There's a different feel to this season, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. It feels much more aimless. Two episodes in, and the show just seems to be lesser than everything that came before. Hoping it picks up, but Gen V was definitely better than this season has been so far.
The series continues perfectly. It never gets boring. There were many 18+ scenes. It was strange. I can't say anything about it but it was nice. I felt sorry for his mother in the last scene. Looks like something's going to happen to Ryen. Have fun everybody,:thumbsup:
So we are supposed to believe that three people got their brains bashed in with baseball bats in front of 100s of people and no one saw it??? Okay. Also didn’t black noir completely take one dudes head off? How do you explain that normal folk gonna do that to someone?
"I just feel like I'm not getting a clear direction for this role."
Two episodes in, and I still feel like this season is too busy juggling multiple subplots. Black Noir's line I quoted above seems apt to describe these first two episodes.
The few arcs they're developing do seem promising. We get a glimpse of A-Train wrestling with his conscience, Ryan struggling with his humanity amidst the narcissistic supe circles led by his dad, and The Deep trying to exert some power over his Vought overlords. The Frenchie romance drama is also heading somewhere, although it often feels like any storyline involving Frenchie veers off on its own tangent with no direct link to the main plot.
Pacing, however, is the more glaring issue. With so many subplots they're knitting there's no clear "hook" to indicate what's going to drive this season. It lacks both the intensity and mystery they had in Season 2 (exploding head menace and court drama against Vought) and Season 3 (Soldier Boy and the quest for ultimate weapon against Homelander).
It feels like sequences happen just to justify character development—for instance, the scene with Splinter (the body multiplier guy) feels forced, given that The Boys are held back by such a mid-level supe when they've taken down Translucent before. The whole Sister Sage escapade, attempting to portray her as the smarter character, relies on dumbing down the heroes. As Sage said, do The Boys really think she wouldn't figure out they're tapping their phone? So much for infiltration, MM.
It also feels like the last two episodes have been quite tacky. It's as if the show is self-aware that its audience unironically mirrors the people the show is mocking, so now they have to spend two episodes explicitly highlighting how ridiculous those people are—e.g., the lines between Frenchie and Kimiko mocking the Truthcon participants. It just feels very on the nose and lacks the cleverness that they had before. Even the whole theatrics on "rescuing people from the badguys" (saves) no longer has its cynical wittiness, despite the scene being one important plot point to drive Ryan's character forward.
Oh well. At least Black Noir is funny. And I share his sentiment. Let's hope we're getting some direction in Episode 3.
[7.0/10] This is another episode of The Boys where it feels like there’s ten million things going on. Let’s focus on the good stuff.
The dynamic between Homelander and Ryan continues to be one of my favorite parts of the season so far. Ryan is trying his best to do what’s expected of him, but doesn’t fit into his dad’s role or the life HOmeladner wants for him. Homerlander is ostensibly trying to build something for his son, but subconsciously worries about aging and being replaced. Given the trajectory of the show, and Homelander’s own weird quasi-oedipal fixations, you can see him turning on his son at some point out of a concern that Ryan will supplant him. Hence Homelander showing up to Ryan’s first save despite Sage telling him not to.
And poor Ryan! You feel for this kid, just going align with what everyone wants of him ,but feeling insecure and out of control. His tears over accidentally murdering the stuntman make you feel for this kid who’s being placed in a situation he doesn’t understand and isn’t suited for. And the writing and performance of Homelander continues to be outstanding, with him not even processing that Ryan’s upset about the death of someone Homelander considers a “toy”, but rather assuming he’s upset at Homelander stepping into his limelight.
I continue to like the business with Sage. She clearly has a bigger agenda at play, and knows exactly how to play people to achieve it. The Boys hasn’t always been perfect at paying these kind of grand schemes off, but for now, I’m happy to be along for the ride. Her rightly pointing out that Ryan needs to stand alone, turning Deep against Ashley, and stoking the conspiracy nuts all make you wonder what she’s getting at. Sometimes it’s more exciting to see the plates spin than it is satisfying to see the writers finally stack the dishes, but I still like the fact that she seems to have a bigger plan in play.
That said, I’m nonplussed by most of what happens at the ersatz QAnon festival. The cornpone Jubilee knockoff, Firecracker, and the perverted Multiple Man knockoff, Splinter, don’t do a lot for me. Taking aim at the tinfoil hat crowd is certainly topical, which is a good mode for The Boys, but there’s nothing particularly incisive about the parody or deep about the show’s observations on why people turn to that kind of conspiratorial nonsense.
I’m not made of stone. There’s fun to be had in the heroes and villains crashing a bat mitzvah and going to town with mid-fight photo booths, heavy metal horahs, and menorah-based stabbing. But the show has done this sort of thing so many times by season 4 that it loses much of the novelty. I will say, as a fan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it’s amusing the see The Boys’ network stablemate get such an amusing shoutout here.
The material with the actual Boys leaves me mostly nonplussed. I’ll admit, I have some investment in Butcher trying to be honest for once, getting kicked out of the group, and still coming around to save his friends. The show gets at something real about the sad dynamic between him and MM, with the sense of Billy genuinely having made some changes but it being too late given all the shit that he’s put Marvin through. But it’s a little quick and given how much else is happening here, doesn’t get enough time to breathe.
It feels like Frenchie and Kimiko have already kind of reached the end of their arcs and now the show is grasping at straws for what to do with them. Kimiko struggling with her past and maybe going on a revenge spree plays like a rehash of what the show already did with her brother. And Frenchie’s new boyfriend turning out to be the child of a family he killed is a silly, soap opera-esque contrivance.
