Harley Quinn (TV series)

Harley Quinn is an American adult animated television series based on the DC Comics character of the same name created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. The series is written and executive produced by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey and follows the misadventures of Harley Quinn and her friend Poison Ivy after leaving her boyfriend, the Joker. The show premiered on DC Universe to critical success on November 29, 2019, with critics praising its animation, humor, dark tone and voice acting.
The show's second season premiered on April 3, 2020. On September 18, 2020, the series was officially renewed for a third season, along with the announcement that the show would move to HBO Max, following the restructuring of DC Universe.
Overview.
The series follows Harley Quinn's misadventures after breaking up with the Joker upon the realization that he does not love her. The first season focuses on Harley's attempts to prove herself as a competent villain in order to join the Legion of Doom, starting with the formation of her own crew consisting of Poison Ivy, Clayface, Doctor Psycho, King Shark, and Sy Borgman. When she finally achieves this goal, however, she inadvertently distances herself from her newfound friends and continues to face problems from the Joker, who cannot stand the idea of Harley being a successful supervillain without him. In the season one finale, the Joker manages to take over Gotham City, only to be defeated by Harley and her crew. In a final act of retaliation, he destroys the entire city, resulting in his and Batman's apparent deaths.
In the second season, Gotham has , allowing the newly-formed Injustice League — consisting of the Penguin, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and Bane — to take over the city's ruins. After they refuse to let Harley join them, she works with her crew to take them down one by one in order to claim Gotham for herself; in the process unwittingly inspiring Barbara Gordon to become Batgirl. Meanwhile, both the Joker and Batman are revealed to be alive; albeit with the former now sane and with no memory of his old self while the latter, unable to fight crime due to his injuries, names Batgirl his temporary replacement as Gotham's defender until he recovers. Following the Injustice League's defeat, Commissioner Gordon restores order to Gotham while Harley begins to develop feelings for Ivy. Concurrently, Doctor Psycho leaves the crew to exact revenge on Harley for under-appreciating him, and manages to take over Gotham with a Parademon army he obtained from Darkseid. To stop him, Harley joins forces with the Justice League, Gordon, and the Joker; reluctantly restoring the latter back to his former self in the process. Although Psycho is defeated in the end, he retaliates by revealing Harley and Ivy had sex right before the latter's wedding with Kite Man. Though Ivy and Kite Man attempt to continue on, Gordon, annoyed that he did not receive any recognition for saving Gotham, attempts to bust their wedding. Amidst the chaos, Kite Man realizes Ivy does not love him and breaks up with her. While escaping from the police together, Ivy finally admits her feelings for Harley.
Episodes.
Season 3.
According to Screen Rant, season 3 will not premiere until late 2021. An interview from creators Halpern and Schumacker stated that they were "optimistic" despite the shift from DC Universe to HBO Max and estimated late 2021 for season 3. Schumacker stated it was more difficult to produce, but it will be much simpler not having to create two seasons back to back. Halpern has stated in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" that season 3 will explore Harley's reaction to a half healthy relationship with Ivy as well as focusing more on Ivy's backstory as the previous two seasons were mainly focused on Harley. Schumacker said that new writers from the LGBTQ+ community have been hired because of the direction of season 2 and that it's a priority to diversify the staff for season 3. Schumacker also revealed that Dean Lorey would no longer be available to return as showrunner for season 3 and would be replaced by new co-showrunners Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein alongside him and Justin Halpern. Composer Jefferson Friedman rumored there would be a musical episode coming. Friedman also stated that he wanted to refresh the music to give identity for each character. During an interview with "Deadline Hollywood" Schumacker stated that his desire was to open season 3 on "an actual Zoom, where the GCPD is just being berated by the city of Gotham for their ineptitude". In February 2021, series creator Patrick Schumacker announced that they had begun recording season 3.
Production.
Development.
On November 20, 2017, it was announced that the then-unnamed DC Universe had ordered 26 episodes of "Harley Quinn", a half-hour adult animated action-comedy series created and written by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey. Executive producers were set to include Halpern, Schumacker, Lorey, and Sam Register with Jennifer Coyle serving as a producer. Production companies involved in the series were slated to consist of Ehsugadee Productions and Warner Bros. Animation. The first season consists of 13 episodes of the initial 26-episode order. Animation work is provided by NE4U, Digital eMation and Maven Image Platform in South Korea.
In June 2018, it was announced that the series would premiere in 2019. In October, it was further mapped as an October 2019 premiere. It was also reported that Kaley Cuoco would also serve as an executive producer for the series through her production company Yes, Norman Productions.
It was revealed that a second season was produced and would be available to stream on April 3, 2020, consisting of another 13 episodes.
On September 18, 2020, three months after the second season finale, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a third season, and would move to HBO Max. In February 2021, series creator Patrick Schumacker announced that they had begun recording season 3. The third season will premiere in late 2021 or early 2022.
Casting.
Alongside the series order announcement, it was reported that the producers of the series were expected to approach Margot Robbie, who portrays the character in the DC Extended Universe, to reprise the role; but this was false. In an interview after the season 1 release, Halpern went on record saying Robbie was kept in the loop, but she was never interested in playing the role since she was filming and producing "Birds of Prey" at the time. Other characters expected to be featured in the series included the Joker, Poison Ivy, Sy Borgman, Doctor Psycho, Malice Vundabar, King Shark, and Clayface.
