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Cross star Samantha Walkes spoke with us about the Prime Video series, working with showrunner Ben Watkins and star Aldis Hodge, and more.
Posted in: HBO, Review, streaming, TV | Tagged: hbo max, james gunn, John Cena, judomaster, peacemaker, Review
Peacemaker Season 1 Episode 3 Finds a Crisis of Conscience: Review
The third episode of the HBO Max series Peacemaker "Better Goff Dead" has the entire team go on their first mission together. That mission? To take out a suspected "butterfly", which the title character (John Cena) knows nothing about aside from being human. The target is traveling with family and is returning home as the team waits to launch their ambush with Chris ready in a sniper's perch. With the window closing before any action can be taken, the team opts to try to wait out the target until Peacemaker can land a clean shot. As per the usual drawn-out sequences, we get the downtime where the team gets to know one another better. Prior to their arrival, they get way too much TMI intel from the greenest of the team, Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), which gets played for some quality laughs.
The mission, very on-brand for the comedy-action series, goes south every which way you can imagine- including a maybe-not-so-surprising case of PTSD and morals coming into play with our main man. The covert mission naturally turns to rescue with hilarious results, with special attention due to Nhut Le's Judomaster. Delivering vicious one-liners as viciously as he does his martial arts, he almost becomes too much for the team to handle with Le delivering another memorable performance for "The Suicide Squad" spinoff series (especially a scene with Cena where he cruelly chucks his snacks at him mid-dialogue).
Peacemaker is starting to feel like one of these rare series where the main characters might not be as safe as you might think when you compare it to what television usually delivers us- where our main characters luck into and out of situations like these with very little if any fallout or impact from them. Helping fuel the meta nature of the show are characters like Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Clemson Mum (Chukwudi Iwuji), who fit into the mold of "sick of your s**t" where it feels sometimes like they might die sooner from an aneurysm from the team's incompetence than actually be killed in the line of duty. In a sense, they represent the side of the viewer very few shows are willing to represent- the ones who yell at the screen in total frustration but with a love that still keeps them coming back. While Peacemaker continues to turn a corner, there's still more to unravel from arguably the most likable d**k from DC.
Peacemaker: Season 1 Episode 3: "Better Goff Dead"
8/10
Gunn churns another home run in the not-so-black-and-white world of HBO Max's Peacemaker, with the main man realizing that his philosophy of "peace by any means necessary" doesn't mesh well with a growing... conscience?! And viewers realizing that Chris gaining that epiphany in the middle of a mission is probably not a good thing...
Credits
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James Gunn
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