1x03 So, You Need A Crew?

[7.5/10] A fun episode! The premise is strong. Harley deciding that the latest thing she needs in her “Keeping Up with the Jokers” ethos is her own crew sets up a solid reason for her latest mission. The process of hitting up henching talent agencies, pitching random toughs in bars, and even going to a motivational speaking seminar to figure out how to assemble her team has some nice Venture Bros.-esque hijinks in play. I love Harley’s sense of compassion for her fellow henchmen, having been a maligned and mistreated sidekick herself.

But I also appreciate the fact that even though she has a better pitch and a better attitude, she’s not able to gather the right crew because she’s a woman. There’s honestly something novel about seeing a superhero show directly acknowledge sexism like that. The idea that there’s a glass ceiling on female supervillains is an interesting concept to explore within the confines of the D.C. universe. And the fact that the talent agency sycophants completely exclude Harley when they find out she’s no longer with Joker, the local thugs would rather jump into a hell portal than be bossed around by a woman, and the motivational speaker does nothing but sexually harass her when she comes to him for advice dramatize that idea nicely.

I don’t know -- there’s something real about it all. I know that's a bit crazy to say in an episode where Harley hears a cautionary tale about gender bias in the superhero world from a chain-smoking tax code manual voiced by Wanda Sykes. But having Harley find nothing but closed doors and unnecessary speed bumps when she’s trying to set out on her own, simply from having a pair of X chromosomes, brings legitimate pathos.

But it also brings legitimate triumph. It’s nice to see Harley gathering her own crew despite those challenges and making it work, regardless of the extra difficulties she has to face. I gotta admit, I low key love Dr. Psycho and Clayface. Dr. Psycho is a fun spoof of retrograde dudes in the public eye who have to go on apology tours. Tony Hale is brilliant (as usual) in the role,and his sort of exasperated, The Monarch-like exasperation at his own self-made failures mixed with delusions of grandeur makes him a fun ingredient in the show’s mix. And playing up Clayface’s persona as an actor, to where he goes overly method with their mark, is a source of continuing hilarity in the episode.

Speaking of which, I love the fact that they make the semi-obscure Maxie Zeus the self-absorbed motivational speaking supervillain who does wrong by Harley! He’s a nice fit for someone who’s more of a blowhard than a legitimate baddie elder statesman, and Will Sasso plays him with just the right level of self-aggrandizing scumminess. The fact that the misfit team of Harley, Dr. Psycho, and Clayface manage to best him, steal his most precious prize, and convince him to say that Harley and her crew are “nothing to fuck with” is delightful.

(As an aside, it’s funny that D.C. universe let’s this raunchy show use the word “fuck” unbleeped, but censors the word “cunt.” I wonder if the creative team chose to deliberately bleed it so as to emphasize how galling it is that Dr. Psycho used the word to describe Wonder Woman.)

To the point, I like that Ivy didn’t send Harley to the Queen of Fables to discourage her, but rather to send her in with confidence knowing the type of bias she’s up against. Seeing Harley not only trade Zeus’ medals for the warhead she was after at the beginning of the episode, and even getting a highway named after, is a wonderful instance of her getting a big win.

Overall, this one is a bit lighter and more straightforward than the first two episodes, but still comes with plenty of substance and a strong direction.