Spoilers are thinking about dying their hair.

When mainstream cinema tends to over rely on known formulas and cliches, I often count on animation features to be the ultimate refuge for creativity. Recently I was trying to get into movies/shows and found this HBO Max show streaming in Netflix (Canada). Contrary to what you might think, this one’s not for the kids. The show plays fast and loose with its origins and the lore behind the denizens of Gotham City. It’s all as crazy demented as if you had a flawed narrator, which is a good theory as to why morality is skewed.

(Credit: DC Entertainment)

Harley Quinn (2019-) is show created, written and executive-produced by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey. It is based on the character created by Paul Dini. The show follows Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) after Harley finally breaks up her toxic relationship with the Joker (Alan Tudyk). The show subverts the gloomy atmosphere of Gotham City and the Batman mythos with dark humour and satire. Don’t expect villains to be wholesome though, there’s plenty of adult humour well written into the plotline. I don’t want to disclose what happens or how Batman (Diedrich Bader) is portrayed in this universe.

It works more often than not. It’s an fresh irreverent take on both superheroes and supervillains. Not every single storyline will be original, not every subversion pays justice to your favorite hero or foe, but the entertainment factor is high and the show is gold bingeable material. Filler is still spicy as long as you have a good dynamic and chemistry between your main cast and I haven’t seen a character that doesn’t have its moments yet. Then again, I am still in the first season.

Highly recommended for entertainment value, but it does contain dark humour, satire and parody that the young audiences (or rather the parental units of said youngsters) might not find appropriate. There’s plenty of swearing and innuendo but it doesn’t go into gross out territory… yet. Worth a watch for pure entertainment value and it even has its great writing moments.

That will do for now.