{"id":176558,"date":"2020-05-17T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/05\/17\/review-harley-quinn\/"},"modified":"2020-05-17T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T23:00:00","slug":"review-harley-quinn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/05\/17\/review-harley-quinn\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Harley Quinn"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Harley Quinn<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Cast:
Kaley Cuoco \u2026 Harley Quinn
Lake Bell \u2026 Poison Ivy
Ron Funches \u2026 King Shark
Tony Hale \u2026 Doctor Psycho, Felix Faust
Jason Alexander \u2026 Sy Borgman
J. B. Smoove \u2026 Frank the Plant
Alan Tudyk \u2026 the Joker, Clayface, Calendar Man, Doctor Trap, Condiment King
Charlie Adler \u2026 Nick Quinzel, Grandpa Quinzel
James Adomian \u2026 Bane, Chaz, Ian, Ratcatcher
Diedrich Bader \u2026 Batman
Tisha Campbell-Martin \u2026 Tawny Young, M.O.N.I.C.A.
Briana Cuoco \u2026 Barbara Gordon
Andy Daly \u2026 Two-Face
Chris Diamantopoulos \u2026 Aquaman
Rachel Dratch \u2026 Nora Fries
Giancarlo Esposito \u2026 Lex Luthor
Susie Essman \u2026 Sharon Quinzel, Grandma Quinzel
Sean Giambrone \u2026 Joshua Cobblepot
Meryl Hathaway \u2026 Marcus
Tom Hollander \u2026 Alfred Pennyworth
Michael Ironside \u2026 Darkseid
Tom Kenny \u2026 Clayface’s Hand
Wayne Knight \u2026 the Penguin
Rahul Kohli \u2026 the Scarecrow
Phil LaMarr \u2026 Jason Praxis, Black Manta, Lucius Fox, Brian
Sanaa Lathan \u2026 Catwoman
George Lopez \u2026 Himself
Howie Mandel \u2026 Himself
Vanessa Marshall \u2026 Wonder Woman, Giganta, Joey Day
Christopher Meloni \u2026 Commissioner James Gordon
Alfred Molina \u2026 Mr. Freeze
Natalie Morales \u2026 Lois Lane
Brad Morris \u2026 Victor Zsasz
Frankie Muniz \u2026 Himself
Matt Oberg \u2026 Kite Man, Killer Croc, KGBeast
Rhea Perlman \u2026 Golda
Jim Rash \u2026 the Riddler, Stan, Mr. Isley
Will Sasso \u2026 Maxie Zeus
Rory Scovel \u2026 Gus
Nicole Sullivan \u2026 Mrs. Cobblepot, Benjamin
Wanda Sykes \u2026 Queen of Fables
Talia Tabin \u2026 Debbie Day
Jacob Tremblay \u2026 Damian Wayne \/ Robin
Mark Whitten \u2026 Herman Cizko \/ The Cowled Critic
James Wolk \u2026 Superman<\/p>\n

Directors:<\/i>
Directors: Juan Meza-Leon, Matt Garofalo, Ben Jones, Frank Marino, Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton, Colin Heck, Colin Heck, Vinton Heuck, Brandon McKinney, Ben Jones<\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

I will attempt to keep this this review as spoiler free as possible, but there will be a few inevitable spoilers, you have been warned.<\/p>\n

This series is a telling of Harley Quinn’s transition from sidekick to super-villain after her split with Joker.<\/p>\n

You can (at least until June 1) stream it online at Syfy.com, at least if you have a cable account. (see the link)<\/p>\n

I have enjoyed what I have seen this far, I am very impressed.<\/p>\n

Kaley Cuoco, who plays Harley, gives what her is arguably her finest performance to date.<\/p>\n

She puts the “fun” in dysfunction, and plays Quinn as a whip smart and thoroughly broken ingenue.<\/p>\n

The best performance though, is Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, who completely steals the show as the self-described eco-terrorists.<\/p>\n

She is deeply devoted to Harley (I ship them so much<\/b>), and she has a remarkably clear view of reality, except for the whole insane toxic pheromone criminal plant lady thing.<\/p>\n

Ron Funches as King Shark is an truly amusing combination of techno nerd and ravenous prehistoric deep sea predator.<\/p>\n

Alan Tudyk as Clayface (and  the Joker, Calendar Man, Doctor Trap, Condiment King) is a revelation. (He is a leaf on the wind, watch as he soars)<\/p>\n

His, and the writers’ vision of Clayface as the ultimate theater dweeb overeager actor is truly inspired.<\/p>\n

All of this is wrapped in witty, completely irreverent, and thoroughly profane (S-Bomb, and F-Bomb, though the (spoiler<\/i>) C-Bomb is bleeped) plotting and dialogue.<\/p>\n

There are some problematic bits in the scripts though, particularly the fact that they occasionally traffic in Jewish stereotypes, particularly during the (spoiler<\/i>) Cobblepot bar-mitzvah, and the character of Sy Borgman, and (spoiler<\/i>) Harley’s parents.  (Who knew that Quinzel was a Jewish name?)<\/p>\n

This is a joyous roasting of super-hero culture, while also being a profoundly feminist narrative.<\/p>\n

I recommend this highly, and rate it 8\u2154 out of 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harley Quinn Cast:Kaley Cuoco \u2026 Harley QuinnLake Bell \u2026 Poison IvyRon Funches \u2026 King SharkTony Hale \u2026 Doctor Psycho, Felix FaustJason Alexander \u2026 Sy BorgmanJ. B. Smoove \u2026 Frank the PlantAlan Tudyk \u2026 the Joker, Clayface, Calendar Man, Doctor Trap, Condiment KingCharlie Adler \u2026 Nick Quinzel, Grandpa QuinzelJames Adomian \u2026 Bane, Chaz, Ian, RatcatcherDiedrich Bader …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[686,416,496,614],"class_list":["post-176558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-animation","tag-culture","tag-reviews","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}