My Thoughts on Harley Quinn: Season 5

MY THOUGHTS ON HARLEY QUINN: SEASON 5

Where to watch: Adult Swim, StackTV (Canada), Max (U.S.)

(NOTE: This review may contain some mild spoilers for Season 5 of Harley Quinn, but I'll try to avoid them.)

Just a few years ago, I certainly wouldn't have bet money that Harley Quinn would be the last survivor of the short-lived DC Universe Originals initiative. After DC Studios was formed under new co-CEO's, James Gunn and Peter Safran, the then-ongoing DC Universe Original shows saw the most aggressive cull among the massacre of DC's then-current TV lineup. Titans, Doom Patrol and Stargirl, DC Universe's enduring live-action dramas that had migrated to Max in their native U.S. (or The CW, in Stargirl's case), all got the chop within months of each other, following confirmation being reaffirmed that Gunn in particular had no interest in revisiting older DC media under DC Studios, which cemented that the resurrected Young Justice was returning to DC's TV graveyard as well.

Somehow though, Harley Quinn managed to survive the vast DC TV purge under DC Studios, and remains as the only ongoing DC Universe Original series now. Despite a small delay from its planned late 2024 premiere, Season 5 of the cult favourite DC adult animation series managed to keep the 'Harleyverse', as it's now been dubbed by fans following the launch of spin-off series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah! last year, going into 2025. This is despite Harley Quinn clearly running out of ground when it comes to spotlighting the eccentric Batman Family rogues gallery of its animated universe, whose continued antics have now more or less left Gotham City in complete ruins by the time Season 5 begins.

So, Harley and her fellow Batman villain girlfriend, Poison Ivy make the decision to move to Superman's hometown of Metropolis, which serves as the setting for Season 5 of Harley Quinn, and potentially a new setting for the remainder of the series? Regardless, this change in location follows a tease from Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, namely that hyper-intelligent Superman Family baddie, Brainiac would become a major antagonist during Harley Quinn's then-upcoming season, and sure enough, Harley and Ivy end up trading Batman's 'finest' enemies for several of Superman's regular hazards, from the Luthor family to the aforementioned Brainiac.

This is a major shakeup for the storytelling foundation of Harley Quinn, but despite the series moving to an entirely new location for Season 5, its humourous stylings remain more or less unchanged. In fact, if anything, Harley Quinn's reliable brand of R-rated anti-hero comedy has been supercharged by the glossy, glamourous new burg of Metropolis, a place that immediately threatens the chaotic image of 'Harlivy' as reformed super-villains that now function as a power couple of interest.

One thing I found especially refreshing throughout Season 5 of Harley Quinn as well is the series' surprising candidness when it comes its own narrative roadblocks. Season 5 turns those roadblocks into nicely self-aware, tongue-in-cheek gags, as the series openly admits that it's quite literally exhausted what Gotham has to offer in this continuity, and that the eponymous Harley similarly has nowhere else to really go as a character in this particular universe. This means that it's once again Poison Ivy pushing the story forward at first, as she's given an esteemed new professional position at Metropolis University, catalyzed by the presence of Lex Luthor's sister, Lena, voiced in a standout turn here by Archer's Aisha Tyler.

This is merely the first in a long series of events that inevitably sees Harley and Ivy confronting how short they fall of Metropolis' perceived perfection, even after all the couple achieved during Harley Quinn's previous four seasons. This conflict also comes into sharp focus through the introduction of new arch-villain, Brainiac, whose agenda is quite literally based around forcing perfection across the cosmos, by bottling societies and permanently freezing them in time.

This perfection-driven agenda by Brainiac is perhaps the most in line with DC Comics continuity that Harley Quinn has been in a while. Even with Brainiac being largely faithful to how he's depicted in the printed panels however, Harley Quinn still manages to provide an effective, sitcom-style twist on this incredibly powerful Superman enemy, making Brainiac just as eccentric, and vaguely sloppy, as most other DC villains (and heroes, for that matter) tend to be depicted in the Harleyverse. Considering that the series finds an amusingly trite way to hand-wave away Superman's presence (or lack thereof) at the start of Season 5 as well, Harley and Ivy become the first and only line of defense against the incoming scourge of Brainiac. It'd be utterly preposterous, if Harley Quinn's greatest strength as one of the best TV shows that the DC Universe app ever produced wasn't in fact built around how cleverly preposterous it is!

