Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 1 Review
It’s been 1,282 days since the season finale for Peacemaker season one dropped. Yesterday was the premiere episode for season two. This was a show that I was very excited to see come back because I loved season one. With this new DC universe happening I was very curious of how the two universes would bridge. Let’s get started!
The Review
Simply put, I thought the first episode of season 2 was good. I didn’t think it was fantastic nor did I think it was a bad episode. I thought this was a perfectly middle of the road enjoyable premiere. There’s a side that's maybe disappointing that I’ve been waiting 3 ½ years for this show to return and you want something more exciting after that long gap. Maybe some of the disappointment came from the wrong expectations. Perhaps on rewatch or if season 2 hadn’t taken so long to come perhaps I wouldn’t feel this way. To be clear, I did enjoy this episode. I’m starting off a big negative on it but the expectations were really the only negative I had about this episode. Besides the wrong expectations, I thought this episode delivered everything that I want from a James Gunn project, specifically Peacemaker. Almost right out of the gate, the season reminds you that this is a rated-R show for adults. There’s a lot of nudity, language, violence, and crude jokes that’s even more extreme from the first season. It’s interesting when you watch James Gunn tackle Superman, the most wholesome superhero to Peacemaker filled with sex jokes and nudity.
With this show, specifically the new season you have to talk about the dance numbers. The biggest surprise coming out of season one was the incredible dance number. I didn’t expect to be that invested in an opening title sequence for a tv show. Having the full cast of characters with John Cena in the costume all being straight faced doing these crazy insane dances. Gunn made it clear that season two would have a new dance number. I think because season one raised the bar so high this one was good and entertaining but definitely lacked the shock value. The song isn’t fast paced, it’s a slower song that’s by Foxy Shazam. It’s a good song but the choreography about it wasn’t as flashy. At points it felt a bit too much like they were trying too hard to top season one and be even more crazy and bombastic but I don’t think it was. I’m curious to see what my relationship with it is like after seeing the entire season.
Once again, James Gunn is applying the typical back of tricks of these outcasts and misunderstood weirdos and he’s exploring it in a very different way this season. The big theme of the season seems to be finding your purpose. One of the big things to happen is Peacamaker finds this alternate reality where his relationship with his father is great, he’s in a relationship, and he’s viewed as a superhero. All of the things that he wanted he found in this other world. It’s using this concept of the multiverse and tying the DCEU into the DCU in some very interesting and clever ways. I’m excited to see where this goes and see how weird it gets with the multiverse and what James Gunn has planned. Using that concept of the multiverse and other dimensions, you see how it ties into the larger DC universe specifically to Superman. In the trailers we see that Green Lantern and Hawkgirl are in there. Frank Grillo reprises Rick Flag Sr in this show. Even the events of Superman are directly mentioned in this show and affect a lot of the characters motivations in the show. The other dimensions both provide the themes and character arcs but also making it feel like an important piece in the larger DC universe.
Building off of what I said but the episode has a lot of heart and emotion to it. The arc that Peacemaker is on, but also seeing how the events of season one affected the team as a whole. I find Gunn’s ability to have both ridiculous and over the top humor take place while also finding the heart and the emotion. There’s a lot of emotional depth in here with Peacemaker exploring this new dimension and experiencing the life he always wanted. So much of the emotion comes through with John Cena’s performance who is able to nail the emotional moments here and it’s some of the best acting that he’s done.
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