Goldstein doesn’t play into his grumpy Roy Kent persona here, but he also doesn’t really play into his real one, either. Goldstein has done stand-up comedy in the past, but “Harley Quinn” imagines a version of him that’s more of a sexy-weird poet type, complete with a one-man show in which he reads Lord Byron’s poetry shirtless while polishing his awards. “Hello, Gotham City: what say you spend your Valentine’s Day with me, Emmy-winning actor, writer, and British bad boy Brett Goldstein?” the actor says in dulcet tones on a pink digital billboard, taking his jacket off to reveal a carpet of chest hair in the process.
The actor is clearly having a lot of fun here, and it’s surprising just how outrageous the series gets with his cameo. At first, the Brett Goldstein show seems like a random aside, a reference to an event that Clayface has plans to attend on Valentine’s Day before his blind date goes wrong. But “Harley Quinn” promised this special would be wild, so we shouldn’t have been surprised when Goldstein ended up at the center of the episode’s, um, climax. Along the way, Goldstein proves he’s one of the best sports in the biz by being obviously game for whatever the show’s writers decide to throw at him.