Peacemaker
I didn't really talk too much about Peacemaker as a character in my re-watch of "The Suicide Squad" because John Cena's character is getting an eight episode showcase. So, we're going to be talking about him a lot. When I initially heard that James Gunn was going to be spearheading a Peacemaker series, I was confused. But, now, I get it. Believe it or not, there's layers to Peacemaker and Gunn is bound and determined to bring those out without losing the irreverence, comedy and action we got in "The Suicide Squad." Let's check out the first two episodes of "Peacemaker." (All episodes are available to stream on HBO Max.)
"A Whole New Whirled"
Jamil: "There's no superhero called Peacemaker."
Christopher Smith: "Dude, I'm fuckin' famous."
Jamil: "Noththat famous. Aquaman, he's famous."
Christopher Smith: "Fuck Aquaman!"
Jamil: "no, man, don't say that. Why say that?"
Christopher Smith: "He bangs chicks? Good for him. He fucks dudes? Got no problem with that. He starts fuckin' fish? That's taking it a step too far."
Jamil: "Aquaman fucks fish?"
Chrisopher Smith: "Yeah."
Jamil: "I don't believe it."
Chrostopher Smith: "A guy on Twitter works for the aquarium, said for 50 bucks, he brings him in the back so he can have his way with a sturgeon."
Jamil: "I refuse to believe that."
Christopher Smith: "And I refuse to believe that @PepetheFrog89 is lying to me for no reason."
Jamil: "Oh, Peacemaker!"
Christopher Smith: "Yes!"
Jamil: "you only kiill minorities, man!"
Christopher Smith: "I killed a fair amount of white people too!"
Jamil: "The ratio is suspect, is all I have to say!"
Christopher Smith: "if somebody's committing a crime..."
Jamil: "Yes?"
Christopher Smith: "Am I supposed to control what their ethnicity is?"
Jamil: "No,. But you need to watch white people as closely as you watch people of color, so you see more of them committing crimes."
Christopher Smith: "Fine. That's... That's a good point. I will trust white people less in the future, and kill a higher percentage of them. Are you satisfied?"
Jamil: "yes. Thank you."
Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker is released from the hospital with minor injuries seeing as how he was shot and a building fell on him. Peacemaker thinks that he is scot free but he is met by Amanda Waller's agents at his trailer. Clemson Murn, Emilia Harcourt, John Economos and Leota Adebayo want Peacemaker to hunt down "butterflies" and his first target is a US Senator. After a disheartening meeting with his racist dad, Auggie, and a disheartening dinner with his team, Smith takes a woman home for some fun. But the fun ends, when she brutally attacks Peacemaker.
 |
| If Cena shows ass, you'll see it here. |
A really good Peacemaker series? Who would've thunk it? Honestly, I should have. James Gunn is shepherding this and his magic translates from the big screen to the small screen. Gunn wrote all eight episodes of this first season and directed all but two of them. With his strong hand guiding things, I don't think the quality of these first two episodes are a fluke.
I didn't talk about John Cena too much in my re-watch of "The Suicide Squad" because I knew I was going to talk about him a lot here. Confession, this is the third time that I've watched the "Peacemaker" pilot and it is great every single time and each time I watch it, I see something that I didn't see the last time. What is the same each time is how amazing John Cena is. Christopher Smith is a bit of a difficult character. He's a bad guy who thinks he's a good guy. You need a certain kind of actor that is gong to make the audience root for him. And Cena is definitely that guy. Peacemaker is super offensive and Cena is super charming which helps make those moments palatable. Peacemaker has a childlike quality. Take when he calls the waitress sweet cheeks. He honestly thought that he was talking about the cheeks on her face. And he seems mortified when he's informed otherwise. But he has no issues with "sugar tits." I get the feeling that this series will be a lot about Smith realizing that maybe he is a bad guy and has been doing things wrong and what he does with that information.
The supporting cast is great. Jennifer Holland is fantastic as Emilia Harcourt. A take no prisoners bad ass who just wants to get shit done. Holland is especially great in the bar scene with Peacemaker where she rejects his advances and tells him very succinctly how difficult it can be a woman in a bar just trying to unwind by herself. It's something that we've seen on television before but maybe not in such a matter of fact way or after the woman almost breaks the finger of a dude who's just accosted her.
There's still a lot of questions about Danielle Brooks' Leota Adebayo. She has a lovely wife who she is lying to and she her awkward charm doesn't seem to fit in with black ops government work. But then we learn that she is the daughter of Amanda Waller and seems to have some talents that we haven't seen yet and she's going to plant a fake diary in Peacemaker's trailer. The plot is thickening with each scene.
