Entertainment

TV Review – The Hollywood Reporter

In the first episode of People of Peace, a character that makes a quick judgment about Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, aka the main character played by John Cena. “Sexism. Probably racist,” she said. “But there’s something else about him…sad.”

“Something sad” proves her bruised heart People of Peace, beating from beneath a thick layer of juvenile humor and self-irony. Like so many of creator James Gunn’s work in the super thing, this series is equally concerned with eliciting chuckles at exploding heads or geeky jokes. as well as wringing tears for the poor oddballs. And while it’s more or less successful in both respects, it struggles to stand out in a sea of ​​other superhero content doing the same thing – often by Gunn himself.

People of Peace

Key point

Mostly good, sometimes cheerful, rarely fresh.

Release date: Thursday, January 13
Cast: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Chukwudi Iwuji, Robert Patrick
Creator: James Gunn


As established in the “earlier on” section at the beginning of the first episode, People of Peace pick right after the events of 2021 Suicide Squad, making the character look like an odd choice to lead his own spin-off. Peacemaker emerges from the film as – spoiler alert – a villain, whose unusual properties are best summed up by an oath to have peace at any cost, no matter how many kills he needs to many men, women and children to get it. He’s not likable, but he’s interesting as he represents a certain imperial taste of selfless service.

People of Peace make the character more likable, at the cost of making him less interesting. The character we meet at the beginning of the series is someone in trouble, though he assures anyone who listens that he’s doing great. (He wasn’t crying, he told a concerned friend – he was just exercising his facial muscles.) The turning point appeared to be his murder, in Suicide Squad, by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), whose last words echo People of Peace in repeated flashbacks: “Peacemaker. What a funny story.” However, the series traces his underlying trauma back much further, to his childhood with an intensely abusive father (a utter Robert Patrick. obnoxious).

Whatever Peacemaker’s flaws – and here’s a guy who spends the first episode calling a waitress “sweet cheek”, hitting on one of his co-workers and spreading rumors about the damn fish Aquaman – he looks much more sympathetic when pitted against Patrick’s Auggie, a proud white supremacist who utters mockery and growls at his own son for “letting” I was shot. The case for Peacemaker’s redemption has never been more convincing than in the couple scenes together. Cena softened her face and posture to reveal the boy under all those masculinity – knowing she would never win her father’s consent but couldn’t stop her eyes from widening. Looking for signs he finally found it.

But a lot of the material surrounding his journey feels half-hearted. A sense of duty sets in any time the scenario reverts to the overarching world rescue plot, which involves a mysterious task force assigned to a mysterious mission labeled Project Butterfly for reasons of reason. by mystery. The cast fills in but doesn’t exceed the types of characters they’ve been assigned to – tech nerd, badass lady, no-nonsense leader – though Danielle Brooks manages to fill the picture well warmth whenever she appears on screen as a conflicting new member. There is at least one main character that has some degree of relevance to the plot or theme of the series that still gives me a headache after seven (out of eight) episodes that I’ve watched for review.

Even things People of Peace feels like things have been done before and better. Besides Peacemaker himself, the most colorful character is his makeup-free BFF Vigilante (Freddie Stroma); he’s Deadpool with half a brain cell. The rock music has an 80s flavor and the same passionate lyrics have the nuances of Thor: Ragnarok or Gunn’s own Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And People of Peaceemotional beats of the feeling of a work with Suicide SquadIts own most sentimental inclinations, no maximal scale, bleak commentary, or individual outlandish questions make the film so compelling.

To be sure, something doesn’t have to be original to be deeply captivating: One of the People of PeaceThe film’s biggest winner is Eagly, a pet eagle that’s basically just a puppy in feathers. But by the time the characters bicker over the Berenstain Bears Mandela effect in the third episode, it feels like they’re arguing because that’s what characters on a show like this are supposed to do, rather than because of it. match any particular qualities about these people.

When someone begins a sentence with “No, you are not a dodgy vampire…” it can be said at the end of the sentence in real time: “…you are just a dick.” Is such humor still considered offensive when it has become a staple of superhero comedies for at least the last six or seven years? Does a tragic backstory still sound like a revelation when it’s the most believable way to sympathize with a flawed hero?

For all the ethos of the edgy-oriented show, it has a color scheme that matches the lines of its predecessors. That doesn’t completely harm it – it makes People of Peace more of a comfort than a challenge. However, too much familiarity over the course of a season will result in a series that is easy to stop watching instead of a series that is hard to stop watching. In his quest to unravel a character who came out of his last movie looking dangerously akin to the outright villain, People of Peace losing so much darkness made him appealing in the first place.

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