Peacemaker goes out with a bang, a message, and a promise of more mayhem to come
In "It's Cow Or Never," the 11th Street Kids rally for one final suicide mission against the Butterflies.
TV Reviews Peacemaker
For some, chaos and uncertainty can be compelling motivators for creativity. James Gunn wrote Peacemaker during the initial lockdown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, not just to have some sort of artistic release but to find a place to put all the anxiety and frustration we’ve felt during these last two years to proper use. Looking from the vantage of the season-one finale, it’s safe to say that Peacemaker has been a successful eight-episode experiment for Gunn and HBO Max (more Suicide Squad spin-offs are on the way). But more than that, it’s been a thrilling showcase for Gunn to flex his powers as a storyteller. This being his first television outing, Gunn has adapted to the format with a strong understanding of how a series lives and dies compared to film. Put in terms Christopher Smith might understand, one’s a shower, the other, a grower. Peacemaker is a grower.
It’s no surprise, then, that from the surprisingly sweet starfish-laden insanity of The Suicide Squad came this anti-hero hangout show. There’s more space for Gunn to play with theme and character, and another opportunity to collaborate with John Cena, who has absolutely thrived as the lead in this series. Plus there’s that COVID angst to grapple with, another element to toss into the show’s rampaging thresher of trust, betrayal, familial strife, dick and fart jokes, pet love, and hair metal adulation. This week, Gunn’s ennui took on a surprising form: The series’ villains, the Butterflies, have been secretly trying to save our planet because they believe we are incapable of doing it on our own. Are they right? It’s a rough argument to make and the answers don’t come easily, but something’s got to give in this last stretch of Peacemaker. To quote the Bard: It’s Cow or never.
On top of Christopher’s considerable daddy issues, Peacemaker is also a show about getting our collective shit together before it’s too late. The Butterflies fled their dying world and found Earth, a planet with air and water to sustain them and a population seemingly hellbent on letting its own apocalypse happen sooner than it should. Song/Goff breaks it down for Chris: “[You have ignored] science in favor of populist leaders who tell you that the floods and the fires and the disease are unrelated to your own actions, valuing profit over survival, treating minor inconveniences as assaults on your freedom,” she says. “So we made a vow to do anything we could to change your future.”
That word—“vow”—sends Chris spiraling back to that one terrible day when his brother died and he decided to devote his life to something bigger than himself. “Please, God!” young Chris begs (Quinn Bennett has been remarkable as the boy who would be Peacemaker, by the way). “I’ll do whatever you want me to do… for peace!” Saving the planet from itself would seem to fit Chris’ mission, at least his father’s fascist version of it, but it would mean shunting his and our responsibilities over to the Butterflies. Also, it would doom his newfound friends to Butterfly control.
“Please. Fulfill your calling,” Song/Goff continues. “Be the Peacemaker. Join us in saving your planet.” The goose-stepping Chris of The Suicide Squad—the Chris who killed Rick Flag because it was “the right thing to do” for his country—might have bought that line. Luckily the Chris of today has done some growing up.
Chris’ journey in this series has often seemed greater than its destination. There was always going to be a reckoning with the Butterfly threat somewhere down the road, but Peacemaker’s penchant for vulgarity, ad-lib yuks, and startlingly moving piano sessions has kept the show grounded so that we can better understand the hard-assed mercenaries known on Harcourt’s phone as the 11th Street Kids. The sci-fi superhero stuff is the lure, the character work is the hook. Yet, in a brilliant sleight-of-hand, Gunn converges both into a cohesive denouement that remains true to the show’s themes and gives each player in this sordid melodrama a semblance of closure. (Even Economos finally, emotionally, cops to the fact that he dyes his beard. Growth!)
The season finale of Peacemaker is a barn burner. Sonic booms, the Peacemaker’s mighty shield, and a mammoth Cow evisceration (courtesy of Leota’s impromptu Human Torpedo maneuver) puts “It’s Cow Or Never” over the top in terms of Peacemaker’s belligerent showmanship, punctuated this week by a lively reprise of Wig Wam’s “Do You Really Wanna Taste It?” Headshots, dismemberment, decapitations, and fleeing Butterflies going squish, this week’s showdown is a corker—and it culminates in a glorious moment of self-actualization for Leota, who responds to Economos’ doubts about her storming the ranch with Harcourt and Vigilante down for the count with heroic zeal: “I’m made for this shit.”
Amanda Waller just might regret letting her daughter loose in her secret world of aliens and superheroes, but that’s a story beat for another season. “It’s Cow Or Never” isn’t interested in playing the teasing game that’s long been de rigueur for other genre fare. It doesn’t bother with future character reveals, plot details, or other intrusive post-credits nonsense that underscores the fact that there will, in fact, be a second season of Peacemaker. While there is a major-league battery of DC Universe cameos towards the end of the episode (which certainly boasts one of the series’ biggest laughs), it’s all in the spirit of maintaining Gunn’s irreverent, Garth Ennis-esque approach to superherodom.
Peacemaker is and has always been about personal growth—for Chris, for Leota, for us. “Did I just kill the world?” Peacemaker asks Leota. “Maybe,” she says, “or maybe you just gave us a chance to make our own choices instead of our bug overlords.” For the first time in both their lives, they have control over what happens next. It’s a good feeling to find your inner strength, but it’s important to understand that it’s a fleeting thing. Maybe that’s why Auggie Smith pops up in Chris’ head for that final shot; it’s Gunn’s personal coda, and a reminder that even though you’re always striving to better yourself—not just for your own personal happiness and health, but for the happiness and health of those around you—there’s always room for improvement. You’re always going to struggle with your demons.
Stray Observations
- Leota: “I’m getting so many moral judgments from people who regularly kill people.”
- Chris’ helmet collection includes: “Underwater World,” which helps you breathe underwater; “Scabies For All,” which can give everybody scabies in a one-mile radius (save for the person wearing the helmet, natch); “Anti-Gravity” allows you to float (“Aimlessly?” Harcourt asks, which is ridiculous—of course Chris keeps a tiny hand fan on hand to guide him); “Sonic Boom,” which has three to four booms per charge; and “Human Torpedo,” where you aim your head at whatever you want to destroy, and then… let nature take its course. (It’s just a prototype, as Leota find out later on.)
- According to Peacemaker, Green Arrow goes to Brony conventions dressed as the back-end of Sparkle. (He does have the time and money to do so, so the jury’s out on that.) Economos can confirm that at least the rumor exists outside of Chris’ sphere of internet influence.
- Best bon mot of the entire series comes from Harcourt: “Eat my dick, Schwarze-never.”
- Economos infiltrates the barn disguised as a Charlton County Police officer. (Hey! John got his own action figure variant.) But why is his uniform wet? Peacemaker washed it in the creek: “One of the things us warriors seldom talk about is how often people shit themselves when they die. It’s a touch of gray in the white cloud of kicking ass.”
- The final standoff at the Coverdale Ranch provides a logical, fittingly un-Marvel response to Captain America’s famous chucking of his vibranium shield: Peacemaker uses the shield’s edges to pop heads off, and in one particularly slick moment he tosses it in the air, fires his Desert Eagle at it, and sends the pointy end hurtling at his intended target. Dang.
- “Thank you for feeding me and talking to me and showing me kindness.” Can we just bask in the awesomeness that’s been Annie Chang, who pulled double duty as both Sophie Song and the Goff Butterfly?
- Peacemaker season one is over! It has been a privilege to recap this series for you, group, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing the experience with me. What did you think about the series as a whole? Where do you suppose season two of Peacemaker will go? Where was Batman hiding when the Justice League showed up? Sound off one last time in the comments below.