As usual with when I covered Harley Quinn's previous four seasons on Eggplante, Season 5 is best enjoyed when you know very little about its many zany surprises. Rest assured however that the move to Metropolis has given Harley Quinn a remarkable shot in the arm in Season 5, even when it sometimes has to strain to justify why series regulars like Bane, Clayface and Bruce Wayne are all coincidentally moving to Metropolis at the same time that Harley and Ivy are. This is especially mystifying in Bane's case, since he was a lead character during Kite Man: Hell Yeah!'s first season, a show that seems to want to remain in Gotham. At least King Shark is commuting from his day job as an undersea ruler/overworked father!

It's also true that, while Harley Quinn's humour and writing gets a much-needed boost after a slightly wonkier fourth season, the series is still not at the height of its incredible comedic momentum from Season 1 and Season 2. There are still a few subplots and extended jokes that don't work very well in Season 5, especially when Harley Quinn can no longer lean on various Batman Family villains, yet doesn't seem to replace them with an adequate amount of Superman Family enemies, likely due to the enormous difference in powers that Superman's foes wield over Gotham's rogues gallery.

Still, Harley Quinn's fifth season proves that this animated series is quite healthy, even six years on, and that it has plenty of potential left to tap as a hopeful recurring favourite in DC Studios' 'Elseworlds' catalogue, for ongoing and future DC media that doesn't take place within the mainline DCU. Perhaps the loss of DC's other recent TV gems like Doom Patrol and Superman & Lois was inevitable, to avoid brand confusion in the live-action space, but Harley Quinn thriving in adult animation should give it a better means to separate itself from DC's more mainline and (relatively) serious endeavours.

For now though, Harley Quinn hasn't been officially renewed for Season 6 at the time of writing. Even Kite Man: Hell Yeah! continues to hang in limbo at this point, without a Season 2 renewal or cancellation being confirmed by Max, DC Studios or Warner Bros. at the time of writing either. This is despite Harley Quinn's showrunners and producers remaining optimistic about further renewals and spin-off shows, and, at a minimum, having a story template in mind for a potential sixth season of Harley Quinn, though Season 5 does end on a fairly satisfying note, should the series get the axe.

It seems evident that DC Studios is currently trying to figure out the future of its animation arm, especially with Harley Quinn's current showrunner, Dean Lorey also overseeing Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, and even performing showrunner duties for the mainline DCU's inaugural adult animation series, Creature Commandos, a series that DID get a Season 2 confirmation, despite Creature Commandos originally being billed as a miniseries. Lorey is clearly stretched thin with his current duties, and I imagine that Creature Commandos' sophomore season will no doubt take priority, since it occupies the mainline DCU, and would likely have some small influence on future DCU movies and TV shows. Harley Quinn and Kite Man: Hell Yeah! meanwhile are DC Elseworlds projects that take place in an entirely separate universe, and thus don't have any stake in what the mainline DCU is doing.

So, it's anyone's guess if and when Harley Quinn may return for Season 6, but if it does, I'll certainly keep watching. Harley Quinn remains a sardonically delightful undressing of DC Universe personalities and stories, on top of somehow being one of the best queer-representative TV shows on the air today, for what that's worth. As much as it's bittersweet for the series to bid farewell to Gotham, seemingly forever, the move to Metropolis has nonetheless given it a sweet and hilarious new lease on life. It's not always perfect, but if Harley and Ivy are going to continue their world tour beyond the confines of Gotham, or even just keep hanging in Metropolis for the foreseeable future, they're bound to keep stirring up some riveting, and oddly heartfelt chaos, wherever they go!

IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 8/10