Harley Quinn: Season 2 Premiere Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Harley Quinn: Season 2, Episode 1. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's our full Harley Quinn: Season 1 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's tough not to compare DC Universe's Harley Quinn animated series with the Birds of Prey movie, now that they're both out in the world. They're both highly entertaining, if slightly shallow, and both are gleefully adults-only while never quite justifying the need for so much foul language and gratuitous violence. Those similarities only become more apparent with Harley Quinn's second season. Once again, the emphasis is on Harley blazing her own trail in Gotham City now that she's fully separated herself from Mister J. But if Birds of Prey never fully took advantage of that concept, the animated series might just live up to that promise. Even with Harley herself playing a relatively smaller role in "New Gotham," this premiere episode deftly sets up the show's new status quo. Gotham is a complete wreck following Joker's latest crime spree, resulting in a loose No Man's Land adaptation where Batman's rogues run rampant in a city forsaken by the federal government. The twist in this case, however, is that Batman himself isn't around to maintain some semblance of law and order. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=harley-quinn-new-gotham-gallery&captions=true"] The series is definitely leaning harder on the Batman of it all in Season 2, but that seems to be working to the show's benefit. As fun as it was to see Season 1 mine all corners of the DCU for entertainment and deep cut cameos, there's a lot to be said for narrowing the focus. Season 2 has the opportunity to explore what Harley really wants out of life. Is she content to revel in anarchy and destruction, or does she want to replace Joker at the top of the Gotham food chain? That struggle is off to a good start in the premiere, with the episode cramming in plenty of zany humor and hyper-violence with occasional moments of deeper introspection. Again, Season 2 seems intent on exploring Harley's "life after Joker" phase in a way the movie was never really able to. Unlike Birds of Prey, there's no question about which character is the star of the show here. It also helps seeing Poison Ivy playing such a central role in Harley's arc. I'm still holding out hope the series will eventually begin exploring the romantic connection between the two, but for right now it's enough to see Ivy pushing Harley to become her best self. The shift to a war-torn Gotham has other benefits. The series' M-rated approach actually makes more sense in this new context. It's one thing when Harley is rubbing elbows with the Justice League, but when the focus shifts to fellow Gothamites like Penguin and Two-Face, the curse words and severed limbs are just par for the course. The tone is a little darker and grimmer without losing that crucial slapstick quality or sense of self-awareness. The final Harley vs. Penguin battle definitely makes a strong opening statement for the new season. In addition to showing us how sadistic Harley can be when given the right push, the fact that a character as significant as Penguin is being killed off in the first episode proves that anything can happen. Clearly, this is one animated series that doesn't need to worry about breaking the toys. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/07/26/harley-quinn-series-premiere-review"] The other obvious benefit to a Gotham-focused approach is it allows the series to double down on its most entertaining supporting characters. We get a lot of Christopher Meloni's inebriated, self-pitying Commissioner Gordon in this episode, and he never fails to amuse. The same goes for Jacob Tremblay's Robin, who manages to outdo his guest appearance from Season 1. And then there's James Adomian's pitch-perfect spoof of Tom Hardy's Bane. As in Season 1, the voice cast in this series is always on-point, whether it's the main cast or the fun supporting players.

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