Josh Reviews Peacemaker Season Two

The first season of Peacemaker was a phenomenal surprise, one of my favorite TV shows in years.  A spin-off of the violent vigilante character who took a villainous turn at the end of The Suicide Squad movie??  I was not prepared for how much I’d love that very funny, very sweet, and very profane show.

It’s been a long three-year wait for a second season of the show.  In between, the previous DCEU continuity (of which Peacemaker was a part, with members of Zach Snyder’s version of the Justice League involved in the season one finale) was ended and a brand new continuity was launched (getting a quiet launch with the animated Creature Commandos show and then a true new beginning with James Gunn’s Superman movie).  Could Mr. Gunn & co. recapture the magic?

Well… yes and no.  I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these eight new episodes in Peacemaker season two.  When it works, the show continues to be able to be funny and heartfelt and enjoyably shocking (with violence, nudity, and cursing).  This cast is spectacular, and I’ve grown to truly love these characters.  It was a pleasure to be back in this world and to get to spend more time with these great characters.

At the same time, this feels like a lesser, shaggier effort than the near-perfect first season.  Many of the character arcs felt thinly sketched to me.  The dour tone with which the season began, with our characters mostly separated and miserable, was a bummer.  And the end of the season felt to me like a huge anti-climax.  (More on that below.)

The season begins with our gang separated and mostly unhappy.  Peacemaker tries and fails to land a spot in the Justice Gang.  (It was fun to see Nathan Fillion and Isabela Merced reprise their roles from Superman as Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl, making clear that this show is now set in the new DCU film continuity.)  Adebayo is separated from her wife and trying (and so far failing) to start her own security firm.  Harcourt has been blacklisted by all the spy agencies and has started a cycle of allowing herself to get viciously beat up in bars.  Economos is stuck spying on his friend Chris/Peacemaker for ARGUS, now run by Rick Flagg Sr., who hates Peacemaker for murdering is son (as seen in The Suicide Squad film).  When Chris, in a drunken, depressed stupor, goes into the multi-dimensional doorway his father had in his house (as seen in season one), and discovers an alternate dimension where his dad and brother are both still alive and love him, and he himself is a popular, beloved superhero, he doesn’t see any reason to leave…

John Cena continues to be absolute perfection as Chris/Peacemaker.  Mr. Cena’s nuanced work, supported by James Gunn’s great writing, allows Chris to still be a jerk who says and does dumb (and very funny) things, but we can see the big heart underneath and how badly he is trying to do better.  Mr. Cena is very funny — he seems to have been born to deliver James Gunn’s fast-paced zingers, but he’s also able to carry real emotional weight.  Speaking of emotional weight, Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black) is once again spectacular as Adebayo.  She delivers a monologue towards the end of the season that is a true home run.  Ms. Brooks is so critical in grounding this show, that can be silly and outlandish, in compelling emotional stakes.  I was also impressed by how effectively Jennifer Holland played Harcourt’s descent into self-loathing and self-abuse.  This was tough to watch at times; Ms. Holland’s performance makes one want to stand up and shout at the screen for Harcourt to make better choices!  Steve Agee got a lot of love this season, and a lot of the show’s funniest moments, as poor beleaguered Economos, stuck between his natural desire to put his head down and just get along versus his loyalty to his friends in the “11th street kids” with whom he bonded last season.  Freddie Stroma continues to be the show’s secret weapon as Vigilante, who is hilarious pretty much every second he’s on screen.  (One of this season’s failings is that we didn’t get nearly enough Vigilante, especially in the first half!  They make up for that a little by allowing us to get a double-dose of Mr. Stroma when Vigilante meets his alternate-universe counterpart and, of course, they wind up becoming fast friends.  That was great.  I sort of wanted alternate-universe Vigilante to come back to the main universe at the end!)  I wasn’t expecting to see Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files) back as Auggie (because he got killed in season one), but it was great to see him back as the alternate-universe version.  (He delivers a mission-statement monologue for the season in episode seven, and Mr. Patrick nails the moment perfect).  Nhut Lee stole scenes in season one as Judomaster, and I was thrilled that he was back and got a LOT of great moments in the second half of the season.  I loved seeing him allied with our heroes by the time the season ended; that was fun!

Frank Grillo has been the Nick Fury character in James Gunn’s new DCU, appearing in all three projects so far: Creature Commandos, Superman, and now Peacemaker.  I like Mr. Grillo’s performance, and I’m intrigued by the idea of a sort of evil Nick Fury (they’re both spymasters) linking together these new DC projects, though I’m not really connecting with how Mr. Gunn has been using this character.  I’m not understanding how the heroic character seen in Creature Commandos (who has white hair) is the same character as this morally grey character (with black hair) seen in Superman and here.  He becomes downright villainous by the end of the season, which doesn’t at all track for me with the character we met in Creature Commandos.  It doesn’t even really track with the character as he starts off on this show, who does have a legitimate reason for hating Chris.  I’m OK with the show not following a more predictable approach of having Flagg and Peacemaker bury the hatchet by the end, but Flagg’s sharp turn into true evil in the finale came out of left field for me.  (Another continuity puzzle is that Flagg was left brutally injured at the end of Creature Commandos season one, but he’s totally fine in Superman and here.  I think there was one quick reference to a previous injury here, but that’s it.  Why end Creature Commandos that way if it’s just going to be ignored?  I could see Flagg’s being injured by metahumans as something that could drive him to hate them, but the show doesn’t make that connection.)

This season we get introduced to Tim Meadows as ARGUS agent Fleury, and Mr. Meadows is a delight; stealing pretty much every scene he’s in.  From discussing his bird-blindness to debating the appropriateness of winks to sitting down across from Flagg to “think” when he’s clearly not welcome, Mr. Meadows was so, so funny.  I hope he sticks around and appears in lots more future DC projects!!  David Denman (Roy on The Office) was great as the alternate-universe version of Peacemaker’s brother Keith.  Sol Rodríguez (who was a bright spot in the mostly abysmal second season of Star Trek: Picard) was a strong new addition as Sasha Bordeaux, Flagg’s right-hand woman in ARGUS.  I love this character from the comics (created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough) and I was excited to see her introduced in live-action.  I hope we see lots more of her moving forward.  I love Sean Gunn, and I am always happy to see him on-screen, and he is funny in his one scene in the premiere as Max Lord.  My concern is that Max is a great character from the comics, and Mr. Gunn seems wrong to me for this character.  I hope future appearances prove me wrong.  I was thrilled to see James Gunn’s frequent collaborator (that’s an understatement) Michael Rooker back in a new role here, playing Red St. Wild, the hunter obsessed with killing eagles.  Mr. Rooker is hilarious as always.

I’m going to dig more deeply into the season now, so beware some SPOILERS ahead.

I love Mr. Gunn’s choice to play things a little fast and loose with continuity, shifting this show and its characters from the old DC continuity into the new one.  This is a great approach, and I didn’t find it confusing at all!  I’d be happy to see other good elements from the old DC continuity carried into the new one.  (For example — and I know it will never happen — but I’d be happy to see Gal Gadot continue as Wonder Woman.)  I laughed to see this change made right away in episode one, in the “previously on Peacemaker” clip package, where a few shots of the Justice League were replaced with new shots of the Justice Gang.  (And Supergirl!!)  That totally worked!  It was a smart choice to have Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl appear in the first episode, and I was delighted to see Lex Luthor later in the season, along with several of his henchmen from the Superman movie, as well as General Mori.  (I really wanted to see Superman appear in the finale, and I was disappointed that didn’t happen.  More on that below.)  It was fun to see how easily this show slid right into the new continuity.

