Peacemaker

Our Review

John Cena’s D-list DC antihero got TV’s best character study of a stupid man with big guns. After The Suicide Squad, Christopher Smith — the jingoistic killer who loves peace so much he’ll murder anyone for it — is recruited by a black-ops team to kill “butterflies,” alien parasites wearing human hosts. James Gunn writes and directs most of it, and his signature (needle-drops, creature FX, sudden heart) is everywhere: the opening credits — the whole cast stone-faced lipsyncing to Wig Wam’s “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” — announced a show with zero shame and total commitment.

Cena is a revelation: Peacemaker’s idiocy hides real damage (Robert Patrick as his white-supremacist father is the show’s true villain — a monster in a La-Z-Boy), and the show lets his arc happen without ever pretending he’s smart. Danielle Brooks’s Adebayo (the team’s conscience and the show’s stealth protagonist), Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante (a sociopath fanboy who’s somehow adorable), and Chukwudi Iwuji’s Murn give it a real ensemble. Season 2 pays off. It’s the best thing in the DC screen universe since The Dark Knight.

Verdict: Watch it. I cherish peace with all my heart — and this show cherishes its characters the same way.