Main cast: John Cena (Christopher Smith/Peacemaker), Danielle Brooks (Leota Adebayo), Freddie Stroma (Adrian Chase/Vigilante), Chukwudi Iwuji (Clemson Murn), Jennifer Holland (Agent Emilia Harcourt), Steve Agee (John Economos), Annie Chang (Detective Sophie Song), Lochlyn Munro (Detective Larry Fitzgibbon), Nhut Le (Judomaster), Antonio Cupo (Royland Goff), and Robert Patrick (Auggie Smith)
Director: James Gunn
In Better Goff Dead, the Mystery Inc-wannabe gang finally gets going on their first mission together: to assassinate the senator Royland Goff.
Why? Well, Murn won’t tell the Peacemaker because it’s all top secret.
Naturally, everything that can go wrong goes wrong, thanks to the arrival of another character in an already bloated cast, Goff’s bodyguard Judomaster. Vigilante tags along, but that’s not 100% good news either considering the overall levels of IQ and competency of everyone on this show.
Still, he and Peacemaker will finally learn what a Butterfly is at the end of the day. So… yay?
I think it’s best to treat this Peacemaker as a brand new character separate from the fellow in The Suicide Squad, because this version of the fellow is more Johnny Bravo than anything else. He’s also a walking, talking stereotype of the right-wing wrongthink, as per the imbeciles on social media these days, although knowing Mr Gunn, I expect this to turn out to be a subversion that will get people hoping that this show will be woke to be fuming mad.
Well, just like the previous episode, this one is a showcase of incompetence on the so-called good guys’ part, but this is a better episode because it actually moves the story forward instead of just focusing on tomfoolery.
This episode also finally allows Vigilante to get some actual screen time, and I have to say, he and Peacemaker make a pretty cute, adorable, bumbling duo had this been a different kind of show. No, really, these two could easily be the new adult version of The Tick and Arthur.
The rest of the cast members are just here to mostly act like fools or deliver short monologues that are supposed to flesh out their personalities a little bit more, but on the whole, they are just hogging up the screen with not much to do. These folks could have been trimmed to just, say, Leota and Murn, and the episode would still be as it is with just minor alterations. Perhaps they will have more things to do in the next few episodes, but then again, how many more episodes do we have left on this show anyway?
At any rate, this episode is on the ho hum, take it or leave it side. So far, things haven’t been living up to the expectations set by the first episode, I’ll keep an open mind and hope that James Gunn will succeed in closing the deal, but at the same time, I’ll also try to keep my expectations low to better cope with any potential incoming disappointment.
