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WATCHED: THE BOYS Season 2 (Episodes 1-3)

HAVE NO DOUBTS, THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD...!


The first three episodes for SEASON 2 of THE BOYS has launched and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. The following is my impressions of what I have watched thus far, and I am trying my best to not SPOIL the show thus far, but I am failing spectaculary, so be warned if you do not want to know anything before you watch it ….

BUT if you do…?


A few starting points:

This series is rated "18+" (in USA), and features more gore than you’ll realise - the opening scene with Black Noir (seen above) sets the tone for the level of violence to expect for the series.

“Mature Language” entails coarse and curse slangs, and thanks to STORMFRONT, perhaps even triggering words.

NOT for kids and the squeamish.


Essentially picking up shortly after the events of the finale in Season 1, STARLIGHT goes back to “The Seven”, and attempts to bring VOUGHT down from within.

A-TRAIN survives the finale in S1, and he remembered what happened, so that kinda sucks… Luckily Annie January is hardening up to be a real bad apple (but somewhat still naive), so stuff is contained and manageable. We have a chance to see more A-Train than usual, and Annie has become a seasoned pro at promoting in The Seven.


What is barely manageable though, is the HOMELANDER, whose mental capacity is teetering between a false messiah do-gooder daddy, and a nut-job with fetishes still of the exploded “Madelyn Stillwell"’s refrigerated breast-milk (Watch S1 to understand this reference, and her name is brought up quite often too). We see him visiting his son and Butcher’s wife more often (It's "complicated"), and we get to have an idea of what’s going on … not.

I don't even want to bring up the "comicbook-source" reference anymore, as that looks to be a very possible faded memory...


Both this simple instances gives a perfect example of "WTF IS GOING ON?" if you've missed SEASON ONE (Watch on Amazon). Whatever subtlety and nuances might be lost for folks who don't know the references, which would be a shame, IMHO - although I am thankful the filmmakers did not attempt to knock the exposition-ing in our collective faces, otherwise, thanks.


BUTCHER’S back (at the end of the episode), and KIMIKO (aka “The Female”) is reunited with her brother, who too has super powers. Neither prove to be "charming" now, at least from POV.

FRENCHIE and MOTHER'S MILK are like lost lambs here, one is whiney and the other "angry lamb-chops". HUGHIE might have deserved being punched, but that's just the impatient me. THE BOYS are in shambles without BUTCHER, who are but willing "lemmings", so yeah, the charm seen in S1 had faded fast for me lol


A few new characters are introduced, including a third female super-powered combatant to join the ranks of THE SEVEN: "STORMFRONT" - who eventually kills Kimiko's brother, along with a very snide racist attitude, so there’s your new “villain” to hate on. I have a lot more to say about her, but will perhaps save that for another dedicated blog-post on her character.

Actually, quite a number of folks die gruesomely in the first three episodes. From new characters, to returning characters, which shows the TV show veering off the comicbook path.


We are seeing a lot more "corporate" aspect of VOUGHT thus far, which I feel they are playing it up a lot more than we expect (No “super-villains” on show yet), and I find myself being pulled into wanting to find out more, as opposed to “The Boys” themselves, which I personally have since lost interest in. They have become as much a “cliche” as the “Supes” are made out to be (in Season 1), whom in this season is showing more of their “humanity” instead - from QUEEN MAEVE's past returning to her side (or would that be visa versa), to THE DEEP (a lot of The Deep and his gills, actually…), plus a "cult" joins the world-building of The Boys.

The series speaks the world outside the google box, and adapts into their story-telling, with a somewhat "social justice warrior" slant that either gets the applause, or gets the shitter, courtesy of a audience that may no longer increasingly cannot recognise the difference between fabricated fiction and futile fact, IMHO.


I miss the “dark humour” aspect of Season 1 though, which I’d personally felt ran parallel to the comic book source … but three episodes into Season 2, I’m not laughing much at all. Barely registering a chuckle, actually…


What did put a smile on my jaded face was seeing Darick Robertson's art (it better be his and not a knock off FFS) used for a promotional storyboard sequence that was poised for laughter, but...

QUESTION: SHOULD I WATCH THE BOYS SEASON TWO?
ANSWER: Only if you decide to do so after watching Season 1.

Or perhaps my expectations of S2 was a couple of mountain ridges too high, and I should consider scaling down said expectations if I were to decide on continuing with this series. Fooksakes, I was so keen for Season 2 too...! But hey, it all does not mean I hate The Boys! I DID enjoy my watch, but expected way much more, in my mind. Now I find myself turning a cold shoulder, especially having to wait another week to watch the next episode ... but I'll probably wait out to see STARLIGHT do this;


Unlike Season 1 which dropped all 8 Episodes in a single binge-able stream, Season 2 does a weekly airing, with Episode 4 continuing after the 3-Episode-drop (which this review is based on). New Episodes on Fridays, with 8 episodes in total. "Season 3" has since been announced.


"In a more intense Season 2 of THE BOYS, Butcher, Hughie and the team reel from their losses in Season 1. On the run from the law, they struggle to fight back against the Superheroes. Meanwhile Vought, the hero management company, cashes in on the panic over Supervillains, and a new hero, Stormfront, shakes up the company and challenges an already unstable Homelander." (Watch on Amazon)

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