On October 3, 2018, it was announced that Cuoco would voice Harley Quinn and Lake Bell would voice Poison Ivy. Additional voice actors in the series include Alan Tudyk as Joker and Clayface, Ron Funches as King Shark, J. B. Smoove as Frank the Plant, Jason Alexander as Sy Borgman, Wanda Sykes as the Queen of Fables, Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor, Natalie Morales as Lois Lane, Jim Rash as Riddler, Diedrich Bader reprising his role from ' as Batman himself, Tony Hale as Dr. Psycho and Christopher Meloni as James Gordon. Shortly after, Rahul Kohli revealed he would voice Scarecrow in the series. In June 2019, Sanaa Lathan was revealed to be voicing Catwoman, who was depicted as African-American. On July 24, 2019, Vanessa Marshall revealed to be reprising Wonder Woman from ' and "". While on the following day, "TV Guide" revealed that veteran voice actor Charlie Adler has been confirmed to serve as the series' additional voice director with Schumacker and Lorey serving as the voice directors. In February 2020, Alfred Molina was announced to be voicing Mr. Freeze. In April 2020, Schumacker confirmed that Michael Ironside would be reprising his role as Darkseid from both the DC Animated Universe and the "Lego DC Super-Villains" video game.
Music.
Jefferson Friedman composed the music for the series. WaterTower Music released the soundtrack album for season 1 on August 21, 2020. The season 2 album was released on the same day.
LGBTQ representation.
In the Batman Multiverse, Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Quinzel) and Poison Ivy (Dr. Pamela Isley) started as friends. In the comics, Harley and Ivy even referred to each other as "Pam-A-Lamb" affectionally which lead to the fandom shipping them together. The writers took notice giving them moments of birthday kisses and taken showers together making their friendship more intimate. Harley Quinn's and Poison Ivy's romance in the "Batman" universe began in "Harley Quinn #1" when Harley whispers into Ivy's ear that the reason she "saves her" from the Joker is due to her romantic feelings for her. However, it wasn't until in 2013 the Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti "Harley Quinn" comic series where they're shown in a romance couple instead of friendship. Harley refers to Ivy is her "hot girlfriend" and the two are in an open relationship where they can pursue other partners while still dedicated to each other. In other parts of the "Batman" universe Harley and Ivy even got married in "Injustice 2".
In the May 15, 2020 episode "There's No Place to Go But Down" Harley Quinn saved her partner-in-crime, Poison Ivy; both kissed each other after they escaped from prison. The critic who reviewed the episode stated that Harley and Ivy's romance was a "slow burn", adding that this love affair could turn into a "more realistic exploration of how it feels to fall in love with a friend or to have an awkward hookup with a workmate." Another reviewer, Sophie Perry, writing for a lesbian lifestyle magazine, "Curve", noted how queerbaiting has long endured in LGBTQ+ representation, noting how She-Ra and Harley Quinn both had same-sex kisses, happening within stories which could have turned out to be "typical queerbaiting" but did not. In another episode, Clayface, a member of Harley's villain crew, was revealed as a gay character who had a crush on a male student.
The series was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Release.
"Harley Quinn" premiered on DC Universe on November 29, 2019. On October 3, 2018, ahead of the annual New York Comic Con, a teaser trailer featuring Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Batman in Arkham was released. A full, uncensored trailer set to Joan Jett's cover of the theme song from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was released on July 20, 2019 to coincide with the panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
On December 8, 2019, the first episode was shown as a special presentation on TBS. Season 1 started airing on Syfy on May 3, 2020. The series airs on Adult Swim in Canada, with new episodes airing a week after their American premiere. The series started airing on E4 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 7, 2020. The series debuted on HBO Max on August 1, 2020.
An original short featuring Harley answering questions from fans was released online during DC FanDome in 2020.
Home media.
The first season was released on DVD on June 2, 2020 and the second season was released on February 16, 2021 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The first two seasons were also released on Blu-ray in a box set by Warner Archive Collection on February 16, 2021.
Digitally, the first two seasons are also available for digital purchase on Prime Video and iTunes.
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes, season 1 has an approval rating of 88% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 8.25/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A strong voice cast and an even stronger grasp of what makes its titular antiheroine so beloved make "Harley Quinn" a violently delightful—and surprisingly insightful—addition to the DC animated universe." Season 2 has an approval rating of 100% based on 20 reviews with an average rating of 9/10, and a critical consensus stating, ""Harley Quinn" maintains its frenetic energy and humor while doubling down on the shenanigans and giving its titular anti-heroine even more room to play." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Caroline Framke of "Variety" wrote: "The animation feels like that of a typical Saturday morning cartoon, but its acidic scripts and shocking bursts of gore reminds you that "Harley Quinn" is taking full advantage of airing on a streaming service without censors. [...] Sharp voice performances across the board from actors clearly relishing the chance to play in this world also prove too fun to resist. [...] Most importantly, Harley gets to be an entire person all her own, as heartbreakingly naive as she is wickedly strange and funny."
Robyn Bahr of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote: "It's one of the best surprises of the year. [...] 13 zippy, violent and irreverent half-hour episodes. [...] The writing is frequently uproarious, chock full of Millennial nostalgia and cerebral gallows humor (the former may be low-hanging, rapidly-perishable fruit, but at least the show knows how to embrace its audience)."