Harley Quinn Review

The joke rate is enormous and most of the jokes land, largely because the writers know the source material well enough to be affectionate while being savage: Bane is a sensitive bodybuilder who cannot be taken seriously, Kite Man has a catchphrase and a genuine inner life, and the Justice League are smug corporate freeloaders. But the show would be forgettable if that were all it did. What gives it staying power is the relationship between Harley and Poison Ivy, developed patiently across seasons from friendship into something the show treats with complete sincerity, and the parallel argument that leaving the Joker is not a single decision but a repeated one.

Alan Tudyk's Clayface, an actor who cannot stop performing, is a running gag that never dies. Kaley Cuoco does the best work of her career. The weaknesses are late arriving: the third and fourth seasons soften the edges, the domestic plots lose the anarchic energy, and the running time keeps demanding new villains it does not need.