"Til Death Do Us Part" is the premiere episode of DC's Harley Quinn, a DC Universe Original animated series. The premiere episode follows Harley Quinn as she sets off to rule Gotham City and separate herself from being known as "The Joker's Girlfriend".
Harley Quinn is an American adult animated web television series based on the Harley Quinn character created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm that premiered on November 29, 2019 on DC Universe, and will initially consist of 13 episodes. The series is set to be written and executive produced by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey and will follow the misadventures of Harley Quinn and her partner in crime, Poison Ivy, after leaving her abusive ex-boyfriend the Joker.
Voice Cast:
Kaley Cuoco as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn
Lake Bell as Dr. Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy
Alan Tudyk as Joker, Basil Karlo / Clayface, Julian Day / Calendar Man
Diedrich Bader as Bruce Wayne / Batman
Jim Rash as Edward Nygma / Riddler
Chris Meloni as Commissioner James Gordon
Episode Summary (Spoilers)
After an unsuccessful robbery on a yacht, Harley Quinn, henchwoman and girlfriend to the Joker, is once again shipped off to the Arkham Asylum while Joker evades custody. Harley remains confident that Joker will break her out, but she waits a whole year before Poison Ivy helps her escape and tries to convince Harley that Joker does not love her. Despite Ivy's support, Harley's attempt to break up with Joker fails as he convinces her that they should stay together. Later, when Harley goes to kill Riddler on Joker's orders, she is captured alongside Batman and Riddler forces Joker to choose who to save and who will die. Because his obsession with Batman outweighs any attachment he has to Harley, Joker chooses to save Batman. It turns out, however, that the entire ploy was set up by Ivy in collaboration with Riddler, to drive the point home that she means nothing to Joker. Finally convinced, Harley dons a new costume and officially breaks up with Joker, declaring her independence and ambition to rule Gotham.
The Verdict:
The first episode premiered on DC Universe last week before Thanksgiving and since a lot of my friends have been asking me my opinion on it, I figured I would offer a quick take on it. To be honest, I wasn't planning on talking about it until the entire season finished airing but I got enough to get the cogs turning from this pilot episode.
At first, I was laughing at the extreme violence of this for the sake of comedy but when it kept on being gruesome just to be gruesome, it was beginning to be a turn off in a sense. In a lot of ways, I see this show like SuperJail on Adult Swim where they used extreme violence in a similar manner for their adult comedy, but here it seems a bit excessive.
I was more entertained a Commissioner Gordon coming off like a crazed drunk, playing with the Bat Signal, than anything else in this pilot episode. Poison Ivy being the voice of reason was laughable at first, but then I had to remind myself that she was the one who pointed out how toxic The Joker was to Harley in Batman: The Animated Series too. After all of these years, that pairing just works and I can see why the comics made them officially a couple. I don't see this show jumping into that territory right off the bat, but it should be a slow burn after all of the mischief that Harley gets herself into after distancing herself away from The Joker. Speaking of which, I'm glad to see Alan Tudyk continue to get work with DC Comics-based properties following the cancellation of Powerless. He's a great fit for this iteration of The Joker, even though he impressed me a lot as Mr. Nobody in Doom Patrol earlier this year. Joker loving anything else but his obsession with Batman is nothing new in regards to the traditional Batman mythos, but I do applaud Ivy's manipulation of The Riddler to open Harley's eyes to the fact.
I can't say that I'm 100% sold on Kaley Cuoco's iteration of Harley Quinn, but ask me again about her performance after a few more episodes. Unlike most people, I didn't have a problem with Melissa Rauch's Harley Quinn in the Batman & Harley Quinn animated movie. I thought she was major step up from Tara Strong rehashing and recycling the same voices she's done since the Beetlejuice animated series to God knows whatever else she's currently working on (probably that horrid reboot to Ben 10 on Cartoon Network), while coming off as a cheap knock off of Arleen Sorkin. If it were up to me, I would get Sheri Moon Zombie to voice Harley Quinn. She would be a natural fit in an adult comedy like this, since it's in the same vein of The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, where she voiced Suzi-X.
Maybe there was an audio issue on DC Universe's app, but when Harley was talking to Harleen Quinzel, Harleen's voice would playback almost to a whisper to the point I had to double the volume on my TV to hear what she was saying. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it came off a little annoying in that regard. The few times where I did enjoy reading her comics that are best described as being "really out there in left field", they were insights into who she was before being manipulated by The Joker into being his sidekick and her striving to be her own individual who was addicted to their abusive relationship. Even her short, but extremely lacking solo DLC campaign in Batman: Arkham Knight briefly touched on Harley's damage psyche where she would constantly have to internally debate her actions with her former self. That's something else that I hope isn't lost at this show's attempts to flood the runtime for this season with senseless violence just for the sake of their mature rating with little thought for character development. I loved SuperJail for it's over-the-top violence, but underneath all of that they had a story that carried it forward for it's four seasons. That's what I hope to see from DC's Harley Quinn over the course of this season. Don't fall into the trap of glamorizing that psychopath The Joker anymore than people already get off on that. The live-action Joker movie did that enough this year. We don't need to see that on the other end of the spectrum with Harley Quinn. Now is the opportunity to open a lot of people's eyes on how much of a piece of shit he is in his relationship with Harley Quinn and how he damaged her - physically, mentally, and emotionally - and show her road to recovery. It made for great reading in her comics over the recent years and it would make for great television too that's for damn sure.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
If you're a fan of The Joker or anything Harley Quinn or Batman, you're going to watch this regardless, but this definitely isn't for the faint of heart or squeamish. The violence is rather extreme in some sequences - definitely NOT for kids in any shape or form. Also, this proves to be another DC Universe Original following the trend that DC's Titans started where it that feels like it has to throw out every extremity/curse word like a sailor, with the word "fuck" littered into every bit of dialogue. I'm currently playing it by ear, much like Young Justice Season 3, where I doubt I'm going to cover all of it or any of it at all before I see all of the season in its entirety. For the initial pilot episode, this isn't a bad start, but at the same time, I can't see myself going out of my way to watch this every week.
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