Harley Quinn in Gotham

It's time. Yes. Due to the laws of thermoquinatics, Harley Quinn or a version of her, must appear on the live action Gotham TV show.

You kniow, when this show first came out, I was intrigued but not really a fan? I would still watch it, but I'd be making snarky comments and then something would happen that was so stupid or way out of left field that I'd just be like, fine!

Now, Harley has been in live action a few times. First of all was in Bird of Prey, a suuuuper nineties show that wasn't quite done well enough to be popular but if you can look past the cringey heroes, the main antagonist (who, like her comic counterpart, tends to work in the shadows and pull strings) Harley Quinn is actually not bad. 

Played by Mia Sara

I plan to do an actual post on this version of Harley Quinn later but I'll just say that I much prefer the 'smart' villain approach instead of the 'wheee I'm crazy and have a baseball bat!' trend.

It was nice seeing her get into the hero's mind as their psychiatrist - they literally walk into her den - and while she only shows her crazy crazy side towards the last episode, it's a nice reminder of how scary someone who appears nice but is actually manipulative and scheming can be.

The next time we see Harley... or rather the back of her head - is in an episode of Arrow (which man, I cannot stand and stopped watching after they royally messed up Huntress).

Played by Cassidy Alexa, voiced by Tara Strong

We only got a sneak peek at her when Arrow got involved with the Suicide Squad (which features a Deadshot that resembles his comic character sooo much better than Willshot... and I'm not just talking skin tones here. That said, the Zsasz style victim tattoos was a bit much.) 

Anyway, only a bit part because DC was all like actually no, we want her in this super awesome movie so you can't have her!

'Acted' out terribly by Margot Robbie

Which leads us to this train wreck. 

I wish I'd only seen that back of this gangsta mole's head the whole movie because her face is like wet roadkill that spits out garbage (or worse) from the front. 

Well actually I wish they'd never made that idiotic excuse for a movie in the first place.

Then  I don't have to go "Yes, I'm a fan of Harley Quinn! .....no, not that version. Or that one. No, the other one. Okay, sometimes that version. That version there went stale straight away, but this other version's a bit better... no, not THAT one.." 

It was probably easier to explain back in the day when people asked 'who's Harley Quinn?'

Getting back on topic -  Gotham is now a lot more enjoyable for me in season three. It's hard because it's nailing some characters like Selina Kyle, Bullock, Alfred, Bruce, Penguin, The Riddler, Zsasz, Dr. Hugo Strange, Poison Ivy, Firefly, Dr. Freeze, Jarvis Tetch, the Court of Owls and Jerome/Joker....

Some are terrible. Tabitha/Tigress I'm looking at you along with the scenery eating Fish Mooney (well, she was sometimes okay but largely a pain to listen to - must run in her real life family!) and I honestly could not stand Ogre or Theo Galavan and the new Butch is kind of a drag sometimes. 

The main issue I think is that sometimes the show just doesn't know how to write it's female characters and in particular it's female characters of the homosexual nature. We saw it in season one where Montoya was reduced to a lesbian footnote and later on when Tabitha appears and is just a bad villian lesbian stereotype. Heck, and even she defects to a male later on. Which, actually was kind of interesting once her lame brother was out of the way, but led to a scene where she gets her hand cut off and then it's reattached later and she's still using a whip and showing a light wince instead of like.. I don't know.. recuperating for at least a friggin' day?

Dr Leslie Thompson has been pretty bad this season as well - angry at Jim for killing her drugged up poisoned newlywed husband? Well, that's fair enough but the way it's written it's just.. weird. I know grief  affects people in different ways but she's back at work straight after - no bereavement leave? and is gunning for Jim. You'd think after how long they've known each other she'd know that he wouldn't just shoot her husband without a reason beyond suspected jealousy but no, now she's become queen of snark and trying to detective on the sly in order to bring Jim down. 

It's one deviation from the comics that I'm not happy with because she was an awesome character. 

We saw further bad characterisation when Barbara went from waiting around in her penthouse for Jim, to sitting in jail/asylum hoping for Jim then lounging in her Sirens club hanging out for the merest whisper of Jim.  Yes, she got brainwashed and went crazy, and became the stereotypical whacko ex-girlfriend who dabbled in lesbianism for when the male viewers got bored and then kidnapped her ex-boyfriend to marry him because reasons.  

So naturally, people already thought Barbara was basically Harley Quinn. 

She was already a crazy, annoying ex-girlfriend, blonde, kind of bisexual, knew the Joker/Jerome and was a murderer. 

In the comics, Sarah is a police officer who marries Jim Gordon and become mother of the future Batgirl (Barbara) so I'm not even sure if the character is meant to be even close to a parallel of this on the show. 

I don't think Barbara of Gotham should be Harley Quinn. 

Comments from the showrunners:

Woodruff: “You may have already seen Harley as a person that you thought you had met and known for a long time. So we always reserve the right to sort of do that as well.”

Stephens: “We don’t want to give too much away but it will definitely be someone connected to the Joker cult world that we have set up. But it’s down the road, later in Season 3 right now.”

Other suspects:

 Jeri!

Jeri is awesome. Jeri runs a nightclub and is in a band that follows the Maniax - AKA Joker/Jerome's asylum gang.

I think it's noteworthy how smart and knowing she is, and that while on the side of the Maniax does not appear to be a full on villain.

She's funny and has a charming, teasing side to her dealings with Bruce Wayne. 

Jeri was notably not seen with the pleb wannabes at Joker's rebirth but that's probably because she's too smart for that or her actress wasn't available. 

She also played Tank Girl and is awesome. 

Silver St Cloud has not been seen again in the series since her scuffles with Bruce, and although she's an entirely different character in the comic books.. well, that's never stopped anyone before. 

Apart from that I don't have any obvious suspects, so my money is either on Barbara or some random.

What I do like about Gotham is that it's a mix of new and old comic styles. It's corny but it's done in a way that makes it a sort of revamped take on a classic Batman series. The villains do carry the show though so I'm just hoping if they do put Harley Quinn in Gotham she'll be true to her character and not a weird version of new Hardly Quinn that just skates in and hogs the show.

So until we hear more, this is where I'll wait it out, hahaha!