Peacemaker (Season 1)

Essential, and uniquely so: this is the only DCEU production carried over into the rebooted DCU. Everything else in that continuity was set aside; this was kept, and the second season continues directly from it. Watch The Suicide Squad first, since it opens days after that film ends and the protagonist's circumstances come entirely from it.

The premise is a man who kills people for peace, played in the previous film as a joke and a monster, given eight hours to be examined. What emerges is a story about a violent, bigoted, deeply stupid man who was raised by a white supremacist and has never had a thought of his own, slowly working out that his father is the problem. Robert Patrick is terrifying in the part.

It is also extremely funny, in a register nothing else in DC attempts. The opening credits, in which the entire cast performs a straight-faced dance routine to a hair metal track, became the most shared television title sequence of the year and sets expectations precisely.

John Cena is a revelation, and the supporting cast, particularly Danielle Brooks and Freddie Stroma, are given real arcs. The aliens plot is slight; the thing underneath it is the best character work in the DCEU.