Stream It Or Skip It?

Believe it or not, it’s been over three-and-a-half years since James Gunn’s DCEU series Peacemaker debuted. It was so long ago, that HBO Max hadn’t started its dalliance with just being called “Max.” Now the show is back, with John Cena again playing the lunkheaded superhero who just wants people to like him.

PEACEMAKER SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: After a recap of Season 1, we see Chris Smith aka Peacemaker (John Cena) sleeping on a snowy night, and his pet eagle Eagly (voice of Dee Bradley Baker), fly in and start pecking him on the head.

The Gist: Chris punches in the code for the Quantum Unfolding Storage Room to let Eagly in so he can fly around. Standing there in a t-shirt and bikini undies, he sees that Eagly has found a door and keypad similar to what’s in his house. He punches in the code, opens it, and sees an ornate den with headlines about “The Top Trio.” He also sees his father Augie (Robert Patrick) alive and well.

Six months later, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) picks him up and takes him for an interview to get into the Justice Gang. He’s interviewed by Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), whose company funds the gang, as well as Guy Gardner aka Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Kendra Saunders aka Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced). A malfunctioning microphone allows Chris to hear what they all really think of him, despite saving the world, and he bolts.

In the meantime, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is finding it hard to get another government job, as an NSA psychiatrist tells her she suffers from “toxic masculinity.” “What? I have a fucking vagina!” she replies. Chris visits her at her apartment and tries to find out if their night together meant anything to her, and she vehemently says it didn’t. She also goes to a dive bar and picks fights with piggish biker types, just to feel something.

In a desperate state, Chris goes home and pulls out his emergency coke. He also invites an orgy into the house, though he doesn’t partake. Monitoring him is John Economos (Steve Agee), who was sent by ARGUS agent Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez) and her boss, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), when a dimensional anomaly was seen in the vicinity of Chris’ house. Economos sees Chris despondently go into the Quantum Unfolding Storage Room, and he’s so flummoxed about what it is, he actually goes to Leota for more info.

Chris goes to the other doorway and back to the much more ornate version of his Augie’s house. He finds that not only is Augie alive but someone else (David Denman) that he lost in his own world is alive in this one, as well.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Peacemaker has the same tone as Deadpool, The Boys and other irreverent superhero films and series. It’s also a sequel to Peacemaker’s first appearance in Suicide Squad.

Our Take: Peacemaker is already a pretty crazy show, and now with the introduction of a multiverse for Chris to explore, it’s even crazier. But it certainly gives James Gunn, who writes all the episodes and directs most of them (including the second season premiere) room to explore a world where Peacemaker is actually a hero, and how Chris feels about all of this.

And it does feel like the Chris we know will try to inhabit the Chris of that alternate universe he’s discovered, given what we see at the end of the episode. He’s more or less at rock bottom when he goes into the Quantum Unfolding Storage Room during the orgy he put together, and seeing that he might be successful and have an actual loving relationship with his family in the other dimension is going to be too tempting to him. Of course, it’ll also be interesting to see if he runs into different versions of Leota, Emilia, Economos and others there.

But it’s still an anomaly, and one that ARGUS wants to make sure doesn’t cause issues. So we’ll see Flag and Bordeaux pursue it, with the help of Economos. But it does feel that this season will focus on Chris and how he reacts to being in a world that actually embraces him instead of actively wanting him to go away. Cena may not be the most emotional actor, but we can see him communicate how Chris’ confusion over this alternate world gives way to warmth and a longing for being the version of Chris that inhabits a world where things are actually going well.

Sex and Skin: Did we mention that there’s an orgy at Chris’ house?

Parting Shot: We don’t want to spoil it, but while he’s in the Storage Room, Chris does something whose implications he can’t even begin to contemplate.

Sleeper Star: Danielle Brooks’ Leota seems to be the only person in Chris’ corner, even while she’s working on her marriage as well as starting her own agency. But it’ll be interesting to see how her character evolves. Also, Freddie Stroma’s Adrian Chase aka Vigilante seems to need a reason to be a hero again, so that’ll be fun to watch.

Most Pilot-y Line: Emilia calls the psychiatrist the c-word. When he starts writing that down, she goes, “In England, c–t means ‘friend.’”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Peacemaker continues to be a funny but emotional superhero drama, with a surprisingly effective performance by Cena at its center, with a fun-to-watch ensemble around him. Oh, and the second-season opening credits dance sequence, to “Oh Lord” by Foxy Shazam, is pretty good too.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.