Harley Quinn (DC Universe) S02: A-

We didn't have to wait long for a second season of this animated show produced and starred by Kaley Cuoco, she voices Harley. At the beginning of the series we saw the transformation of the Harley from the animated Batman series to a look more similar to the version played by Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad. And actually the whole story arc of Harley Quinn is very similar to the one in Birds Of Prey, probably the last blockbuster in theaters in 2020.

This is an adult animation show with a lot of explicit violence and very gore in essence, like watching a Quentin Tarantino film.

This second season the friendship between Harley and Poison Ivy gets tested, as Poison starts a romantic relationship and Harley is still trying to figure out her life without the Joker around. My favorite episodes where the whole story arc with Darkseid and they showed us another version of the story in the film Justice League, they gave the whole season a more mature storyline to balance with the more lighter in tone. Still this series is suppose to be a comedy so I'm not complaining about that, just that they were the very best episodes of the season.

Poison Ivy (played by Lake Bell) is my favorite incarnation of the role in a live action or animated show or film. She's fun, mature and with that perfect balance between good an evil that you just don't know if she's really a villain or just misunderstood metahuman.

Clayface and King Shark (played by Alan Tudyck and Ron Funches) are an amazing dynamic duo and they can produce a spin off show of this two anti heroes as well. Yes anti heroes, in other incarnations they might be full blown villains, but here Harley Quinn and her crew, even though they are trying to be taken seriously by the Injustice League, the truth is that they are not as bad as the others, they just like to do some bad stuff, but when it comes to world domination, they really don't care about that sort of thing.

This season we get to see the origin story of Batgirl (played by Briana Cuoco, yes younger sister of Kaley), this was another amazing story arc of the season and I'm also hoping for a spin off of this character, another version of Barbara Gordon would come next season on Titans and rumours of a film are still floating after they rejected the Joss Whedon project in favor of Birds Of Prey.

The season finale for me was a weak one, one of the very few weak episodes of the season. But both season 1 and 2 the range of the episodes are above a 9 out of 10 grade. Most of the shows that DC Universe has produced for its platform are highly rated, they are definitely doing something right. But again Warner Bros they don't really know how to handle DC properties and two years after the launch of the DC Universe streaming service they launch HBO max, with this putting in jeopardy the very existence of the DC service.

After the announcement of the max service, DC hasn't green lighted anymore projects, they did cancel Swamp Thing which was a very questionable decision, the show was the highest rated DC show at that moment with an amazing reception from the fans and critics.

The plan so far does not include a merging of the services, in fact there's been some drama going on with some DC titles on HBO max that are going to be left out of the streaming platform this July after just 1 month online. Netflix has been loosing titles as the contracts for rights and distribution expire and they renegotiate them, but that's never in just one month.

The DC/Warner story is very tangled, probably the main reason why the film universe hasn't been as successful as Marvel's. Warner Bros just doesn't know how to handle the comics. This makes me really mad, because I'm a huge DC fan. And this whole mess with HBO max and DC Universe puts in jeopardy the future of existing and future series that were by far better than most of the films they have done.

As of now Harley Quinn has an uncertain future for a season 3. Titans season 3 will still happen on DC Universe (Netflix internationally), Young Justice will return sometime this year for another season at DC Universe. Stargirl is on the air right now on both the DC Universe platform and the CW, who at first passed on the show. Doom Patrol just started its second season now on HBO max, which would be the new home for this show.

If you like animated shows and if you liked the film version of Harley Quinn, you would surely love this series. Highly recommended