by Alex Henderson, Contributing Writer
The progression of time as of late is quite funny. It feels like it was just yesterday that it was still 2020 and a lot of us were huddled up inside staying safe to protect ourselves and our loved ones. It also doesn’t feel so long ago since that time when James Gunn and HBO Max announced on Twitter that a character from his upcoming movie The Suicide Squad would get a spin off TV show starring the mostly unknown supervillian that was Peacemaker. Even someone who’s such a huge fanboy like me when it comes to Gunn’s work on the Guardians of the Galaxy movies had no clue what to think of this. Even at the time, we had yet to see a single frame of The Suicide Squad, and that just kept us all quite curious about the potential that Gunn’s upcoming mark would have on the DCEU. Skip forward and The Suicide Squad became quite the critical darling and each week outlets have been praising Peacemaker nonstop. Now that the finale has arrived, that raises one very important question, and that question is, did a show about Peacemakerhelp us find redemption for this characterwhile leaving us wanting more, or did it just miss out on really wanting to taste it?
I have fantastic news: Peacemaker was everything I never knew I ever wanted from this corner of the DCEU. I already fell in love with The Suicide Squad when it released back in 2021, and I liked John Cena enough in this role, but not to the extent that I thought he deserved his own show. This really makes me glad that I was so wrong. It’s clear that DC has something special on their hands here, and kudos to them for sticking the landing. They, along with everyone involved in the process of bringing this show to life, really deserve quite the applause for having something here that’s just so special.
I guess a good place to start is the story. The show takes place a few months after The Suicide Squad and continues the story of Christopher Smith as he’s recruited by another team at the helm of Amanda Waller once again. This team’s goal is to stop the threat of a potential alien invasion by a species that goes by the name “the butterflies.” This time, we have some old faces that are given way more to do here, and even some fresh new faces that really stand out. I really mean it. Everyone here in the supporting cast gets at least something to do. Everyone is giving fantastic performances all across the board. It’s the sort of show where I look at the main and supporting characters and have nothing but praises and good things to say. Here’s the part where I’d say, “And that’s why so-and-so is the real standout and deserves this and that…” but like I said, I believe that for everyone here. The only hard part is, where to begin?
First off, I was taken aback quite a bit by the range that Cena was able to put on display here. I always knew he was funny in certain movies and roles, but Peacemaker lets us see this whole new side we had never seen before. The character of Peacemaker as a whole is extremely tragic at his core, so when we see Cena put this wide range of complex emotions on display, it just elevates the writing material he was given to begin with.This brings me fully on board with whatever he does moving forward in his career, and it just makes really hope filmmakers don’t waste his potential. Then we have Vigilante (Freddie Stroma). I’m not too sure that I’ve seen him in anything noteworthy, but he’s a great balance when working with Cena, as they have these back-and-forths that can get quite ridiculous. You could film these two sitting together in a car for two hours and I’d almost say that I’d watch every second of it. Now the reason I say almost is because of one slight negative here… and it’s just that while Vigilante can be quite funny for being dumb… sometimes they take this just a little bit too far. These jokes definitely land more for me than they do flop; it’s just when they flop, they flop hard.
As we continue forward, we have Leota Adebaya (Danielle Brooks). She’s here as the team’s newest recruit that’s inexperienced and is very much the one that’s always freaking out over stuff happening that’s definitely not normal. Instead of using her as the cliché character, they actually incorporate her pretty well into the team. And I’m also being very careful about plot details here, but they give her a pretty strong role throughout the overall storyline that’s very prominent, and I loved everything about it. She’s able to hold her own pretty well in this cast where everyone is constantly cracking jokes, and it just makes me excited to see where this character can go in season two.
