Harley Quinn: The Complete First And Second Seasons (Warner Archive Collection) [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk (VOICES)

Release Date: February 16, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) has finally broken things off once and for all with the Joker (Alan Tudyk) and attempts to make it on her own as the criminal Queenpin of Gotham City in this half-hour adult animated action-comedy series. With the help of Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) and a ragtag crew of DC castoffs, Harley tries to earn a seat at the biggest table in villainy: the Legion of Doom. Don’t worry – she’s got this. Or does she?

In Season 2, Harley has defeated the Joker, and Gotham City is hers for the taking…what’s left of it, that is. Her celebration in the newly created chaos is cut short when Penguin, Bane, Mr. Freeze, The Riddler and Two-Face join forces to restore order in the criminal underworld. Calling themselves the Injustice League, they’re intent on keeping Harley and her crew from taking control as the top villains in Gotham.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Warner Archive Collection) provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The DC adult animated series ‘Harley Quinn’ follows Harley who finally decides that she’s finished with The Joker for good. Ready to finally take on Gotham as her own woman, Harley dumps her puddin’ and heads out to make her name known as a Super Villain, concocting ever clever crime and scheme she can fathom with the help of her best friend Poison Ivy, along with enlisting her own team of fellow baddies including Clayface, Dr. Psycho and King Shark, all with the goal of attracting the Legion of Doom’s attention and becoming a member. Unfortunately, her bitter ex Joker who already stands as a member of the Legion isn’t going to her make accomplishing her dream easy, but he just might be drastically underestimating Harley’s talents and ambitions, especially with a little help from her trusty new team.

The ‘Harley Quinn’ animated series is certainly a whole lot of bloody, vulgar and offensive fun. A cleverly twisted new take on the character and the city of Gotham as a whole (including Batman, Gordon and plenty of notable villains) that repeatedly showcases that going too far isn’t an option. Never holding back or keeping things tame (in fact quite the opposite if anything), the adult animated series repeatedly finds smart and rewarding ways to take its characters and the situations they are thrown into to the most outrageous places possible while delivering heaps of fun, laughs and nasty entertainment around every turn.

Kaley Cuoco does a great job as the voice of Harley delivering a faithful, yet also unique portrayal of the character that perfectly matches the show’s tone, and a solid supporting roster of voice talent including Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, Tony Hale, Matt Oberg, Jason Alexander, Diedrich Bader, Christopher Meloni and more each help in their own right to make this ridiculously over the top and entertaining animated series work so beautifully. Now fans of the show can bring home all 26 episodes from the first two seasons in this new 3-disc Blu-ray collection from Warner Archive. Even if absent of any extras, fans who have been anxiously awaiting the show’s Blu-ray debut should be thoroughly pleased with the solid high definition video and audio presentations it offers on every episode. Any DC fans that may have been hesitant on this one are strongly encouraged to try and find the time to give it a fair chance. You might just be shocked with how quickly you fall in love with this twisted and hilarious adult animated series.

Overall, ‘Harley Quinn’ is a smart, offensive and shockingly graphic animated take on the world of Gotham City and its inhabitants seen primarily from the perspective of a newly single Harley Quinn who is determined to carve out her own reputation without the Joker, regardless of the cost. With plenty of odd new takes on popular characters that somehow seem to work better than you’d expect, plus a magnificent voice cast that helps to really seal the deal, this adult cartoon quickly evolves into something quite brilliant and always incredibly entertaining. Fans of the series should also be thrilled with Warner Archive Collection’s 3-disc Blu-ray release of ‘Harley Quinn: The Complete First and Second Seasons’ which explodes onto Blu-ray with wonderful high definition video and audio presentations on all 26 included episodes, spread between three Blu-ray discs for the best possible quality.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Harley Quinn: The Complete First and Second Seasons’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation on all 26 included episodes with the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentations look great as a whole and serve up clean, smooth and vibrantly colored presentations on every episode that never suffer from any notable faults or issues throughout. They hold up impressively even during the various fast moving and heavily populated moments, never allowing anything occurring onscreen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, these are wonderful high definition video presentations that should more than satisfy the show’s fans who have been hoping to see the first two seasons of the series arrive home on Blu-ray.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 26 episodes from the first two seasons. These multichannel soundtracks are a definite treat in their own right and provide crisp, smooth and consistently aggressive audio presentations on every episode. They take advantage of all five available channels at every fitting opportunity in order to send music, action and vehicle effects along with plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers, and never conflicting with any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously. Overall, these are great 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that never disappoint and repeatedly contribute some additional fun to the viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Harley Quinn: The Complete First and Second Seasons’ does not include any bonus content.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 6.5/10

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‘Harley Quinn: The Complete First And Second Seasons’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from DC & Warner Archive Collection

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