6 things we liked and 3 we didn’t like about the second season of Peacemaker

After eight weekly episodes. Peacemaker Season two It has finally come to an end. James Gunn’s sophomore effort with the John Cena-led show, which exists in limbo between the old and new DCUs, has had a lot of hype around it. This hype became more intense as the show was positioned Direct follow-up to Superman. So, without further ado, here are all the peaks and valleys Peacemaker Season two.

Liked: Being a badass

Here at io9 we make glazing our top priority EgliThe best Peacemaker character (outperforming Adrian by the narrowest of margins) at every available opportunity. It is simply a delight. There’s just something about dummy kayfabe of a cast that has to pantomime (or better yet, act with Mocap representative Like in Superman) for all of Igli’s silly little moments.

Whether it’s Iglee indignantly ignoring the team to chase some bullshit or jumping into the fray for his big hero moment, the fact that CGI and motion capture turned a damn bird into a cherished character — and has viewers searching for “Will the Bird Die” every week — is proof of how good Gunn is at using cute animals as a weapon to tug at our hearts. Fortunately, the bird survived this season. Big shout out to Dee Bradley Bakerwhose wild career path has led him to voice the undisputed best boy on the show.

Love: Red St. Wild Looney Tunes Side quest

PeacemakerThe second season seemed distinctly more ridiculous than the first. There may have been something in the water while the show was being shared on the streaming service Looney Tunes (Before Warner Bros., in their infinite wisdom, I got rid of the offer) Because this season was great Looney Tunes energy. No element underscores this more than Michael Rooker’s Elmer Fudd-ass subplot as Red St. Wild, who hunted down Iglei while carrying a comically large shotgun. It’s always a good sign when a comic book show isn’t afraid to be goofy, and this entire installment was at its peak. There are no notes.

Liked: This is a big (albeit expected) twist for Earth X

Although viewers expected this PeacemakerEarth X’s alternate dimension was weeks ahead of schedule Gunn thought they would catch upThe detection punch was no less effective than the “huge” one.Uh oh“Moment of this season. Kudos to Gunn for deliberately choosing Earth In anticipation of how this shoe would fall, it fell in the most hilarious way possible.

What’s more, he manages to make his entire Nazi world straddle the line between being superficially comedic and downright annoying, highlighting the danger that Godomaster and Adebayo were facing. We know that Gunn tries not to make his works analogues to real-life events (cough, cough Superman), but allow Adebayo says the quiet part out loud That our current political climate wasn’t that different from Earth X was a good thing. However, Robert Patrick’s character can maintain the discourse of a centrist hero who stands on the fence.

I liked: Superman Engraving

From the moment Gunn became publicly cautious about where the rest of the season was headed, it was clear that the DC president had big plans and big-name characters in mind. While it was a shame that, despite all the secrecy, He ended up rooming himself In the director’s comment SupermanAccelerated digital releasenot made Nicholas HoltA cameo as Lex Luthor is no less monumental.

Given Gunn’s concerns about him Peacemaker Characters make cameos randomly In other DC projects without his prior knowledge, it would have been great to see Gunn make it Peacemaker Don’t feel like property stripped down to parts to elevate fragile projects and instead serve as Primary spine. She can afford to have cameos that aren’t silhouettes, and the big players in the DC Universe can come play in them PeacemakerToy box.

Liked: Winning chemistry for 11th Street kids

Gunn is really good at making an otherwise bumbling group of characters look like the most likable, compelling, and cohesive group of friends. PeacemakerThe cast is DC what Guardians of the Galaxy He was the misfits of Marvel, and that sentiment became even truer in season two.

With every twist the gang took in their fractious adventure, the thought of “I wonder what X would think/say about this” was impossible to ignore. Without any beat, the show will deliver those moments. Seeing the gang reunited was so touching because it seemed like the show’s heart became whole as the group came together and tried to get through whatever terrible situation they were in. Watching the gang fall for each other from a place of love and drop their jokey relationship claims to become real was one of the best parts of the show.

