NOTE: Some minor spoilers for the fourth season of, “Harley Quinn” may be present in this review. That said, the review is written to accommodate those who haven’t yet watched the season, and as such, will avoid discussion of major plot developments.
Few would have predicted that Harley Quinn would ostensibly stand as the last surviving original series from the DC Universe streaming era. Granted, the fan-favourite adult animation sitcom hasn’t yet been renewed for a fifth season, but with plans to welcome a spin-off series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah! in early 2024, it seems unlikely that Harley Quinn will simply go quietly after the conclusion of its most recent fourth season. That’s an exciting prospect indeed, because Harley Quinn continues to stand as one of the freshest, funniest and most balls-to-the-wall shocking shows to come out of DC, with Season 4 delivering a new batch of ten episodes that take some remarkably big creative swings, while maintaining the same mischievous sense of heart that’s made the series such a delight since its debut on the since-repurposed DC Universe app.
The scope behind Harley Quinn has truly exploded by Season 4 as well. With her crew disbanded, and Harley’s sarcastic, yet devout girlfriend, Poison Ivy taking up a new mantle as CEO of the Legion of Doom, while Harley herself tries to be a hero with the Batman Family, there’s immediately a lot of exciting story possibilities to unpack. Fortunately, “Harlivy” sees a lot less turbulence during Harley Quinn’s fourth season, despite their polar opposite work stations, a very nice testament to so many fulfilling relationship storylines between Harley and Ivy throughout Harley Quinn’s third season. This is also a well-timed development after Harley Quinn’s Valentine’s Day special earlier this year, with Harley and Ivy managing to function as a relatable couple, even as they avoid the low-hanging fruits of contrived relationship conflict during this latest season. Man, it is so good to have moved on from DC’s insufferably angsty CW soap era, on that note!
The loss of Harley’s crew does feel like a bit of a blow to the series at times though, especially when beloved lead characters like Clayface and Joker mostly end up being pushed pretty deep into the background during Season 4. King Shark manages to stick around at least, now on the verge of becoming a father with his, “Mostly platonic” wife, Tabitha, while Clayface spends virtually this entire season in Las Vegas, becoming an overnight sensation that finally sees him achieving his dreams of performance stardom, in turn pretty much leaving all of his old friends behind. Joker, meanwhile, quite busy himself with the banal duties of being Gotham’s mayor, is simply bumped out of his arch-villain role by Lex Luthor, who becomes a much greater threat during Harley Quinn’s latest season, namely through serving as the avatar of patriarchal dominance at the Legion of Doom, as Ivy struggles to win the respect of her new DC super-villain underlings.
Fortunately, with Harley now taking up a new position as part of the Batman Family, Harley Quinn can double down on a renewed focus behind Gotham’s resident heroes. This is despite one of the most surprising developments to conclude last season, namely Bruce Wayne going to prison, essentially leaving Harley Quinn’s entire fourth season without any true Batman appearances. This leaves Gotham especially vulnerable to a new wave of, “Socially conscious evil” that Ivy attempts to kickstart at the Legion of Doom, while Batgirl and Nightwing simultaneously struggle to rein in Harley’s brutal, manic methods.
“Fortunately, with Harley now taking up a new position as part of the Batman Family, Harley Quinn can double down on a renewed focus behind Gotham’s resident heroes.”
Compounding the Batman Family’s issues is the surprise reappearance of Talia Al Ghul, former Batman paramour, and baby mama to current Robin, Damian Wayne. Since Bruce Wayne is in prison, and Talia is the one that actually owns a huge chunk of Wayne Enterprises, the Batman Family find themselves both thrown off-kilter with Harley’s addition, and unable to rely on their usual crimefighting methods through Talia’s interference. Even so, these obstacles give Harley the perfect chance to be an unexpected ace in the hole for Gotham’s vigilante squad, while somehow avoiding immolating her relationship with Ivy at the same time, as Ivy faces an equal lack of respect among DC’s female arch-villains, sporting a ‘mean girl’ cabal of their own that’s headed up by recurring Wonder Woman nemesis, Veronica Cale. Fundamentally, this represents a lot of strong story ideas for Harley Quinn that continue to make great use of new, formerly unexplored corners of both the Batman Family mythology, and the DC Universe at large in Season 4, now that the series’ scope is ballooning well beyond Gotham, and Earth by this point.
