Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk Ron Funches, Tony Hale, Matt Oberg, Jason Alexander, Diedrich Bader, Christopher Meloni, J.B. Smoove, Jim Rash, James Adomian, Vanessa Marshall, Phil LaMarr, Briana Cuoco, James Wolk, Tom Hollander, Sean Giambrone, Michael Ironside, Rory Scovel, Sanaa Lathan, Rachel Dratch.
Subversion is a game played geniuses. To subvert the norm is a political act of will carried out by those who wish to shift attitudes and destroy boundaries with all the artistic integrity they can muster, whilst at all times, conforming to the point of art; to alter a person’s view through beauty, through insight, and with passion.
Subversion is only to be feared if you are the ones hell bent on stifling human creativity, if you don’t allow even the minority to have a voice; it takes courage to threaten the dull attitudes of the unimaginative, and it is for that reason arguably why D.C.’s Harley Quinn has consistently been seen as one of the major comic book player’s most appreciated characters; and on the back of the success of her own solo animated adventures, it is only right that the second series is just as rebellious and full of insubordination as the first, and the mirror it holds up to the repressed nature of society is anxious for the beliefs it is willing to smash wide open.
The graphic novels that have been a huge inspiration for the adaptors and writers of the series could not have been more revered to the source material at hand, and it is the second series that Harley Quinn, voiced by the impeccable Kaley Cuoco, firmly establishes herself amongst the top draw of D.C.s roster, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Joker to hold themselves both on screen and in animated form to such an extent that they become iconic and framing a point in time where the zeitgeist patiently waits for them to milk the applause of a grateful audience.
It is to the long standing relationship between Poison Ivy and the former sidekick to Batman’s greatest nemesis, turned outright superstar, that pays homage to the graphic novels that have not shied away from the love between psychopathic genius and misunderstood botanist and eco saviour card carrying Pamela Isley, and whilst played for laughs in some respects, it nonetheless serves the purpose of showing how attitudes have altered, have shifted, to the point where supposed villains are considered important role models in the LGBT arena.
To subvert the norm is to push back against the rigid dullness of someone else’s intolerance and bigotry, and in Harley Quinn series 2, the pushback is absolute, critical, cool personified, and utterly welcome.
Ian D. Hall