The Boys: Season 3 Review

Imagine every one of the Batman’s fears about his superhero counterparts in the Justice League came true, then his nightmare would look something like The Boys. If you’re a superhero fan, but tired of the somewhat regurgitated portrayals in Marvel and DC, then The Boys is right up your alley. It’s a show about the dark side of superhero-ing. You know, one where the Flash runs through people and Superman laser beams airplanes out of the sky. If I’m being honest, I did not expect much from the show. I mean how was a show adapted from a relatively unknown comic book series going to dethrone giants like Marvel and DC? I was quickly proven wrong, as The Boys became massively popular seemingly overnight, and inspired a couple of other TV shows in its wake that shared a similar premise. Apart from the fact that people are jaded by the formulaic and cookie-cutter TV shows and movies about superheroes that plague our screens, The Boys owes its success to some pretty great characters, high-quality special effects, and a writing team that absolutely does not hold back.

In the world of The Boys, being a superhero pays big bucks and brings with it all kinds of sponsors and movie deals and whatnot. That is if you have what it takes to make it into the big leagues, being Vought, a multi-million-dollar conglomerate managing the global population of licensed Supes. In the previous seasons, we found out that Vought and its team of superheroes weren’t all that they claimed to be. In fact, superheroes in the Boys-verse are less than human scumbags that engage in all kinds of depravity and debauchery and Vought actively enables them. Their personas are focus group tested to appeal to the public sentiment and drive merchandise and movie sales. Everything is all sorts of messed up with Vought’s ultimate goal being to leverage its financial position and The Seven for world domination. To this end, it uses the super-powered individuals in its arsenal to carry out all sorts of underhanded tasks. What opposes this seemingly immovable force you ask? Well, a miss and match team of nobodies who were each wronged by these super-powered vermin in one way or another.

Season 1 saw the team come together to take down one of the members of the Seven and deal with the consequences of being hunted by Homelander himself. They would have some pretty close encounters down the line with both sides suffering some losses. It would also come to light that superheroes are, in fact, produced by a chemical known as Compound V, and were not blessed by divination as Vought had the masses believe.  

At the end of Season 2, with MM returning to his family and Hughie going off to work with Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, the Boys found themselves disbanded. However, if the previous seasons are anything to go off on, Homelander is a ticking time bomb. His reasons to stay tethered and not become completely unhinged into a murderous psychopath grow fewer. After all, his son was taken from him, and his Nazi wife is now paralyzed and bedridden. This fear of the inevitable sets the tone for Season 3. Will the Boys come together one last time to put an end to Homelander once and for all?

The characters go through some pretty interesting changes as well. Hughie, who’s now in a public relationship with Starlight, feels increasingly emasculated. This, coupled with the fact that his one hope to go up against Vought in a fair and square way turned out to be yet another dead-end, finally turns him over to the dark side. In the absence of his moral compass to guide the team, it’s MM who steps up to the plate. He has his own reasons for abandoning his family to join the team under Butcher’s toxic leadership. Kimiko and Frenchie also grow tiresome of Butcher’s revenge-fueled agenda and dream of a better tomorrow. I sincerely hope they get to see better days. There’s also Maeve, who’s had enough of standing on the sidelines as Homelander kills and plunders. She finally joins hands with Butcher to supply his team with Compound V to even up some of the odds.

Season 3 also introduces yet another character into the mix. Soldier Boy, a superhero thought to be long dead but found by Butcher and team in a Russian lab kept under the wraps, might just be the deus-ex machina the good guys need to finally put an end to the menace of Homelander.

This season has also seen the show double down on its social commentary. With his skeletons out of the closet, Homelander has nothing left but to admit his awfulness to the public. To his surprise, the public seems to love him for it, and without getting into the nitty-gritty of the matter, he even manages to score a seat as President of Vought, a position he has no idea how to handle. There’s no doubt the writers were trying to draw a comparison to Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency here. There’s also the whole Bluehawk vs A-Train scenario which condemns police brutality against African Americans. Can A-train take a complete 180 in his moral values when he comes out of it? How does the whole thing affect Hughie?

The Boys has some pretty interesting scenarios in the blender for the fans to theorize and wonder over. However, it does run the risk of becoming the same thing it parodies. Will the writers manage to get it out of this rut, and if at all, will they be able to keep the show original? That is yet to be seen. I have some pretty high hopes for it.