It's good! I really liked it! Lots of batshit stuff, lots of fucking gore that made me go "Eugh!", lots of just great bits of dialogue and chemistry between all the characters and stuff that just really, genuinely made me realize that the writers of this show know how to make such nuanced, despicable, evil and yet amazing, sympathetic and relatable characters. Also I swear to god they're just nailing each and every sort of taboo or controversial topic or semi-political discussion that they can get and they do it in such an effective way. I love it!
However, it kinda feels long for itself. It feels like it could have been reduced by an hour at least, because there was a lot of gratuitous shit, a lot of moments that just kinda feel dragged on for much too long for it's own good, and a lotof badly filmed action scenes and badly filmed action set pieces (yes i'm counting that, this show is literally about superheroes fighting you gotta have good action!).
Quick cut action does not lend it's hand well to a show like this, especially when the cinematography already is so gritty and so well done, it feels like a shock to go into the action! Feels bad to say it, but i really hope season 3 has better filmed action.
Also, some of the acting is a bit stiff? Specifically with Becca and her son (I can excuse child actors to a degree, but when you have him with Karl Urban and Antony Starr in the same scene, it's almost laughable; I call on the director for that one!)
But yeah, still liked it! Still not subtle about a lot! Just feels repetitive and didn't go as far as I would have wanted it to. Hopefully they release the Brave Maeve line of snacks soon!
Just binged this crazy ass show and I have to say it's more of a guilty pleasure than say something I'd list on an end of the year list like let's say Watchmen. Though this isn't terrible, it just never levels up to the ambition of its source material nor does the humor always hit (Antony Starr was on a show called Banshee beforehand that kinda does a lot the dark humor really well). So I will say it's not something like The Wakind Dead that said "Fuck it" to the writing because they knew people would still watch despite the decline in quality. Eric Kripke and his writers do care about these characters even if the plotting and story can get iffy here and there. In other words, this show is very watchable and I'm eager to see what Butcher and the Boys do next.
I do want to praise Kripke and Amazon for doing the weekly release format, this is what keeps the zeitgeist of a series flowing and it doesn't fade after two weeks like a Netflix series. I think both this and The Mandalorian show that a weekly viewing makes a series taste far richer, and even if some complain, getting to the final episode is far more satisfying this way.
This season was massively underwhelming. It's been some time since I've watched the first season, but this season pales in comparison. The first three episodes were good; only I became more and more bored and uninterested as I continued through the season. I never cared about this season from the beginning; I don't seem to care too much about anything that I watch, but I guess the reason this time was because there were plenty of instances that had inconsistencies or downright ridiculous writing behind them throughout the season.
I caught a few nearing the end of the season. I wasn't too bothered with them, though. Even now, after having done a little browsing since then, and more instances like that revealed to me, I don't care enough about them to be that bothered by them or to write down the ones that I noticed.
That being said, this season had plenty of instances that were weakly written and other instances that were contrived; also, some inconsistencies; and an overused use of convenience. And that's a problem, even though I didn't care about the ones that caught my attention and all the other ones that I've learned. It's like I subconsciously noticed the weak writing, which is why I never felt interested in hardly anything that happened in this season; for that, I'm thankful towards my subconscious self.
The first thing that came to my mind that could fit within the category of weak, lazy, inconsistent, contrived, or convenient writing has to do with The Boys being wanted. Apparently, they're among the most wanted individuals in America, if not the most wanted, yet that never seems to be properly conveyed. The way that factor is presented makes me think that any of them could make themselves known to as many people as possible, in the most public place possible, with cops present, Homelander and Vought being aware of it, and nobody will care. It's ridiculous.
Most wanted or not, they're still wanted, and the fact that they're remaining at large should be an important priority for law enforcement, not to mention, especially Homelander or Vought. You could say that it's because The Boys don't matter to Vought or Homelander; they're insignificant. But I think that's giving a reason to something that doesn't have one and/or to one that wasn't conveyed properly so you can remain willfully ignorant.
And while I'm on that train of thought, it's even more ridiculous that Hughie and Annie are constantly meeting in public, several times, as well as communicating via text and talking over the phone. How dumb and naive can you be? It shouldn't matter if burner phones are used or if you snap the SIM cards. Someone should still recognize one or both of them since they meet up in public; they're both seemingly very well-known. Vought should have people following Annie everywhere she goes, and well enough that even though she said that nobody followed her, she still could've been followed.
