3x06 Harley's Holiday

[8.5/10] This episode, like the last Harley-focused outing, has a certain extra cartoony vibe to it. The animation and design work is more exaggerated, the situation is zanier, and the skirmishes are a little wilder and more off the wall than usual. But honestly, I kind of like it. As I said in my review of “Harlequinade”, I don’t know that I’d want it every week, but I like the fact that the world of the show bends around Harley, growing more exaggerated to reflect her own outsized personality.

At the same time, though, it roots all that wackiness into something relatable. That’s its strength. Harley is still a little rough around the edges, but she’s done genuine work to get better. She wants to be accepted by society as a new person, and her anxiety that everyone will judge her for who she was and send her right back to Arkham understandably (if absurdly) causes her to lash out in, well, criminal ways. It’s a larger than life way to capture how we all make changes in our lives, hope that people will see and respect them, and worry that we won’t be able to step out of the shadow of our past missteps.

Of course, it also includes a kidnapping, a five-car pile-up, a pair of pet hyenas, and a big set piece on top of Gotham’s most colorful billboards. That’s ever so slightly less relatable, but still tons of fun! The show does a lot with its design and animation work here, from the aforementioned overly expressive poses from Harley in particular, to the wild series of car chases that eventually come together in the aforementioned collision, to Batman’s pursuit of Harley atop neon-tinged ads with funny quips. The show’s going big here, but it does that well.

I also just enjoy Harley’s Pretty Woman-esque setup in the department store. Her obliviousness to how, shall we say, avant garde a presence she is within Gotham is amusing. Everyone’s reactions to her are fun. And the whole misunderstanding over the security tag on her dress (one she actually paid for!) works as the spark that sets her off.

There’s other little enjoyable and/or weird details at play. The fact that Robin takes out the bad guys using a pair of fish as nunchucks is...odd. (As an aside, given how intermittently he would appear elsewhere in the show, I don’t think I realized how much B:TAS tries to make Robin into Spider-Man with his sarcastic quips.) I enjoy the slow-burning camaraderie between Harley and Veronica Vreeland, both because it shows some understanding from Veronica and because Harley’s protection of her new friend helps signify that she’s not a bad guy anymore. I also like that this one brings back Boxy the gangster as an antagonist, both for the continuity and the comeuppance.

On the whole, this one is definitely a little more out there than the average B:TAS episode. It ends with a big goofy smooch after including a five-way bout of road rage that involves a tank. But it also involves Harley Quinn genuinely trying to do better in her life, and earning Batman’s benediction in the process, which makes it oddly more grounded and rooted in character than other, more down to earth episodes.