Review: 'Peacemaker' (Season 2)
More violence, more Eagly, more daddy issues - a bloody and hilarious antidote to this summer's PG superhero franchises
Peacemaker is back! And not a moment too soon. With the world currently being run by a collection of war-mongering dictators, geriatric tyrants, and lunatic presidents, who better to bring about global peace than this tighty-whitey-wearing, eagle-hugging, all-American hero? He’s sure to fix everything. Right?
Fresh off the world-saving, family-friendly spectacle of his summer blockbuster Superman, James Gunn delivers a glorious case of tonal whiplash with the second season of Peacemaker. This is superhero action of a decidedly more R-rated vintage. Of course, that didn’t stop our titular hero from worming his way into a cameo in the Man of Steel’s latest outing. But now, it’s time for Peacemaker to step out of the bright, primary-colored spotlight and back into his own grimy, blood-soaked corner of the DC universe.
First introduced to moviegoers in James Gunn’s excellent and hilarious The Suicide Squad (2021), it was clear from the film’s post-credit scene that we hadn’t seen the last of Peacemaker. Played with a masterful mix of oblivious, deadpan humor and surprising raw emotion by the perfectly cast John Cena, Chris Smith was an anti-hero practically begging for his own series. And less than a year later, after his ill-fated mission to Colto Maltese with Task Force X, the character stormed onto HBO Max, bringing his uniquely misguided quest for peace — at any cost — to the small screen in the first season of Peacemaker.
The first season surrounded Peacemaker with a new, dysfunctional family. Reprising their roles from The Suicide Squad were the no-nonsense Agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and the beleaguered tech analyst John Economos (Steve Agee). They were joined by a host of brilliant new characters, including the warm and — much to her own surprise — capable Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) and the scene-stealing psychopath with a heart of gold, Adrian Chase, a.k.a. Vigilante (Freddie Stroma). But most importantly, the show introduced us to Peacemaker’s truest friend and sidekick: the majestic, hug-giving eagle, Eagly.
But every hero needs a villain, and in a gloriously Freudian twist, Peacemaker’s greatest foe was his own father: the unabashedly racist redneck and supervillain Auggie Smith, a.k.a. the White Dragon (a terrifying Robert Patrick). As if that wasn’t enough baggage, Auggie also supplied his son with all his high-tech gear, conveniently sourced from a quantum dimensional portal he kept in his closet, as one does. Rounding out the rogue’s gallery was the pint-sized martial arts menace Judomaster (Nhut Le), all of whom were just side dishes to the season’s main course: a full-blown invasion of body-snatching alien bugs.
To avoid spoilers, let’s just say Season 1 delivered a symphony of chaos, mayhem, ultra-violence, and a brand of humor so gloriously offensive it’s a miracle it ever made it to air, especially in an industry where some studio executives have skin thinner than tracing paper. If you haven’t seen it, what are you doing here? Go watch it. And if your sensibilities are easily offended, be warned: Season 2 doesn’t pull any punches either. Peacemaker and his crew are back, and this time, the threat is a little closer to home.
The new season opens with a lengthy recap sequence covering the events of both Season 1 and Gunn’s 2021 film, The Suicide Squad. And in a move that will surely be discussed calmly and rationally in the DC fandom for the foreseeable future, let’s just say the recap’s version of that scene from the end of the first season might not be exactly how you remember it.
At least we have a new and outrageously awkward title sequence dance routine to look forward to, along with a whole lot of retro rock music spread throughout the episodes, James Gunn style.
After this bit of canonical housekeeping, we find our heroes in a decidedly uncelebrated state. You’d think saving the world from a secret alien invasion would earn you a parade, or at least a decent pension. But this is Peacemaker’s world, so of course, the team gets unceremoniously dumped.
We find a guilt-ridden and lonely Chris Smith questioning if he can ever be a true hero, haunted by the growing suspicion that he has a reverse Midas touch, where everything he touches turns to crap. The final nail in his emotional coffin comes after a humiliating job interview with the Justice Gang — a lineup that includes Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) — goes spectacularly wrong, dashing his superhero aspirations and sending him spiraling into a drug-fueled depression.
