{"id":164396,"date":"2025-08-21T18:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164396\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:03:11","slug":"change-is-good-in-emotional-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164396\/","title":{"rendered":"Change Is Good in Emotional New Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

So much has changed in the three-and-a-half years \u201cPeacemaker\u201d<\/a> has been off the air that Season 2 can\u2019t even start before fans come face to face with significant tweaks. The Season 1 recap that plays ahead of the Season 2 premiere<\/a> (in the critics\u2019 screeners, at least) replaces the finale\u2019s original Justice League cameos<\/a> (Jason Momoa\u2019s Aquaman and Ezra Miller\u2019s The Flash) with appearances from Justice Gang members Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced). One alteration by addition begs another by subtraction: The recap strangely excludes all footage of Project Butterfly, the bad guys who dominated Season 1, even though Season 2 does acknowledge the dismissal of its leader, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a> \"Actors<\/a> <\/p>\n

All of these changes, along with a handful of scattered references throughout Season 2, reflect how creator, writer, and director James Gunn<\/a> aims to reposition \u201cPeacemaker<\/a>\u201d in DC\u2019s new world order. <\/p>\n

In moving on from the DCEU, Gunn\u2019s vision as co-chairman and co-CEO (alongside Peter Safran) includes a shared universe of interconnected characters (a la the MCU) and soloed stories that inhabit their own \u201cElseworlds\u201d (like \u201cThe Batman: Part II\u201d<\/a>). \u201cPeacemaker,\u201d which premiered months before \u201cThe Flash\u201d and \u201cAquaman 2\u201d oh-so-briefly played in theaters, instinctually makes sense as a standalone story, but Season 2 makes clear that John Cena<\/a>\u2018s steadily reforming douchebag still has a home in the new DCU (no \u201cE\u201d required.)<\/p>\n

Such changes may be necessary to ensure future seasons of \u201cPeacemaker,\u201d and fans should rejoice accordingly. But even more than the massive atmospheric adjustments happening around him, it\u2019s our ox of a protagonist\u2019s inner transformation that stands out as Season 2\u2019s grandest shift. He, too, is trying to move on from a disastrous past, and he, too, feels the pull to be part of something bigger and better, nicer and newer. <\/p>\n

Telling a smaller, simpler story with bigger, knottier emotions, \u201cPeacemaker\u201d Season 2 isn\u2019t just retconning the Max original series into the broader DCU; it\u2019s revamping its antihero into a more traditional hero.<\/p>\n

Well, a more traditional hero who still swears too much, fights too rough, and busts a move at the start of every episode. If the revised Season 1 recap doesn\u2019t illustrate what\u2019s different about Season 2, the new dance sequence sure will. That\u2019s right \u2014 new. The cast\u2019s quirky-jerky opening titles routine became a buzzy, then beloved part<\/a> of the first season\u2019s weekly release, and instead of simply repeating the sequence in Season 2, choreographer Charissa Barton returns with fresh steps, set to a different power ballad, incorporating even more cast members.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s fantastic. <\/p>\n

That risk pays dividends within a few sittings and, after five of the eight episodes, the return on Season 2 is trending up for largely the same reason. \u201cPeacemaker\u201d could\u2019ve easily continued on by building each subsequent season around a new mission while milking laughs from ludicrous action scenes and goofing around with its affable cast. It still does that \u2014\u00a0the action is always gruesome and engrossing, while the laughs fly in from every angle (make sure to watch through the credits) \u2014 but Season 2 delves deeper into Peacemaker\u2019s internal impasse, as well, examining a personal crisis from which Peacemaker can\u2019t fight himself free.<\/p>\n

Apologies for the vagaries, but much of what complicates Peacemaker\u2019s plight is embargoed (despite being revealed in the first episode). Here\u2019s what I can say: Season 2 starts with Chris Smith (Cena), aka Peacemaker, hyped for a job interview. The Justice Gang is looking to expand beyond the four metahumans it has at the end of \u201cSuperman,\u201d and Peacemaker thinks he\u2019s a perfect fit. Those reckless homicidal tendencies? Reined in. Team-building skills? Stepped up. Super-powered helmets? Still shiny. <\/p>\n

\"'Peacemaker'Steve Agee and Tim Meadows in \u2018Peacemaker\u2019Courtesy of Curtis Bonds Baker \/ Max<\/p>\n

