My relationship with The Boys feels…complicated. It can feel remarkably cynical and depressing in a way that’s harder to digest than the gratuitous gore. Its satire doesn’t always land, especially as this show, distributed by the biggest mega-corporation in the world, gets more spin-offs and begins to resemble the interconnected cinematic universe it’s supposed to be taking the piss out of.
Above all, I don’t think The Boys really understands superheroes as a concept. No shit, real people with superpowers would abuse them, but…the appeal of superheroes was never “what if people had extraordinary power”, it was “what if people with power were good”. That’s the fantasy, the bedrock of these stories. The best superhero stories ask us to do better with what little power we have in our own lives, and trying to twist or subvert that misses the point of it all. But if that’s the case, why do I eagerly tune into this show where an evil Superman talks like Donald Trump and lasers innocent peoples’ heads off?
Because for all of its faults, The Boys is a fucking good drama. I mean, I’m sure a lot of people watch this show for crazy shit like a QAnon Multiple-Man performing a circle jerk that’s less “circle” and more “centipede made of humans”, but this show is built upon deeply fascinating character dynamics. Everyone, even the most deplorable characters, has some sort of motivation that will drive them to do something unexpected. For example, Homelander (Antony Starr) seeks out Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), whose superpower is being the most intelligent person in the world, because he’s bored of being surrounded by people who don’t challenge him.
Sage is everything that the walking personification of conservative rage would hate (a black woman who has opinions), but she and Homelander form this fascinating alliance because she’s the only person not afraid to be honest with him. Sage does this “playing both sides” thing that makes me think about how powerful people often don’t really have consistent political views, because they just go where they believe they can get more power (and that’s usually with conservatives).
Sage recruits alt-right podcaster Firecracker (Valorie Curry) onto the Seven, and all of a sudden, Vought Tower has entered yet another new status quo. I’ve always found the shifting power dynamics of The Seven to be one of the most interesting parts of the show because you’ve got so many secrets and betrayals happening between characters, and we’re definitely getting more of that this season.
The plot that has me the most intrigued is A-Train’s storyline. A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is unquestionably a horrible guy, killing Hughie’s girlfriend (on accident) and his own girlfriend (on purpose) back in the first season. He’s portrayed more and more sympathetically as the show has gone on to use him to explore racism in America, but he’s never “a good person”. In Season Two, A-Train helps the Boys get info on Stormfront because she’s a Nazi bitch, but then in Season Three, A-Train snitches on Supersonic to Homelander, who ends up killing Supersonic.
A-Train seems to have had a wake-up call after a super-cop put his brother in a wheelchair, but how much of a wake-up call did he have? Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) bets it’s enough for him to betray the Seven for good, but that remains to be seen. Can A-Train be redeemed? Does he deserve to be redeemed? Will Hughie be able to work on the same team as him? A whole lot of questions come out of this development, and I’m eager for answers.
Speaking of Hughie, he and the rest of the Boys all get into new conflicts, some of which are (currently) divorced from anything happening with the Seven. Hughie (Jack Quaid) has to deal with his father being in a coma and the return of his mother. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) is ready to strike back against the Shining Light Liberation Army. And Frenchie (Tomer Capone) is falling for a man after secretly assassinating his family. A lot of things are occurring, but it never feels like too much is happening at once because all of these threads seem to be pretty organically woven into the larger narrative so far, though I can see things getting a bit muddled once the Boys start looking for the virus from Gen V, a storyline that’s been teased a time or two this season.
Butcher (Karl Urban) and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) seem to be patching things up as Ryan becomes more aware that his biological father is a fucking psychopath. However, this is The Boys, and seeing these two getting along again stings because you just know it’s going to end in tragedy. I’m willing to bet that everything will be ruined by Jeffery Dean Morgan’s character, who comes across as an even more militant version of Butcher. I’m sure Ryan will find out about this guy’s plans, and all the goodwill that Butcher built up will come toppling down.
Like I said, this is a goddamn good drama. There is this constant tension beneath the surface of The Boys that keeps you anxiously waiting for its bloody, explosive release. I can understand why the excesses of this show may be too much for people. Lord knows I certainly almost called it quits last season when that guy shrunk down and crawled up another man’s urethra. Still, if you stick with this show, it’ll surprise you with how much empathy it has for its characters sometimes. The thing is, I frequently go back and forth on whether or not I’d call The Boys “good”, but I’ll never deny that it’s “fucking diabolical”.
