Review: Peacemaker, "The Ties That Grind" | Season 2, Episode 1

Welcome to Episodic Medium's coverage of DC's Peacemaker, which returns to HBO Max after so long that the service changed names and reverted back in the interim. As always, this first review is free to all, but subsequent reviews will only be available for paid subscribers. To learn more about our two tiers, see our About Page.

I can’t think of another show whose context changed as much between seasons as Peacemaker. When season 1 premiered way back in the summer of 2022, it was essentially a side project for James Gunn—a relatively low-stakes spinoff of The Suicide Squad, the writer-director’s 2021 superhero comedy that wasn’t really even a hit, financially speaking. 

Now, Gunn is the co-CEO of DC Studios overseeing an ambitious ten-year slate of interlocking projects, and Peacemaker is an important piece of the puzzle as it returns for season 2. It’s the first DC project to come out after Gunn’s franchise-resetting Superman, and serves as a bridge between the “old” DC and the new. John Cena’s shoulders are huge, but that’s still a lot of weight to put on them. 

Peacemaker’s stakes are higher in Season 2, but Gunn has never had any problem operating under pressure. After Guardians of the Galaxy and Superman, he’s entered the rarified realm of blockbuster filmmakers with distinctive visions you can bet on to deliver quality product. To me, there’s no question as to whether or not Gunn will be able to weave Peacemaker into the larger tapestry he’s creating in a satisfying way. The question is whether or not the show will lose some of the kookiness that made season 1 so fun and exciting as it gets reshaped to conform to its new container. How much room will there be for absurd comedic moments like Cena free-associating celebrity names when there’s universe-building work to be done? 

After watching the season premiere, “The Ties That Grind,” the answer to the question “How different will Peacemaker be in season 2?” seems to be “Quite a bit, but maybe not in the ways you’d think.” The episode is mostly concerned with Christopher Smith’s pain. It has a lighter jokes-per-minute rate than any season 1 episode as it sets up an emotionally intense storyline where Chris gets to try living his life on a different, better timeline in which his father Auggie (Robert Patrick) seemingly isn’t an abusive white supremacist and he didn’t accidentally kill his brother Keith (David Denman, newly jacked and bald) when they were kids. It also—to keep things from getting too serious—stages a hilariously graphic orgy scene that’s extreme even for HBO (Max). Peacemaker isn’t about to become kid-friendly like Superman, but it is doing some things it didn’t do in the first season. The world it takes place in is expanding. 

It will be interesting to see how Peacemaker connects to the larger DCU, both narratively and tonally. Gunn has emphasized that you don’t need to see everything to understand what’s happening in a given project. This is by necessity, because 9-year-olds who saw Superman can’t be expected to follow the story into Peacemaker. That wouldn’t be right. But Gunn has even said that you don’t need to have seen Superman to watch Peacemaker Season 2. It’s certainly possible to do that, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s probably a small number of people who would watch Peacemaker and not Superman, but still. There are references to things that happened in Superman, like the interdimensional rift that almost destroyed Metropolis, and appearances by Justice Gang members Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and bankroller Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), who were introduced in Superman. The biggest retcon between seasons of Peacemaker is changing the end-of-season 1 cameo from Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and the Flash (Ezra Miller) to be Hawkgirl and Green Lantern in the extra-long, very helpful “previously in the DCU” recap (a three-year gap between seasons requires a three-minute “previously on”). 

I do appreciate that Gunn is not copying the MCU playbook in terms of interconnectedness. Marvel got so overextended with its relentless deluge of subpar movies and shows that it stopped being fun, and Gunn seems determined to avoid that so far. He has gone as far as to say his animated series Creature Commandos is not important to watch for continuity, even though it is directly connected to Peacemaker through Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). Gunn is actively trying to avoid alienating casual fans, something Marvel forgot how to do. Peacemaker is starting to do some Marvel-y things that I am concerned about, however, which we’ll get to in a bit. 

Narrative connective tissue is all pretty cut-and-dry. The more interesting thing to try to observe will be if the uplifting tone Gunn brought to Superman will seep into Peacemaker. If Superman is the keystone for Gunn’s DCU, it’s possible that Peacemaker may undergo some subtle adjustments to make it feel more like the flagship product. If Superman is a Big Mac, maybe Peacemaker will become a McRib when it used to be a Crunchwrap Supreme. Not that Peacemaker was cynical before—Gunn is a sincerely emotional filmmaker—but I wonder if the complete absence of cynicism in Superman will lead to a sanding down of some of Chris’ more antiheroic qualities, because it seems like a lack of cynicism is a principle of Gunn’s vision for the new DCU. The show’s narrative appears to be a redemption arc anyway, as Chris tries to reconcile who he’s been and who he wants to be. 

