Peacemaker Season 2

Streaming on: Sky

Episodes viewed: 5 of 8

There was some understandable uncertainty when James Gunn decided to focus an entire series around Peacemaker, the most immature and abrasive member of the Suicide Squad crew. But its first season was an irreverent, blood-soaked surprise that took the D-list anti-hero on a substantive and ultimately endearing emotional journey. Thus, expectations were high for the show entering its second season, which makes it all the more impressive that it’s exceeded them, building on its impressive foundation by deepening our connection to Christopher Smith (John Cena) and his found family of misfits. The updated and still amusingly goofy opening credits are the season in microcosm: more ambitious, more complex, and absolutely unskippable.

Even though they just saved the world from an alien invasion, our favourite outcasts are struggling when we rejoin them. The tough-as-nails but emotionally suppressed Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) has been black-booked by Amanda Waller and can’t get a job at any intelligence agency. Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) can’t get any clients for her burgeoning spy business and her relationship is on the outs. And Cena’s Peacemaker is still regarded as a joke in the superhero community, while his feelings for Harcourt have seemingly gone unreciprocated. When he discovers a door to another dimension, it could mean a path towards a happier future.

[Cena's] penchant for improvised comedy remains impressive and each one of his poignant moments are keenly felt.

At this point, one could be forgiven for being a bit weary about yet more multiversal storytelling. But Gunn — who writes all eight episodes, and directs three of them — gets a lot of mileage out of the concept here by giving his titular character the ultimate temptation: what if you could escape to an alternate dimension where your worst mistakes never happened and the other you has everything you’re desperately craving? It’s a dilemma that Peacemaker tackles in typically messy but utterly relatable fashion. It’s also the impetus for some of Cena’s best acting to date. Once again finding the sweet spot between the silly and the vulnerable, his penchant for improvised comedy remains impressive and each one of his poignant moments are keenly felt.

A few of those moments are shared with Harcourt. She and Peacemaker are more alike than she’s ready to admit, and their evolving relationship – which only gets more complicated as more of her history is revealed – is the backbone of the season. Holland gets to play a lot of different emotional notes that go beyond Harcourt’s DGAF veneer, while being right in the thick of it when it comes to the brutal, well-choreographed action. Other core pieces fit together just as well as they did the first time out. Freddie Stroma remains a no-filter comedic delight as Vigilante, convinced that he’s an expert on topics he knows nothing about. Economos (Steve Agee) is put in several difficult situations but continually comes through, while Adebayo is the heart of the group, always ready with warm wisdom.

Some of the new additions also make their presence felt. As A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury – whose “sole weakness is bird blindness” – Tim Meadows is a droll standout. And Peacemaker’s lovable and formidable bald-eagle sidekick Eagly gets a nemesis of his own in Michael Rooker, who leans into the series’ weirder and wackier side as Red St. Wild. Arguably the most important newbie here is Frank Grillo, whose Rick Flag Sr. makes the jump from skilled operative in animated series Creature Commandos to A.R.G.U.S.’ acting head. It all helps to flesh out the world of the DCU, in which Peacemaker has emerged as something of an early, unexpected jewel.