Harley Quinn season 1, episode 3 review: So You Need A Crew?

Coming up to the third episode, Harley Quinn needs a crew, and she recruits less desirable’s to do her bidding.

Following the foiled attempt to the rob the Gotham Mint, Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) is back with Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) to strike out on her own (independent of The Joker), but she finds out too soon that in order to get in with the Legion of Doom, she needs her own goon squad. Unfortunately, not simple, considering she is loony and makes her very untrustworthy.

Can’t Do This on my Own

“So You Need A Crew?” opens in an unknown location in Russia on a train, in cold climate. Quinn hijacks the train, holding a nuclear silo and punts a passenger off to the icy depths and mountain tops below. KGBeast (Matt Oberg), who is surprised she is capable of speaking Russian, confronts her, but Quinn corrects him before engaging in a fight that she is only capable of uttering two phrases. Angry he cut the tips of her hairline; she knocks KGBeast onto his back with a mean swing of her bat. She then enters the room holding the nuke.

To comic effect, Quinn tries many times with her lean and athletic body to enter the cell housing the weapon. Although she is able to grab a couple of keys from KGBeast’s unconscious body to activate the safety locks, they all have to be done simultaneously, and to make things worse… there are three of them. Not long after, The Joker (Alan Tudyk) and his goons storm the coach and rob the nuke from her, and toss her out the train.

So Guys… I need a Crew

Quinn shows up in Ivy’s living room in dirt, a bad hair day and many bruises and twigs. After a shower, Quinn discusses with her B.F.F about her having tried robbing the nuke, but Joker took it from her due to him getting the advantage of having a crew. Quinn wants Ivy to be part of her crew, but she insists working alone. Frank the Plant (J.B. Smoove) calls her “independence” into question, since the only reason Ivy is getting by is due to her super powers of chlorokinesis – manipulation of all plant life – does her work for her, thus Ivy is lazy.

Ivy, though, insists that all the “best” villains work alone. She then shows Quinn of Dr. Psycho (Tony Hale) engaging in a street battle with Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall), although his career as a super-criminal tanks when he uses profane language while referring to the Princess of the Amazons, which literally makes the world stand still. He is labelled as a misogynist. “See, if he had a crew, they would’a told him to use the b-word instead. And if I had one, I’d use that warhead to blackmail Gotham and they’d name a highway after me,” Quinn starkly replied. Ivy sips her decaf, transfixed at her sudden turn of the mention of a highway. She remains unconvinced.

Onto the right path, but poor Follow-Through…

Just as many feared, when it came to Harley Quinn recruiting a crew of her own, the creative team almost made it seem female supervillains cannot work together – perhaps unknowingly implying that women cannot work together. And that’s not making a good impression to be making.

Three episodes in, the show is off to a somewhat strong start. Quinn is finally on her way to taking on Gotham, as she found two members of her own crew and has made her mark, to The Joker’s dismay. It will be interesting to see how the Jester of Genocide reacts in response to his ex-girlfriend being a major competitor.

In this episode, we explore the criminal underworld in Gotham from the perspective of the villains for the very first time. It is quite clear that crime actually pays and they see the heroes as a pestilence and crutch to their business, which is portrayed as free enterprise and is commonplace, with some agencies, financial and regulatory bodies backing and catering towards supervillain activities with media outlets covering their stories.

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What Harley Quinn tackled is self-image and misogyny in a memorable way – using its lead character to prove how she can overcome anything. Also, the animation and character designs are sleek, exuberant and dynamic with influences directly from comic book artist, Amanda Conner.

Aside from the brief gags before the opening titles, the episode did not land too well in the comedy arena, but when it came to the overbearing gall of Maxie Zeus, there were some laughable moments, courtesy of Harley’s jabs and their back and forth at one another.

What hurts the episode is the prospect that Poison Ivy refuses to be part of Quinn’s crew due to her preferring to work alone. So, as this writer feared, a potential Gotham City Sirens is not on the cards. While there certainly isn’t a problem with Quinn recruiting men under her leadership, it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple female members in the group, Killer Frost, Plastique or Star Sapphire, perhaps? At least try and have Quinn get to recruit some women.

Overall, the episodic format seems to be heading places and, though some of the punchlines didn’t really land, tonally this is proving to be a real fun joyride for the masses. .

Off-The-Wall Observations:

Finally, Lex Luthor voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, makes an appearance with the Legion of Doom.
When Harley Quinn attempts to get a crew from a supervillain agency – (UTI) Underworld Talent Inc. – it sounds like a play on the popular talent agency, (UTA) United Talent Agency, for artists, storytellers and other creative’s in the entertainment industry.
The Court of Owls is mentioned in a subheading in a news feed with live footage of a Dr. Psycho and Wonder Woman scrap.
Dr. Psycho, in this iteration, is described as an “angry misogynist dwarf” who is disgraced within the criminal element due to a sexist flip-up. He has a wife, Giganta, and son, Herman.
At a bar, Felix Faust, a master sorcerer and one of the leading members of the Secret Society of Super Villains appears in a cameo.
Basil Karlo/Clayface makes his first appearance on Harley Quinn.
During a seminar, part-time motivational speaker and villain, Maxie Zeus, mentioned robbing the Olympics of 1996 which took place in Atlanta. He has a brazen and showboat personality akin to pro-wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (who coincidentally rose to new heights in the WWE in 1996) and, unlike other iterations of Zeus, he is actually a god.
The Queen of Fables/Tsaritsa makes a cameo appearance. When she tells her story of how she became a tax book, her conjuring storybook characters in Gotham is similar to an issue of DC Super Friends No.21 where she spread the Super Friends in a realm of fictional characters.

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