I originally tried out the first two episodes of the animated "Harley Quinn" series back when it first premiered, and decided that the show wasn't for me. It's an unapologetically R-rated, over-the-top take on the Batman universe from the point of view of Harley (Kelly Cuoco), who breaks up with the Joker (Alan Tudyk) in the premiere to strike it out on her own. There's a lot of blood and guts, and everyone curses like a sailor. The first episode laid on the gratuitous mature content so thick, it was hard to pay attention to anything else. The second episode with Harley crashing a bar mitzvah was more my speed, but wasn't enough to win me over.
So, it took a while for me to get back to the other eleven episodes of the first season, but I'm glad that I finally did. Yes, the profanities still fly fast and furious, and the amount of gore is frequently over the top. However, "Harley Quinn" settled down after a few episodes into an appealing chronicle of Harley's quest to become a supervillain. She recruits a crew, comprised of hammy actor Clayface (also Tudyk), Doctor Psycho (Tony Hale) who has various mind powers, half-man half-shark King Shark (Ron Funches), and elderly ex-war criminal Sy Borgman (Jason Alexander). These are all fellow losers who discover they're better off being losers together. Then there's Harley's long time gal pal Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), who gamely supports her bestie through the tough times and frequently bails her out of trouble. It's Ivy who Harley ends up crashing with after parting ways with Mr. J.
Most of the season is taken up with Harley trying to up her villainy game enough to be noticed by the Legion of Doom supervillain organization, while she tries her best to get over the Joker. Running subplots include Ivy dating the dorky Kite Man (Matt Oberg) on the down low, Commissioner Gordon (Christopher Meloni) having marriage troubles, and Harley buddying up to The Queen of Fables (Wanda Sykes), a supervillainess currently transformed into a talking book. I like the ways that the series skewers existing DC media and presents some wildly different takes on familiar characters. Batman (Diedrich Bader) and Joker and Lex Luthor (Giancarlo Esposito) are more or less consistent, but Ivy, now updated with green skin, a potted roommate named Frank the Plant (J.B. Smoove), and a wonderful deadpan demeanor, is suddenly much more fun to get to know and hang out with. And a sad-sack Bane (James Adomian) is low-key one of the funniest characters in the show.
This version of Gotham takes a lot of cues from the "Venture Brothers" universe - superheroics and supervillainy are more commonplace career choices, such that there's an agency you can use to help you recruit minions, and your local realtor can help you find the perfect villain lair. Getting into the Legion of Doom gets you access to a lot of perks, but you have to submit paperwork and check with HR before blowing up the coffee guy. Harley reminds me an awful lot of Dr. Venture and the Monarch, with her single-minded obsession with proving her worth as a supervillain, and the giant emotional pitfalls that seem to trip her up at every turn. The difference is that Harley is enabled by a more solid support system to work past a lot of her issues in these thirteen episodes. We get stories about her terrible family, her past with the Joker, and her awfully sweet friendship with Ivy. Also, it helps that Harley is actually very good at supervillainy.
There's also a lot of influence from "Rick and Morty," especially the quippy dialogue full of non-sequiturs and pop culture references. It's nice, however, that many of the references are in-universe, and highlight some of the more obscure corners of the DC universe. A lot of the weirder villains show up, like Maxie Zeus (Will Sasso) and Giganta (Vanessa Marshall). However, the show also breaks new ground, having Doctor Psycho get his ass cancelled for calling Wonder Woman (also Marshall) the C-word during a battle, or having Howie Mandell guest star as himself, and get quickly killed off by the Joker. As a fan of many previous DC shows, it's also a treat to see the old school version of Aquaman (Chris Diamatopoulos), and Harley back in her original costume briefly.
Speaking of the costume, I really appreciate the show for giving us a more thoughtful bridge between the old "Batman: The Animated Series" version of Harley, and the post-"Suicide Squad" version. The writers do a good job of setting up her personal growth arc and paying it off in a way that none of the other versions of the breakup story have. I've always been a little iffy on Harley as a character because she's often a bundle of tropes that don't seem to fit together, but this time around, it's easier to appreciate her as somebody who's still working through a lot of baggage to find herself.
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