I was bowled over by the inclusion of a nudity-filled orgy scene in the first episode!!  It’s a bizarre choice to follow-up the all-ages Superman movie with a full-frontal-nudity extended sequence right in the first episode!!  I’m not complaining.  I’m somewhat in awe of the boldness of this choice.  I’m not sure I understand it (surely they wanted some of that Superman audience to discover this show, right??), but I’m impressed that Mr. Gunn didn’t shave off any of this show’s rough edges.

Whereas the first season was perfectly paced, with all the plot-twists and character beats fitting together like clockwork, this season felt a little more herky-jerky to me.  I thought the tone was a little too dour for my tastes in the first few hours.  It was, frankly, a bummer to see the characters separated and unhappy.  I understand this was intentional, but after waiting three years to get a new season, and with only eight episodes in each season, I was disappointed to spend the first few episodes in this sort of everyone-is-miserable territory.

The season builds to a big twist.  I called it right away, after watching the end of the premiere episode.  (My wife can verify this.)  That didn’t dilute my enjoyment of the season or my happiness when the truth about the alternate universe was revealed.  I enjoyed sniffing out all the breadcrumbs along the way.  So I am not complaining that the twist was too obvious.  I do think it was a mistake to wait so late in the season to confirm the truth, because we did not have nearly enough time to then explore the fall-out from that revelation.

OK, no joke, SPOILERS ahead, gang.

While I had a few complaints about the season while watching it, I was enjoying every episode and was quite happy with the show.  But the ending really let me down.

I’d expected the back half of the season to be all about Peacemaker & co’s working with alternate-universe Vigilante and the Sons of Liberty to defeat the Nazis.  I was disappointed that doesn’t happen; soon after the truth is revealed, our gang flee at the end of episode seven and don’t ever return.  I’d expected the alternate version of Auggie to be loving living in a Nazi universe.  I loved the twist that, actually, he was not a Nazi.  I was really disappointed that he got killed seconds after delivering a great speech about fighting what evils he could.  I really would have liked to have explored that character further.  (It was also a huge downer to see him get murdered — and by Vigilante no less, who is supposed to be one of the “good guys”.  That could have led to some interesting stories in exploring the fallout of that, but the finale doesn’t address it, so Auggie’s death just sort of sits there.  This felt like a waste to me.)  I was also bummed that Keith was similarly taken out so quickly.  It’s clear that he was still alive at the end of episode seven, and vowing vengeance on Chris.  But we never see him again.  If I felt confident that there would be more seasons of this show, I’d be fine with that.  But I’m not sure there will ever be any more (James Gunn’s recent interviews have said there are no plans for a third season), so if this was the last we see of Keith, it feels like a letdown; an unfinished story.

OK, so if we weren’t going to return to the alternate universe in the season finale, I’d expected at least that we’d get a showdown with Rick Flagg Sr. and ARGUS.  Nope, we don’t get that either.  I was OK with what I thought was, instead, a chill happy ending for the series (and perhaps the show), focusing on Chris & Harcourt’s getting together.  But then we got a last-minute cliffhanger which I HATED.  As I have written before, I do not like when streaming shows end on a cliffhanger that we have to wait a year (best case scenario) or many years to get resolved.  And for a show like this, where all indications are there isn’t ever going to be another season, I think it’s a huge mistake.  This ended the season on an extremely frustrating note for me.  I can see a world in which the next Superman movie picks up the thread of ARGUS and an alternate-universe prison for metahumans.  But is Peacemaker really going to be involved?  As anything more than a cameo??  That seems unlikely.

I was thrilled when Joel Kinnamon popped up mid-season as alternate-universe Rick Flagg Jr.  I’ve wondered if James Gunn regretted killing off this character in The Suicide Squad, and this seemed a cool way to bring him back.  But he just appeared in a handful of silly scenes in one episode and then never again??  We never got to see a moment between him and Peacemaker, in which Chris could attempt to make amends for murdering him in the main universe?  We never got to see a moment between Rick Flagg Sr. and this alternate version of his murdered son??  What a missed opportunity!!