We don't get much from Clemson Murn and John Economos. Economos is the typical comic support IT guy who Smith is continuously razzing by calling Dye Beard. There's clearly more going on with Murn based on how people are reacting to him, but we are left to wonder in this first episode.
Meeting Peacemaker's dad, Auggie Smith, answers a lot of questions about Christoper Smith. Auggie is just an irredeemable trash person. The racist and homophobic slurs just fall from his mouth and we all know people like Smith, particularly in our post-Trump America where people seem more willing than ever to let their prejudice flags fly. Auggie is the man who trained Chris and manufactured his gear including his helmets. Who knew each of Peacemaker's helmets had its own special power. Mad props to Robert Patrick, the T-1000 himself. This is a tough role and one not a lot of actors would want to take on, but he does an amazing job.
The episode ends with a knockdown drag out brawl between Peacemaker and the woman he took home from the bar. It is bone crunching. The fight choreography here is off the chain. You feel every knife slice, every slam. Smith gets thrown through walls. He jumps out a window and slams into the pavement, saved from super grievous energies by a canopy he hits on the way down. The sonic boom in his helmet leaves his adversary goo on the pavement but as sirens sound, Smith is left with more questions than answers.
Grade: A
"Best Friends For Never"
Christopher Smith: "Do you read the news?"
Vigilante: "No. What for? It's depressing."
After blowing up his assailant, Peacemaker has somehow evade the cops and remove evidence (plus some other items) from her apartment. Luckily, Harcourt and Leota are on the scene to help, but not before Smith ties up a couple and hurts himself many, many times jumping from balcony to balcony. Due to some tranq darts by Harcourt and bribery by Leota, Smith gets away without being caught or fingered by the couple. Unbeknownst to him though, computer work by Economos and the aforementioned bribery lead to his dad being framed and landing in jail. After all this, Peacemaker is joined by his friend? Vigilante for some unwinding in the woods.
A character I didn't mention is Adrian Chase aka Vigilante played by Freddie Stroma. I'm most familiar with Stroma from playing the sleazy bachelor in the show "Unreal." He's the complete opposite here. A nerdy awkward busboy who harbors the secret that he is actually a vigilante who doesn't seem to distinguish between murder, robbery or graffiti when it comes to doling out punishments. He finds Chris laying on his bed sobbing and berating himself. It's a rough scene but luckily Vigilante shows up to interrupt the self loathing session. It's great to see Chris kind of use Vigilante's admiration in him to rebuild his confidence and get some housecleaning done. For someone who goes around killing criminals, Vigilante is pretty naive. He doesn't even know what a Fleshjack is.
Aside from meeting Vigilante and getting to see more of his relationship with Peacemaker, there isn't a ton that happens this episode. We don't learn a to of stuff and aside from one thing we don't really get anything that moves the overarching plot forward and for a show that is only eight episodes, that can be a bit of an issue.
The first twenty minutes of the episode is Peacemaker trying to escape from the apartment complex and evade the cops. It's an entertaining sequence for sure. Peacemaker gathers his things but steals a lot from his deceased one night stand and him continuously having to gather those things up is a good gag. He gets in the middle of the marital squabbles of a couple named Amber and Evan which leads to the bribery that Leota needs to perform. This is all great, but did it need to be the entire first half of the episode? It just feels like kind of a waste of time. Time that could be spent on more important things?
The same could be said of the montage of Peacemaker and Vigilante destroying appliances that Vigilante has been collecting with various weapons. Again, it's a lot of fun and there are a lot of humorous bits but was it really necessary? I'm willing to justify it by saying that it does help define and add some depth to the relationship between Vigilante and Peacmaker. Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself.
There are a few interesting things that happen plot wise. There is brief dissension in the ranks when talking about how Peacemaker inadvertently took a butterfly home. The idea of mole is dropped when Peacemaker admits that he left the folder about his target out for her to look through, but I don't think we should drop the idea so quickly. I think there might be a mole and my money is on Clemson Murn. We'll see if I'm right.
Due to Economos' hacking and Amber and Evan being paid off, Auggie Smith is framed for the acts of his son and ends up in prison. There we learn that he used to go by the name of the White Dragon and he still has the respect of a lot of the racist skinheads in the prison. Them bowing to him and heiling was maybe one of the most chilling things I've seen in a long while.
The end of the episode sees Peacemaker, Amber and Vigilante post-coitus. Peacemaker inspects the strange device that was in the butterfly's apartment. As he's checking it out, it changes shape into a spaceship looking formation. We'll find out what that means in future episodes.
Grade: B
Next up, Judomaster hits the scene and Peacemaker finds out his dad's in prison.
What do you all think of these first two episodes? Are you enjoying the show? Is John Cena killing it? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment