Harley Quinn Season 3 (2022)
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Harley Quinn Season 3 Review
The third season of Harley Quinn is weaker than its predecessors due to a number of reasons. It has its strengths, but it’s still inferior.
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“You’re gonna kill us?
You didn’t even make the montage!“
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Released in 2022 on HBO Max and containing ten episodes, this season was problematic because the show definitely seems to be losing steam. While both the first and the second season had its issues, this one had a multitude of bigger problems that became a huge hurdle for me to enjoy it more. It’s still wildly entertaining, but undeniably too messy.
Harley and Ivy are now a full-on couple and there lies a problem – they aren’t as fun anymore. Certainly their differences are well explored and the show cleverly tackles the many problems that arise in romantic couples, especially when such differing personalities and goals are involved. All of this is fine and well, but the electric and entertaining nature of their dynamic is now long gone and they just weren’t as interesting here.
Harley not being a villain anymore was again well explored, but it still made for a poor choice in regards to her character as she should be a villain first and foremost. Ivy is a bit dull here whereas Harley lost her spark while becoming good, which was a problem to me. Joker is now the mayor of Gotham and he is a lot of fun, but even he was ruined by the politically correct dialogue given to him and everybody else on the show – him using the term non-binary at one point made me want to vomit.
This season of Harley Quinn certainly had that problem of tackling the political issues in a very on-the-nose manner. The humor is way too politically correct for it to work, though whenever it was edgier, I was having a blast. Some lines were quite amusing, but those were in the minority unfortunately.
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Other characters such as King Shark, Doctor Psycho and Kite Man are all sidelined here with the exception of Batman himself who got one very meaningful arc in a superb episode that was a detour, but a detour that really worked. I would honestly like the show to go into this anthology and disconnected narrative arc approach more as the overlying arcs aren’t that interesting.
Overall, the third season of Harley Quinn has for the most part pretty strong character development, some meaningful arcs and some solid humor and dialogue, but this season was problematic in the main storyline that wasn’t as impactful while the two main characters had a decidedly less fun dynamic this time around. It’s still a fun show, but one that needs to improve if it wants to continue.
Worst Episodes: A Thief, A Mole, An Orgy and Another Sharkley Adventure.
Best Episodes: Batman Begins Forever and The Horse and the Sparrow.
