In this latest season of “Harley Quinn”, Harley and Poison Ivy find themselves stuck in a rut in Gotham and move to Metropolis. Unfortunately, they leaving any character depth or intrigue behind in Gotham. Where does it all go wrong? Let’s go in depth.
First off, I should point out that with this fifth season, the show is now on its third creative lead, with Dean Lorey as show runner. This unfortunately means storylines from Season 4 have been thrown in the trash can, even last seasons cliff hanger does not have a good resolution. Also, despite the foreshadowing, we also do not get “Gotham City Sirens” because Catwoman does not show up for the entire season. Dean Lorey is probably best known for the poorly received Kite Man spin off, which gave a glimpse of what the show was about to become, a husk of it’s former self that focuses more on the humor than the actual story or character development.
The first flaw I should point out is how little this change of scenery really effects the series. Recurring characters like Batman, Clayface and Bane are already residing in Metropolis, while Superman spends the entire season on vacation. We do have Lois Lane joining the cast, and Clayface taking over the Daily Planet after incapacitating Perry White, in a very annoying subplot that never gets resolved.
The big new character of the season is actually Lena Luthor, brother of Lex Luthor and twist villain of the season. Her main goal boils down to taking Metropolis for herself because Luthor wanted it. She is just okay, being voiced by the fantastic Aisha Tyler helps, but coming off last season with Lex Luthor as the “end all” villain does not help. She is largely over shadowed by Brainiac, who is the secondary villain of the season. While both villains get a comeuppance towards the end of the season, it is clear that Brainiac is the better villain. In a bold move we get an entire episode breaking down Brainiac’s origin, as we see the life of emotionless sterile environment of Calu through a more comedic lens, which was probably one of the best episodes of the season.
However, as far as new characters go, Lena and Brainiac are were the line is drawn. We get a lot of scenes with King Sharks son Shaun, who has a catch phrase “I can’t stop myself” and who loves destroying everything in his sight (he is up there with Cousin Oliver as one of the worst new character additions of all time).
The real standout of the season is Frank the Plant; we get to see his origins in a flashback episode and he plays a major role in a turning point of the season with his death. JB Smooth’s hilarious voice performance is what makes this character, as his confident bravado makes anything he says hilarious, which is what prevented me from losing interest in the season.
Still, I think this show has devolved into what we all thought the show would be when it was announced 8 years ago: a mindless comedy that’s more focused on the humor then the characters or source material. The show took inspiration from storylines like No Man’s Land and Batman White Knight, but now it’s grown away from it’s source material. They removed the show from Gotham to Metropolis as more of an excuse to not having any Batman source material weighing it down, despite last seasons promise of Gotham City Sirens. The show doesn’t seem to prioritize it’s characters either, as we get a very unsatisfying conclusion to what happened to Nightwing last season, with no explanation or follow up on why he was brought back by Talia Al Ghul. Even when we get the third act break up between Harley and Ivy, it just felt groan worthy because it was taking us back to where the character were before, and we ultimately get the same conclusion of them reconciling.
I really wanted the show to work – the first season was not just a fantastic deconstruction of the Bat Family and his Rogue’s Gallery, but also one of the funniest cartoons I’ve ever seen. There are still jokes from early seasons I love going back to, because they still crack me up. However, I don’t see anyone walking away from this satisfied. There is just nothing that really stood out this season, aside from the one off Brainiac episode. Even the episode where they try to fill in lose plot lines from last season left more answers then questions, and with the addition of Shaun the Shark it becomes a slap in the face for long time fans.
Going off the final scene, it is pretty clear that the writers expected a renewal, and unfortunately it sucks that show is ending on a pretty sour note, but I hope people will remember this show for it’s glory years, and not it’s “baby shark” season.
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