But the hiring committee doesn\u2019t want to hear about any of that. They think they know who Peacemaker is before he sits down for the interview, and their uncaring dismissal sends Chris seeking solace wherever he can get it. <\/p>\n

First, he tries Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), his former team leader and current crush,\u00a0who also doesn\u2019t want anything to do with him. Despite a connection that\u2019s grown in the six months since she woke up from a coma, Harcourt is too accustomed to shutting people out to let love in. She has her own past traumas to overcome \u2014\u00a0some of which come to light via flashbacks \u2014\u00a0but, unlike Chris, she\u2019s not \u201cworking on herself\u201d or breaking negative behavioral patterns. (A reversal of gender norms Gunn cheekily acknowledges when Harcourt is diagnosed with a \u201csevere form of toxic masculinity.\u201d) If anything, she\u2019s leaning in after being blackballed from \u201cthe entire fucking alphabet of intelligence agencies\u201d \u2014\u00a0one last \u201cfuck you\u201d from Amanda Waller before she left office. Without a legal outlet for her anger, Harcourt spends her ample free time drinking heavily and picking fights at bars.<\/p>\n

The rest of the 11th Street Kids aren\u2019t doing great either. Leota (Danielle Brooks) got dumped by her dreamgirl and can\u2019t get her new business off the ground. Adrian\/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) is stuck working at a fast-casual restaurant called Fennel Farms, and Economos (Steve Agee) is still slaving away for A.R.G.U.S., who recently assigned him the paradoxical task of spying on Peacemaker. <\/p>\n

Each character is struggling to marry their personal ambitions with professional demands, which gives \u201cPeacemaker\u201d an office comedy vibe from time to time. These coworkers had something good going before their higher-ups drove them apart, and now their paths forward are either blocked by the powers that be or require them to betray their individual ethos \u2014 or each other. <\/p>\n

Fittingly, given his physical and figurative size in our story, Peacemaker\u2019s choice is even more extreme. One morning, while using his dad\u2019s old \u201cquantum unfolding storage area that leads to a dimensional nodule outside normal space\u201d \u2014 aka a closet with doorways to other dimensions \u2014\u00a0Chris peeks through a door and discovers an alternate reality where his dad isn\u2019t just alive, but he\u2019s nice. The Auggie (Robert Patrick) Chris grew up with was an emotionally and physically abusive racist who blamed his youngest son for his oldest son\u2019s death. In this other dimension, he\u2019s a sweetheart and a superhero who fights crime alongside Peacemaker, earning accolades and applause wherever they go.<\/p>\n

So when Peacemaker\u2019s world rejects him \u2014 he can\u2019t be a superhero, he can\u2019t be with Harcourt, and he can\u2019t be with his family (Auggie died in Season 1) \u2014 Chris considers walking into the open arms of another, better reality. Why do all the hard work to be accepted by people and places that won\u2019t give you the time of day when you can take the easy route to the good life? (Alt-dimension Peacemaker is also rich, presumably from his super-popular superhero-dom.)<\/p>\n

Whether a fresh start (so to speak) is the right fit for him is a question as intriguing for our hero as its broader interpretation is irrelevant to the series \u2014 \u201cPeacemaker\u2019s\u201d future home within the DCU has already been decided, so it doesn\u2019t matter if Gunn\u2019s attempt to retrofit him into a universe he wasn\u2019t made for is the right one. But finding out where a rehabilitated villain who\u2019s been repeatedly abandoned by his family, friends, and colleagues actually belongs is a compelling and ambitious arc for Chris Smith, and how it plays out in the final three episodes is an ending I\u2019m actively looking forward to. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeacemaker\u201d Season 2 may be a little out of step when it comes to balancing its earnest emotional journey and its brazen blend of action and comedy, but the ambition, imagination, and resonance makes this dance too dynamic to ignore. Change may not be easy or smooth, but it\u2019s also rarely boring. More superhero stories should remember that.<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/p>\n

\u201cPeacemaker\u201d Season 2 premieres Thursday, August 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max<\/a>. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on October 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So much has changed in the three-and-a-half years \u201cPeacemaker\u201d has been off the air that Season 2 can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,487,956,5234,58723,11853,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-164396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hbo-max","10":"tag-james-gunn","11":"tag-john-cena","12":"tag-peacemaker","13":"tag-reviews","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115068076245466698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}