Speaking of which, I have real mixed feelings about the Hughie’s mom storyline. Jack Quaid does great work as a grown child struggling with the return of a parent who abandoned him. Hughie’s mom already has a certain presence to her, between the essential oils nonsense and the sort of passive aggressive, vaguely condescending school teacher tone she takes with Hughie. I’m compelled by their scenes together.
But the whole, “Your father’s been secretly talking to me for a couple of years and has granted me power of attorney” is another dumb soap opera-esque twist. I guess the show needs a reason why Hughie wouldn’t just kick her out, but it’s still awfully convenient. Maybe it’s all part of some Vaught plan to get to Hughie or something, but that would be even sillier.
I also don’t really care about Annie’s struggle with whether or not to be Starlight. As with Frenchie and Kimiko, it seems like we’ve kind of done her arc multiple times now, and the show’s running out of ideas for the character.
That said, strangely enough, one of the characters I’m most compelled by here is A-Train. The notion of his brother actually getting through to him, and him warning to do something genuinely heroic, is low-key inspiring. Him recognizing Hughie’s kindness in front of his family, and providing exonerating evidence for the men falsely accused of beating up Sage’s plants is one of the few genuinely good things we’ve seen him do. Nothing gold can stay in The Boys, but I’m intrigued by his change of heart.
Oh yeah, and seeing Will Ferrell play a Blind Side-esque mentor figure is worth a solid laugh, and so is the new Black Noir continually not really understanding his character.
Overall, I wish these episodes had more focus and momentum, and we’ve reached the point in the show where many of the character journeys seem to have reached their natural ends, only to continue on regardless. But there’s still some quality story threads to follow, particularly those on the supe side of the equation right now.
100% skippable filler episode. If you skip Hughie/Mom, Colin/Frenchie and Kimiko/Therapist/Shining-light useless fillers and the out-of-place out-of-touch meaningless nude fight scenes. You're left with about 10 minutes of showtime. I know, because I did just that. I mean, you can literally skip this episode ENTIRELY, and you wouldn't have missed anything... I went through the episode again and I can't find any scene which I could've said "Yeah. This part is important to the story". NOTHING. It's just a pure filler.
"Which would you rather believe? That you belong to a community of warriors battling a secret evil, or that you're a lonely inconsequential nobody?"
No wonder MAGA hates this season of The Boys.
I was kind of waiting for a clip show to start, it did not happen, fortunately, but it is still a filler episode with little to no meat in it. Still hope the writing will get better the rest of the season.
What a cracking episode. That scene at the sauna... and maga deplorable conspiratards finally realising the show is poking fun at them.
I don't have high hopes for the payoff with Sage. A fictional "smartest person in the world" is only actually as smart as the writers (who are all-in on gore and fart dick jokes).
Well it looks like this show went to shit pretty quick, if it continues like this I'm outta here.
poor starlight poster child for staying away from cosmetic surgery sad she used to be cute
Wow! I just found out they made different edits of this for different regions. In some regions he's masturbating alone, but they kept all the pinkeye jokes, that must have been soo confusing for the audience :laughing: this show has become a sellout for real
What the fuck happened to Starlight's face? How did it got that bad?
Chace Crawford has been an unsung hero all series long with his pitch perfect line readings and being hilarious af but Black Noir II is coming in strong and crushing every single one of his lines so far
Two episodes in and this feels nothing like the previous seasons.
It's bland, it drags on, there's no tension, the characters don't have chemistry like they used to, the writing is atrocious, and the direction is horrible.
This show is going downhill, fast.
Did they get a different writer for this Frenchie/Kimiko storyline or what?
The actor who played God in Supernatural Rob Benedict plays Splinter. :joy:
On the closeup on her face she looked 10 years older, why did she do that ? She had such a beautiful face!
Very shallow waters so far, only interesting part for me is Kimiko
D*MN shame that they had cgi homeboy peen
Uuuuh fuck! Come on guys! Now I can't unsee it! It's fucking written in my brain! Right while I was eating lunch! Come on guys!! Seriously?! Nearly threw up....
Meh the conspiracy theory convention seemed too on the nose
Homelander and Ryan's relationship is by far the most interesting thing about this season so far, the rest of the plot is starting to lose me. Ye olde Pizzagate reference in 2024.
this show went mask off with their zionism in this episode.
A lot of this season's drama is forced.
This episode was lucky to receive such a cool fight scene at TruthCon that saves it from being underwhelming like the first episode.
Butcher:
Well, it’s lucky for me that you ain’t my boss no more.
And as a private and concerned citizen, I’m allowed to say fuck you to any deep state cunts that try and keep me from the truth.
7 is generous to be honest. Not really feeling this season.
The Frenchie storyline sucks, like usual, this more than any other season.
...
It wasn't bad, but it had its moments....
F*ck...
The kimiko thing felt too forced...
I hope it gets better...
Black Noir...
Ryan and Homelander definitely don't see eye to eye. Homelander's ego is scary!
Ya know, I'd like to think the TruthCon conversation between Sage and Firecracker was pretty poignant. I also know it's probably lost on those that need to hear it most. Pretty lackluster episode though.
I just saw a fucking human sex centipede
Why am I still getting surprised with something The Boys does?
Shout by KevibVIP 3BlockedParent2024-06-15T17:13:41Z
You'd have to be pretty brave to play the role of the robber, knowing the supe could kill you instantly, as seen here xD