PEACEMAKER Season 2 Keeps Killing It as It Makes Us Laugh, Cry, and Think (Review)

The first season of Peacemaker caught me off guard in the best way. Sure, I liked James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but not as much as most. I also wasn’t sure John Cena’s murderous, goober “hero” would work as anything more than a secondary character. The result was I went into season with no expectations, good or bad. By the time the finale ended, Peacemaker was easily one of my favorite shows on TV. So unlike its first year, I went into season two with massive expectations. It now had something to live up to, a much higher bar for any show to clear. And in its first five episodes, season two of Peacemaker has easily done just that. Peacemaker continues to kill it as a wildly entertaining, funny, emotional story with great, complex characters and themes.

Peacemaker‘s second season makes use of DC’s multiverse. Only, it’s not really telling a multiverse story. The show is telling a sliding doors tale, as Cena’s Christopher Smith realizes just how different his life could have been. It’s an especially painful realization because, despite saving the world in season one of Peacemaker, in season two the world doesn’t care. Peacemaker is still a joke to most. The same is true of the other 11th Street Kids, who find themselves all lost or suffering for various reasons.

Fortunately, as he has proven again and again in his career, Gunn understands what friendship is really all about. It doesn’t end or restart or collapse because a new season starts, and it needs conflict. A lesser filmmaker would have gone that route in Peacemaker season two and then had the friends work their way back to each other. But the 11th Street Kids feel authentic because they are still friends who rely on and care about one another. Their bond anchors the show in its second season, which is even more affecting and heartbreaking than its first.

Peacemaker season two‘s greatest strength is that it knows what it’s about, and all of its important characters’ individual stories contribute to that idea. Peacemaker season two is about who we are, who we might have been, who we want to be, the lives we might have led, and the outside forces that helped determine the path we ultimately took. This is a superhero show about a lesser-known comic book character, teeming with rich and nuanced ideas about life. It’s as good a use of a multiverse as any I’ve seen in a very long time. Peacemaker season two doesn’t use the concept of other dimensions mostly as a fun plot device. It uses it as a thematic one.

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Don’t worry, though. Peacemaker season two is still a violent, bloody, wild mess of a good time. It never forgets to also be entertaining. Like season one, it still features plenty of action and comedy. Newcomer Tim Meadows is so impossibly funny it’s hard to believe any of his colleagues got through a single scene without breaking.) Season two of Peacemaker also features some, uh…..other…adult content. Definitely, definitely, definitely do not watch with little kids or your parents. You, dear and beloved reader, have been warned.

While the entire cast is incredible, to the surprise of no one considering Gunn’s track record with casting, the real standout is the show’s star. Peacemaker season two is the best work of John Cena’s career. He’s always been great in the role of Christopher Smith, but he’s never been asked to do this much, not even in season one. The show tasks him with more responsibility and depth of character he—fittingly, considering his character—kills it. He gives a really moving performance that broke my heart.

While I absolutely loved the five episodes HBO made available to critics, they aren’t without a handful of imperfections. There’s almost no fat on the season, but it does spend a little too much time with a silly Michael Rooker character. He’s very funny and entertaining, but he’s playing someone so dumb, less would be more. That’s a minor quibble ultimately, but it stands out even more because of my one major complaint: there’s not enough Vigilante.

Freddie Stroma’s sad, enthusiastic psychopath is one of my favorite characters ever. Ever. He was a huge and important part in season one, yet there’s not nearly as much of him in the first five episodes of Peacemaker season two. The little we do get is still great, including one scene that is so pure and painful I forgot for a moment that Adrian isn’t a real person.

The good news is that Vigilante’s otherwise disappointing role in the first five episodes of Peacemaker‘s second season is seemingly very intentional. The show appears to be setting him up for an amazing end-of-season storyline that will likely work because of what it did with him earlier in the season.

If I’m right, I won’t even have a single meaningful issue with Peacemaker season two, a show I once had no expectations for that is now living up to all of them.

Peacemaker Season 2 ⭐ (4.5 of 5)

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He would die for Vigilante, even if Vigilante was the one killing him. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.