Review: Harley Quinn “Being Harley Quinn”

Overview (Spoilers Below)
Harley and Ivy go lair-shopping after Ivy’s landlord decrees to kick them all out. Unfortunately, Harley’s just a bit indecisive, leading to her brain completely freezing up. Thus, in order to fix Harley, Ivy and the others journey deep within her mind to restore their fellow villain.

Our Take
While not quite as surreal, Harley’s inner mind is nearly a fever dream 24/7. However, the insanity of everything adds to the charm of this series. It’s not as much of an acid trip as it could be, but this episode is an energetic look inside the inner workings of Harley Quinn. Though, I can’t help but think this would have been better suited for Halloween then two days after Christmas…

As alluded to above, the plotline here is surely something. It was a blast seeing Harley and crew tag along through the inner depths of Harley’s mind. I particularly enjoyed the randomness of everything throughout, as it was quite fitting for Harley’s character. While I feel like they could have explored more into Harley’s inner dimensions, this inside scoop certainly enticed me the entire way through.

Unfortunately, the ha-ha’s and chuckles seemed to have been misplaced along the way. To give the episode credit, I did laugh a bit here and there. However, a lot of the humor didn’t really tickle my funnybone. King Shark’s jokes especially felt like low-hanging fruit. It’s unfortunate that the laughs aren’t really coming off well lately. There was a lot of cleverness with timing the jokes in the second and third installments. However, as of the last two chapters, the humor feels largely derived from insults and the occasional cop-out punchline.

Thankfully, the deeper meaning prevails once again here. Throughout the episode, Harley’s in a state of indecisiveness regarding pretty much everything. A lot of that seems to have come from her unfortunate relationship with the Joker. She particularly feels down regarding her origin story towards the beginning. However, by the episode’s end, Harley witnesses a repressed version of her origin and realizes she’s in control of her destiny. Harley gets to call the shots in her life, with no one controlling her from the sidelines. The same definitely applies to the real world. We’re all in control of ourselves, and thus get to decide where we take ourselves in the vast journey called life.

Additionally, upon her realization, Harley begins to change up her origin story. One interpretation of this could be that the past doesn’t define anyone. While, unfortunately, no one can change the past, that doesn’t necessarily set our current selves’ path in stone. Regretful actions are a part of human nature, but they don’t define who you are.

To conclude, for those tagging along for jokes, there’s not too much to take notice of. However, with an enticing plot structure and some fabulous deeper insight, the fifth chapter of Harley Quinn is definitely a hole in one.