A review of the third season of "The Boys", even more violent and evil than before.
A continuation of the bully superheroics, ironic of Hollywood and media obsession.
A year has passed since the events of the Season 2 finale. Huey (Jack Quaid) now works for the Bureau of Superhero Control under Victoria Newman (Claudia Dumit). The guy doesn't yet know that the supervisor is also "super," and that she was the one who blew people's heads off in season two. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and crew also work for the Bureau: looking for dirt on scoundrels with superpowers, but trying not to kill them. Homelander (Anthony Starr) is worried about his declining popularity ratings. Starlight (Erin Moriarty), on the other hand, is becoming increasingly successful with the public and soon seems to be the main character of "Seven."
That's not all the plot lines of the new season of "The Boys." Frenchie (Tomer Capon) is caught up in the past in the form of the Russian gang, where he was once a full-time hitman. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) worries about her lost childhood. Butcher tries as best he can to raise little Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), inherited from his dead wife. The A-Train is searching for a new identity - he can no longer run super-fast after a heart attack. And that's not counting the personal dramas of MM (Las Alonso) and Deepwater (Chase Crawford), as well as the love triangle between Starlight, Huey and the new kid Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva). On paper, the new season of "The Boys" seems terribly overloaded: it takes two paragraphs just to briefly list all the little narratives that make up the local story. Not all of the lines are equally interesting (the adventures of the Frenchman, for example, look completely superfluous so far), but it is surprisingly easy to watch this tangled tangle of dramatics.
Maybe it's the fact that in the previous two seasons the authors have intelligently set the accents and labeled the pieces on the board. We already know who all these characters are, what their goal is, and what they are capable of. Now, instead of just bumping them head-to-head, the creators of "The Boys" invent new conflicts and constantly rearrange the pieces on the imaginary board. Homeender here can chat quietly with Butcher in the kitchen, superheroine Maeve suddenly becomes an ally of the Boys, and good-natured Starlight is forced to become increasingly immersed in the twisted corporate world.
There's still plenty of brutal violence and guts scattered throughout the show. What's more, the first episodes of season three boast some of the nastiest (but creative in their own way) scenes in the entire show. But it's noticeable how the writers' focus has shifted over the course of three seasons. "The Boys" is no longer just a sappy exploitation comedy. It's an armor-piercing satire where the characters talk a lot more readily than they fight.
The series also laughs at the trend of remaking "directorial" versions of films (indirectly, but painfully, both Zack Snyder and Outcast One director Gareth Edwards are biting here). Above the preoccupation with viewer ratings and how easily people's opinions can be swayed through the media. Above, finally, the morbid desire of huge corporations to please everyone: Homelander ends up gaining confidence because his overtly fascist statements resonate with male audiences over 30. But a Muslim superheroine doesn't make the team, despite her achievements: inclusiveness is good, but you have to think about the money, too. Of course, the "Boys" absolutes everything, but that only makes it scarier to find echoes of the real world in the twisted and rotten world of the show.
It also helps that the side lines are supported by a sharp main plot. This time, the team is searching for a secret weapon that was supposedly used to kill the superhero Soldier (Jensen Eccles) - which means it could also kill Homelander. Three episodes in, it's unclear where this quest will lead the heroes, but so far, their new adventure looks curious: apparently, the team will even have to travel to Russia. If the writers play their cards right, the new "Boys" may be the best in the whole series. Or, as was the case with a hundred shows before them, they will buckle under the weight of storylines and turn into another TV soap. There are already hints of that. Let's hope that Supernatural creator Eric Kripke doesn't repeat past mistakes.
This article was sponsored by Homayon Tavakoli
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