Peacemaker Season 2 came out and this is a first time for me, Im the type of viewer that really dont care if I havent seen the first movie or the previous season of a TV series, in fact I think thats even better because then I get intrigue on how we got there so I decided to give it a try and man I have some mixed feelings about this whole thing, like seriously James Gunn what were you thinking with some of these choices. There is this episode that tries to do way too much at once while also feeling kinda empty in places that matter with the opening scene where Chris wakes up to Eagly pecking at him was cute and all but then we dive straight into this whole multiverse thing with his quantum chamber that his dad left behind, which honestly feels like they are trying too hard to connect everything to the bigger DC universe instead of just letting Peacemaker be its own thing and I hope the Multiverse thing stays just here in Peacemaker and dont try to expand into other movies or series and go the entire MCU style. The whole setup with the alien dude throwing dead animals into a furnace every day is weird but not in the good way its more comedy than superhero related and I get this is a very dark TV series, its all so weird and you can tell the writers are like "we need something quirky here", then Chris discovers this other dimension where his dad and brother, Mutltiverse AGAIN!!!, are still alive and everything is perfect which should be this emotional gut punch moment but it kinda just happens without any real meaning rather than pushing this multiverse narrative.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13146488/
- Platform: HULU
Rottentomatoes Rating
After the Superman 2025 movie came out there will be more connection within the entire DCEU and they have started with Peacemaker so there is the thing between the old DC movies and the new DCU, sure I get that James Gunn had to fix some stuff but the way they just retconned the Justice League appearance from season one feels lazy as hell, yeah I havent seen Season 1 but that screenshot comparing S01 and S02 says it all, same show with Justice League and then Justice Gang, it seems there is going to be a lot of copy / cut / paste / delete. They literally reshot scenes and changed dialogue to make it the Justice Gang instead which is fine I guess but it makes you wonder what else they are gonna change down the line with he whole previously on segment was clever I will give them that but it also made me miss the original season one ending even more, like why not just embrace the messiness instead of trying to clean it up. Now WTF!!! with that orgy scene, it just felt completely unnecessary and felt like shock value for the sake of shock value, like we get it Chris is lonely and makes bad decisions but did we really need to see all that, plus John Cena promoting coke? wtf, seriously. The scene goes on way too long and adds nothing to his character development, plus it just feels gross considering how they established that he doesn't have many real friends to begin with so where did all these people come from, did he just put an add on Facebook "Orgy Here" with his address and a sign on his front door?.
The new opening dance sequence is another thing that really bothered me, I get it has to be awkward to fit with the rest of the theme, if this was my first time on this series without knowing anything at all about Peacemaker then I would have probably shut it down righ there, there is no excitement, no energy, everyone seems dead and the only cute / cool part is the eagle posing at the end. I went back to check if the opening is a thing for the series and it seems, this time the choreography looks more expensive and polished but sometimes more money doesn't equal better results, the original felt more fun while this one feels like they are trying too hard to top themselves. All the new cast members doing the dance looked awkward as hell and not in the charming way that made the first season so endearing, Frank Grillo and Michael Rooker looked like they would rather be anywhere else, the whole thing about showing Chris with Harcourt in romantic situations during the dance felt premature too since their relationship hasn't even developed that far yet, its like they are spoiling their own story.
To finish on the alternate universe stuff because this is where the episode really lost me even though it had some good moments scattered, the idea of Chris finding a world where his dad isn't a racist monster and his brother is still alive is actually pretty brilliant on paper but the execution felt rushed and shallow. We don't spend enough time in that world to really feel the emotional impact of seeing what his life could have been like, instead we just get this quick tour of his perfect bedroom and a newspaper showing how successful the family is. The fight between the two Peacemkers was decent action wise but it felt inevitable rather than surprising, like of course one of them has to die for the story to move forward. What really bothered me was how quickly our Chris decides to potentially take over this other guys life without thinking about the consequences, like what about all the people who care about that version of him. The whole thing with the other Peacemaker having better gear and being able to fly was cool visually but it also made our Chris look like a chump in comparison.
The stuff with Harcourt having toxic masculinity issues was interesting in theory but the execution felt clunky and forced, like they needed to give her something to do while Chris was dealing with his multiverse problems. Jennifer Holland is a good actress but some of her lines in this episode sounded really awkward but I guess this is just me getting use to this series, honestly this is not the type of superhero series I like to watch but Im giving it a chance, especially when she was trying to be sarcastic, there is just . The bar fight scene where she just wants to feel something was fine but it felt disconnected from everything else happening in the episode, same with the whole subplot about Amanda Waller facing congressional hearings which gets mentioned but never really explored. The episode tries to juggle too many plotlines at once and ends up not doing justice to any of them, season one was much better at focusing on specific character moments and letting them breathe, even the stuff with Vigilante felt thrown in just because Adrian is a fan favorite character, his whole obsession with owl facts was mildly amusing but didn't add anything meaningful to the story and there is Rick Flag Senior showing up was expected since Frank Grillo was in the credits but his motivation for hunting Peacemaker feels a bit thin, like yeah his son died but does he really think tracking Chris down is gonna solve anything. Obviously I had to dig into season 1 and kinda spoil it for myself but it really doesnt matter to me, Im not that type of person that cares about spoiling a series, personally it doesnt bother me, but yeah some of the stuff seen on this first episode look some what disconnected from the first season and I wonder if its because of the drastic changes they want to do considering James Gunn vision on the hole DCEU, if it all plays out then at first it will feel like chaos until everything is sync in.
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