222 Comments
I can’t even express how amazing this show is (and the finale was).“Please. Fulfill your calling,” Song/Goff continues. “Be the Peacemaker. Join us in saving your planet.” The goose-stepping Chris of The Suicide Squad—the Chris who killed Rick Flag because it was “the right thing to do” for his country—might have bought that line. Luckily the Chris of today has done some growing up.
As you said Annie Chang speech to Chris made me cry (this whole fucking series did that) my god she was awesome in this show and I can’t wait to see her in more shows.Eagly trying to do his best and not doing it was worth a good laugh and my God Vig is way better killer than anyone but say Deathstroke? Jesus!Chris finally saying the truth and telling Leota that she is his 2nd BFF after Eagly and not to tell Vig also made me tear up. I figured it out early on and then saw a Gunn interview where he said this show was a love story between those two as friends and my god did it pay off!The surprise Cameo’s to end it was fucking awesome! I could tell right away who was really there! How f’n great is that! And Barry always has to be in on the joke!I can’t wait for season 2, god bless you James Gunn, you saved the DCU from itself by making a wonderful fun movie and then trumping that movie with the greatest Superhero TV show ever!
If Deadpool is a rip-off of Deathstroke, Vigilante feels like the rebuttal to Deadpool
This version for sure could be! In the comics Vig was a punisher rip off but if I’m right there was a cowboy Viglinate around way before Punisher and they even had him in Justice League Unlimited Cartoon.
Vigilante first appeared in DC comics in 1941.
Yeah that was western vigilante correct?
Yes, I believe so.Also, in the JLU cartoon, he was voiced by Nathan Fillion if I’m not mistaken. That really doesn’t have much to do with anything under discussion. It just a pretty prominent actor to voice such a relatively minor character, though Vigilante was a character that recurred in the series many times.
In the episodes where he had a major role, it was Fillion. In his few minor appearances, it was Rosenbaum pulling double (or triple, or quadruple) duty.
That episode with him and Shining Knight as the hero’s vs. the General was great!
I used my time-mailbox to send myself a message in 2004 that the year after Donald Trump is voted out of the White House, James Gunn will make a Peacemaker show with John Cena for HBO’s internet streaming-video service. Apparently it went through because a tattoo just appeared on my arm that says, “Dear Future Me: Fuck Off.”
Ha! Well done!
Yeah, but it really should have said “Fuck off, Barry.”
I finally was able to watch this last night – the fact that he has a nickname for Vigilante that ISN’T CRUEL (“V”), and that he is concerned about his feelings enough to tell Leota to not tell him, those things are extraordinary.
That and his national reaction to run back to save Vig when he sets off the grenade to buy Peacemaker and Economos some time was also telling to how much he actual does like/care for V.
Even if the show hadn’t been as magnificent as it was, that ‘Fuck you, Barry’ would have by itself made it all worth. Especially with how the Flash cracks up after that and Arthur almost laughs himself. Gunn managed to make even that moment sweet. Also I do find it both hilarious and fitting that when the call to the Justice League went out, Bruce apparently did not consider this crisis worth his attention. Which is fair, because again Gotham. He probably had to deal with three different types of mind control cases just in the last month.
On that note, I do find it almost insulting to Gunn to claim that Peacemaker was Garth Ennis like actually insulting for multiple reasons aside from just being massively inaccurate.
I get the impression that James Gunn just wants to stay as far away as possible from the way the first Suicide Squad film entered into canon that Bruce fully supports and bankrolls Waller.
Where did you take that bruce wayne was bankrolling waller? He actually told her to stop her illegal trash activities and that he was building a real team to take care of dangerous missions.
Have you ever actually read an Ennis comic…or just complaints about Ennis comics, haha?Dick jokes, gore, incredible dialogue, hatred of the CIA, belief in humanity’s capacity for good balanced with skepticism…and raw emotion.This could easily be a lost Hitman story.
Problem is sure it could well be a lost Hitman story. Alas Ennis while he may have written Hitman he’s also written a lot of utter shit, hell it’s been so bad that I’ve come to wonder if John McRea wasn’t writing the thing along with doing the art such has Ennis let me down again and again after that miraculous run.
More seriously it’s likely down to working with an editor that force Ennis to write within limits making for better work.
On that note, I do find it almost insulting to Gunn to claim that Peacemaker was Garth Ennis like
Like Ennis, Gunn has a lot of compassion for humanity under his irreverence and hyper violence. Gunn has a much deeper love for superheroes imo. The other main difference I see: Gunn’s characters tell a lot of scatological jokes, while a lot of Ennis’s characters ARE literal scatalocical jokes.
I really enjoyed this series. Was very, very worried Harcourt and Vigilante were goners (even though part of me knew Holland being Gunn’s partner gave her character plot armor).
I’m surprised there wasn’t really any sort of setup for Season 2 aside from confirmation that Judo Master is still out there and pissed, and foreshadowing the introduction of the whole Peacemaker has delusions that he’s haunted by the ghost of the people he’s killed from the comics.
The Goff butterfly is still alive, and presumably there is a whole lot of fluid leftover now that she is seemingly the only butterfly that survived the episode, so that could also factor into season 2.
This was an amazing season finale with so many awesome moments.Steve Agee killed it this episode in every way. Him muttering “Not another kaiju” over and over, the speech about why he dyes his beard, him breaking his leg immediately when trying to step over a fence, and that final bit just looking at that framed picture of them all together. Just so good all around.Judomaster sadly eating cheetos.God damn Barry going “…it’s not a rumor” had me dying. I watched this running on a treadmill and nearly fell down so I had to stop for 5 minutes.
I loved him saying “THE FUCK AM I?” after Hardcourt said Leota was their only hope. And the other big laugh of the episode for me involved him.“I didn’t say it was diarrhea. I said it was shit.”“Was it diarrhea?”“Yes.”
FUCK YOU BARRY .
This very much feels like the ending of the first season of Flash, where you came out of it thinking “they cant possibly do any better than this.”That was, well, pretty true for Flash (speaking of whom….). Let’s see what Peacemaker does.
Is my memory playing tricks on me? I thought season two of flash was still pretty good before the whole show imploded.
It was still quite good but nowhere near as special as that first season, which is fairly easily the best season of superhero TV ever produced. Or, at least, it was until Wig Wam got involved.
I still have to give season 2 of Arrow the edge.
Season two of Arrow was so damn good.
Those early Arrow seasons just seem so… small… in comparison to the later stuff. It’s hard to compare Dollar Store Batman Begins with the murderer’s row of villains and cameos from that first season of Flash.
But Deathstroke tho
If we’re talking CWverse, then I would easily give it to Legends’ 3rd season. I think overall that Wandavision was better than S1 of the Flash. Peacemaker comes pretty damn close though
That disastrous last episode of Wandavision invalidates it from consideration, I’d say. And Flash gets bonus points for carrying forth a similar quality level over three times the number of episodes.
> And Flash gets bonus points for carrying forth a similar quality level over three times the number of episodes. Not sure what you are talking about. Legends S3 had 18 episodes while season 1 of Flash had 23.
If you’re talking about overall, the Flash started spiraling at Season 3, while Legends has held together quality seasons since Season 2.
It wasn’t even the best season of the Arrowverse shows, let alone superhero TV. AoS Season 4 is right there.
I held off making comparisons between AoS’ Shrike and the Butterflies here… but the horror aspect is similar.
No one remembered that AOS was even airing by the time it hit S4.
The reviews for Season 4 in this very site says differently.
