Tuesday, December 10, 2019

My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x02: "A High Bar"


Written by Jane Becker
Directed by Matt Garofalo & Ben Jones & Frank Marino

Harley (to everyone, re Joker): "In fact, why are any of you letting him talk to you like that? He doesn't even have powers. His only power is bullying you into doing what he wants. I should know. He did it to me for years."

We're onto the second episode of this sweary series and this seemed to be setting up the beginning of Harley getting what she wants with getting a place within the Legion of Doom. So far the only members that are prominent are of the Bat Rogue Gallery as Penguin (Wayne Knight), Scarecrow (Rahul Kohli), Bane (James Adomian) and Two Face (Andy Daly) all appear in bigger roles this week.

Initially they're not taken in by the idea of Harley wanting to join their seemingly male only club but after one abusive too many from the Joker at the Bar Mitzvah of the Penguin's son Joshua, it seems that Harley's luck might have turned a corner when it comes to assembling her own criminal empire.

During the episode, Harley mostly makes a fool of herself at the party, even going as far as ruining the surprise that Oswald intended for his son but Joshua's lack of experience is then used to Harley's advantage as the latter managed to save herself (just about) from being shot by a teenager. Oh and of course, Ivy somewhat helped to save the day.

Let's speak of Ivy - she's brilliant in this series, her put downs are delightful, I can't get enough of Frank the house plant and while there are certain fangirls seething at the fact that the show is pairing Ivy with Kite Man (Matt Oberg), I actually found their scenes rather entertaining to watch throughout the episode.

Mainly due to the fact that Kite Man's oafishness wasn't too overplayed and also because while I do like the Harley/Ivy pairing, I'm a little tired of certain fans acting as though it's the ultimate queer hill to die on when it comes to the DC universe. If the show plans to go there with Harley/Ivy that's great but it doesn't need to in order for this show to be a must see. Two episodes in and it's already entertainingly daft enough on it's own merits.

- Joker blew up a nice chef on live television, Bane's previous stadium blowing up from The Dark Knight Rises was revised for laughs too.
- Kite Man in his worst moment caused Ivy's pheromones to turn some teenage boys into trees. You'll never guess how that was resolved. Oh wait, you really will.
- No Batman in this episode, which was nice. I don't think the character needs to be in every episode but it's time to meet some non Bat related characters if Harley really wants to be a member of a certain group so badly.
- Chronology: A while since the events of the first episode.

A High Bar didn't raise the bar too high but neither did it lower it either. Actually the swearing seemed a little less from the first episode and I thought Kite Man's introduction was handled rather well. I do hope though that we are in for some Joker less episodes as the show goes on though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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