Peacemaker's 'Girl Power' Moment Was All Cringe

This isn't how you write strong, independent women, James Gunn.

Having only watched the first episode of HBO’s new DC comics show, Peacemaker, I’m withholding judgment for a while.

There were definitely some good moments, though it’s a little worrisome that the intro credits might be my favorite part so far. The goofy dancing with the 80s hair-metal is hilarious.

John Cena is really good as Peacemaker, an overly earnest “superhero” who cares so much about peace he’s willing to kill any man, woman or child who stands in his way. It’s very much commentary on the goofy bravado of the “we’re number one!” American nationalism and overzealous patriotism, but director/writer doesn’t lay it on too thick. Or at least not too too thick.

Peacemaker’s dad, played by Robert Patrick, is a total racist bigot whose only moment of humor or bonding with his son comes when he tells him about Bloodsport’s own father, who tortured his son with rats.

This, it turns out, is quite the hilarious story for Peacemaker’s pop—who also suggests that maybe Peacemaker should kill a few more minorities and Jews (though in much more colorful language) and harangues him for having the audacity to get shot.

His father also clearly has his own secret identity and a strange interdimensional workshop where he’s crafted a bunch of super-powered Peacemaker helmets.

That’s all pretty interesting, as is the final fight scene between an outmatched Peacemaker and a hookup gone horribly, horribly wrong. I’m definitely curious to see where this show goes. But I have one gripe, and it’s a gripe I’ve had with a lot of modern shows and movies, which is that writers these days think that making women tough absolutely must involve them making women act like the aggressive, toxic men they purportedly despise.

So we must discuss the bar scene where Peacemaker shows up and tries to hookup with his new colleague, Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). Here is a perfect example of a very forced, very cringey “girl power” scene that could have been handled so much better.

I’m not concerned with Harcourt’s display of fighting skills. Superhero shows and movies are filled with badass women kicking burly dude’s butts and that’s fine. What bothered me so much about this scene is just how contrived and unrealistic the whole thing seemed; more of a setup to show off Harcourt’s toughness than something that might actually happen. I prefer character development to feel organic rather than shoved down our throats.

So yeah, the bar scene.

Presumably in an effort to blow off some steam after a hard day’s work at a crappy new base of operations, Harcourt goes to a bar. Peacemaker sees her walking in and flips around to pop in and see if he can get lucky.

It’s a dingey dive bar filled with scruffy, leering men, practically drooling at her as she tries to enjoy her Budweiser in peace.

Naturally, one of these Scumbags approaches her, a grin slapped across his pasty face. He leans in, stroking her hand with his, and says “Can I ask you a question?”

Harcourt doesn’t blink. “As long as it’s a question about how to cure rotting fresh breath, sure,” she answers, which is a reasonable response to an invasion of personal space and unwanted touching. He responds with some bad language I won’t repeat and storms off, angry and embarrassed—though surely this tactic rarely works.

Peacemaker shows up and flirts very poorly with a clearly uninterested and unfriendly Harcourt. After some bungling conversation between the two, we hear the conversation down the bar where the three men are huddled up.

The first guy’s buddy is incredulous. “She said what?” he exclaims, clearly furious. Harcourt hears him and stands up, preparing herself for a Toxic Male Encounter.

Sure enough, Scumbag Number Two rushes across the bar toward her. “What the fuck did you say to my friend you ugly [gendered insult]?” he says angrily, reaching for her neck.

(Because this is a Very Adult Comic Book Show there is a ton of swearing, which is one of several ways—along with gratuitous nudity and gore—that you signal to viewers that this is A Show For Grownups And It’s Okay To Like It Even If You’re Not A Kid).

Harcourt proceeds to kick Scumbag Number Two’s ass rather brutally. She breaks some bones. She scares him half to death. His friends are terrified. We, the audience, now know that Harcourt is no Damsel In Distress, she is a Very Capable, Strong and Independent Woman who doesn’t need Peacemaker to save her from these pigs. She will respond with overwhelming force all by herself, thank you very much.