Best season of superhero TV is a bit of a stretch, but I guess it comes down to subjective opinion. I’d at the very least put Arrow S2, Legends S3, AoS S4, Daredevil S1, Legion S1, Watchmen, Doom Patrol, Loki and Invincible above the first season of The Flash. Within the CWverse I’d also pit most seasons of Legends (other than S1), Superman & Lois S1 and Arrow S5 as on par with Flash S1.
Arrow S2 beats a few of these.Not coincidentally, it includes the most Manu Bennett of any Arrowverse show.
CW Flash is the *best* superhero TV season ever produced!? You sound demented.
Legends of Tomorrow would like to have a word . . .
For me the second season was when it started imploding hard. This is of course a subjective opinion, but the storyline and villain motivations were absolutely non-sensical there.Although it still has the most hilarious final sequences where the villain challenges Barry to race him on a death machine that will destroy countless dimensions and Barry decides.. To do that?
Now this is how a superhero TV series should be. It had an excellent start, properly fleshed out characters, a unifying theme, cohesive story threads and a nearly flawless and satisfying end that stays true to the journey it started. Props to everyone that worked on the show. They created an unique and inspiring piece of art which I believe would set a standard for what television storytelling should be.Disney+ Marvel TV series would take notes from this masterpiece. Can’t see what they’ve planned for season two.
Something I found a fascinating choice in the show was that at no point Peacemaker special. Don’t get me wrong, he was an elite fighter, but there were two similar ones in Harcourt and Vigilante in the same group. Of which to be frank, I would pick either as a more dangerous physical threat over Chris. All his technology came from his father and even in that fight it was Vigs who actually disabled the threat. He wasn’t a tactical thinker nor did he ever feel super-competent. His background story while tragic, didn’t make him special. Even the sole reason he was sent to this task was that he was an easy scapegoat if the need arose.
None of that is a negative as it contributed excellently to the show’s general feeling as it was never about Chris saving the day because he’s not that guy. It really allows the show to exist as an ensemble piece while also managing to actually be mocking of the antihero archtype instead of glorifying it. Which in turn makes it possible for the show to have that much heart.
Related to that two sidenotes. First, while I realize it will never happen, I so desperately want to see a fight with this Peacemaker and Batman. While the fight itself would be short, brutal and utterly one-sided, just imagining the amount of trash talk from Peacemaker before it starts and him having to deal with the following humilation makes me chuckle.Second, after this episode I’m wondering if the show established Vigilante as a metahuman, but that he is just too dumb to realize it. I surely thought he was going to die here as the show itself indicated he had internal injuries after the explosion in the last episode, but instead that dozing off there did seem to have genuinely healed him. The same here, he gets shot, loses consciousness in the hospital and afterwards is soon well enough to jump out of the window. It made me even think about the losing the toe and how quickly he realized he could still walk fine.
Yeah, the fact that Murn surviving the door charge explosion was an important plot point to show that he wasn’t a normal human makes me think that Vigilante must be a metahuman.
I think the comics!Vigilante does have some sort of healing/regenerating powers so it does make a lot of sense that Vig is probably a meta and he is too dumb to realize it – he probably thinks that’s a normal thing, lol.
Comics Adrian Chase and show Adrian Chase have literally nothing common. In the comics Chase is a Z-level villain. He was a Punisher type character, he was DA whose family was killed by the mob, that fought the Teen Titans in the early 80s. He did, somewhat seem to have some regenerative powers in those couple comics due to calling on the “vengeance spirits” that he gave himself up to.The TV version has long left any semblance of the comic version, which there wasn’t much of to begin with. Gunn likes to take obscure characters and reinvent them, with some nods to their comic histories, so I kinda hope that we find out the show Adrian Chase has been communing with “spirits” this whole time and he just passes it off with his, “Well, obviously. You didn’t ask,” pedantic characterization.
It’s the glasses, he’s always back to full health after taking off his mask to wear the glasses.
There was a theory floating around that White Dragon’s next door neighbor is actually Batmite in disguise because Gunn has stated that the imp is his favorite DC character, the neighbor seems to admire Batman and his appearance could be described as impish. That led me to hope that Batman — or at least the Bat-jet — might arrive to drop a bomb on the farmhouse to take out the cow. I’m actually surprised Batman wasn’t part of the JL cameo — he has the most direct relationship with Waller in the DCEU — but I guess Affleck is sticking to his promise to retire from the role after one final appearance.
I don’t think it was about Affleck, I mean they didn’t have Cavill or Gadot there either.By the way, I do think the reason they got Momoa and Miller do the cameos was because they were in the middle of filming as those characters anyway.
Makes sense. Affleck supposedly shot a cameo for Flashpoint, but that probably would have been too brief a window to arrange a side shoot.
Reason for the cameos:Aquaman 2 comes out this summer.The Flash finally comes out this fall.Thats it. I mean, it is not like Gunn doesn’t know how the Biz works.
I didn’t have trouble with that; in many if not most of the recent depictions, Batman is the most reluctant Justice League member, despite financing all the cutting-edge bases, satellites, and other high-tech doodads the other heroes rely on. He is generally loath to leave Gotham for any length of time, or for anything less than a “rogue Superman”-level threat, and he certainly has plenty of reasons not to show up for an Amanda Waller mission.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QSD8RV-fbY
Momoa and Miller were the actors who agreed to it and had the time to shoot a joke scene. That’s really all it comes down to. Obviously Batman, or any other superhero, wasn’t going to show up and save the day. That would narratively destroy the show. I am impressed that WB let the stars of their next movies make fish fucking jokes though.
I am very happy with the show ending, but there were many permutations that were possible, else there wouldn’t be any suspense, and there were many moments of suspense (would the JL arrive, would Peacemaker save the cow, would Harcourt be taken over by a butterfly). I’m not hung up on the specifics of my particular scenario — i just got excited about the idea of Bat-Mite in this show.
where was cyborg??
Short answer: Ray Fisher wants nothing to do with Warner Bros.Long answer: Monitoring satellites for unusual energy burst that might happen if the cow teleported, and in the internet tracking down all remaining butterflies and food distribution centers. The butterflies were using computers to communicate and coordinate, and I think Cyborg could track them: the fact that it is an alien language wouldn’t matter to some powered by a Mother Box.
Ray Fisher wouldn’t have to participate for Cyborg to be there. Cavill and Gadot weren’t there either. I think the real answer is that Miller and Momoa have movies in production whereas Cavill-Superman is in limbo and the next Wonder Woman movie is a long way off. Flash and Aquaman also lend themselves to humor more than straight-arrows Superman and WW.
I like both your answers….although, as for the short one, i wonder if the company that has recast Batman 18 times would have a problem recasting him? Do you even have to recast a silhouette that show up for like 5 seconds?? Sadly, I really think it’s flipped, more like Warner Bros wants nothing to do with Ray Fischer…and, by extension, Cyborg
Who?
First, while I realize it will never happen, I so desperately want to see a fight with this Peacemaker and Batman. While the fight itself would be short, brutal and utterly one-sided, just imagining the amount of trash talk from Peacemaker before it starts and him having to deal with the following humilation makes me chuckle.I’m calling it; it would / will be the DCEU’s version of that comic scene from Justice League International where Batman floors Guy Gardner with one punch.(Yeah, that’s right Laserface! You ain’t the only one who posts comic scans around here!)
egads!