His friends aren’t exactly living the high life either. Nerd extraordinaire John Economos has been reduced to his natural habitat: a surveillance van. Leota Adebayo’s attempt to start a private detective agency goes sideways when her ad in a dingy Guns & Ammo-type magazine gets her mistaken for a call-up prostitute, and her relationship with her wife, Keeya (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow), is on an indefinite, heavily debated hiatus. And in a stroke of HR genius, the perpetually badass Emilia Harcourt finds herself fired for — get this — “toxic masculinity.”
And just to make things worse, there’s been a regime change over at A.R.G.U.S. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is out (don’t worry, she’s getting her own spin-off), and her replacement is a familiar, dreaded face: Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). Yes, the same guy we last saw giving Superman hell in this summer’s blockbuster. And he’s got a very personal, very lethal grudge, knowing full well it was Peacemaker who killed his son, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman), during the whole Project Starfish fiasco in The Suicide Squad.
So, with his life in shambles, Chris Smith does what any of us would do: during a particularly joyless drug-and-sex-fueled bender, he stumbles into his dead father’s interdimensional closet. It’s here he finds a gateway to a perfect, alternate reality — one where everything seems perfect and he is a part of the celebrated superhero team, The Top Trio. It’s the life he’s always dreamed of, and it presents him with a tantalizing, and deeply dangerous, choice: can he steal the life of the hero he always wanted to be, consequences be damned?
Let’s face it: John Cena is a terrific actor. We first saw his deadpan comedic talents in The Suicide Squad, but it was the first season of Peacemaker that proved he had a surprising emotional range, far beyond what’s expected from the typical wrestler-turned-thespian. In Season 2, that range is pushed even further. The story is much more focused on his character’s internal struggles and fumbling attempts at growth, making his relationships with his family and friends the real heart of the show.
John Cena’s growth as an actor is largely due to his working relationship with Gunn. It’s a partnership that has produced titles that are, frankly, far better than they have any right to be in an era of crippling superhero fatigue. Gunn’s “secret sauce” has always been his ability to inject real heart and raw emotion into even his most R-rated, edgy stories. It’s a quality that elevates his work, turning titles like The Suicide Squad and his epic MCU mic drop, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, into some of the best the genre has to offer.
That said, Gunn’s aim for edginess can sometimes misfire, and Season 2 suffers from a sluggish mid-season slump where the story loses momentum. It feels like padding for an eight-episode run, and the main culprit is a bizarre subplot involving Michael Rooker — who played Brian Durlin aka Savant in The Suicide Squad — as Red St. Wild. A fanatical eagle hunter sporting full Native American regalia for maximum—and admittedly hilarious—cultural appropriation, he’s a character so over-the-top he seems to get a deeply spiritual and almost sexual thrill from his quest to kill Eagly. Based on the first five episodes, the subplot drags the story into a detour of astral projections and spirit worlds that comes dangerously close to derailing the main plot entirely.
This season of Peacemaker also has a villain problem. While John Cena is terrific in the role, even more so than in the first season, long stretches of the season seem to be searching for a central antagonist to hang on to. In the first season, we had the double whammy of the body-snatching aliens and The White Dragon with his racist goons, which led to some fist-pumping scenes of nazi-punching. But this season, the story is much more internalized, leading to a deeper exploration of Chris Smith that, while deeply moving at times, might turn off some viewers who’d expect more action and a clear villain for Peacemaker to smash.
Despite a meandering mid-season and the lack of a clear antagonist, Peacemaker is in good hands with James Gunn, and the story, now more personal, is still one of the most interesting and entertaining in the superhero genre. And while I didn’t have access to the final three episodes of the season before writing this review, I hope there’s plenty of time for Gunn to pull all these disparate threads together for a typically chaotic and bloody finale.
Great stuff, Eirik. Watching the trailer made me wonder about a villain. Having not yet watched Superman, seeing Joe Grillo was jarring as it made me feel like I was back in Winter Soldier. …still very much looking forward to it and I’m not opposed to in-depth character development.
Bring it on!