We live in a world over-saturated by superhero movies with obsessive fans clamoring for the next predictable energy battle finale and loudly campaigning for studios to release some director’s cut of the last big team-up movie. And then there’s Prime Video’s critically acclaimed bloodbath of a series,The Boysthat not-so-subtly pokes fun at all of that in the most delightfully grotesque ways. Season 3 doesn’t shy away from pointing fingers at its more family-friendly competitors—rolling out Vought-endorsed brand deals to sugarcoat racism, launching Seven-led documentaries on streaming platforms, and showcasing a Voughtland theme park that fully embraces rainbow capitalism despite documented homophobia. While all of this is done in good fun,The Boysalso plays with a number of very real-world problems through the lens of superhero mayhem, and all of that is somehow even more disturbing than the gore of an exploded head raining down on poor Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid).
Season 2 ofThe Boysended with Annie (Erin Moriarty) being reinstated as a member of the Seven after being branded a traitor for going up against Homelander (Antony Starr) to expose Stormfront (Aya Cash) as a Nazi; Homelander’s public image was tarnished due to being romantically involved with said Nazi; the Deep (Chase Crawford) had escaped the cult that he joined to regain favor with the Seven after his sexual assault allegations; and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) was left to grieve Becca’s (Shantel VanSanten) accidental death at the hands (or rather eyes) of her son Ryan (Cameron Corvetti).
Since the start of the series, Butcher has been on a singular mission to get revenge against Homelander for what he did to Becca and, in the process, bring down Vought and put an end to superpowered individuals in general. While he has come close a number of times, and he has certainly put a dent in the population of supes, Season 3 brings him the closest to achieving his goals—but at a great cost.As revealed in trailers for the new season, Butcher gets his hands on a variant of Compound V that gives someone superpowers for roughly twenty-four hours, and he decides to use it. A lot.
Initially, this plot is extremely fascinating because the abilities that Butcher receives are nearly identical to Homelander’s, butThe Boysnever engages with it on a deeper level. Partially this is because Butcher is a very stoic and internal character. He’s not about to sit down with Hughie and have a deep, meaningful conversation about how the serum turns him into the very thing he hates—but he should, because it’s fascinating stuff. He’s also not the only character to go on this type of journey throughout the season, yet Hughie and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) have a lot more development invested in them. Like a lot of characters this season, Butcher is kind of stagnant—and hopefully, next season will provide most of the cast of characters with opportunities to grow beyond their very isolated motivations.
RELATED:‘The Boys’ Season 2 Recap: Everything You Need to Know Before Season 3
While character development is a very important discussion, this review would be remiss not to dive headfirst into a character that fans have been anxiously awaiting the introduction of: Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Riffing on the ever-popular trope of a superhero being taken by enemy forces, brainwashed, and turned into a weapon, Soldier Boy is brought in Season 3 as Butcher’s last-ditch effort in destroying Homelander. While he’s not quite the same cartoonishly ridiculous character that was created byGarth EnnisandDarick Robertsonin their comic book series by the same name, he is almost everything that fans were hoping for. By the end of the season, Soldier Boy’s introduction begins to feel a lot more like this isThe Boys’Captain America: Civil War, right down to a secret about parents that tears the Seven apart.Literally.
Season 2 made it clear thatThe Boyshas no qualms with tackling hot-button and relevant sensitive subjects like Nazism and sexual assault, but Season 3 builds on all of that and goes full-tilt into satirizing prominent moments from the past two years. Homelander’s fan base absolutely asked off work on January 6—right down to replicating the ridiculous QAnon Shaman; A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) pulls aKylie Jennerand stops police violence at a riot by offering a cop a soda in a filmed commercial; and conspiracy theorists level pedophilia and child trafficking claims to obfuscate the truth. It’s rare to see a series about superheroes actually tackle any of these situations head-on, even if it’s hidden under biting satire and lost in the steady flow of blood (and other bodily fluids).
Of the plotlines this season, Kimiko and Frenchie (Tomer Capon) are the most compelling to watch. Throughout the series, their tender-hearted compassion for one another has been a bright spot in an otherwise dreadfully depressing situation, and Season 3 is no different, even though things get incredibly dicey for them this time around. Fans of this duo will spend a lot of time sitting on the edge of their seats, fearing the worst. While it’s hard to root for any member of the Seven other than Annie, A-Train has one of the better storylines this season. With the Season 2 revelation that his heart is weak, Homelander subjects A-Train to a lot of bullying about his physical limitations, and it pushes him to return to his family for support, and it opens his eyes to situations that he has the ability to change.
Starr continues to give the most unsettling performance as Homelander—descending fully into a madness that we haven’t seen before, which is saying something because Homelander has been a narcissistic psychopath since day one, but Season 3 takes him to entirely new levels. The third season ofThe Boysis an insane, blood-soaked, and dick-filled journey into a twisted world where the superheroes are just as corrupt and monstrous as the government agencies that puppeteer them, and the world is ready and willing to buy into that madness and enable it. Juxtaposed to real-world events,The Boyswill make you squirm in your seat and cover your eyes (and not just because there are more dicks on screen than a live view of a Richard convention). Maybe we shouldn’t put superheroes on pedestals and expect them to solve the world’s problems.
There is a lot to love about this season ofThe Boys, but there is also a lot left to be desired. Most of the characters have reached a point where they need new motivations and outside influence to propel them forward. They have mostly reached the end of the arcs established in Season 1 and, depending on how much longerEric Kripkeintends to keep the show running, they need new, further-reaching plotlines to build onto their established arcs. The finale doesn’t necessarily set the team up in a place that far removed from where they start out, leaving it kind of hard to predict where Season 4 might take them — though, for some, it may be a much shorter season.
The BoysSeason 3 premieres with its first three episodes on Friday, June 3 on Prime Video, with subsequent episodes released each Friday weekly until the finale on July 8.
