IR TV Review: HARLEY QUINN - EPISODE 8 ("Inner [Para] Demons") [Warner Brothers Animation-S2]
After the progression of the last episode, there seemed to be some darker treadings going on but "Harley Quinn" seems to try to move it back into balance with a expected but "true-to-form" aspect of Harley overcompensating with her feelings. The emotional reasoning, not that it needs to be there, is a little slapshot since it has to do in reflection with Commissioner Gordon, who himself tends to look over his inadequacies as well. It is only Barbara Gordon as Batgirl that seems to understand this imbalance of the two. Poison Ivy, for her part, seems to have a handle on what is going on but Harley seems much more disturbed by it for probably numerous reasons. The aspect in relating it back to her psychology background is pretty cool and diametric if the show ever tries to get fully into it. It tried to when it showed her initial treatment of Mr. J. The show does dip into the areas once in a while but not with more than a couple passing glances.
This episode: "Inner(Para)Demons" throws its day glo personifications at the wall bringing in the essence of Darkseid when Harley wants to bring the hurt to Gordon. To be honest, it takes the story to a different realm and over the top which the Justice League cartoons can do easily but it doesn't add anything here. It just seems to muddle the issue a little bit when, in many ways, it is a very simple human story that doesn't need the big set pieces, more just a texture of the tongue-in-cheek. Harley and Ivy sitting on the edge of the pier blowing up henchmen has a lot more paradoxes and depth than Harley wearing a cape and leading the spawn robots of the dead. The series should function more about Batgirl's growing frustration of the shortcomings of both sides including that of Batman. Harley then becomes simply and effectively a cautionary tale. While many of the episodes moving towards this one showed a dexterity of thinking, this episode instead took it a little too far in terms of scope where the middle of the ground spoke more to the "reality" of the story per se.C-
By Tim Wassberg