Peacemaker Season 1 (Mini-Review)

Peacemaker Season 1 picks up shortly after The Suicide Squad (2021) ended. Christopher Smith (aka Peacemaker) instead of being returned to prison is sent on another mission by Amanda Waller. This time he has to join a team to take care of the mysterious Butterflies. While trying to focus on the mission, Chris struggles with his trauma caused by his previous mission. Peacemaker Season 1 was released on HBO in 2022.

I have noticed a trend, lately, where filmmakers decide to have CGI animals instead of real ones. While it may take a little more effort and money, real animals tend to be better. There's just something fundamentally lazy with using CGI instead of real animals. It just makes me angry. Eagly is Chris' best friend who is a Bald Eagle and he's CGI. I actually prefer that Eagly is CGI as he tends to be up and close with Chris which means John Cena could've been easily injured. Besides that, Eagly hugs Chris multiple times which would have been impossible for a real eagle to do. And, yep, those hugging scenes are very relevant to the plot.

As Chris is dealing with PTSD from Project Starfish, he's a very different character than the one in The Suicide Squad (2021). At times this bothered me as I was really looking forward to the bastard of a man having his own television show. It's not like HBO has shied away from making shows that focus on the most despicable of characters. This bothered me less and less as the show went on. The finale is also more impactful because of the character growth Chris experienced.

I am a big Terminator fan and so was more than excited to see Robert Patrick. In the show he plays Auggie Smith who is Chris' dad. Like in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the actor plays a villain. Auggie is a racist who turned Chris into the killer he is today. Auggie is also the one responsible for equipping Chris and even had a cool supervillain costume back in the day.

The Butterflies are an interesting antagonist of the series. Though it takes around three episodes or so for viewers to understand exactly what they are. Like his Suicide Squad, James Gunn makes it so a host's consciousness is destroyed upon them taking over a body. Maybe it's just me being me, but I would've enjoyed it if a human remained conscious while their body was being used as someone else's puppet. The show does have a scene where a Butterfly grapples with their decision to infest a human's body which does add in some good moral complexity to the situation.

The opening title sequence of the show is amazing. It really helps set the tone as something upbeat and silly. Basically a bunch of the cast comes out and dances to a song. What makes this even better is everyone has a serious expression on their face. Eagly even shows up and his part of the dance is my favorite part.

I would recommend Peacemaker Season 1 to fans of The Suicide Squad (2021). I would also recommend Peacemaker Season 1 to fans of superhero shows.