Harley Quinn Is A Raunchy Reinvention Of Gotham's Most Dangerous Dame

Nearly 30 years immediately after her introduction on Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn, the plucky blonde originally conceived as a foil to the Joker, has cemented herself as a veritable pop culture icon. Enter DC Universe's Harley Quinn, which offers a raw, mature take on the character by means of the added in-your-face humor and unapologetic boorishness, taking Harley in a whole new direction.


The obsessive sidekick, whose blind affection for the Joker was her only defining trait, has undergone a gradual transformation over the years into a confident woman who finally recognizes her own worth — and is aware that she deserves better than a toxic relationship with a unhinged man. Harley Quinn is a needed tale of self-exploration and resilience.


The show also puts a fresh spin on old faces. Batman becomes a surprising paternal figure routinely poised with a sarcastic quip. Poison Ivy is a self-assured, vegan obviously) activist who won’t put up with anyone’s bullshit. And, like her live-action counterpart, Harley's a foul-mouthed miscreant with a penchant for dropping F-bombs hellbent on living her best life. Her plans for doing so include joining the Legion of Doom, the same supervillain collective of which Joker is a card-carrying member.


the opening time we meet up with Harley she's clad in her classic jester costume, staring down a disaster of trash-talking goons who want her dead: "You think we're afraid of the Joker's girlfriend?" Though she’s standing by Joker's side, Harley’s already filled with rage; she's heard this taunt also several times. She tears into combat, blinded by anger, up until the fight goes south. Once Batman steps in and shuts the party down, Joker’s willing to dip, nevertheless there’s "no room" for Harley. She’s busted, and off to Arkham Asylum she goes, where her "true love" leaves her to rot.


By the time she finally emerges from prison, Harley's figured it out: Joker never cared about her. And so starts her journey. "I view it as a fully new character," Harley Quinn producer Jennifer Coyle told MTV News.


The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco brings an ebullient, manic energy to Quinn that's a far cry from the distinct voice actress Arleen Sorkin imbued her with back in the '90s. One moment, she’s a bubbly, young go-getter and, in the blink of an eye, she transforms into a crazed, revenge-driven banshee who swings her bloody bat first and asks questions later. Both personalities are refreshingly foul-mouthed, with lots of "fucks" and "shits" distributed during each episode for good measure.


"Harley is a lot of things," mentioned executive producer Patrick Schumacker told MTV News. "She can be fully insane, and she can be someone who has a crazy quantity of empathy toward a person on the street. She can hit all these different levels, and also you require an actress who can pull off a bunch of different things."


"We couldn't think of anybody with better comedic chops than Kaley, also Justin Halpern, also an executive producer on the show, added. Cuoco gives Harley a "small-town girl in a big city" feel, as she's fully out of her element in the starting of the series. Although by using her resolve and determination to win over sidekicks and companions, she builds her own eye catching crew as she goes.


as soon as we pitched the show a number of many years back, we felt like The Mary Tyler Moore Show was routinely a touch point for us because we saw Harley as this group kind of consummate optimist," Schumacker mentioned. "She goes through this breakup and then runs loose in the big city. She's striking out on her own; a solo act in this big scary world and pushing through." You can call her a role model, nevertheless that isn’t quite the correct term for Harley. That definitely doesn’t change the fact that she’s so ridiculously popular, though.


"She's just fully unhinged," Coyle mentioned. "She's an adult psychotic woman who doesn't really worry about what people think. She's reactive, and her reactions are big. She doesn't check herself in terms of social norms. Who doesn't love that sort of character?"


Harley's oddball antics are easy to love, especially once she's literally telling her ex-lover to "go fuck yourself." Yet she isn't routinely the zany, out-there Maiden of Mayhem fans have come to expect over the years. Just as her fashion sense has evolved, so have Harley's inner sensibilities, which are reflected during the course of the series.


"In the dialogue of our show, she's not crazy without a reason," Coyle explained, referring to the abuse Harley has grappled with at the hands of her clown-faced "lover."


"God is aware that she's been through some rough times with the Joker. To be able to see her totally free to create her own decisions and why nuts some of those are is really fun."


However one of the most refreshing parts of the show isn't the character herself; it's the way it approaches her toxic relationship with the Joker. Alternatively opposed to glamorizing her obsession with the Clown Prince of Crime and romanticizing the abuse he put her through, this series isn't afraid to remind the audience how much of a joke he really is.


"I think we've all dated a Joker or two," Coyle mentioned of the toxic relationship at the center of Harley Quinn. "So much about her story resonates, and some days in not such a positive light either."


"We played him as this petulant man-child the complete way through," Schumacker mentioned of Alan Tudyk's portrayal. "He's deeply insecure, and the second that Harley gets any categorize kind of fame that could possibly displace him, he's going to go soon after her, so there's no generosity on his part. It's a zero-sum game with him." Harley Quinn is the initial animated DC adventure to look at Harley's relationship with the Joker and analyse it under such a lens.


And luckily, with the help of this series along with Birds of Prey, it signals a turning point for the character as a whole. Get ready for a whole new era for one Harleen Quinzel.


"This emancipated, independent side of her is also much fun," Coyle mentioned. "There's been other renditions over the years where she's just order kind of this empty, like monstrous person. I don't think she's ever going to go back that way."