tek's rating:

Harley Quinn, on DC Universe (s1-2) / (HBO) Max (s3-5)
Break Room of Geeks (s1); DC; DC Database; IMDb; TV Tango; TV Tropes; Warner Bros.; Wikia; Wikipedia; World's Finest

Caution: spoilers.

This animated series began in 2019, but I didn't have a chance to start watching it until 2025, by which point there were five seasons. It's definitely not a show for kids. It has extreme (often gory) violence, plus adult language and situations. It's also freakin' hilarious.

Season One
In the first episode, Harley Quinn (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) is sent to Arkham Asylum after a robbery gone wrong with the Joker (Alan Tudyk). She expects him to break her out, but a year goes by before she's finally broken out- by Poison Ivy (Lake Bell). Ivy wants to convince Harley that the Joker doesn't care about her, but it takes the whole episode to do so. Harley finally breaks up with Joker, and changes her outfit to reflect her new independence. Harlely moves in with Ivy, whose landlord, Sy Borgman (Jason Alexander), is an elderly cyborg and former CIA fixer. Ivy also has a friend/roommate named Frank, a talking, carnivorous plant.

Harley decides she wants to join the Legion of Doom, and to that end she assembles a crew of criminals to help her make a name for herself in Gotham as a supervillain. They include Clayface (Tudyk), who is a shapeshifting, hammy thespian; Doctor Psycho (Tony Hale), a misogynist with psychic/telekinetic powers; and King Shark (Ron Funches), who... is basically a nice, normal guy, except for being half shark. They occasionally get some help from Ivy, though she doesn't consider herself part of Harley's crew. They pull of a number of jobs, and Harley decides she needs a nemesis, so she goes after Batman (Deiedrich Bader, who previously voiced the character in Batman: The Brave and the Bold). That doesn't work out, though, and neither does trying to get Superman as a nemesis. At one point, they all get kicked out of Ivy's apartment by Sy, but he subsequently becomes a member of Harley's crew. And they find a new lair.

Another character we occasionally see is Commissioner Jim Gordon, who is an emotional wreck. Also, Ivy starts dating a rather cringe villain called Kite Man, but she's embarressed about this, and keeps it a secret for most of the season. The Legion of Doom eventually invites Harley to join. She has a falling out with Ivy and her crew for various reasons. But then Ivy is captured by Scarecrow, who does experiments on her. So Harley has to get the crew back together to rescue her. Then Joker takes over Gotham and apparently kills Ivy. So Harley and her crew have to try to defeat him. Harley gets help from Batman, but he's captured, as are the crew. Harley gets away, but Joker puts a bounty on her. She eventually gives herself up to get Joker to set her crew free, and then the two of them fight each other. When Joker is about to drop Harley into a vat of acid that would turn her "normal" again, Ivy shows up, having been resurrected by the healing power of nature or whatever, and drops Joker into the vat instead. But he self-destructs his tower, causing an earthquake that destroys Gotham. Meanwhile, Batman disappears.

And that's all I want to say about season one. I've left out plenty of details, while also spoiling too much. But anyway, I like all the main characters, and as I said before, the show is hilarious. It also isn't afraid to make some bold, dramatic deviations from the comics and most other iterations of the characters and storylines in other media. (You'd be surprised at who all the show is willing to kill off.) I also like how much of a badass Harley is. And Joker is an absolute asshole, which he kind of needs to be. And really, I just can't say enough about how much fun the show is, on so many levels. It's absolutely crazy, but with plenty of sweet touches, especially concerning Harley and Ivy's relationship. Ivy is far, far more sensible than Harley, who is quite chaotic, and it makes sense that their relationship has its ups and downs, but ultimately it's just really sweet.

Season Two
Details coming eventually.


animated webseries index
superhero webseries index


Woof, woof!