16th Feb2023

‘Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Features the voices of: Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, James Adomian, Brett Goldstein, John Stamos, Vanessa Marshall, Natalie Morales, Matt Oberg, James Wolk, Michael Ironside, Rachel Dratch, Chris Diamantopoulos | Directed by Jennifer Coyle, Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton

Woe betide anyone who stumbles across the Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special without any prior knowledge of the animated TV series, because it’s safe to say they’d be in for something of a shock. Created by DC animation veterans Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, and written and exec-produced by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey, the show specialises in a raunchy, adult-themed and decidedly sweary take on the familiar DC Comics characters, and the Valentine’s Special pushes those limits to even further extremes.

Entitled Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special, the extended, 44 minute episode sees Harley Quinn (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) pulling out all the stops to give girlfriend Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) the best Valentine’s Day ever. When she doesn’t quite get the response she wanted, she steals the Lasso of Truth from Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall) and discovers that the day was only in Ivy’s top three Valentine’s Days.

Determined to do better, Harley visits rhyming demon Etrigan’s (John Stamos) sex shop and obtains a spell that will give Ivy a world-shattering orgasm (“Read this out loud and you shall summon, a power that will have you both a-” etc). However, there’s an unexpected side effect, in that Gotham gets showered with Ivy’s pheromone explosion in the process, driving the entire population into a sex-crazed frenzy.

Meanwhile, Bane (James Adomian) meets a dominatrix (Casey Wilson) and fears he won’t measure up to her expectations, so he goes to Etrigan for a spell of his own, while Clayface (Alan Tudyk) gets split in half by Captain Boomerang (Josh Helman) and ends up falling in love with his bottom half.

The voice work in the special, as in the series itself, is exceptional. In particular, whoever decided that Bane should sound exactly like Zoidberg from Futurama deserves some sort of award for services to comedy. Similarly, Tudyk’s decision to put a lot of Matt Berry’s Toast into aspiring actor Clayface (“It is I, ClayFAAAAYYYYce!”, etc) is nothing short of inspired.

On top of that, Cuoco and Bell make a terrific double act, creating a heartfelt relationship that is surprisingly moving. Indeed, the show’s real strength is that underneath all the swearing, violence and general comic-book absurdity, is a very positive, mutually supportive depiction of a same-sex relationship – it took them an entire season to get there, but it’s clear that that was the intention all along and it plays beautifully.

The special is full of comic highlights, not least a very funny cameo from Brett Goldstein as himself, performing a show where he gives shirtless readings from Byron while polishing his TV award. In addition, though the animators aren’t allowed to go full-on explicit, the degree of comic creativity in the sequence where giant, aroused-and-enhanced Bane is rampaging around Gotham naked is worthy of applause.

Finally, the episode gets good value out of the When Harry Met Sally documentary-style gimmick of having various coupled characters sitting on a sofa and telling the camera how they met and fell in love, only with DC Comics characters. Participants here include Superman and Lois (James Wolk and Natalie Morales), Aquaman and Mera (Chris Diamantopoulos and Janet Varney), Hawkman and Hawkgirl (Tyler James Williams and Quinta Brunson) and Killer Croc and Enchantress (Matt Oberg and Leila Birch) as well as Michael Ironside as a smitten Darkseid.

In short, Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special is a superbly animated, brilliantly voiced special episode that pokes gleeful fun at the DC Universe with its infectiously irreverent take on Harley and friends. And if you haven’t yet seen the previous three seasons, you’re in for a real treat.

**** 4/5

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