Peacemaker: TV Review

Born out of a pandemic-induced shutdown, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn's Peacemaker series clearly wants to cater for an audience that has been satiated by the likes of The Boys and The Suicide Squad.

John Cena's Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker returns, despite being shot and having had a building fall on him at the end of the aforementioned Suicide Squad movie. However, as the post credits to that film showed, he survived with only a damaged clavicle and has now been co-opted up to a secret clandestine group to avoid going to prison.

It's hard not to give in to Peacemaker's silliness and sense of the ridiculous.

While Gunn ever so slightly reined it in for The Suicide Squad, there is a feeling that Peacemaker lets both him and his star John Cena cut loose as much as they want - and the results are frequently hilarious, scabrous and puerile. But undercutting that is Gunn's appreciation for the genre, and his penchant for puncturing superhero tropes, before relying on them heavily to progress the narrative.

Cena once again gets to demonstrate his comedic chops, and thanks to the most engaging title sequence of 2022, his dance moves. Occasionally as well, he relies on some of the emotional heft to mine some more of the depth needed - this time Peacemaker is taunted by the final words of the murdered Rick Flag. There's a tragedy in dealing with his overtly racist and abusive father (Terminator 2 star Robert Patrick) and it's here that Gunn seems keen to paint Peacemaker as more of a pathetic character than first though.

Elsewhere, there's no denying that there's a feeling of similar grounds of gore, sex and violence as was witnessed in The Boys - but there's also an unshakeable feeling that if you're here for that, you'll be satisfied and left smirking. Peacemaker is undeniable in its infectiousness, and while it occasionally feels like a shallow exercise in extending the DCEU and showing they can do levity too, there's no doubt that each episode is as forgettable as it is fun.

Peacemaker is a series that benefits from its weekly episode drop - you can have too much of a good thing, and that's no bad thing here. You'll be surprised how much Cena carries the show and the audience along - but you'll be grateful that he does.

Peacemaker airs on Neon in New Zealand, with new episodes available on Fridays.