Towards the end of the season however, Harley Quinn’s strained character focus can sometimes be its storytelling’s undoing. The series’ many clashing character arcs don’t come together in a fully graceful finish by Season 4’s climax, even if there’s also a worthy effort to craft episodes around spotlighting some of the supporting players, like Bane, Nora Fries or Jim Gordon, all of whom take up unexpected new tasks at the Legion of Doom under Ivy’s leadership. Harley Quinn’s unapologetic courage when it comes to killing off some very well-established Batman Family villains continues to be apparent every so often during Season 4 as well, though as I mentioned, the series is still doing a pretty great job of mining all sorts of surprising creativity from its various DC personalities, even after permanently removing major players like Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze and Penguin from the board during prior seasons.
This all comes together to address a handful of themes relating to whether it’s necessary, or even possible to make a difference when you’ve supposedly accomplished your goals. Harley and Ivy find exciting, renewed purpose in life by taking up the last professional posts anyone would have initially expected them to, but even as a whole swath of new opportunities open up for them, can either of them truly evolve into something better or more meaningful? That’s the question that’s often at the heart of Harley Quinn’s fourth season, and it’s one that the season manages to take on with equal parts existential dread, romanticized ambition, and more than a few middle fingers to conventional wisdom.
Even four seasons in, Harley Quinn continues to do a sublime job of both affectionately pulling down the pants of the DC Universe, and shouting proud as a triumphant empowerment anthem to weirdos, misfits and the queer community. Its big creative swings sometimes come at the expense of struggling to balance its character arcs or world building, though if anything, this could also be a testament to just how much the Harley Quinn universe has filled itself with lovable, hilarious new takes on established DC personalities and locales, too many to fully make the most of across just ten episodes. This is one of several reasons why I couldn’t be happier about Harley Quinn soon getting a spin-off, with Kite Man: Hell Yeah! poised to pick up the baton and keep running with this fantastically eccentric animated DC Universe, no doubt bringing in an even wider scope of amusing reinventions for DC heroes and villains, from the celebrated to the obscure.
“Even four seasons in, Harley Quinn continues to do a sublime job of both affectionately pulling down the pants of the DC Universe, and shouting proud as a triumphant empowerment anthem to weirdos, misfits and the queer community.”
With live-action DC Universe series alums, Titans and Doom Patrol both wrapping up their runs this year, Harley Quinn seems to fully take its crown as the best, most enduring series to come from the short-lived DC Universe Originals catalogue, now standing as the last survivor of that initiative. The series’ fourth season may sometimes become a victim of its own creative ambitions, but even as it struggles through a less effective story arc at times, it never truly loses its sense of energy or conviction. Unsurprisingly, Harley Quinn remains a dark horse gem for the Max catalogue, or the Adult Swim catalogue for us Canadians, even as the series once again radically reinvents itself with its latest batch of episodes.
As DC Studios begins to formulate its vision for the mainline, singular ‘DCU’ franchise to come, and the small handful of ‘DC Elseworlds’ projects that will be allowed to coexist with it, Harley Quinn’s future feels uncomfortably uncertain for the time being, but you’d never know that from the series itself. Season 4 ends with plenty of confident teases for a potential Season 5, with nary a hint that the writers and showrunners are straining for ideas, even while they have yet to be given the green light on more Harley Quinn episodes. Still, an exciting first look at spin-off series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah! that’s already been made public would appear to suggest that, if nothing else, this hysterical DC animated continuity will keep finding ways to endure for as long as it can. I’m all here for it. Even as the series strays noticeably far from its roots, Harley Quinn remains easy to love, and even easier to laugh with!