Have you ever watched something that makes you disturbed but also fascinated, like the feeling of ‘this is really weird but I also can’t look away?’
That’s a pretty good way to describe the new HBO show Peacemaker, an action/comedy/drama series about the character called Peacemaker. Following a severe series of injuries, Christopher Smith is quickly recruited by a government division known as A.R.G.U.S to partake in a black ops mission to save the world known simply as ‘Project Butterfly.’ The series largely received very positive reviews upon release, thus warranting the greenlight for a second season. Sadly, the second season was delayed due to scheduling issues with the busy director, the famed James Gunn. Most notably, he was busy filming the recently released Superman (2025).
After his run as a comic book character of the 80s, Peacemaker fell into deep obscurity until 2021, where he made his theatrical debut in the James Gunn film The Suicide Squad. Eventually, when offered to make a spinoff show based on any character from The Suicide Squad, Gunn chose to make a spinoff show about the anti-hero Peacemaker. So, after three long, grueling years, Peacemaker has finally made its return in all of its R rated glory! I’m happy to say that so far, it’s pretty solid.
The two overall storylines of this season are Chris’s multiverse shenanigans, and Rick Flag Sr’s manhunt for peacemaker. Despite my fatigue with multiverse plotlines in superhero media, I’d say that the story arc of Chris’s multiverse antics is the better of the two storylines. The further exploration of the storyline for Chris’s character is great, and the metaphor being “the grass is greener on the other side” is such an interesting idea for a story surrounding the multiverse to me. Plus, the visuals are much brighter and the colors more vibrant to further emphasize his idea of a better world definitely gives it a few extra points.
On the other hand, Rick Flag Sr’s hunt for Peacemaker is also pretty solid. This is largely because it is carried by one of the season’s new characters, Langston Fleury. Tim Meadows is effortlessly hilarious as this character. Meadow’s brand of dead-pan delivery of many of his lines makes many of his comedic bits, especially the ones relating to bird blindness, expertly funny. I can’t wait to see what they do with his character later on.
I’d say one of my overall gripes with the season is that I feel that, besides Chris himself, the rest of the “11th street kids” really haven’t had much to do this season. The primary victim of this issue is Vigilante, which was a shock since he was considered the highlight of the first season. I will say that as of writing this review they’re definitely starting to fix this issue, but my point still stands. I will say that I do like the more character expansion focused approach of this season, especially with Emilia Harcourt. Her writing, plus Jennifer Holland’s performance are definitely making her storyline a highlight for this season. After the events of season one, where she assisted in a mission to save the world. Harcourt was “rewarded” by being fired from her job at A.R.G.U.S, along with being blacklisted from every Intelligence agency in the U.S. for the rest of her life. We see that throughout this season she’s had to cope with that fact in a unique way, mostly through getting into various barfights where she loses most of the time. The reason for all of this behaviour though, is that it actually helps her feel something. She’s someone whose identity was largely formed around her work life, and having that gone after so long has led to her regressing as a character. Getting fired from your job, especially one that you worked for and put everything into, can really hit you: It can really hurt, enough to turn yourself into a mess and set you back really far as a person while you’re trying to figure out “What’s next?”
Jennifer Holland has managed to sell this pretty well so far, especially her scene with Chris in this most recent episode. So far, Harcourt’s storyline of finding herself after a severe setback has been a major highlight of this new season.
The show itself, while still balancing being goofy and earnest, has overall felt tamer in comparison to season one. The writing has overall kept the same absurd tone, but the character work has felt a lot more earnest this season. There’s less of the loud explosions and F-bombs. The show has found its flow, which I feel happens a lot with the second installment of something. I will say that there definitely has been more focus on characters which I couldn’t be happier about. There’s still the occasional visceral moment, but overall the tone has been tame in comparison to season one.
Overall, I would give it an 8/10. I feel that this season has definitely been an improvement to season one, in characters, action, tone and atmosphere. I can’t wait to see where this season goes.