I realized while I was watching the penultimate episode that the “band of misfits” cliche has been around forever, but this is the first time I feel like I’m seeing the real thing. Like, THIS is what misfits are – dorks who truly have trouble making friends, for whatever various reasons. They’re not people who are so cool they can’t relate to anyone else. And so, as they have become friends, it’s truly touching and even exciting, because it’s so real.
dorks who truly have trouble making friendsOne of the stealthily most heartbreaking moments was when Vigilante said Leota is his 5th best friend. In the moment, the specificity is funny, but then you realize it means he truly has nobody else in his life than Peacemaker and the people he just recently met through Peacemaker.
When Chris is chilling with Leota in his trailer and says “I never thought I’d have any friends” – or tries to say it, but becomes so emotional he can’t get the words out. Boy, I get it…
He’s built under the Rocky framework. Rocky’s not the best boxer ever. He’s not even the best boxer in Philly. But he wears his heart on his sleeve and no matter how many times he gets hit he keeps punching back. Peacemaker’s not super, but he does become sort of a hero.
I only partly disagree in that he did feel like he was (appropriately) super competent. He was an emotional wreck but he was a fantastic marksman. Even in the fight with the Butterfly in the premiere he was hitting her right in the forehead with all the random stuff he was throwing at her.
A slight clarification on my part. I didn’t mean that he was incompetent, he was an excellent soldier, but he wasn’t unique in that sense. As I mentioned, even as good as he was as a marksman and a fighter, there’s an argument to be made that Harcourt and Vigilante were better.That’s what I meant that he wasn’t special as at no point did he feel uniquely suited for this task.
Agreed. I really loved how it both felt like an actual team of misfits and also like an overall very competent task force.
I disagree about Vigilante. His stupidity (not an act) and inability to read a situation is a huge handicap.
Love this show. One thing I don’t remember being explained though was why did Auggie keeping helping Chris weaponize as Peacemaker? He despised Chris, and Chris wasn’t out there doing White Dragon type of missions before or after prison.
He didn’t seem to totally despise him at first, just thought he was kind of pathetic. I think what was missing was a convincing case for why he went from rating his son a 3/10 to a flat zero. It was sort of there, but muddier than it should have been.
He has an eagle that loves him, that’s his superpower.
he was an easy scapegoat if the need arose.That’s the one element of the season I found forced, though. Was Amanda Waller so in need of a scapegoat for a random crime that she was willing to jeopardize her own mission by removing one asset from an already shabby team?
“You’re fucking late, dickheads.”This show was near-perfect as, much like The Best Superhero Show on TV (Legends), it always put character first.Intrigued to see where season two takes Peacemaker now he’s developed something of a moral compass.
“Go fuck another fish, asshole”
Yes! Peacemaker and Legends both leverage a potential weakness (only having license to use C-list characters – cameos notwithstanding) into an actual major strength (liberation from the weight of canon). That artistic freedom makes them a breath of fresh and original air in a media landscape where e.g. Spider-Man has gone through three reincarnations in less than twenty years and has to tell the Uncle Ben’s death story every time because it’s so central to Spider-Man’s canon.
I thought for sure Harcourt was going to die and that they’d come to some sort of agreement with the butterfly to take her over to save her life. That this didn’t happen surprised me. Also, if I’d never read the reviews here, I would’ve told you Harcourt’s name was “Hardcore.” I thought that was her name up until like the 5th episode, and it still always sounded like they were calling her hardcore up until the end. Whatever, right.
I liked the moment in the series when we found out Harcourt’s first name. It seemed like a deep dark secret that she had a name that sounds like a Jane Austen heroine.
The butterflies hollow out the host’s skull to make room for themselves and take over. There is no saving the human’s life, they’re 100% dead.That was one of the more visceral scenes, where the detective’s body is flopping around as Goff made space to take over and then in the police department/lock-up. I’m glad that they didn’t diminish the horror of how the butterflies take over in order to “save” Harcourt like that. There is no sharing of lives after a butterfly takes residence.
Would have saved her memories, I guess. But yeah that’s not the same thing.
It’s not hollowed out as they still have access to the hosts memories.
It’s partially hollowed out. Enough is left for them to control it, but not enough for the host to survive. I can’t find the tweet (or maybe it was an interveiw?) but a few weeks back Gunn confirmed. Where do you think all that blood’s coming from when they burrow in?
Of course. Hollowed out to me implies nothing left. You’re describing exactly what I believed happened.
Yes. Sorry I was agreeing with you.
I wasn’t positive if the butterflies had healing abilities or not. I was pretty sure they hadn’t shown them being able to heal people, but it did seem reasonable to me that they might be capable of it. The butterflies could make a person stronger and faster, so that they also could maybe heal them a little didn’t seem too far-fetched. And I didn’t mean they’d share lives. I meant going forward it would be the same actress but it’s actually the butterfly in control.
Yeah Gunn confirmed as much.
Yeah I was sure she was a goner. Glad she’s not though, will be happy to see more of Jennifer Holland in S2.
She’s Gunn’s partner, so I was never worried he’d write her out. (Also, every time I hear “Harcourt” my brain goes “Harcourt Fenton Mudd, you….” — ST:TOS, for those who don’t twig to that.)
That great moment when you recognize a name but it takes a second to realize WHY you recognize a name! Love those down deep memories and Stella pointing at him and letting loose.
It’s probably rare that a showrunner’s wife gets written off a show
I used to refer to Harcourt as “Hardcore” in my first drafts, but they’d get changed in the edits. The name does sound like “Hardcore,” how am I supposed to ignore that??
Here’s a top tip: watch it with subtitles on. You’ll glean a ton of extra information, including the character names!
I thought they were calling her Hardcore as a nickname. It’s her Secret Agent Superhero code-name: Emelia Harcourt, aka Hardcore.
That wouldn’t have saved her though, it just would have been a faster, freakier death than bleeding out from gunshot wounds.
There was never an option to save anyone. Without the cow honey, the butterflies were going to die one way or another. Even in human form, they had to live off of that stuff.
Judging by the map that showed all the butterflies all over the world, I’d say there’s enough butterfly goop in existence to keep one alive for quite some time, even if the source had dried up.Knowing there had already been a second season ordered somewhat spoiled the ending for me. I knew Peacemaker wasn’t dying, but I did think it possible that his whole group was going to die as I was watching it. Vigilante and Harcourt both seemed like goners in the moment. The whole ending went from comedic to emotional to comedic and back again so many times that I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen. It was fun guessing to myself what would happen.
I thought for sure Harcourt was going to dieShe’s Gunn’s girlfriend IRL. He would have been sleeping on the couch for a month.
I thought they were married
Dating since 2015, currently engaged. Source: Wikipedia.
One reason this show works so well is it isn’t in service of anything other than the story it is telling. it isn’t setting up a wider world. It doesn’t have to tie into any other shows. It has a story and purpose all it’s own. And Gunn actually understands TV, and story telling, and not stringing us along in a “it’s all one giant novel, so bear with it”. He and his team write real episodes that don’t have endless wheel spinning (gah, the old Marvel netflix shows). This isn’t trying to service other shows (Boba Fett). It’s just its own thing.
Agreed, it was very self-contained and I really appreciated that.I do feel like them exposing Amanda Waller could have repercussions for other Suicide Squad titles. That said, they spend so little time on that plot aspect (other than Adebayo being her daughter) that if they do integrate that aspect, they actually did it the right way here.
At this point, DCEU continuity is so vague that I’m pretty sure Rick Flag could just show up again with no explanation.
I would be 100% fine with that. But I’d be fine if Peacemaker matures into a worthy replacement. For all we know, Flagg may have a dark secret murder in his past…
Flag led the Suicide Squad. Of course he had dark secrets!
