Boy, it sure is good to have Harley back on our screens. We DC fans here in the UK have had a rough time of things when it comes to the animated Harley Quinn series. Despite both seasons airing on DC Universe in the States in late 2019 and early 2020, we had to wait a little while longer – but fear not: the wait is over, and Harley is back with a blast! And if the Season Two opener is anything to go by, we’re in for a real treat over the next few months.
New Gotham picks up moments after the cliff-hanger ending of Season One: Gotham City is in ruins, Batman is missing in action, and Harley and her crew are revelling in the chaos. Things only go more off the rails when Gotham is exiled from the rest of America, leaving the whole city to fend for itself as several new powers battle for dominance.
Harley Quinn’s first season was like lightning in a bottle: smart, funny, gory, incredibly entertaining – it had it all. They say that lightning never strikes in the same place twice, but New Gotham is as good as any episode from the first season. While it may not do much in terms of character development, it sets the stage nicely for the rest of the season, and makes some incredibly bold narrative decisions that its live-action movie counterparts only wish they had the courage to do.
The destruction of the Legion of Doom at the hands of the Joker (who we don’t see at all in this episode) has paved the way for the Injustice League, here composed of Mr Freeze, Bane, the Riddler, Two-Face, and the Penguin – the latter of whom meets a terrifically bloody end at Harley’s hands. His death perfectly encapsulates what makes this show so great: it’s serious and intense when it needs to be, but it’s also full of perfectly placed gags and fantastic character work that all combine to showcase some of DC’s finest work to date.
Not that it needs saying at this point, but Kaley Cuoco is probably the best version of Harley we’ve ever seen. We love Margot Robbie over here at STARBURST, but there’s something about Cuoco’s beautifully unhinged nature, as well as the ferocity of her swearing, that just makes her perfect for the role. By the episode’s end, Harley is determined to take down the Injustice League and seize Gotham for herself, and honestly, we haven’t been this excited by anything from DC in a long, long time. If the rest of Season Two is half as good as this opening episode, it’ll be a real doozy – so let’s just wait and see.
Harley Quinn Season Two airs on E4 on Mondays and also on ALL4.