Peacemaker definitely doesn’t seem to be getting happier in Season 2, though. The dilemma Chris finds himself in is downright sad. He walks into an alternate dimension where he, his father, and his brother are a crimefighting team called the Top Trio. They live in a beautiful mansion, are respected superheroes in their community, and have healthy relationships with each other. They even say “I love you.” Chris meets a version of the brother whose death he blames himself for who got to grow up, tells him “I love you,” and his brother says “I love you” back. That’s really heavy. It’s also a really seductive opportunity for him to get a do-over on a life that is not turning out how he hoped. So it will be totally understandable when he tries to take the place of the alternate universe Chris he just killed. There are already hints that this world may not be as good as it seems—alternate Peacemaker claimed he would be justified in killing our Peacemaker just for entering his house, without any attempt to understand the situation—but that’s for Chris to find out as the season progresses. 

There are two parts of this setup that are causing me some concern because of how they verge on previously covered territory. One is the “multiverse” element of it. The multiverse was a major component of Marvel’s decline, and from what I understand it didn’t work in The Flash, either (I didn’t see it). The bet on people being interested in multiverse storytelling didn’t pay off. Gunn is smart enough to realize this. He said at Comic-Con that Peacemaker is not a “multiverse story” in the traditional sense, but rather a “much more literary story” about the emotional journey of a character who has lost everything important to him—except Eagly, I would add—and what happens when he’s presented with a way to get them back. 

I get where Gunn is coming from, but this leads me to the next thing I’m concerned about: I worry the “grief and trauma" well in superhero storytelling has run dry. I saw a chart back in 2022 about how dominated by grief the MCU had become, and it was already boring and repetitive by then—and this was before Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 dug into Rocket Raccoon’s trauma. One of the things I found so refreshing about Superman was how it avoided getting bogged down in grief in the same way. To see Peacemaker going back to the same old theme makes me worried that we’re in for a slog. No matter how different or how well Peacemaker does it, there’s going to be diminishing returns, simply because it’s been done so many times in the past few years. 

At least Peacemaker is fully committed to being funny, though. No matter how sad and traumatic it gets, it will always have moments like Robert Patrick claiming imps jacked off in his Cheerios. No other Marvel or DC show can say that.  

Stray observations

• In case you don’t know me from my coverage of Bad Monkey last year, I’m Liam, a TCA member, writer for TV Guide, TheWrap and many other places, and the author of Dad Shows on the other newsletter platform. I’m very excited to be making peace with you all this season. 
• Season 1 had my favorite opening credit sequence I’ve ever seen. That’s a big superlative, but I mean it. The modern dance number set to Wig Wam’s neo-hair metal track “Do Ya Wanna Taste It?” just made me so happy every time I watched it. The new credit sequence set to Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord” doesn’t spark the same joy, unfortunately. The song isn’t as fun, and there aren’t delightful, surprising moments like Robert Patrick thrusting his hips or John Cena pulling his gun while the rest of the cast crab-walks behind him. I get why the opening credits had to change—too many Season 1 characters died—but I miss the old ones. Hopefully the new ones grow on me. And I love that they kept the dance number format, of course. I would have been really upset if they didn’t dance at all. 
• I wish we could have gotten more time with Adrian Chase/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), the show’s dumbest, funniest character, but I enjoyed the scene we got and I look forward to seeing more of him next week, hopefully.
• I’m not enough of a DC head to know if the alien Chris sees in the “quantum unfolding storage area” is someone I’m supposed to recognize. Is he? (Sorry in advance to any super-fans; feel free to point out any Easter eggs I miss and call me a “Cryptkeeper-looking bitch.”)
• I did catch the references to Blüdhaven, meaning I looked up what they were saying. It's the city across the river from Gotham where Robin went when he struck out on his own and became Nightwing. It’s a location that’s never been depicted in a DCU movie before, but Gunn has said that it’s on the table as someplace the franchise might go. He’s planting seeds, and we’ll see what blooms. 
• With all the jokes at 30 Seconds to Mars’ expense (did you stick around for the post-credits sequence?), I think it’s safe to say Jared Leto is not getting invited back as the Joker. 
• James Gunn used to be married to Jenna Fischer. David Denman played Jenna Fischer’s ex on The Office. I don’t know if there’s anything to make of that, I just think it’s funny.