugging” him a few times. I also found the idea of someone having an eagle as a pet to be so absurd, yet heartwarming at the same time. That CGI eagle means a lot to me.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about the antagonists of the show. I do want to warn readers that the show does depict a group of white supremacists led by Smith’s father, who don white cloth over their heads meant to resemble KKK hoods, which can potentially be triggering to viewers. While the main threat in this series is an extraterrestrial race of intelligent, dangerous creatures who go by the unassuming title of ‘Butterflies’, this secondary threat is arguably more frightening, due to the reality which reflects on the deeply-rooted racism that continues to impact people of color around the world. are a reminder of James Gunn’s history as a horror writer, as they bury into humans’ brains to take over their bodies. There is something definitely creepy about the creatures, but the show manages to make the audience a bit more conflicted about them as the narrative progresses.
If you enjoyed The Suicide Squad, I definitely think you will enjoy this. There were moments that didn’t work as well as I hoped, but I do think there still are a lot of strong aspects in the series! For the most part, it’s a lot of mindless fun and action, while still remaining thoughtful about character development and narrative building. The acting is also pretty strong, especially from John Cena, whose character is deeply guilt-ridden throughout the series but is also given the chance to become a better person, free from his father’s influence. If anything, I recommend checking the show out just for the title sequence alone.