Then we have who I’d consider to be the more supporting roles of the show that are on the main team. You’ve got Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee reprising their roles from TSS, except this time they’re used way more than we had seen before. Holland as Harcourt at first comes across as the one who’s always fed up with everyone’s crap and, honestly, I get it. If I was on this team with this many people who always wanted to make jokes during a serious operation to save the world, then I’d probably be at my limit myself. But yet again, she’s not one-noted and is completely justified in her attitude; it works more as we see her character develop. And Agee as John Economos is yet another funny addition to the team whose banter flows well, and in the end proved to be more than just to be a character spouting one-liners, but also one with emotional depths. I’m really glad for Holland and Agee here and glad they got more of the spotlight put on them. Then last, but certainly not least, we’ve got Chukwudi Iwuji as Murn. He’s the team’s leader and the absolute standout. His character ended up being possibly my favorite to hang around due to Iwuji’s incredible comedic delivery. The less I say about him, I feel like you’ll get a better experience with how the show presents this character to you, but I just want to say that in an ensemble show where all the supporting cast hits their mark, Murn was quite the interesting character and I can’t wait to see who he is in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The next thing I really want to talk about is just another excellent use of music in something that’s from the mind of Gunn. He seems to be getting better and better with his music choices, and here, while I wouldn’t say it’s higher in quality than what we were given in The Suicide Squad, it sticks to this consistent tone that’s very much a mix of hair metal and grunge rock music. It can definitely feel like too much depending on how you like music to be used in movies and TV, but I felt it fit here nicely.
Then you’ve got some fun editing and sound mixing that I think a lot might actually overlook. I watched a lot of this show while at my desk with headphones, and it just really stood out to me. Then in other areas of technicality you’ve got some great CGI; it never really feels cheap or poorly rendered. Also, a lot of the times don’t feel like I’m watching a TV show. There’s some stuff in the last half of the season that felt like some stuff I’d see in a movie on the big screen. It’s just a great example of making its budget count. There’s actually a pet eagle in this show that’s 100% CGI, and very rarely are you able to tell it’s not really there. A lot of the time, if something stands out, it’s not the CGI being poorly designed and rendered. It’s just your brain going, “Well that isn’t real because the way it’s shot or used for this moment in particular would never happen this way.”
And while I’m talking about some extra stuff, I really need to get something off my chest — it pains me to say it, but there is a con here in the show that needs attention brought to it. Now, as much as I really love Gunn’s writing and banter between characters, he has an issue where he sometimes just doesn’t know when enough is enough. I did say earlier that his writing in this show does land for the most part, but when it doesn’t, he just needs someone to tell him in the editing process that a joke can drag down the momentum for the scene and make some of the actors feel like they’re just going on for too long. It makes the cast feel like they’re not talking like how that character should be, but instead how the writer of the scene would. So if we could get less of that in season two, I’d really appreciate it.
Before heading into my final verdict, I really have to give the show some props for not being afraid to use mature themes such as racism and white supremacy as a villain here. This just isn’t something we see particularly in superhero shows and movies a whole lot. I could never see this kind of portrayal where they at least don’t sugarcoat the heavy subject matter into something like the MCU. Not that it really doesn’t need to at all. Now The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did a storyline that covered the subject of racism and how people can react when someone takes over the mantle. So I’m not going to act like this isn’t something they’d be afraid to tackle at some point; I just wanted to praise Peacemaker for really taking that extra step and covering something that is so serious even in a show where you’ll be laughing a majority of the time.
Peacemaker season one was in the end an absolute success! It certainly wasn’t necessary, but it really went the extra mile in showing us a look into the mindset of Christopher Smith and getting us to sympathize and end up rooting for him. It’s the first time in a while where not only was I looking forward to each new episode, but also made me want to stay up until 2 a.m. to want to see the latest episode. I think DC and James Gunn have quite the streak going, and it only gets me more excited to see what these two do when they’re together. Peacemaker really helped to start the year off with a bang. It’s near perfection as far as stories in the genre go, and it’s why I can’t recommend it enough!
Grade: A
You can follow Alex Henderson on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd