"Harley Quinn" Season One Talkback (Spoilers)

[Frontier]

I think more the point was Harley doesn't follow "the rules," she goes by her own code. Yeah, she's maimed guards like the ones in Arkham or the improv group at the Gotham Mint bar mitzvah, but she'll only kill or help kill those who deserve it. Henchmen. Corrupt bankers. She has her own morality, and doing something like killing children isn't in her wheelhouse nor is sacrificing her friends in a fight.

That's fair, but it seems like a fine line when we've shown in the past that she and her crew are willing to kill or grievously injure people just doing their job. King Shark just chewed the head off a guy just sitting at his desk.

And that's not even getting into that she'll apparently go to bat for a "friend" even if that friend tries to kill her or doesn't really seem to care about her. Did she bat an eye at Frank eating a kid and his whole family?

I guess these are the kind of issues you get into making a show about a villain while still trying to keep them likeable enough to not hate.

 

[hobbyfan]

Harley Quinn "You're A Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon"

Good news. I laughed a whopping three times. A record. First at the Hank Kissinger joke. Yes, they're criminals, but do they really want to be WAR criminals? Then at Poison Ivy telling Brad to call her. And finally King Shark going off in the prison at the end. Not a bad week. At all.

For the record, this Jim Gordon is not as pathetic as Ben McKenzie's on Gotham, but he's like halfway there, which is pretty freaking appalling anyways.

Gratuitous butt shot from Harley. And it happens in the Batcave in front of Batman because she hasn't been quite degraded enough. Which is fabulous.

There are no good parents who name their kids Herman. The episode said it so I don't have to.

Shocker: I actually liked this week. ***1/2.

It's been consistently funny straight through.

From the Wile E. Coyote homages whenever Harley takes a long, deep fall to Jason Alexander chewing up scenery as Sy or Christopher Meloni killing it as a neurotic Gordon, the every other week viewing parties at my brother's never fail to have us busting guts laughing.

 

[-batmat-]

Liked the last episode, and liking the series more and more everytime!

 

[Yojimbo]

Harley Quinn premieres today at 5am (PST)/ 8am (EST) on DC Universe! Show your support for Harley Quinn on Twitter by live-tweeting @DCUHarleyQuinn and #HarleyQuinn to @TheDCUniverse during today's episodes!

Friday, January 17, 2020 - #08 "L.O.D.R.S.V.P"
Synopsis: Harley gets a party invite from the Legion of Doom.

 

[PapaGreg]

I know that this series is dark comedy but am I the only one who sort of got a dissonance when Harley calling out Queen of Fables for slaughtering an entire family only to save her from the lone survivor thought it was kinda weird.

 

[Yojimbo]

I know that this series is dark comedy but am I the only one who sort of got a dissonance when Harley calling out Queen of Fables for slaughtering an entire family only to save her from the lone survivor thought it was kinda weird.

Harley still considers Fables her friend despite everything. Yes, even though Fables slaughtered a bunch of innocent people and then threatened her for the Weather Machine, Harley still couldn't stand by and let Fables fry even though to some she deserved it. And will this sketchy rule of hers come back to bite Harley in the ass? Wink wink.

 

[Fone Bone]

Harley Quinn "L.O.D.R.S.V.P."

I laughed at Aquaman's Yo Momma joke to King Shark at the beginning.

This Luthor has a very similar character design to DCAU Lex, except the African American features are even more prominent. Because of this Giancarlo Esposito was a good choice for his voice.

Not bad. ***.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

"L.O.D.R.S.V.P" - Honestly the connection between the subplot and the main plot thematically of this one felt very weak and forced. There were some good moments of comedy in the subplot from how Sy kept trying to deflect what was actually happening and Psycho constantly going "yeah I'm going to need an explanation for that". And the explanation of his sister and her experiment was... okay I guess. Reminded me of White Whale and Dr. Dewgong's backstory from Venture Brothers except only happening to one sibling and also didn't have the build up reveal as well but again it was fine but they had to hammer in the note too far of "oh how could you betray your best friend" way too heavily to make it connect to what happened with Harley and Ivy. In the 6th episode though a bit forced as well it at least made more sense since we knew already that Gordon and Batman were friends and how Batman can treat Gordon with how Harley was treating her crew was a decent parallel and you know a conclusion Harley only came to as she was talking. But having another character literally going "hey you left me behind and that's not what a friend does" as Harley was reflecting felt pretty forced and lame to do. Especially for this kind of show. I mean I've seen this kind of thing happen in say Gravity Falls before but at least that has a bit of an excuse of needing to hammer in the lesson more for kids but... yeah in this sort of adult cartoon comedy we should not be getting actual takes on morals or character moments like that and feels like a really sappy way to end that part. Also though Harley closing the door was sort of funny didn't we already do the funny rampaging monster jokes like with Queen of Fables and her creations last week so yeah another sort of weak note there.

Honestly the rest of the episode I actually did really like though. It is nice to see Harley's progression in actually joining the Legion of Doom actually have some pay off here. And I think it's also clear that honestly she probably would of gotten in before or at the very least actually just made a general good impression on these people if it wasn't being run by Lex Luthor. Oddly enough in this show seems like a lot of the villains aren't actually that terrible people but the ones with the most power or cunning that wind up running things actually are. And I like the mind games of Luthor wanting Ivy to be in the league because of her power and thus elevating Quinn and obviously only picking Harley either because he will still somehow twist it into him getting Ivy or because of some sort of deal he has with Joker. Like honestly if I wasn't spoiled ahead of time that ivy and Harley would break off their friendship (because god forbid you are late to watching an episode of a series as youtube will post videos spoiling bits of it even in their titles you try not to look at but catch a sneak peak of like crazy) that probably would of been at least probably a more powerful bummer moment seeing them split up after that. Though honestly I do like how though it's clear Ivy does have a real soft spot for Harley she also has her own standards of who she wants to work with thus why she isn't full time in the crew and even sticks up for Kite Man. Helps flesh her out more as more then just the annoyed friend character to have her have lines even for friendship she wouldn't just cross. I also really like how Aquaman was used in this episode. Like with Batman the Brave and the Bold there is humor you can have with Aquaman without just turning him into a superfriends joke. As shown by how he can easily decimate so many other villains but still has this pompous attitude and grandstanding and the bit of Harley breaking the tank and him scrambling to take all the sea creatures out and get off with them and being annoyed at Harley mixing up the different kind of waters they can survive in is great. Other great bits were Clayface impersonating Aquaman and then later Superman, "what did that Dolphin say about me?", Ivy's insistance of not being part of the crew, King Shark wanting to eat the diver in that tank, Clayface saying his acting book is a weapon to help him kill someone with drama, Sinestro heckling Aquaman as everyone boos him, Bane also getting a dig in at Aquaman, Manta insulting Aquaman and their little fight, and Psycho not being allowed to work with women again in the LOD and him admitting that was fair. End tying theme together was lame but yeah solid ep. Plus this is now the place to use joker as based on next week's episode we get something different with him; using the LOD connection now to try and seduce Harley back. And guess we'll see how well that will go next week.

 

[Yojimbo]

If the series premiere to last week's episode "The Line" is an arc about getting into the Legion, "L.O.D.R.S.V.P" definitely kicks off the next arc that covers the rest of the season. Harley gets into the Legion and it's all aces or did the fly just land in the spider's web?

-Subject one, Harley and the crew have been at it for months. Then they get a invite. Sure Aquaman is a Justice League member and they made him look like a fool. But eh, it was Aquaman.

-Subject two, Scarecrow's tour. He definitely pushed all the good stuff specifically catered to the crew. A castle and real diver for King Shark. Improv night for Clayface. A Kryptonite-powered submarine that turns into a car that fires missiles gets Harley's eye. They get access to resources at any time they want. This is way too good to be true.

-Subject three, in the months this show has taken place over the course of, Harley got one invite. Ivy got 148.

-Subject four, Luthor's surprise ultimatum. Ivy joins or Harley doesn't. It ends up influencing Ivy to self-detonate her friendship with Harley and it turns out to be over nothing because Harley still gets in. As a result, Ivy leaves and now she's isolated and alone.

-Subject five, when Ivy attacks Luthor, he remarks "You're the only one that can do that." Something about that was way too ominous to discount.

-Subject six, of all the villains, Lex isn't at all perturbed at Aquaman's unannounced arrival and wrecking everything. Sure, Lex is a cool customer and everything is probably heavily insured. But did he secretly tip off Aquaman about Harley being at the party?

Call me crazy but it all seems this was all just a conspiracy to get Ivy all alone so she can be used for some L.O.D. scheme that would make use of her plant powers. Without Harley and the crew having her back, she's probably easy pickings under the right conditions.

The Crew gets their spotlight as usual but Dr. Psycho is the clear stand out of the episode. In fact, dare I say, this is probably the most likable he is so far in the series. But it's still hilarious that's he's the target for another whupping, this time when he gets slammed around by Mirielle then he calmly requests an explanation from Sy. Or the more subtle joke that he sleeps in a boy's car bed. The shocker was that he was gung-ho about pulling a Ghost and helping Sy and Mirielle reconnect. And even he's moved to tears by Mirielle's words. To cap it off, one more joke at his expense. He's back in with the Legion of Doom but he can't be in a caper were the crew might run into a super heroine.

Clayface also gets in some hilarious beats. Like his over acting actually is a boon and he fools some Atlantean guards into thinking he's Aquaman or applauding Aquaman's eloquence. My favorite was claiming Stanislavski's book as a weapon, being rebuffed, then warning the worker it's on him if he acts someone to death. And his Superman impression has to be mentioned. Head chopping off and he muses it wasn't his worst review. Hilarious!

King Shark drew the short straw this week but still got some funny beats like his retort to Aquaman on the boat or getting set off by the fish in the tank.

The guest hero this week was Aquaman. Chris Diamantopoulos voices him and some may recall he was the voice of Green Arrow in the Batman Unlimited direct-to-video movies. The appealing part of this Aquaman is that he has some similarities to the version of Aquaman in Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Very bombastic and super confident. Kind of a joke but still a powerhouse in a fight. Whoever came up with Harley's Frasier joke and the bits with Juba the doplphin hit the nail on the head. And Aquaman's fight against everyone at the Legion party was probably the most entertaining fight in the whole series thus far. And technically, Aquaman wasn't defeated. He was just too distracted with saving the saltwater marine life to continue on. I also loved the bits where he "breaks character" to tell Sinestro to grow up or when he responds to Harley's YMCA idea with sarcasm. I truly hope we'll see Aquaman again before this season concludes or next season.

The guest villains were a real treat. Aside from all the non-speaking ones I listed earlier, Bane once again was a hoot. The chicken satay debacle. Oh, man. Then getting real and declaring politically correct culture is killing comedy. Or just the sheer surprise that instead of bulking up and charging Aquaman, he opts to simply stomp fish and mock him.

Scarecrow, I'm not sold on him yet. Still a weird take on the character, almost a throw away. The reference to the take a knee movement was funny enough but anyone could have said it.

This show's Lex Luthor turned out to be pretty much Lex Luthor. Cunning. But this is a Harley Quinn show. The Legion of Dildos joke, his admission he doesn't see a lot of movies, and no validating were funny enough.

Kite Man was brief but he still made a big splash – being so endearing by calming Bane down or running into his nemesis, a crosswind. Like Black Manta, brief banter but still amusing. Same with KGBeast and his hands becoming hilarious props to us.

"L.O.D.R.S.V.P" is another solid episode, past the midway point of the season and still going strong. There's a lot of great action for once, there's a lot of palatable humor, there's a lot of important and well done character moments, some intrigue about the rest of the season, drama between the show's BFFs that stays unresolved, and a bit of a surprise ending. Pumping on all cylinders, the show has reached to top of the roller coaster and there's still a lot of exciting turns to come.

 

[Frontier]

I sometimes forget that "son of Atlan" used to be Aquaman's origin instead of being Tom Curry's kid. Unless he was just using it symbolically as being the latest in the line of Atlan .

Chris Diamantopoulos moves on from playing Green Arrow to playing Aquaman, and he's a really fun Aquaman. I'd love to see them cast and show off the entire League on this series at some point .

The Legion of Doom being this legitimate business for Supervillains is quite the trip. I mean, it's prominently displayed in public in all white and everything .

I really wonder what Cheetah is like in this universe because they allude to her a lot as the token female member of the Legion, although Lex doesn't even bother to remember her name. We saw her at the Legion party, but I wonder how she'd interact with Harley .

On-paper, I would totally want Ivy in the Legion instead of Harley. Sure Harley's unpredictable and clever when she needs to be, but Ivy's way more powerful and competent, and more often then not has to lecture Harley on the major lesson she gets drilled into her head by the end of the episode .

I wonder if that diver was purely there to be King Shark bait and what the Legion told him to get him in there .

Man, Aquaman sure ran through most of those Legion of Doom villains. Wasn't expecting them to bump up his power levels that much .

I love that they gave Aquaman and Black Manta a moment where they just call each other by their real names in the most bitter way possible. And Phil LaMarr finally voices Black Manta, completing the tri-fecta of the most prominent African-American VA's getting to voice Black Manta .

I can't help but think the Legion letting Harley in is a long-con. I wonder if Joker put them up to this to get at Harley ?

Yeah, um...I'm not sure what they were expecting when they let Mirielle loose .

 

[Yojimbo]

Harley Quinn premieres today at 5am (PST)/ 8am (EST) on DC Universe! Show your support for Harley Quinn on Twitter by live-tweeting @DCUHarleyQuinn and #HarleyQuinn to @TheDCUniverse during today's episodes!

Friday, January 24, 2020 - #09 "A Seat At The Table"
Synopsis: Harley must now spend time with Joker at the Legion of Doom.

 

[Frontier]

How old is the Legion of Doom that their introductory video looks like it was made on a VHS ?

"It wasn't something racist." Yeah, somehow I doubt that Pscyho .

I honestly have to ask myself "what would Joker and Black Adam talk about?" .

I love how the Legion of Doom business model is Pixar and they just pitch ideas to get funding. It really emphasizes the LoD here as a more legitimate Supervillain business then a group that exists solely to destroy the Justice League, which probably explains why the League doesn't do anything about them .

It's an established part of Harley's character, like it or not, that she goes back to Joker even after all the abuse or she's gone independent, so I'm not surprised to see the show address it here even if the ultimate resolution will probably be different then past incarnations of the character. To be honest it seems less like this version of Harley fell madly in love with him and more that he just happened to be her type .

I knew it was all an act by Joker, but he's a good actor, and he even had me a little surprised when he let Harley in on the chopper, but I guess he wanted to build up Harley's hopes up with the intention of making using her as a distraction again even more of a "screw you" to Harley. And did he have a camera on the copter so he could leak that photo of them kissing ?

Some girl who actually ships Harley and Joker? Either she was paid to say that or she's someone who liked them in Suicide Squad .

I would totally watch a spinoff of Bane. He is absolutely hilarious on this show, always threatening to blow stuff up that earns his wrath and just suffering through the most mundane things .

Also, I guess he's always in a standard Venom state? And that's why he was suffering when Joker cut his tubes ?

I was figuring Batman would show up when I noticed Diedrich Bader voicing some incidentals (which I guess he doesn't need to be credited for?). Really not much to say about his involvement here other then, for all his serious and no-nonsense demeanor, it becomes pretty clear that Batman cares. Enough to where he'll prioritize saving Harley, and even consoling her, over stopping Joker .

So now Harley has lost her best friend and her crew. Was this a long con by Joker and the Legion of Doom? Or a consequence of Harley falling into old habits and falling too in love with the idea of being in the LoD ?

Seems like this corporation's entire plan was capturing Ivy. I wonder what they need her for .

 

[Yojimbo]

"A Seat At The Table" is a gut punch of an episode and perfectly executes things going terribly wrong for the cast. Paving the way for the final stretch of season one, looks like the narrative will be can they/can't they team up to save Ivy and tear the Legion a new one (oh, yeah. And I guess save Gotham)? Four more episodes seems like a lot of real estate to pull it off. Harley's crew has proven in the past that even as underdogs, they got what it takes. But I can see them apart for one or two more episodes.

So yeah. Ivy was the target all along and Harley was just a pawn. It was gut wrenching and hair pulling level of frustration to watch as Harley screws up after everything she accomplished this season. But I guess when you reach the top, that just makes the fall a bigger drop. I suppose 20/20 hindsight, the pilot set up the idea that she might backtrack eventually. Played right into their hands. No way she could have known.

Going back and rewatching "L.O.D.R.S.V.P," it definitely comes off as one big set up and Planetwide Pavers is probably a front for the Legion of Doom. The subtle hint is the tone of both the L.O.D. orientation video and the Planetwide commercial are similar in the musical tone, motto, and coming off sterile. Going off of Luthor's words in "L.O.D.R.S.V.P," they seem to want to exploit her plant powers for whatever big scheme they have in mind. If the montage of past capers in their orientation video and Joker's face tower pitch are any indication, the city is in a lot of trouble. The worst part is no one would know Ivy is in trouble or missing after the big spat at the hospital.

4 episodes to go, it seems like we're going to be seeing what the master plan is soon enough but it'll be entertaining to see if and how Harley and The Crew can reunite to save Ivy. And well, Frank and Sy Borgman will probably be the x-factors. Maybe Mirielle? Chaz? Nah, I bet Chaz will be a gratuitous death at some point.

I think it sounded like even Batman was disappointed in Harley.

And Bane continues to be hilarious. The card trick, "I'm still trying to get a chair...," shooting the breeze with Harley/Joker right behind him, cautioning the crew about not eating too much but enough, filing the paperwork and getting the greenlight. his hatred of Todd and it turning out to be a prank by Joker -- This has been a really fun interpretation of Bane.

 

[Frontier]

I think it sounded like even Batman was disappointed in Harley.

To be honest, it seemed more like he felt bad for her...which is pretty sad in it's own right .

 

[Fone Bone]

Harley Quinn "A Seat At The Table"

Oooh, a cliffhanger.

I have always hated the Joker. I don't get fans who swear by this specific villain. He's just the kind of person who has no redeeming qualities. I don't find that interesting at all. His movie sucked too.

The moment where Harley is falling into the water and defensively curls up into a ball was quite moving. I was very surprised it occurred on this show.

It's always fun to reference popular culture but I don't feel the show brought anything new to the table regarding Up.

I had a very favorable impression this week. Although I still don't think the show is exactly funny. ****.

 

[Frontier]

So, the big question...did Joker and Harley kill Zach Braff ?

 

[Fone Bone]

So, the big question...did Joker and Harley kill Zach Braff ?

Pop culture history killed Zach Braff.

 

[The Overlord]

Harley Quinn "A Seat At The Table"

Oooh, a cliffhanger.

I have always hated the Joker. I don't get fans who swear by this specific villain. He's just the kind of person who has no redeeming qualities. I don't find that interesting at all. His movie sucked too.

The moment where Harley is falling into the water and defensively curls up into a ball was quite moving. I was very surprised it occurred on this show.

It's always fun to reference popular culture but I don't feel the show brought anything new to the table regarding Up.

I had a very favorable impression this week. Although I still don't think the show is exactly funny. ****.

To be fair there is a whole trope about pure evil villains with no redeeming qualities and it has a ton of examples:

Complete Monster - TV Tropes

The Complete Monster is the most depraved of all characters; a villain utterly lacking in redeeming features. Trying to put a value on the evilness of a Complete Monster is like calculating the credit score of Bill Gates: it's a moot point. Or, …

tvtropes.org

Really Joker is not a far off from real world serial killers and abusers, most of them are very unsympathetic. I think Joker's cruelty is really the thing that makes Harley sympathetic in most incarnations.

It's kinda like Red Skull being the ultimate Nazi supervillain makes it almost impossible to make him sympathetic.

Dr. Psycho is the comics is repulsively evil, they toned him down into a goofball here, which is a good call, there is nothing funny about comic book Dr. Psycho. I like that fact Dr. Psycho and the rest of the crew besides Harley are essentially temps who have to work for people like Bane. Also Bane is likely the best thing in this show.

 

[Frontier]

To be fair there is a whole trope about pure evil villains with no redeeming qualities and it has a ton of examples:

Complete Monster - TV Tropes

The Complete Monster is the most depraved of all characters; a villain utterly lacking in redeeming features. Trying to put a value on the evilness of a Complete Monster is like calculating the credit score of Bill Gates: it's a moot point. Or, …

tvtropes.org

Really Joker is not a far off from real world serial killers and abusers, most of them are very unsympathetic. I think Joker's cruelty is really the thing that makes Harley sympathetic in most incarnations.

It's kinda like Red Skull being the ultimate Nazi supervillain makes it almost impossible to make him sympathetic.

Dr. Psycho is the comics is repulsive evil, they toned him down into a goofball here, which is a good call, there is nothing funny about comic book Dr. Psycho. I like that fact Dr. Psycho and the rest of the crew besides Harley are essentially temps who have to work for people like Bane. Also Bane is likely the best thing in this show.

Some villains can be amusing for how outright awful they can be. I think Joker and Psycho fall into that.

 

[Yojimbo]

Well, yeah, I think this show has the correct distinctions down. Joker is a psychopath - evil, manipulative, and no conscience. Harley, Ivy, and the crew are sociopaths - evil but still have a conscience, varying from a lot to a smidge but still there.

EDIT: Upon another rewatch, at the end of the commercial in the small print under "Planetwide Pavers" is "A Division of LexCorp." Mmmhmm.