More than three years after the titular character appeared on our television screens, Season 2 of “Peacemaker” is finally here. Coming off 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 alien race that threatened to take over the world. The series boasted a comedic tone and a cast that had great chemistry. Still, underneath the surface, writer and director James Gunn created a superhero show that focused on a man who struggled to understand what it means to carry this mantle. Though it seemed like Season 2 would follow the same tone as the first, Gunn has doubled down on the small moments that made this series stand out, crafting a second season that almost feels like an entirely different show.
From this season’s opening moments, there’s an unmistakable shift that has taken place in the world of “Peacemaker.” With his father dead, Chris now lives in his old house, roaming around its halls like a ghost. Too lazy to go outside to take his pet eagle, Eagly, for a walk, Chris instead opens the door to his father’s secret quantum unfolding storage area and lets Eagly go for a ride. He quickly notices the animal is drawn to a door that looks exactly like his own, and when he opens it, he’s greeted by his father’s doppelganger. Although Chris leaves this dimension in a hurry, he slowly becomes increasingly drawn to it, learning that in this universe, he and his father have a good relationship and are even celebrated as heroes of a crime-fighting trio.
In the universe where he currently resides, Chris and his friends aren’t seen as serious heroes, despite defeating an alien race and saving the world. In an audition to be in the Justice Gang, shepherded by Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) and current members Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), the trio seems unimpressed with Chris’s resume. They ignore him when he answers their questions, and clearly see him as too volatile a hero for the work they do. Outside of the superhero realm and inside of it, Chris isn’t seen as good enough. With the mantle of Peacemaker weighing heavily over his head, he turns to alcohol and drugs to soothe his pain.
There is nothing that will stop the weight of Chris’s grief, which he seems uninterested in discussing with his friends beyond a throwaway joke. Lonely and unable to figure out his purpose, his obsession with the quantum unfolding storage area threatens to consume him. It doesn’t matter that there is another version of himself that exists there; Chris will do whatever it takes to adopt the life that his doppelganger has. Everything Chris has ever wanted exists in this universe: fame, fortune, his father’s love, and even Emilia Harcourt’s (Jennifer Holland) affections. While Chris and his gang still hang out on rooftops and call each other for backup when something goes wrong, there has been a clear fracturing within their relationship as a group, as well as within their singular dynamics.
Season 2 of “Peacemaker” is still filled with laughs, sometimes so rip-roaring that they overshadow the seriousness of the story at hand. Yet there’s a heaviness here that didn’t course through each storyline last season, as if it’s fused to the bodies each of these characters exists within. While Chris is dealing with his feelings of grief and regret, his comrades aren’t faring much better. Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) is now separated from her wife, and is desperate for more spy work; Harcourt has been blacklisted from every intelligence agency in the country; Economos’ (Steve Agee) new job as an A.R.G.U.S. agent threatens his place within the group; and Adrian’s (Freddie Stroma) desperation for Chris’ approval weights heavy upon his shoulders. Each of these core characters carries a broken soul, and the only people they seem to find solace in are each other.
When they’re apart, they’re each desperately trying to fill that void, whether it be with bar fights with men twice their size or with fleeting business ventures that seem superficial. “Peacemaker” is always at its best when these five share the screen, and unfortunately, there’s not much of that within this season’s first five episodes. The characters themselves clearly long to be in each other’s presence again, and it’s impossible not to feel the same. Watching these characters embark on their respective paths is still entertaining, but the lack of a cohesive relationship between the core five is noticeable throughout. This isn’t to say that the show has lost its bite with Season 2, but it does lose some of the sincerity that pulsed through the foundations of its first season.
Despite the lack of shared scenes between the 11th Street Kids, “Peacemaker” remains a standout in superhero television. Often, these shows are desperate to connect smaller stories to the bigger universes they exist within, abandoning any semblance of a contained plot along the way. It’s clear that the ideas surrounding different universes and dimensions are integral to the progression of the newly set-up DCU. Still, this series doesn’t stray away from its humble beginnings. Instead, Gunn continues to build upon these characters and their struggles, while bringing them to the forefront of a universe that is quickly expanding. With Season 2, it’s even clearer now that there are no better hands for these characters to be in, whether they exist within the story of “Peacemaker” or the broader extension of the on-screen DC universe.
Five episodes were screened for review. Series premieres August 21st.
