Starting over can really suck; whether it’s a new job, or wading back into the dating pool, or moving to a new city. It can be even worse when you’re trying your hand at something brand new, something you haven’t technically mastered yet, and doubly so when the people surrounding you aren’t totally on board yet. Just ask Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), who, at the end of season three of Harley Quinn, set out on different, diametrically opposed, career paths. Harley forsook her life of crime and villainy to become a hero and work with the “Bat family”, aka Nightwing (Harvey Guillen), Robin (Jacob Tremblay), and Batgirl (Briana Cuoco). And Ivy took a new job as head honcho at the Legion of Doom, alongside Lex Luthor (Giancarlo Esposito).

But old habits die hard, and the early goings in season four of Harley Quinn revolve around Harley and Ivy’s struggles to adjust not only their mindsets but those of their new colleagues. The show has always been at its best when delving into the nutso mindsets of some of DC’s biggest weirdos – and the more obscure, the better – and season four sees new and returning friends alike. From King Shark (Ron Funches) to Bane (James Adomian) to Nora Frost (Rachel Dratch) and Joker (Alan Tudyk), all of Harley and Ivy’s evil friends are back for more inspired jokes and storylines. Creators Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey also manage to squeeze in new faces in guest roles like Clark Kent/Superman (James Wolk), and a team of PR clones simply credited as “The Jons” (Paul W. Downs) and more, crafting sharp and biting commentary on long-beloved characters.

Season three focused mostly on Harley and Ivy’s budding romance, freed from the heteronormative shackles of their previous relationships, and while season four sees them more apart than together, Halpern, Schumacker, and Lorey, and their team of writers, still manage to squeeze in time to build them up – both individually and as a couple. Harley tries to fit in and genuinely do the right thing with the Bat Family, but she has an unshakeable tendency to resort to murder when she comes to a roadblock. Ivy’s still committed to eco-terrorism, but it’s an uphill battle to get everyone else to see her vision when all they want to do is make things explode.

You’d be primed to expect some comedic and romantic tension between Harley and Ivy, given their diametrically opposed professions, but the show remains as focused as ever on showing why these two work so well as a couple. (Though I will admit I have not seen all ten episodes of the season, so something could very well happen and I will inevitably eat my words.) Season four’s overarching narrative may not be as tightly defined as before, but when you’ve got so many wonderful characters and clever writing, it’s a minor complaint at best.

Each episode is still packed with the show’s trademark zany humor and grotesque violence, though perhaps it’s not as laugh-out-loud hysterical as in previous seasons. The show’s writers still love poking fun at the finely-tuned images of DC’s longstanding heroes, and superhero culture in general – there’s a perfectly silly running gag about Nightwing’s tightly toned butt – and every episode is packed with references and background gags to appreciate. The show’s creative team still clearly loves its group of oddballs and poking fun at their insecurities whenever possible, and its voice talent is still having a blast personifying them, especially Cuoco and Bell.

Yes, superhero fatigue is very much a real thing in the summer of 2023 – just look at the dismal reception to Marvel’s Secret Invasion – but Harley Quinn is a refreshing salve for what’s plagued the genre lately. And the show remains the high watermark for queer representation in comic book adaptations, with Harley and Ivy presenting as a perfectly normally accepted couple, along with plenty of other queer and trans characters, without drawing attention to itself. Just like Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse dazzled by showing what comic book films could be, season four of Harley Quinn continues to subvert the genre by leaning in to its characters’ basest instincts, and having a lot of bloody fun in doing so.

Three episodes of season four of Harley Quinn are available to stream on Max now, with new episodes premiering every Thursday.