The season’s ending felt full of that sort of missed opportunities.  After starting the season with Chris’ desperate desire to be a superhero, and showing his rejection by the Justice League gang, I’d really thought and hoped that we’d get to see Superman in the finale, and see Supes give him a “good job” moment.  I am bummed that didn’t happen.

As happy as I was to see Checkmate in the finale — I love the Checkmate stories from the DC comics, particularly the run written by Greg Rucka — it felt out of nowhere.  Maybe if they had established that Leota liked to play chess or something?

Other thoughts:

• I loved that this season explored how Auggie — this dumb hick racist — had the advanced technology of a multidimensional portal in his house!!  I loved the flashback to Auggie’s killing the alien who had the tech.  It was fun to see the alternate universes that doorway connected to explored, especially in a lot of fun, wild scenes in the finale.  Are we to assume that Auggie stole all the Peacemaker helmets from alternate universes??  It seems unlikely Auggie could have made them himself.
• How did I know the alternate universe was a Nazi universe?  After the great shock ending of the premiere episode in which Chris killed his alternate-universe self, I started to wonder how the show could keep Chris a hero.  Alternate Chris had to be evil, I reasoned.  And because we knew Auggie was a racist, it was a quick jump to think about Earth-X, the Nazi-ruled universe from the DC comics.  Once I made that connection, it was fun to watch, say, all the background characters in the alternate universe scenes and notice that everyone was white.
• The ultimate revelation was as fun as I’d hoped.  That Chris didn’t notice Mein Kampf on everyone’s desk — or the huge Hitler mural!! — was so funny.  Watching Leota be chased by a mob of white people was suitably terrifying.  I love that Judomaster figured out the truth so quickly, and how clever he was in protecting himself.
• Speaking of Judomaster, I loved that the gang knew he had followed Chris into the alternate universe because he left Cheeto’s dust on his note.  I also loved that he kept his mask on, even under his pressure suit, when investigating the other universes in the finale.
• I loved all the Eagly stuff this season!!  The CGI effects that brought him to life were spectacular!!  I was in true fear for Eagly at several points this season, especially when Red St. Wild seemed to get superpowers!!  That Eagly actually IS the Prime Eagle was very funny.
• I loved meeting Vigilante’s mom.  The set-up was obvious (of COURSE she’d be sweet and oblivious), but it was still funny.  I LOVED seeing Vigilante’s secret bunker with all the drugs and money (“it’s blood money!”) he’d taken from drug-dealers over the years.  I loved how easily Adebayo was able to manipulate him in the finale to convince him to use some of that money for good.
• I liked the reveal in the finale that Chris and Harcourt hadn’t had sex; they’d just kissed.
• Season one boasted one of the greatest title sequences of all time.  I was very curious to see what season two would do.  The new title sequence was good, though it couldn’t match the perfection of season one’s.  I like the new song but didn’t love it the way I did “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” from season one.  (On the Marvelvision podcast — recently renamed Across the Omniverse — the hosts Devin & Derek Faraci suggested it might have been better for the show to choose an entirely different style and genre of music for the season two opening credits dance number, so as not to be so directly competing with the perfect season one version.  I think that’s a great idea and probably the path the show should have taken.)  I will say that, following the Nazi reveal, I spent a lot of time watching the patterns of the lines of lights in the background of the new opening credits… were they emulating the shape of a swastika??  If yes, that’s very clever.

While season two of Peacemaker wasn’t as perfect as season one, I am thrilled that, after three long years, we finally got a second season of this great show!  I had a blast watching every one of these new episodes.

I really hope this isn’t the end for this show and these characters.  Will this show morph into a Checkmate show???  Will Peacemaker and any of these characters appear in Man of Tomorrow, the upcoming Superman/Lex Luthor film?  I hope yes to all of that!!

Please support my website by clicking through one of my Amazon links the next time you need to shop!  As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  That means I’ll receive a small percentage from ANY product you purchase from Amazon within 24 hours after clicking through.  Thank you!