I can’t imagine it’s both patricide and accidental fratricide, but I only read the first 30-40 Ostrander’s Suicide Squad run.
That beat is actually earned to. We see Adebayo struggle with the morality and requirements of her choice to work with her mother, the fallout of the decisions to follow her mother’s wishes, and coming to terms with all of it. So her decision to go public doesn’t feel shoehorned in. It’s kind of like a person wrote a story instead of a committee.
Exposing Amanda Waller is interesting because it mirrors what is happening in the comics. Waller is in hiding and there are rogue suicide squads (one includes Peacekeeper) who are trying to find her.
Finally, FINALLY, a tv show that has an end to the season. It’s as if they’re scared people won’t want to come back for another season unless there’s a massive cliffhanger. The only question left hanging is whether they will have a different dance number and song for the opening. I don’t know how I feel. I think I would like to see them do something different, but it is good to ponder deep spiritual questions like, “Do you really wanna taste it?”
I was just saying last night that, given half the characters in the theme were dead by the end of the season, I hope that means we can look forward to a new dance number (full of new soon-to-be-deads) next season!
I saw an interview a while back where Gunn said he may never make a feature film again, because the experience of writing and shooting a TV show was so much more enjoyable than doing a movie, and writing for TV no longer de facto means working with such a small budget that you have to either limit special effects or have really cheap-looking ones.
Except for feature film he’s currently filming I assume…
The show also works because it takes the character the show is named after “The Peacemaker” and actually uses him unlike Daredevil or Boba Fett which just spins off into nonsensical side character shenanigans.
I mean as much as I totally agree (my dad loves this show and doesn’t know The Suicide Squad film even exists), I do need to point out that this is part of the DC film universe which is deliberately the opposite of the point you are making. I mean sure fine most of the show tosses that away but we literally had Jason Mamoa in the finale you literally can’t call this a self-contained story even if that was treated as a toss away joke.
Oh cool Adebayo lives in Gotham, good thing I didn’t need ANY PRIOR COMIC BOOK KNOWLEDGE to understand that line. Good ol’ self contained stories am I right.
Oh btw the sky is green. Which is the same thing as calling this a self contained story.
Ok, yes, you are correct, but my point was, this isn’t trying to be in service of those other DC properties. Like Age of Ultron was famous for shoe horning in Thor having visions that would pay off in the second Thor movie, but had nothing to do with AoU itself. Everything has to tease out the next thing, in an endless cycle.This show wasn’t that. It was a show with a purpose that didn’t care about the rest of the DCEU unless it could use it for a joke.
you just came here to shit on the MCU, didn’t you? correlation does not equal causation.
“ And Gunn actually understands TV, and story telling, and not stringing us along in a “it’s all one giant novel, so bear with it”.”1000x THIS! That was one of the things I couldn’t stand about Watchmen (I know, I’m the only person who didn’t like it). Can’t an episode just tell a story in itself? Does every single episode (or in the case of Watchmen, practically every single scene) just have to be some kind of tease for a bigger mystery?
I liked the Watchmen…but yeah, you are right. It was Damon Lindelof after all lol, he can’t quit the mystery box! (But Lost and Leftovers are two of my all time favorite shows. Leftovers was my first pandemic binge with my wife, and we both loved it…although for her it took until the second season to really get into it, the first was a bit dour for her tastes).
I completely disagree with the idea that this is what the “Watchmen” HBO series and find it so weird for anyone to think this. I thought it was just like the graphic novel where each chapter was it’s own cohesive thing but it tied into a larger story
Thought this was a very strong finale. The JL cameo was delightful, of course, and it got even better when they went beyond just the silhouettes that I assumed they were using. Looking forward to Season 2, whenever it comes.
And where…..bum bum bum…..is Batman? He’s at home….washing his tights.
I love that when Leota charges the barn, it was crotch shots all the way.
I do wish they had set up Leota being a combat badass a bit better. As far as we knew her background was running a dog shelter, or something, so where did she learn combat badassery? Why would Waller even hire her for this? It’s possible I missed something, like, before the dog shelter she used to be a black ops agent and then quit to have a more normal life, then got drawn back in by her mom because she needed the money.
Hey, she got her Binks-Fendelmire strategic combat certification at the age of 14!
Her mom made sure she received combat training during childhood. That was why Chris’s history resonated with her so much, though obviously hers wasn’t nearly as messed up as what Chris went through. The childhood training was seeded from the first episodes.
Ah yeah, I actually forgot about the line where she said she had some combat certification. Okay, sure. That was kind of a tell-don’t-show moment, though.
Very John Wick-like
Goff really should have understood that talking about peace only when you are locked up in a jar or running out of allies isn’t credible.
“Peacemaker” stuck the landing! What a fan-fucking-tastic season finale. Solved all the relevant threads, left the right ones for exploration in the second season, and delivered the perfect kind of fan service! And as the article rightfully pointed, amid all the humor, chaos, and violence, it brought not only serious acting and great character development, but also a real message in the background discussion of current issues (COVID, global warming, white supremacy, government overreach, conspiracies, freedom, responsability, and how to tackle those issues).Chris, Harcourt, Leota, Vigilante, Economos… They are the TRUE Justice League, the rest are “cameo” and “fan service” (again, the best kind of)! Fucking perfect season finale, and Amanda Waller can go kick rocks!There are 10 more months in this year, but the other streaming services better step up because so far Peacemaker is the absolutely best 2022 show!And it’s impossible not to compare, because both were the big bets of HBOMax and Disney+ this year so far: “Peacemaker” e “The Book Of Boba Fett”. Veredict: HBOMax won hands down, because unlike Boba Fett Peacemaker was not only great, but also not a sidekick in his own show…P.S.: On top of all that, “Peacemaker” gave us not one, but two 2022 MVPs: Vigilante, and EAGLY!!!!!!!!
My neighbor and I watch both shows on Thursday evenings…and had to start watching Boba first, because Peacemaker is so much fucking better.
I was shocked that Gunn managed to get Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller for that cameo. This seems like the kind of idea WB would have poo-pooed immediately, but Gunn’s got pull, I guess.I don’t feel like Superman and Wonder Woman even needed to be there. If they’re not going to include Batman (because the DCEU is a mess) or Cyborg (because WB and Ray Fisher are not on good terms), then why even include Gadot’s and Cavill’s stunt doubles? Just have Flash and Aquaman show up, and have them both complain about being given the crappy assignments while the Trinity gets all the good stuff.
Batman is the ‘difficult’ member of the JLA who only shows up when he deems the crisis big enough to need his help.
I just assumed he had dropped the others off from his Batplane, or whatever, and was circling around above in case an airstrike was needed.
“Fuck you, Barry.”Oh, that is a sentiment that echos through the multiverse.
BARRY WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO???
I hope someone says that to him when he comes clean after Flash Point, “fuck you Barry! Fuck you!”
That was a moment of pure joy.
Given that Peacemaker, in the comics, has hallucinated that the ghosts of those who die near him are haunting him, and also that he’s being haunted by his father… and given that Peacemaker in the show is now being haunted by his father…Is it out of line to wonder if the Goff we saw on the porch at the end is another hallucination brought on by Chris’s new morally-conflicted mature (between his old vow and his new way of thinking)? In Season 2, that might lead to a bad angel (Auggie)/good angel (Goff as Jiminy Cricket) haunting situation.
The series’ villains, the Butterflies, have been secretly trying to save our planet because they believe we are incapable of doing it on our own. Are they right?
OK, she claimed they were trying to save this planet, first off. But variants on this spiel have popped up in kaiju and sci-fi works over the years. So attributing it solely to “COVID ennui” doesn’t track for me. It might hit a bit differently today, but that’s different.
fittingly un-Marvel response to Captain America’s famous chucking of his vibranium shield
Isn’t the point of that supposed to be similar to how Superman fights crime?Cap *could* use his shield to kill dudes, but he holds back so he doesn’t. Just like, if he wanted to, Superman could punch anyone in to dust. That was also the difference illustrated by Walker when he had the shield.
That’s what makes Cap and Superman heroes. They know how to use their abilities to help without resorting to the easy way out (killing any and everyone who causes trouble).
I just love how this show zigs when you expect it to zag. Except at the very end after Song/Goff’s speech when Peacemaker did *exactly* what I thought he would.
And did anyone else think the Butterflies were kinda Hydra-esque in their motivation? The speech at the end reminded me a lot of the “humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom” thing Zola says.
The complete and utter bafflement by Goff after she thought she’d won Peacemaker over with her pitch and he responded with “Activate human torpedo.” was gold.
It’s a pretty common plot device, especially in stuff from the 60s/70s onward- aliens/robots/supercomputers decide “mankind must be saved from itself”.
As excellent as this series was – even the finale, though I’m about to shit on its Big Message – well, the Big Message didn’t work. It failed for exactly the same reason that Big Messages so rarely work in gods-and-monsters universes.They’re fucking different, guys. They’re different universes! Those heroes and villains aren’t just a bunch of weird metaphors running around in costumes. Their powers – no matter what their source – make real-world problems kind of trivial. Those sources do, too. Other dimensions? Other planes of existence? Time travel? THAT’S IMPORTANT CONTEXT.
I’m giving you a 100% guarantee that our real-world overlords would not deliberately slash and burn the world to death if they trivially had access to technology and magic that could keep the grift running indefinitely. They would, instead, keep the grift running indefinitely. Faux-populist demagogues wouldn’t have a prayer. They’d be memory-holed by Big Brother, Gods-and-Monsters Edition.Not to stretch things too far, but, you know, Amanda Waller is kind of a central illustrative example of how real-world human dysfunction would gel together with this fundamentally different world. I’ll give the reference more explicitly: It’d be 1984 , not The Sheep Look Up.Gunn has set the bar pretty high for himself. He’s demonstrated an awareness of, and an ability to critique, all manner of story tropes. It’s extra disappointing that he was so earnest and straightforward with such a problematic trope right here at the end of an otherwise-phenomenal series.Since I’ve already decided to be That Guy today, I’ll also be That Other Guy: Alan Moore had it figured out in Watchmen . Even with an extra fifty years of modern history to draw from, he would never have tried to suggest that his gods-and-monsters universe would be facing exactly the same global, environmental problems as the real world (or some of its specific political ones, as mentioned above.)
I mean, it was. The presence of the superheroes was escalating the Cold War to the point that Ozymandias felt the need to do a big crime to “unite humanity” so that we didn’t nuke each other.
It absolutely wasn’t. Moore suggested that the Cold War only continued because Dr. Manhattan suffered a crisis of conscience/faith and refused to finish the job. Apropos of the character (he really is a profoundly unimaginative fuckup,) he’d already done so much to give the U.S. the upper hand that the USSR was basically down to two choices: sit around and wait to die, or pray that Dr. Manhattan would remove himself from the equation entirely. If the latter happened, they were still so utterly fucked that they were willing to bet everything on a roll of the dice that included a full nuclear exchange.That is a huge change from what happened in the real world. In the real world, the U.S. committed to a “clap your hands (and use the dollar, and loan us infinite money) if you believe in America” strategy that did exactly what Marx said capitalism would try to do to any upstart communist regime: choke it to death economically, and try to infect as many people as possible with an addiction to luxuries and tchotchkes. That insidious, gradual strategy significantly mitigated the risk that any given Soviet ruler/council would make the big play.Look at the incidentals, too. Those fusion-power “gas” stations or whatever tell a story. The man-made climate change crisis was basically nipped in the bud thanks to a combination of Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias.
The smart play in Peacemaker was to present an “enemy” who railed against what Waller represented inside that world, not what Trump has come to symbolize out here in the real one.
At a meta level, the presence of superhero tropes doesn’t change the world because then that would would become too unrecognizable. Even outright fantasy and science fiction limit how far they range from using current reality or our understanding of history as the baseline.
This isn’t exactly unfair, but mainstream superhero media has always had this kind of awkward “it’s not the real world but it kind of is at the same time” vibe going on — heck, even in the forties comics World War 2 was apparently going more or less exactly the same despite the presence of a superpowered alien with fantastical powers who was decidedly not on the Nazi side, which you’d think would have made the Nazi occupation of Europe among other things a lot harder to maintain for as long. It’s a willing suspension of disbelief matter at this point. Watchmen is kind of a unique case, since deep down it’s not actually a superhero story at all, it’s actually an alternate history where the ‘what if’ is ‘what if actual costumed crimefighters started showing up in the 1930s’. And even then, as mentioned, it still has the Cold War going on.
The Nazis had access to forbidden science and occult relics though, so it evened out.
Way too purple for me to decipher your point; the message that registered for me was empathy. As a bi-polar addict whose brain wouldn’t let most of my days end without screaming, crying or slapping myself, I felt such catharsis watching artists have glorious gonzo-fun depicting a man wrestling with my same ugly affliction – subversively setting the struggle against the backdrop of a Superman movie was extra neato. The gang’s ability to build emotional bridges, the ability to entertain even the smallest amount of the dialectics, was my greatest takeaway. Anywho, Cena has the chops. Seriously, best acting in the series. I mean, I guess if they gave Viola Davis more lines, she might win. I couldn’t quite figure out her involvement. She runs the project for the government but works with other Superheroes? I think I missed something but this is my first Superman movie in a long time; excited to check out Suicide Squad. But bravo all involved!
What?
What always surprises me about Gunn is how tightly his themes and narratives are constructed, and how much heart and poignancy is in his storytelling. Early on the show reprises the “Peacemaker, what a joke” moment from the TSS movie, and over the course of the season not only Chris but most of the major characters are trying to find internal and/or external peace — with themselves, with others, with the world.Therefore, it was especially poignant and moving to see butterfly Goff join Chris and the specter of his father’s memory on the porch in the final sequence. To see that Goff wanted to spend her last days with Chris was really touching.
Do we know that it’s Goff’s last days? They were milking the cow till the very end, and it seems like she is that last butterfly left. As long as the fluid doesn’t spoil quick, I think Goff could survive for a fair amount of time.
I suppose Gunn could use that logic if he wanted to bring Goff back next season, but it seemed like he was really careful to establish that these were the last dregs of fluid from the only jar that Peacemaker had. Any fluid that was milked at the farm was likely destroyed by the sonic explosions. And now that Argus, the JL and conventional law enforcement are all on the case, it seems reasonable that any remaining supplies will be confiscated and destroyed.Goff may not need as much fluid since she is no longer occupying a human body, but Chris’s tiny supply isn’t going to last too long.
What if her appearance was as a ghost haunting him, like Auggie? Could be we’ll see Sophie/Goff in S2 in that way.
As much as I like the actor Sophie Chang, I think Gunn has so many creative options that he’ll likely dive into those rather than revisiting past characters. There’s a small chance Goff might survive, but likely it would be in a new human body.
Unlike the TV series ostensibly about Boba Fett, Peacemaker develops its protagonist & focuses its plot. The result is much better! Who would’ve expected that?
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2022/02/17/hbo-max-comes-in-peacemaker/
Not only is its star awards-worthy, there are no duds in the supporting cast. Although both were antagonistic roles, Annie Chang got me to root for both Sophie & Eek-stack-ik-ik.
