I never thought that I would find myself crying over John Cena acting as a douchier version of Captain America, yet that seems to be where life has taken me.
If you haven’t heard of the superhero Peacemaker, never fret, neither had I until about three months ago. I would love to say I started watching this show because I’m a huge superhero fan and I loved the comics, but honestly, I started watching this show because I found the character Vigilante really attractive.
Started the show for a man, continued it for the plot.
Peacemaker’s journey starts in “The Suicide Squad” in 2021. After what seemed like the end of his tale, a TV show released in 2022, and recently Season 2 dropped, with the last episode airing in early October.
“The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker” are directed by James Gunn, an American director who also directed absolute bangers like “Superman (2025” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films. Gunn has essentially been rewriting the D.C. universe from Dan Snyder’s takes and has yet to flop in my eyes.
I found myself anticipating “Peacemaker Thursdays” and frantically refreshing my HBO Max account at 8 p.m. so I wasn’t spoiled on TikTok. That’s how good this show was. Despite the excessive crude language and sex jokes, this show is genuinely beautifully written and well-directed.
So, from a non-comic book reader of the ‘Peacemaker’ series, here’s why I love it so much.
The Intro
This sounds like a weird thing to love, but it is seriously the best part of the show.
“Peacemaker” episodes always begin with a small scene to begin the show and then transition into the intro sequence, which is a literal dance scene.
All the characters do the most wack dance moves with completely straight faces. If you pay attention, barely any of them are dancing on time and have little to no rhythm. It ends with all of them just straight-faced, gasping for air.
It is pure chaos and absolutely perfect.
The first time I saw the intro sequence, I couldn’t believe it. It weirdly sets the tone for the series and is all around entertaining.
This is truly an unskippable intro sequence.
The Cinematography
This show has the best fight choreography of all time, and I will die on this hill.
Cena’s experience in WWE really excelled the fight scenes, making them all seem so true to a real-life fight, besides the falling out of windows and being perfectly fine.
The editing of the scenes also enhanced the fights — quick snapping shots that show nearly every angle of the fight and really get in there when something insane happens.
It’s absolutely incredible. One of my biggest complaints about Season 2 was that there weren’t enough fight scenes compared to Season 1. I understand, plot-wise, why this choice was made due to the more emotional tone, but it was one of the things that really stood out to me, and I felt its absence while watching the second season.
The dialogue is also fantastic. Do they curse almost every sentence like they just learned what the words meant? Yes. Is it sometimes cringe-inducing and causes me to recede into the depths of my blanket? Also yes.
But when it needed to pack a punch, it did. It was also so astronomically different from director James Gunn’s work on “Superman” that it just elevated it so much.
The Acting Itself
After years of being subjected to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s acting, I honestly wasn’t expecting much from Cena. Wrestling and acting just didn’t seem to match up well. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
Cena’s portrayal of Peacemaker, a.k.a. Christopher Smith was phenomenal. He sold every single aspect of the character’s arc. The douchebag era, where he hypersexualized women, and the depressive state where only drugs and bodies could soothe his sorrows. In the second season, he gives such an incredible, heart-wrenching scream in episode seven that I started to tear up.
It’s just amazing how well he can portray each emotion.
The rest of the cast also did a fantastic job. Danielle Brookes as Leota Adebayo, Peacemaker’s best friend, was jaw-dropping. Every time she was on screen, I knew I was either going to laugh until my sides hurt or cry until I was reminiscent of a dehydrated sponge.
All I can say is: casting director ate.
The Plot
The themes of this show are probably what I love the most about it. This show explores deep-set grief, generational trauma and fighting and overcoming your past demons.
At the beginning of the show, Peacemaker is kind of the worst cis, straight, white dude you can imagine: he objectifies women and is mildly homophobic to one of the lesbian characters. He defends his dad, Auggie Smith, known as The White Dragon, who is racist supreme, and his only hobby is being a huge bigot.
As the series goes on, Peacemaker morphs into a better person with the help of his new friends. He learns that being different is okay and that je shou;dn’t have to excuse his father’s bad behaviors. Peacemaker sees the error of his old ways and, by Season 2, wants nothing more than to be a hero.
His old motto, “I made a vow of peace, no matter how many people I have to kill to get it,” has fully left his brain, and he now just wants to help people.
While the arc of Smith was great, there were some questionable plot decisions. Season 2 chose to further explore the relationship between Smith and Emilia Harcourt, the hard-boiled agent who refuses intimacy, and who, coincidentally, Peacemaker is in love with. Which is okay, but it almost totally ignores the other friendships that he’s made throughout the series of the show.
The ending of Season 2 was also… sort of disappointing to say the least. It sort of made sense for the final arc, but to be honest, it felt more like a setup for the next D.C. series. Which isn’t the worst since Gunn has multiple projects in the works as of now, but with no plans for Season 3, it’s left me feeling confused at the conclusion of an otherwise amazing Season, but excited for Gunn’s next projects.
The ‘Gunn’ did not jam as people on the internet have been saying since the finale. It was a different kind of ending for a different kind of season.
Overall, ‘Peacemaker’ is one of my favorite superhero shows of all time. Gunn and the actors did a great job at bringing these characters to life and making them likable for even non-comic book readers like me to enjoy.
If you love intense fight scenes mixed with emotional dialogue, this show is for you. But if you want to avoid the vulgarity of the deep scopes of Gunn’s mind and keep it PG, I would just stick to “Superman.”
