Monday, December 23, 2019

My Review of Harley Quinn's 1x04: "Finding Mr. Right"


Written by Jess Dweck
Directed by Juan Meza-Leon

Batman: "You want your first nemesis to be special. Somebody you could see being your nemesis for the rest of your life."

I guess that above has some truth to it. For nearly thirty years, Harley has evolved from being one of Batman's many enemies to being on a rare occasion something of a grudging ally. In this episode, Harley and her crew with the welcomed addition of tech savvy King Shark (Ron Funches) are looking for the right enemy.

Instead of getting someone cool to fight with, they end up with is Damien Wayne (Jacob Tremblay), who manages to be a brat in this universe with the add on of making Harley into a laughing stock when he proclaims on Tawny that she asked him to be his nemesis. A puff piece by Lois Lane (Natalie Morales) also didn't help the situation.

Needless to say, in order to regain her criminal cred, Harley kidnapped Lois with her gang but even Superman (James Wolk) couldn't be bothered with Harley, so it took kidnapping Damien and using King Shark to threaten the latest Robin's life on live television for everyone to realise that he's not Harley's enemy.

Tawny was amusing enough in the previous episode with the Dr Psycho segment and here she gets to have a lot more fun as Batman, Poison Ivy and Joker all subsequently gatecrash the TV show for varying reasons. There's a lovely commentary on Ivy putting up with Harley's antics (as well as a not remotely subtle hint of unrequited love) along with the Joker being jealous over Batman battling his ex on live television.

Needless to say, Harley managed to not get her own nemesis (and neither did Damien) but between adding to her gang roster and a new hideout waiting in the wings, things are probably a little on the up for her. Saying that though, if this episode emphasised anything it's that Ivy has the patience of a saint when it comes to Harley smashing up her televisions. I definitely would've booted Harley out after the first one.

- Nice silent cameos from Wonder Woman and Aquaman in this episode. We still need to meet a few more JL members as the season progresses.
- Ivy lost her apartment as her landlord Sy Borgman (Jason Alexander) kicked her out this week. He also a tad mean to the lovely Killer Shark too.
- Batman talking about his first nemesis being in his late 20s, so not long after he assumed the cape and cowl then.
- After this episode, I highly suspect they are going to be maybe go there and Harley and Ivy after the latter's thing with Kite Man inevitably fizzles out.

Finding Mr Right is easily the strongest episode so far this season. It's important to find the enemy that completes you and while Harley hasn't found that special someone, we all know she can do better than a bratty child and she's at least making decent strides with her crew.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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