Chris is trying to be a better person, but the writing is savvy enough to question whether he made the right choice. It’s better if humans choose to make sacrifices for the greater good, although the species track record hasn’t been great lately.
If they continue to reject the ends, does that justify the optimistic
means? Now that the Butterflies’ food supply is extinct, Chris is
complicit in interplanetary genocide too.
Chekov said that “If you introduce a scabies helmet in act one, it must be worn in act three.” You knew this, Gunn!
The ‘genocide’ part at least seems like a bit of a two-way street deal, though, as it seems to be implied (or at least isn’t a huge leap to suppose) that the Butterflies were perfectly willing to kill and puppet every last human being on the planet if needs be to accomplish their goals. At very least, if they weren’t going to commit an actual genocide, they were still willing to kill enough humans to make the distinction pretty meaningless.
We know from Murn that the butterflies have genitalia, so presumably have a form of sexual reproduction, but it doesn’t seem like there are enough butterflies to take over every single human on the planet. Even if there was, they have a single food source and their society has already collapsed due to overconsumption of resources, so I doubt Goff would let their population reach a point where they exceed the sustainable capacity of the cow’s fluid production.Also, Goff specifically mentions that they only have around 100 years to set humanity on the correct path (presumably that is the expected lifespan of the cow), and seems perfectly content using this time to ensure we don’t go down the same route to oblivion as her species, rather than searching for an alternative food source to ensure the survival of her species beyond a century.Given all this, I doubt the butterflies would commit genocide to accomplish their goals. At the very least, if they did puppet every human on Earth, that would run directly contrary to their goal as it would necessitate killing every human on Earth, and all Goff wants to do is save humanity. The butterflies plan was to infiltrate governments at a high enough level to enact positive environmental change, and presumably attempt to instil a true sense of sustainability within society to ensure humanity continues beyond their death. Even taking over the police and inmate population of Charlton was only done in response to Peacemaker and co’s attempt to bring down the butterflies’ operation, rather than any malicious intent. They needed to control the authority of the area in order to hinder the 11th Street Kids and move the cow out of danger, after this they would have likely gone back to infiltrating higher government positions in order to accomplish their overall mission.
My only issue with the “we have no other food source” thing is that this is a world with godlike beings, magic technology, teleportation etc. and nobody can figure out how to synthesize whatever molecule the butterflies eat? There’s half a dozen DC characters who could solve that problem in a week.(Don’t get me wrong, I loved this show)
I’m not sure if it was meant to be. I got the impression they’d only be replacing politicians, industrialists, & as many people needed to keep nectar distribution running. That’s a significant chunk of humanity replaced but not an extinction level amount. Peacemaker wasn’t loftily trying to save humanity as a whole just the small bunch of friends he’d made.
I can’t believe they got famous fishfucker Aquaman to make a cameo.
The way this show developed its characters and relationships was so good that by the time Peacemaker tells Leota that she’s his BFF, it really hits you in the feels. I got a little misty at his moment at with Harcourt at the hospital (it reminded me a bit of the end of the bee episode of Futurama) and even with Goff. He may have doomed their species but there’s still mutual respect there. It’s amazing that none of it felt forced. You really believe that these people actually love each other. Gunn is so good at this. Just look at Economos’ speech about his dyed beard, which sounds absolutely ridiculous on paper, but really paid off all the themes that the show incorporating. Peacemaker was being a giant dick to him at the beginning, and it really hurt Economos’ feelings, even though he wouldn’t ever say it. The Peacemaker we know now wouldn’t act like that, that’s how much the character grew in just 10 episodes. I’m astonished at how great this show turned out to be.
Wait, you got ten episodes??
I felt like there was even a deeper layer there when Economos said “I just thought nobody noticed”. Felt like we was saying that despite the fact that Chris was being a dick about it, he realized that it was sort of a way of Chris saying that he noticed and cared.
That’s interesting, hadn’t thought of it that way, but I definitely see what you mean
All the MCU D+ shows have been nice but I would 1000x rather watch Peacemaker again before I watch Loki. I’m way more looking forward to Peacemaker S2 than… basically any of the D+ shows?
Same
I mean, A- > D+
this is my favorite comic book thing james gunn has ever done, period. i liked guardians and i liked the suicide squad, but i loved this.
I could pick more DC shows that I have ahead of the MCU ones (and not shitting on MCU, I like the MCU) – Doom Patrol for sure.
Helps that it’s more adult. HBO Max has a more wide range of stuff. Disney+ just has stuff that’s PG-13 or lower. That’s the reason I never got Disney+.
Peacemaker and Loki are just really different shows. It’s hard to compare them in any way for me.
Like, I don’t know what to say except this whole thing was nearly perfect. Weirdly, while watching it I kept forgetting this was made by the “Guardians of the Galaxy” guy, and kept remembering this was made by the “Super” guy. Peacemaker might actually be a love child of those two films…
I’m a Vigilante fan now – that’s how good it was.
Gunn’s Vigilante is an amazing character. I think my favorite scene of the season might be him goading the white supremacists in prison into attacking him: “You guys are so cool! Let’s get to know each other – I know, let’s all go around the table and say what we’re grateful that black Americans have given us. I’ll go first-” and so on, with that shit-eating grin on his face. Priceless.
All while looking them dead in the eyeball. That was the moment.
More to the point it’s made by the guy who did “The Specials”
“Coverdale Ranch” can only be in homage to glam metal megastar David Coverdale, lead singer for Whitesnake, right?
Yes. 100%.
Enjoyed the episode, though not as much as prior ones. The long zoom out shot that dwelled on Harcourt hemorrhaging copious amounts of blood from her mouth and exhibiting shock responses was markedly more realistic than how any other injuries were shown on the show. With how it was depicted, depending on the sources of hemorrhage, she would be dead somewhere between the zoom shot being over and 20 minutes later. It was manipulative in how the whole sequence was composed, as Gunn clearly wanted you think Harcourt had died to inflate the narrative stakes.I have much less issue with that than Chris suddenly having acute audio-visual hallucinations of his father though. It’s not just a silly movie trope that I didn’t think Gunn would indulge in, but it’s not in any way plausible within the narrative. Both those choices were predicated on keeping the actors around for season 2 rather than logical narrative choices.All in all, despite those complaints, it’s still a fun and engaging show, and I look forward to season 2. Also, Gunn clearly has a lot of pull with WB to have their current Flash and Aquaman have fish fucking confirmations, which was hilarious. WB wouldn’t be badly served if they gave Gunn a Feige type role over DC.
The hallucinations of Chris’ father may not have worked, but it was ripped straight from the comics.
Also, Gunn clearly has a lot of pull with WB to have their current Flash and Aquaman have fish fucking confirmations, which was hilarious.I assume Cavill wasn’t down to confirm Superman’s shit fetish. Shame.
A great season overall. Yeah the butterfly had a point but it was making that point from within a non-consenting flesh suit who hadn’t been part of the global picture so…. Can’t really blame Chris on that one even if his friends hadn’t been in danger.
They made it clearer now that the butterflies represent big tech bros, thinking they are the only ones who have the plan to save this world. The lack of emotions is pretty accurate too heheh
For a brief moment in that Annie-Goff/Peacemaker scene, they were about to reveal that the butterflies came because Chris prayed for help and they somehow thought it was a distress call.
The floating helmet propelled by canisters of air MUST be a call-back to My Secret Identity, right?
