S01.E05: Being Harley Quinn

[MarkHB]

Quote

When Harley suffers a paralyzing identity crisis, her crew must enter Harley’s mind to free her with the help of Dr. Psycho’s telepathic powers.

 

[CletusMusashi]

I expected this series to be funny. I am happy that it has proven to be every bit as funny as I had hoped, but I did expect it to be funny. What surprises me is how well thought out the characters are. Usually there's a bit of early fumbling, especially in pilot episodes, but I feel like every episode we've seen was written with the entire season in mind.

This was the episode that truly differentiates "Harley Quinn" Harley from "Batman Animated" Harley or "Suicide Squad" Harley. She isn't a wonderful person who was turned evil by The Joker. She's smart, driven, and talented, but also emotionally damaged and not without a mean streak of her own. The reason this Harley didn't suddenly develop a completely different accent when she became a villain is that, in her case, the villain isn't a replacement for her old personality. It's simply her old personality saying "Fuck it, I'm gonna just start randomly doing whatever seems fun."

They aren't just sticking characters on the show and saying "We'll figure them out as we go along." I feel like, from everybody's first appearance, the writers had already reached consensus on what made that character tick. Even Sy Borgman, who at first seemed like sort of a waste of Jason Alexander (one of my big dream castings is to see him as The Ventriloquist. Maybe it'll still happen. I mean, Tudyk is voicing at least three villains!) is now a welcome part of the show. Welcome to the team of "worst bad guys," Old Cranky Guy Who Bitches About Everything.

It annoys me to no end that, even when surrounded by people who will race to the theater to see every single big budget superhero movie no matter mediocre or worse it is, I can not get anybody whatsoever to watch this show. Even with the pilot available for free on Youtube, everybody just sort of smiles and nods at me like I'm the nerd and then goes back to waiting for fucking "Justice league 2."

[MarkHB]

3 hours ago, CletusMusashi said:

It annoys me to no end that, even when surrounded by people who will race to the theater to see every single big budget superhero movie no matter mediocre or worse it is, I can not get anybody whatsoever to watch this show. Even with the pilot available for free on Youtube, everybody just sort of smiles and nods at me like I'm the nerd and then goes back to waiting for fucking "Justice league 2."

I feel you, and I cosign everything else you said, including Jason Alexander as Ventriloquist (although I always thought Stephen Tobolowsky).

Did I mention that we had Rhea Perlman in this episode?

[CletusMusashi]

Holy crap. I didn't even realize that was her, yet I loved the character just fine anyway.

[paigow]

Carla Cremator??? Wtf

[CletusMusashi]

I can't believe it only occurred to me now, during my probably fifth or sixth viewing, how awesomely meta the writers got...

with Joker actually arguing with Harley that one can't just choose a new origin story whenever one chooses to.

[Racj82]

On 8/30/2020 at 12:11 AM, CletusMusashi said:

I can't believe it only occurred to me now, during my probably fifth or sixth viewing, how awesomely meta the writers got...

with Joker actually arguing with Harley that one can't just choose a new origin story whenever one chooses to.

Fifth or sixth viewing? I can't imagine that for anything.

But, the characters are all written so well. Little lines like that are part of the fun for me.

[johntfs]

Late to the party but I loved that they got Frankie Muniz to voice young Frankie Muniz.