Again, my problem with this scene is not that Harcourt is a total badass or that she easily defends herself and puts the hurt on this guy despite him being twice her size. This is par for the course. More power to her. The guy was clearly going to attack her and she did what had to be done, with perhaps a little more zeal than you’d expect.

It’s the heavy-handedness of it all that irks me. It’s just so on the nose. Men can be total creeps like Scumbag Number One, making unwanted advances and getting offended when they’re rebuffed. That happens all the time and it sucks.

But this scenario is preposterous for a lot of reasons. Scumbag Number One would definitely not go cry about his hurt feelings to his friends. If he did, his friends would not get angry on his behalf, let alone assault the woman who insulted him.

They would mock and deride him without mercy.

He would be the subject of scorn because:

• He was turned down by the girl at the bar (which is fine unless you cry about it).

• She made fun of his breath—and now they will, too!

• He cried about it to other dudes, perhaps the gravest sin of all. There is nothing less manly than crying about hurt feelings that a random chick at the bar inflicted upon you. Lots of men talk about feelings, but crying about an insult from a stranger is going to get you ridiculed.

These are supposed to be toxic alpha male types. But even regular guys who aren’t assholes and who would never act like this toward women would mock another guy about this stuff, and gleefully. Mockery is half of any decent friendship, especially over drinks and especially when it comes to lady trouble. How James Gunn thought this was a realistic scenario is beyond me.

No guy is going to get this upset on his friend’s behalf because some random woman at a bar insulted his breath. It’s completely ridiculous. They might continue to harass her. They might do lots of things. But not this thing.

I like James Gunn primarily because I liked the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie so much, but if this is the quality of writing we can expect throughout the rest of Peacemaker, count me out.

You can watch the scene for yourselves in the below video. At the end, there’s a scene from Aliens that helps illustrate how you can write a strong female character without making the whole thing so ludicrous. (Warning, this video is NSFW).

Now, you might say “Okay mister white straight cis-male, what gives you the right to talk about this situation?”

Three things:

1. This show is written by a white straight cis-male and it’s his writing and direction here that I’m critiquing. I find it unrealistic—not because men can’t be total assholes to women, but because this feels incredibly forced and unrealistic.

2. I would really like to see better portrayals of strong female characters rather than pretend like being a strong woman just means acting like a dude or resolving everything through violence.

Harcourt has every right to rebuff the scumbags and defend herself, and every right to shoot down Peacemaker’s ridiculous advances while she’s at it—his game is awfully weak for such a strong dude, and he hardly does himself any favors in the romance department. But this is a boring, predictable and ultimately silly idea of what a “strong woman” looks like, let alone what toxic masculinity looks like. I mean, okay, this is a cartoonish superhero show so why not have cartoonish portrayals of everyone?

I actually have an answer for that. If you want to highlight just how ridiculous Peacemaker is, you can’t make everything around him ridiculous all the time. You have to have some contrast between the world he inhabits and the reality he’s created around himself. It’s the same with zombie or fantasy shows. You still have to have characters act like real people even in these outlandish situations.

I’m more interested in Leota (Danielle Brooks) who seems to have a few more layers and an actual personality to work with. I get the feeling that her strength will run deeper and that her character will benefit from some complexity rather than just generic badassery.

So far, Peacemaker feels very much like it’s trying too hard. Trying to be weird and funny instead of just settling into it over time. John Cena is great but I’m not sure about an entire show devoted to Peacemaker. The eagle hug was funny and there were some clever lines sprinkled throughout.

But even though the chat with the janitor at the beginning had a few chuckles, and his Braveheart-esque cry of “Freeeedom!” during sex was kind of amusing, mostly the first episode of this show left me mildly entertained and deeply skeptical about what’s to come. The funniest part was the opening credits dance scene. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know.

What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Sorry this newsletter has been a little quiet lately. I’m in a weird place in life right now—personal stuff that is enormously distracting and has resulted in some real writer’s block—but I’m trying to get back at it. Thanks for your patience and support.