A lot of the charm “Harley Quinn” deals out in spades comes from the juxtaposition between the genuinely emotional love story and the comic book chaos unfolding everywhere around it. One moment, Harley and Ivy are decapitating a fossil fuel CEO. The next, they’re navigating their relationship with open-ended communication and vulnerability. It simply shouldn’t work as well as it does, but those two extremes create a balance. At their core, these two powerful supervillains are experiencing the same relationship struggles as the rest of us.
Not only does that polarized approach work, it’s a comedic engine for delivering jokes at breakneck speed. The last tired trope the show bucks is the notion that queer romance has to be sad in order to be serious. “Harley Quinn” venerates queer joy, expressing it as a laugh covered in glitter and blood.
That dichotomy is on full display in “A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special,” which turns the wacky super-villainous antics up to 11 and places HarlIvy’s competing needs at the fore. As they battle a giant, horny Bane amid a city dosed with lust pheromones, Ivy empathizes with Harley’s desire to make her happy, but also makes it clear that she hasn’t been listening to Ivy’s needs. In the end, their bond is strengthened. In the burning city, they kiss amid the rubble.
Few relationships in media, queer or not, represent the realities of a relationship with such emotional maturity. And sure, conflict is what makes a story compelling, but “Harley Quinn” has consistently proved that toxic relationships do not hold sole claim to good storytelling. With “A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special,” this incredibly raunchy yet heartwarmingly sweet show proves it not only has the best queer romance on TV, but maybe the best romance, period.
For more latest TV News Click Here