The Boys Season Three Early Review

Hughie delivers a line early in this third season after facing yet another clever twist of the truth stacked against him and his friends by people stronger and more powerful than him that sums up in one statement his entire existence up until that point – “I’m tired of losing.” For viewers in the same emotional place, season three of The Boys does very little to dissuade that feeling, instead choosing to move the overarching story one step forward and three steps back but still manages to sprinkle in some really fun (and disgusting) moments along the way.

This season finds Hughie at the forefront of the fight against superheroes committing crimes and getting away with it as both he and Congresswoman Newman (the ssn2 head popper) have built an entire department within the CIA that targets and brings them to justice. At his disposal are a multitude of resources, none more effective than Butcher, Frenchie and Kumiko who serve as the actual muscle when locating these supes. Meanwhile, Mother’s Milk has chosen a life free from conspiracy and bloodshed in order to become a better and more consistent role model for his daughter. Naturally, he finds this to be a near-impossible task, and it isn’t until the re-emergence of a superhero from his past that draws him completely back into the chaotic world of The Boys.

Despite doing things the “right” way, Hughie still finds himself on the losing end as he discovers the Congresswoman’s abilities and realizes that he’s been just another government puppet put in place to presume the appearance of checks and balances without the needle moving any further forward towards actual progress. And so, taking his cues from Butcher’s lifestyle, he decides to play dirty by spending much of this season on the same low road as Butcher in order to achieve his eventual goal of bringing Vought to justice – whatever that may look like.

While the premise sounds promising on paper, the series quickly manages to fall back on previous narrative devices that only seem to serve to prolong the episodic runtime instead of telling a tightly wound story involving characters that have undergone amounts of trauma, both individually and collectively, so that we can see them attempt to grow past their previous issues and strive for a better way of life. Rather than attempting this, we are given a similar storyline to that of past seasons with very little to no progress occurring while individuals within the group are afforded their separate storylines, some of which are highly entertaining, that result in a similar amount of movement on the needle of character development to that of Hughie’s efforts bringing supes to justice. That is to say, very little if at all.

In spite of these narrative setbacks, The Boys still delivers on extremely entertaining set pieces that push the boundaries of acceptability on a streaming platform. Sure, the blood and gore are always front and center throughout the season, however, this time there are more than plenty of scenarios that will cause any viewer to sit up in their chair or react aloud when fully realizing the situation they are watching which becomes apparent early on. The stakes continue to ramp up as the series branches out into new territory involving animation, musicals, and a superhero orgy that has to be seen to be believed. While at the same time, it is able to tackle social justice issues such as superhero brutality, racial divides, QAnon fear-mongering, and much more.

These become background players compared to this season’s primary target of interest – Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) – who makes a return to the superhero game via The Boys who are intent on using him as a weapon to finally bring Homelander to justice. As a mature parody of Marvel’s Captain America, Soldier Boy is a character of chaos dropped into the middle of an ongoing feud that adds an interesting layer of conflict amongst the team that offers some equally fun and dramatic moments where Ackles truly shines. Of course, this was not without its complications but their interactions with Soldier Boy helps redefine all of the group’s moral code when placed in several irreparable situations. These specific moments are what The Boys execute so effortlessly but everything in between is elongated and trickled out to pad the spaces before and after these genius scenes causing the majority of the episodes to feel like work in order to reach the finale in hopes of a payoff that would be worth the journey.

The third season of The Boys continues in a similar pattern to its previous two. For some, will be a welcomed return to form, but for others, it quickly erodes any built-up excitement or narrative goodwill as the central conflict takes too many episodes to develop. Instead, its reliance on individual storylines that just aren’t that compelling leave viewers with characters that have barely changed and no longer demand emotional investment.

still courtesy of Amazon Studios

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