Review: Peacemaker, "Another Rick Up My Sleeve" | Season 2, Episode 3

I was apprehensive when I first realized Peacemaker season two was doing a multiverse story, and I still am to a degree. I’m fatigued from the sludgy sameness of post-Endgame Marvel specifically, and generally find that stories with alternate universes, time travel, and things of that nature have a higher bar to clear in holding my attention compared to more street-level stuff. Peacemaker is basically a show about a criminal seeking redemption for the bad things he’s done, set in a milieu that’s relatively grounded for a superhero story, which appeals to my personal preference for simple crime dramas. Adding in the multiverse element brings the show more into the realm of the superhero genre clichés it avoided or subverted in season one, and the show still has to demonstrate what it’s ultimately going to do with this cliche. 

James Gunn is a genre master, though, and will not be doing the multiverse the same way Deadpool & Wolverine or The Flash or Loki or whatever else did it—and so far, I don’t mind how things are going. Peacemaker is staying focuêed on Chris Smith’s emotional story—his feelings about getting a chance to live the life he dreams of—without getting bogged down in the rules of what he can do and the details of how he does it. He found a doorway in a “quantum unfolding storage area,” and that’s good enough for the story Gunn is trying to tell, which is still a redemption arc. Chris thinks he found a loophole, a shortcut to redemption, but he will inevitably discover that it’s impossible to change the past and in order to become who he wants to be the change will have to come from within.