REVIEW #195 The Boys (Season 3)

The Boys season 3 rejoins us with the crew led by Billy Butcher and overseen by Hughie in his new role as Victoria Neuman’s assistant. But it doesn’t take long for things to take a dark turn for the worse when new secrets are revealed and ‘Temp V’ is let loose within this bunch of heroic misfits. Can the teams new weapon finally help them bring down Homelander? 

The Boys Season 3 takes every positive aspect of the first two seasons and doubles down on it, providing us with epic action sequences, graphic deaths and huge displays of power from all kinds of Supes. But if we put the action to one side for a moment, we are still left with outstanding performances that drive home the emotional themes of the show, ensuring The Boys delivers on all fronts. Once again Anthony Starr continues to thrive as the central antagonist Homelander, the man can speak a thousand words through a single facial expression and I’m constantly impressed every time he’s on screen. The surprise performer for me this season was Laz Alonso as MM! A man struggling with real trauma, constantly battling between being a pillar of composure and strength for his daughter or avenging his family. He done brilliantly to illustrate that struggle through his performance. If I’m being honest, the large majority of the cast deserve a specific shout out for their performances! Jensen Ackles was the perfect addition to the cast as Solider Boy, who had a tremendously strong arc and I really hope we haven’t seen the last of him. Character development across the board was particularly strong this season, Erik Kripke utilised flashbacks well to provide crucial insight into characters such as Starlight and how she pushes through the pain of being a hero, but also Billy Butcher and his family struggles growing up. These flashbacks didn’t take up much time at all but they played such an important role in their stories. It also seemed like, despite only having 8 episodes, every character had their own journey in season 3, no one was really left out and that’s a job well done considering there are quite a few lead characters. Kripke is not afraid to make bold choices, you just have to look as far as Episode 6: Herogasm for evidence of that! But it’s those choices that make The Boys the biggest breath of fresh air to hit the Superhero genre in decades! It’s different, it’s R rated and it’s everything I want from a show! The cinematography has always been of a high quality and this season is no different, there wasn’t any dodgy CGI or questionable green screen, it all looked authentic and contributed to some of the best scenes to hit television. If I had to pick one main criticism it would be how they handled Black Noir, I loved how they explored his mind but the finale was a bit of an anti climax when it comes to him, I wanted to see a bit more from him. That being said, I do see the purpose of seeing everything play out like it did, so I’m not too put out by it. As you can probably tell I’m struggling to find many faults with season 3, I just wish more episodes were released in one go because I hate waiting weekly for one episode. If you haven’t seen The Boys yet then it’s the first thing you should start this week, if you don’t like graphic violence, partial nudity and vile language… maybe give it a miss but if you’re like me and love a show who’s bold enough to include all of the above, you’ll be just fine! I can’t wait for season 4, that final scene was cold and creepy and it’s already set the tone for the next season. 

Overall (9.2/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan