[7.4/10] This is more of a soft reboot than a direct sequel to the prior season, and I can’t help but be a little disappointed by that. Homelander kills his handler and gets a new one specifically to be his pushover so that he’s no longer penned in...until the CEO of the company is the one penning him in now. Annie took a stand against what her company is oding and wasn’t going to take crap anymore...only now she’s wearing the skanky costume and singing nonsense at Translucent’s funeral. The Anti-Supe Squad struck a big blow for justice and are now...hanging out in some gang’s safehouse while the heat’s on and basically just waiting for Billy to come back.
I don’t know. It feels like everyone took some major steps, good and bad, by the end of season 1, and the start of season 2 has effectively walked it all back to where the major characters are in similar positions to where they were at any random point last season.
There are definitely some new developments. For one thing, there is a new supervillain with telekinetic powers who came in as part of a human trafficking ring and dropped a boat on the smuggler. There is another individual, whether that same supervillain, or some other ally, who popped Rayner’s head off right when she was putting the pieces together of Vought (or so she thinks) feeding the terrorists Compound-V. And there’s strong hints that Vought was founded as Nazi-esque eugenics company whose founders were embraced by the U.S. for their scientific prowess a la Operation Paperclip.
Oh yeah, and an ersatz Green Arrow/Hawkeye and his “teacher” are trying to get The Deep into a thinly-veiled version of Scientology. The Deep hitting rock bottom has its moments, and someone using him to help get a Scientologist onto the Seven could be interesting. But he’ll have to step over Stormfront (oof on that name), a hashtagging, live streaming new addition stamped by the CEO himself. She has potential as a way to comment on Gen Z-style internet stars, but also the potential to age like milk as a character.
Otherwise, I don’t know, it seems like we’re retreading a lot of already trodden ground. Hughie and Annie have a tortured relationship where they’re still getting over what each ahs been through, but they care about each other. Hughie’s lying to Annie...again...with the twist that now he’s trying to protect her from knowing too much lest she be under threat from Homelander. Meanwhile she’s working her angles to blackmail low grade heroes and secure them some more Compound-V. It’s not a grand advvancement from the big place that they left things last season.
A few of the details are nice. I like that Kimiko is learning English and picking up on something none of her colleagues are. I like the Black Noir “Sympathy for the Devil” sequence, which is gruesome but blackly comic in a fashion The Boys has all but perfected. I like that MM is building dollhouse accoutrement Lester Freeman style.
I’m less enamored with the arc they seem to be setting up where Hughie wants to become the leader. His story about having nothing except this crusade is a compelling one. His jealousy over Annie’s professional flirtations and broken connections to the rest of the world is sad and sympathetic in its way. But the need for Billy to come back in and be “the captain” is pretty thin, especially when I wish either Frenchie or MM would step up instead, and I’d rather see Billy rocked and changed by finally finding his wife rather than basically picking up where he left off as more or less the same person.
The core of The Boys is still good. This episode is still entertaining, and the performances are still good. But the end of the last season promised some major changes and developments, and this season premiere spends most of its time restoring something closer to the status quo rather than paying that bill now that it’s actually come due.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-07-25T04:38:36Z
[7.4/10] This is more of a soft reboot than a direct sequel to the prior season, and I can’t help but be a little disappointed by that. Homelander kills his handler and gets a new one specifically to be his pushover so that he’s no longer penned in...until the CEO of the company is the one penning him in now. Annie took a stand against what her company is oding and wasn’t going to take crap anymore...only now she’s wearing the skanky costume and singing nonsense at Translucent’s funeral. The Anti-Supe Squad struck a big blow for justice and are now...hanging out in some gang’s safehouse while the heat’s on and basically just waiting for Billy to come back.
I don’t know. It feels like everyone took some major steps, good and bad, by the end of season 1, and the start of season 2 has effectively walked it all back to where the major characters are in similar positions to where they were at any random point last season.
There are definitely some new developments. For one thing, there is a new supervillain with telekinetic powers who came in as part of a human trafficking ring and dropped a boat on the smuggler. There is another individual, whether that same supervillain, or some other ally, who popped Rayner’s head off right when she was putting the pieces together of Vought (or so she thinks) feeding the terrorists Compound-V. And there’s strong hints that Vought was founded as Nazi-esque eugenics company whose founders were embraced by the U.S. for their scientific prowess a la Operation Paperclip.
Oh yeah, and an ersatz Green Arrow/Hawkeye and his “teacher” are trying to get The Deep into a thinly-veiled version of Scientology. The Deep hitting rock bottom has its moments, and someone using him to help get a Scientologist onto the Seven could be interesting. But he’ll have to step over Stormfront (oof on that name), a hashtagging, live streaming new addition stamped by the CEO himself. She has potential as a way to comment on Gen Z-style internet stars, but also the potential to age like milk as a character.
Otherwise, I don’t know, it seems like we’re retreading a lot of already trodden ground. Hughie and Annie have a tortured relationship where they’re still getting over what each ahs been through, but they care about each other. Hughie’s lying to Annie...again...with the twist that now he’s trying to protect her from knowing too much lest she be under threat from Homelander. Meanwhile she’s working her angles to blackmail low grade heroes and secure them some more Compound-V. It’s not a grand advvancement from the big place that they left things last season.
A few of the details are nice. I like that Kimiko is learning English and picking up on something none of her colleagues are. I like the Black Noir “Sympathy for the Devil” sequence, which is gruesome but blackly comic in a fashion The Boys has all but perfected. I like that MM is building dollhouse accoutrement Lester Freeman style.
I’m less enamored with the arc they seem to be setting up where Hughie wants to become the leader. His story about having nothing except this crusade is a compelling one. His jealousy over Annie’s professional flirtations and broken connections to the rest of the world is sad and sympathetic in its way. But the need for Billy to come back in and be “the captain” is pretty thin, especially when I wish either Frenchie or MM would step up instead, and I’d rather see Billy rocked and changed by finally finding his wife rather than basically picking up where he left off as more or less the same person.
The core of The Boys is still good. This episode is still entertaining, and the performances are still good. But the end of the last season promised some major changes and developments, and this season premiere spends most of its time restoring something closer to the status quo rather than paying that bill now that it’s actually come due.