Oh my god, Peacemaker is back? The second half of James Gunn’s Peacemaker is perfect DCEU television. While the first half of the season didn’t always run smoothly (Peacemaker Park 1), in the second half this show is a perfect piece of ultra-violent superhero fare. If you are at all curious about this journey of a misguided hero, I urge you to check out Peacemaker. For returning fans, you’ll be more than happy with how the world’s most misguided superhero’s first season concludes.
The Good
Peacemaker’s fantastic scripts might not bring the ensemble balance that Gunn’s The Suicide Squad did, but it does bring a fantastic arc with John Cena’s character to make up for it. What this show does with family dynamics and how the title character transitions from his birth family to his found family is masterful. This is a story about transition, moving above your family and history, and becoming a better person; Chris/Peacemaker perfectly captures this with his personal conflicts with his older brother and racist father. Even if the co-stars’ arcs aren’t as strong as the show’s film predecessor, it does do a lot of good things with the co-stars. I’m particularly happy with how the arcs with Economos and Adebayo turned out. I also loved how the characters’ perspectives and attachment to Eagly developed throughout the show. Before I said that some of the scripts definitely felt like Gunn was new to the television format – with episode four feeling like a lot of padding – but these scripts for the final four feel perfect.
The acting is fantastic. I’ve talked about all the great performances in our review for the first half of the show, but looking back I found that I had overlooked Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson. To be fair, it’s hard to talk about him without talking about the episode 4 reveal of him being a butterfly. Knowing this after, many of Iwuji’s acting choices are subtle, clever, and masterful. It was a joy seeing him work here. Much of the praise given to the cast in our last review (Peacemaker Part 1) remains true here. Shout outs to John Cena, Steve Agee, Daniella Brooks, and Jennifer Holland once again.
Of course, a shout-out has to be made to the show’s music choices. Not only are they choices that make you want to bop your head and dance; they are thematically on-point music choices. I for one was shocked by how the banging opening intro played into the final episode. With a lot of these songs being by popular artists, they can be easily accessed. I would love vinyl from this show much like how the mixtapes from Gunn’s Guardian movies were released. It’s an absolute killer soundtrack.
The Bad
Nothing. Go watch it.
Alright, in all seriousness there are some things that people might notice. While I praised the scripts and the characters; it can feel like Jennifer Holland’s Harcourt gets short-changed by the end. I found this forgiving as while the show’s arc is concluded, it does leave enough open for growth. Though short-changed, it doesn’t feel like her story ends here.
Again, this show’s violence and dark humor won’t be for everybody. Luckily the show is at the point where only fans will likely be watching Peacemaker’s mayhem.
Conclusion
If you haven’t watched Peacemaker’s masterful second half you need to get started. Powerful arcs, acting, action, and music make this a must-watch. I love this show and I can’t wait to see what a second season brings along with Gunn’s apparently other planned spin-offs. Peacemaker is wonderful.