Damn near pitch-perfect season finale. The only thing missing was the neighbor being revealed to be Batmite in disguise. Otherwise, I fucking loved it. The shootout sequence was some of the best action to come out of the DCEU, just like this show is the best thing to come out of the DCEU. I love what Gunn’s done with these characters. You can change whatever you want about a d-lister, as long as you honor the core premise and as long as they’re fully realized people.Also, god, I never would’ve believed it, but Cena is a great actor.
He’s been a great actor for years now. I don’t know why people are surprised by this still
Song/Goff’s appeal to Peacemaker reminded me of “The World’s End.” The idea of an alien species being better and more able to improve your situation, but in sacrifice of your free will and independence. Of course, this show being American, I felt a shade of anti-Imperialism hanging over the philosophy.
In any case, not saying it was derivative by any means, just interesting overlap in terms of extraterrestrial motivations. (unless that’s like a trope from body snatcher-esque movies that I just don’t know about from not having seen a ton of them)
Difference for sure is that the World’s End it’s not presented as a win like it is here. There the ending is way darker as they basically end the world by saying no. Man, that film is criminally underrated. I think it’s better than Shaun of the Dead, and I think Shaun is an excellent film.
I haven’t seen the series, but holy fuck is Snyder’s Cult freaking out over the Justice League scene on Twitter. Some are calling Gunn racist for not having Ray-Fisher-as-Cyborg in the scene. Others are bitching about not having Cavill and Gadot there. But the thing that has them really pissed off was the “Aquaman fucks fish” joke, which is getting treated like this ruins Momoa’s version of the character forever and that audience perception of the him will instantly go back to the Superfriends-era and never be taken seriously ever again. Some are even going so far as to ignore that James Wan directed the standalone film and not Snyder, as well as all the juvenile humor in said standalone film.
The great thing about Twitter is that you can find people there bitching about anything.Wait, did I say great? I meant awful. No one needs to be on Twitter.
You should check out the series. It is fantastic, and nothing like the Snyder movies. It’s really the only DCEU thing (movie-adjacent stuff, so not CW or animated) I’ve loved since, idk, The Dark Knight?
I’ll probably watch it eventually (through less legal means, since I refuse to buy any streaming service subscription), but I’m heavily behind on any and all comic book shows except the CW stuff, and I’m only on top of that because of my DVR.
since I refuse to buy any streaming service subscriptionI’m just curious, but… why?
Because I’m too forgetful to cancel/renew like other people do, and the odds are I’ll go months not using whatever service is available.
I actually used to have Netflix back when they were only using DVDs. I went, like, 7 or 8 months without watching the DVDs I rented. I ain’t doing that again.
The only one I AM subscribed to is YouTube TV, which I watch multiple times per week.
Huh ok. I actually do cancel my sub immediately after subscribing, on each service, specifically to avoid that problem. I guess I just got in the habit, so there’s nothing to remember.I really do wish they were “subscribe for a month and only a month” by default, with an “automatic renew” checkbox that’s off by default.
I would suggest putting this one to the top of your queue instead of on the bottom.
My Queue is a bit too long for that at the moment. I’ve still got to check out the rest of World Trigger Season 3, Digimon Ghost Game, Demon Slayer Season 2, Sailor Moon Eternal, the Invader Zim Netflix movie, the past two+ years of Boruto and Detective Conan, What if…?, Hawkeye, Shang Chi, The Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, and Book of Boba Fett, among many, many, many others.
Ah, I use a stack instead of a queue
There are Snyder Bros on Twitter? I assumed they had all moved to Parler.
I wish.
This whole series was just such a delightful surprise. It was fantastic from start to finish and John Cena was excellent as the lead of it. The Rock has never done anything this emotionally impactful.
Cena’s acting career eclipsed the Rock’s a long time ago
My favorite show for some time.
I didn’t care for the pilot, but the show grew on me, due pretty much entirely to Brooks and Cena’s performances. They were absolutely terrific in this. Looking forward to the next season.
Same. I really considered dropping the show after the first ep, which was by far the weakest, but in a rare feat it got better as it went along
More thought, effort and creativity in any 10 minutes of peacemaker than the entirety of Boba fett and Haweye. The character development was especially lazy and an assemblage of cliches.
Love the show. Some Qs:What does the alien cow eat? We know aliens can’t survive on Earth food. Poor cow didn’t deserve to be killed.Why not have Flash run Harcourt to the hospital?
Because “fuck you, Barry” was better!
“It’s… not a rumour.”
“Fuck you, Barry.”Biggest laugh of the episode by far.
Ok. Why?
I’m sorry, this message was so hollow.“maybe you just gave us a chance to make our own choices instead of our bug overlords”. No. Fuck that. We NEVER had a choice. It’s the same kicking down of responsibility that everyone keeps doing. “Maybe our planet wouldn’t be on fire if you recycled, or voted for the right people”. It’s not OUR fault. It’s the fault of the powerful who keep manipulating, dividing and lying to us. I would KILL to have aliens swoop in and fix the messes of our planet. Yes, I would be a slave. So what? We are already slaves. We are already paying for things that are not our fault that have been in the making for decades before we were born. Neither I nor anyone else should be made to pay for the mistakes of psychopath rules and rich people who will all laugh to their graves while the rest of the world burns.Fuck.
I agree. But Chris represents the all-American belief that what’s most important is some twisted conception of “freedom.” Adebayo in fact calls him out on this in similar terms
What a melancholy ending, with the butterfly (maybe Goff?) landing next to Peacemaker, and him silently doling out the last of his supply of the nectar, and it lapping it up, both knowing full well that it and the rest of its kind will very soon starve to death. The futility of the exercise not changing the fact that in this moment, the butterfly is still hungry, and Chris, a man possessing empathy, still wants to feed it.
I had half a second when I thought, maybe Cheetos are the answer? Maybe the butterflies can eat that? I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but I do wish there was a note of acknowledging the cow was just a cow then, and that the fight enacts a genocide instead of a rapid extinction—bad butterflies or no. The cow is also an extinction, probably. It’s a similar note to the one that Gunn put in The Suicide Squad, where Starro says it was happy in the space, in the middle of the hijinks and gore. Goff with Chris at the end was a nice touch—for a half second of that I thought it was going to be another dad-like hallucination, but the now-empty jar suggestions not.I thought the broken leg was a bit much for Economos—just like get caught in something? But I bring him up because:“Even Economos finally, emotionally, cops to the fact that he dyes his beard. Growth!)“No. It was a moment for everyone else, Chris especially, about bullying. A tortured public confession that is then roundly mocked by strangers is not personal growth. I think he probably thought his friends were laughing at him too. The beard-dye is a little lie that he believed that made his life easier—it getting dragged out in a moment of higher stakes is not “emotional growth” for Economos.I do appreciate the scene though, and the general way the show calls out even it’s jokey behaviors.
I had two major gripes with the episode:1) Song/Goff’s sermon was exactly that, a sermon, and as someone who grew up listening to a shit-ton of sermons it was less artfully delivered (in the writing, not the acting) than most actual sermons. It took me right out of the show, and has to be the new standard for ham-handedness. It could have been a nice The Day the Earth Stood Still homage but as it is, the only way the presentation could have been worse would have been for Annie Chang to turn and stare straight into the lens while delivering the lines.2) Peacemaker’s dad[’s ghost] showing up at the end to sit on the porch with Peacemaker, Eagly, and Goff: it came across as too much of a RotJ redeemed-Anakin scene and neither the character as a whole nor the father-son relationship between Peacemaker and White Dragon merited that. Something, anything, that acknowledged the character of that character and the nature of the relationship was needed and it wasn’t there.