The second effective season of “Peacemaker” proves that the future of DCU TV is brilliant | TV / Streaming

More than three years after the titular character appeared on our television screens, season 2 of “Peacemaker” is finally there. After his appearance in “The Suicide Squad”, the first season ended with Christopher Smith (John Cena) killing his white supremacist father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), and destroying a deadly extraterrestrial race which threatened to take control of the world. The series has a comic tone and a casting that had great chemistry. However, below the surface, the writer and director James Gunn created a superhero show that focused on a man who had trouble understanding what this coat means. Although it seems that season 2 followed the same tone as the first, Gunn doubled on the small moments that brought out this series, creating a second season which is almost like a completely different show.

According to the opening moments of this season, there is an unmistakable change that has taken place in the world of “Peacemaker”. With his dead father, Chris now lives in his old house, wandering in his rooms like a ghost. Too lazy to go out to take her pet eagle, Eagly, for a walk, Chris rather opens the door of the secret quantum storage zone of his father and lets Eagly take a look. He quickly notices that the animal is attracted by a door that looks exactly like his, and when he opens it, he is greeted by his father’s lookalike. Although Chris leaves this dimension in a hurry, he attracts slowly, learning that in this universe, he and his father have a good relationship and are even celebrated as heroes of a trio of fighting crime.

In the universe where he lives currently, Chris and his friends are not considered serious heroes, despite the defeat of an extraterrestrial race and save the world. In a hearing to be in the gang of justice, with Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) and the current members Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), the trio does not seem impressed by the curriculum vitae of Chris. They ignore him when he answers their questions and clearly consider him a hero who is too volatile for the work they do. Apart from the field of superhero and inside, Chris is not considered good enough. With the pacifier coat weighing heavily on his head, he turns to alcohol and drugs to soothe his pain.

There is nothing that will stop the weight of Chris’s sorrow, which he seems disinterested to chat with his friends beyond a disposable joke. Lonely and unable to understand his goal, his obsession with the quantum storage area which takes place threatens to consume it. It does not matter that there is another version of itself that exists there; Chris will do everything you need to adopt the life of his double. Everything Chris has always wanted in this universe: fame, fortune, love of his father and even the affections of Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). While Chris and his gang always drag on the roofs and are called for safeguard when something is wrong, there has been a clear fracturing in their relationship as a group, as well as in their singular dynamic.

Season 2 of “Peacemaker” is always filled with laughter, sometimes so roasting that they eclipse the gravity of history at hand. However, there is a heaviness here which did not succeed through each scenario last season, as if it was merged to the bodies of these characters. While Chris is dealing with his feelings of sorrow and regret, his comrades have not improved much. Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) is now separated from his wife and is desperate for more spy work; Harcourt was put on black list of all the country’s intelligence agencies; The new job of the economy (Steve Agee) as an agent of Argus threatens its place within the group; And the despair of Adrian (Freddie Stroma) for the approval of Chris heavy goods vehicles on his shoulders. Each of these main characters has a broken soul, and the only people in which they seem to find comfort are each other.

When separated, they are desperately trying to fill this void, whether with bar fights with men twice their size or with ephemeral commercial companies that seem superficial. “Peacemaker” is always at its best when these five share the screen, and unfortunately, there is not much in the first five episodes of this season. The characters themselves clearly want to be in the presence of each other, and it is impossible not to feel the same thing. Watching these characters getting into their respective paths is always entertaining, but the absence of a cohesive relationship between the Core Five is perceptible throughout. This does not mean that the show has lost its bite with season 2, but it loses part of the sincerity that pulled through the foundations of its first season.

Despite the lack of scenes shared between the children in the 11th street, “Peacemaker” remains a star on superhero television. Often, these programs are desperate to connect smaller stories to the biggest universes in which they exist, abandoning any semblance of a plot contained along the way. It is clear that ideas surrounding different universes and dimensions are an integral part of the progress of the newly configured DCU. However, this series does not move away from its humble beginnings. Instead, Gunn continues to rely on these characters and their difficulties, while putting them in the foreground of a universe that develops quickly. With season 2, it is even clearer now that there are no better hands for these characters to be, that they exist in the story of “Peacemaker” or the wider extension of the DC universe on the screen.

Five episodes were projected for examination. First series of August 21.