Liked: John Cena’s evolution from a wrestler to a real actor

Among wrestlers-turned-actors, the talent hierarchy remains strict, with John Cena standing behind Dave Bautista and ahead of Dwayne Johnson. However, Cena’s performance this season was his best to date; With his uncanny comedic timing, physical acting, and emotional depth, Cena was firing on all cylinders. You can always tell when an actor is just dialing it in versus when they’re deep in their element, playing the actors and acting like a sponge, extracting every action and reaction they can from the scene. And Cena did this shit.

Watching him play a guy who wears a ridiculous helmet and squints his eyes when he’s seen as a joke – and later realizes that his weird group of found family is willing to kill his alternate dimension family to save him – was really emotionally moving. Strong scripts certainly lay the foundation for exceptional stories, but it’s the raw vulnerability and variety that Cena brought this season that truly earned him the title of actor.

I didn’t like: Repeated and distorted jokes

One of its strengths PeacemakerThe first season of the series was a comedy. It was a lot of it Donnie Darko-esque, definitively providing online asides about fandoms, niche facts, or observations that would be right at home on the r/ShowerThoughts subreddit. But what made them successful was that they weren’t just joking around to fill time. some He was Very long, but it worked because it was the rare, long, improvised bit in a sea of ​​short, annoying jokes.

We haven’t gotten much of that this season. Instead, the humor hovered somewhere between “verbose.” Family man Introduction to a cutting gag that never comes” and Ghostbusters– Replay levels for “Oops – All Improvisations”. The end result was a lot of long pieces that were not worth their lame sentences. Unfortunately, much of this is broken down into Economos, making him a character one automatically warms up to in preparation for an outing that goes nowhere, not to mention effectively distracting the bad guys while the rest of the gang engages in a shenanigan.

I did not like: Too many musical montages

It’s no secret that James Gunn loves his needle drops. To his credit, he does it better than most people. Many of his visceral effects are preferable to the exaggerated melodies used by other directors, which become more distracting to the scenes they’re attached to than to focusing on the stars.

However, Gunn got a bit overzealous this time. Although Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord” is a pop song, its inclusion as one of three needle drops in the show’s finale montage felt more like meandering end-filler for a show whose penultimate episode ended on a stronger note than its finale. What’s worse is that many of the final musical sequences felt like they would be more interesting as the actual scenes. Speaking of…

I didn’t like: That suspenseful ending

Lots of PeacemakerThe strength of the show seemed to have faded by the time the eighth and final episode rolled around. Of course, we’ll have to see what happened between Harcourt and Chris on that boat. We certainly saw the gang reach an emotional climax that deepened their bond. But the entire episode felt like multiple epilogues strung together to indicate where the DC universe was headed with the portal dimension, leaving the kids of 11th Street in the dust.

And that sucked. Especially since its heavy music montage dampened the moments where we felt like we were building up to the gang thwarting ARGUS’ plans with Planet Salvation, only to wander off with Judomaster, Fleury, and Bordeaux (who just show up as new members of the group with no real explanation as to why), setting up their own base of operations.

Cutting off the legs under what seemed like a way to get back at ARGUS made it seem like the show didn’t really know what to do with them. Additionally, Chris getting black-bagged and isolated at Planet Salvation felt like a walk-off after his hilarious speech about resistance — and a bit of a waste of time with a show that was otherwise lean and to the point.

Ultimately, “Full Nelson” felt like an empty gamble against the rest of the DC Universe that left its characters in the lurch. Putting Chris in the proverbial box and turning him away certainly wasn’t a cathartic landing. We spent the entire season admiring him these Characters. Preparing final performances for other shows while Kids of 11th Street was on hold did not instill excitement about how it would be done Lanterns– or any future DC project – will “yes, and” with Peacemaker As an expanded, connected universe.

Peacemaker Season 2 is now streaming on HBO Max.

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