Furthermore, Hughie has the audacity to mention how he's wanted, she's famous, and that they can't be seen together; he may never have said the latter, ever, I don't remember, but the first two things he did say in the premiere. There were also other instances where someone's in public, and it doesn't matter; nobody cares or sees them because the plot demands it. Yeah, that someone is wanted and/or super famous; it doesn't matter. On a deeper level, that's the audacity of the writers, as are all the other examples of lazy writing.
Honestly, it hurts my brain trying to think of some of the instances where the writing was lazy, or convenient, contrived, or inconsistent. I think that's because there were so many and so subtle that you could end up not catching on to some of them. And the fact that the main plot and subplots throughout the season weren't that good did not help with those instances because it helped bury them further and make them even more subtle.
Catching on to them or not, they're there, and they're a problem. I guess stuff like that is usually present in most TV shows or movies; it's possible to write an episode, TV show, or movie well enough to where there aren't, though, I'd imagine. But the main difference with what I imagine is common is that everything else was good enough to the point where it's as if those instances were never there, in most cases. And that wasn't the case with this season.
As far as the main plot of the season goes, it was two steps forward, five steps back, and then locked into place. There was more substance to moments throughout the season than there were to the main plot and the subplots. The only characters that brought entertainment to the table were Homelander and Billy; each character's respective actor played a huge part in that. Every other character wasn't as entertaining, and in some cases, was boring or uninteresting. Every plot thread of the season never seemed to go anywhere; they were there for appearances. I guess Homelander's subplot with Ryan was good. Other than that, all the other subplots weren't that good.
Various moments throughout the season were entertaining; the season itself was entertaining to watch, too. But the further you go into each plot thread, there comes along an example of lazy writing, convenience, contrived aspects, and this feeling of a big ol' pile of wasted time; it'll be best to watch this show for entertainment and not delude yourself into thinking that it's more than that because of the themes, references to the real world, and cool, quirky details and things of which add nothing of importance to anything that the majority of people aren't going to get and wouldn't care about if they did.
I think I was more immersed in the first season and more entertained than I was with this season. But that doesn't necessarily matter in the end, I guess. Regardless of things that I just wrote, I still found myself to be entertained while watching through this season. But it could've been much better, so I hope there will be major improvements to the writing side of things in the third season.
I don't care that much about the things that I've mentioned regarding lazy writing and whatnot, but it does have an impact on the entertainment side of things for me if it's present, which is why I never seemed to get invested and care about what's happening. But as long as it's entertaining, which is something that I think will always be the case with this show, and this season was, regardless of whether anything that I wrote will be interpreted as the contrary, that's good enough for me.
Review by WillBlockedParent2020-11-09T03:20:55Z— updated 2021-07-24T03:19:50Z
MY THOUGHTS ON SEASON 2:
-WARNING: Spoilers Below-
Oh my, oh my, oh my... WHAT A BRILLIANT SEASON! It started incredibly and it went out with a BANG! I was worried the second season wouldn't be able to live up to the first but boy was I worrying for NOTHING! This was outstanding!
So The Boys Season 2 introduces us to Stormfront; a Nazi Supe who's 100 years old! Conveniently Stormfront & the big baddy Homelander end up getting it on and end up falling in love... I think? This added something real interesting to the show, especially with Homelander just losing his weird mother/girlfriend. We see a fair bit of issues by both parties come into play, Homelander with his trust issues and Stormfront with her lying... You can already tell it wasn't going to go well.
The Deep is trying his damn hardest to get back into The Boys... He even goes and joins the Church... Unfortunately for him A-Train ends up getting booted out of The Boys (he screwed his heart up with the drugs) and then ends up getting back into it whilst The Deep just waits... Patiently. We have a good weird/trippy scene with The Deep involving his gills, my god they are horrid. What goes through the creators mind for them to sit down and be like "Let's make the gills talk... NO SING!" Either way it paid off.
We get to learn a bit more about Butcher and his Wife & her Son. I'm personally not a fan of either his Wife or Ryan but it gave a decent amount of necessary character depth to Butcher. We learn just how deep his hatred of Supes is rooted as well especially when it takes near enough every fibre in his being to not kill Ryan. I also found it quite entertaining how Homelander & Stormfront meddled with Becca & Ryan - trying to make him see just how powerful he really is.
The finale was a blast. There were 2 incredible scenes that really stood out for me. Scene 1 was the all girl fight scene with Kimiko, Starlight & Maeve absolutely whooping Stormfronts Nazi A##! Boy was that entertaining and satisfying to see! The second great scene was right at the end when Stormfront was killing Becca & Ryan snapped and lazered her T!ts off... I can't wait to see how Homelander is going to react seeing his son murdering his new love.
This season was amazing and I couldn't have asked for more. I am SO pleased with this and I can't wait for Season 3!