Today, we are  talking about The Boys. Season two just finished, so, let us just review both seasons real quick here today. 

From the first episode, it hooks you with engaging characters and perfect world building. There are a lot of shows that come out and take a few episodes to get good, but The Boys isn’t one of them. I think season one is from start to finish. I remember hearing stuff about the show before I watched it, so I was a bit worried that it was going to be too edgy, because let’s be honest, their comics are way too edgy for no reason. In fact I think the show has a good balance of edginess. There’s some gory stuff that happens in the show, but all the intense violence fits with the rest of the dark comedy. The show also has great social commentary, which is technically the whole point of the show. The world of The Boys is not so different from ours, and there are a ton of moments that are depressing just because of how realistic they are. The social commentary is shown in one episode when this man becomes radicalized by the stuff he listens to online. The show is great at balancing the comedic violence out with the serious violence. I particularly think that the airplane scene in season one is the best scene in the whole show, mainly because it is so messed up. It’s a great scene to flesh out Homelander and how the world works for supes.

 Now if recent years, games like Injustice and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and films like Justice League and Brightburn all have evil Superman, which I personally dislike. However, I will say this show is the exception, because it goes to extreme lengths to flesh out Homelander beyond the point of being “evil Superman.” I always love a well-written villain. To be honest, I think Homelander gets better character writing in season two, which I will get to later. I will say that I think the characterization for everybody is quite amazing in season one. I love every one of these awful characters because of how consistent they are. There are two or three characters on this show who are not murderers, but that does not stop everybody from being interesting. Even the superhero antagonists in this show are a lot more fleshed out. However, one thing I dislike about this show is that sometimes it just does not look good. Fight scenes are sometimes good, but most of the time, they are meh. They use the gritty saturation way too much like, making the characters look dirty and sweaty. I get it for some characters, but all of them are not  supposed to look like that. Overall, season one of The Boys is great. I am glad this show became a hit, and I like how fresh and different it is from other popular dramas. I am going to  say that season one of The Boys is a solid 9/10. 

When I was watching season one, I was hoping things would wrap up nicely and not really need a second season. However, that is not how TV works. It ends on a cliffhanger much like most shows do. I hate to say that season two was not as good as season one, but I still would not say it is  a bad season. I feel that the characters get away with a little too much. All of the main protagonists are on America’s Most Wanted list, and they almost have no trouble doing anything. They sneak into every guarded location, with no disguises except in one scene. There are a lot of scenes where characters show up to places that we have been told they cannot go to, and then characters break out of places that we have been told they cannot break out of, all with zero explanation. Also I am not sure how strong the supes are supposed to be. In season one. Translucent was invincible, and there is a whole episode where they are trying to figure out how to kill him, but in season two, they can hold some supes at gunpoint, although the guns do not work on all of them. It is just hard to keep track of, but the reason why it’s a problem is because it ruins the tension of a scene. If viewers are unsure of the protagonist’s chances of survival, I’d say all of these things contribute to many of the scenes in season two which are drained of tension. Episode three has the boys running away from every single member of The Seven… on foot. With what we’ve been shown, I think that escape isn’t a possibility for the main characters, but they get away all fine and dandy. This basically happens all season, which leads to the antagonists seeming a lot weaker in this season. In the finale, the boys briefly consider taking all of their weapons and killing the supes. The concern isn’t that it is  impossible, the concern is that it is not morally right. Even Starlight of all people thinks that they should kill everybody. I loved in season one that there is a whole episode based on how to kill an invincible supe. Yet all of that clever writing is gone in season two. The supes are only threatening when the story needs them to be. I will say that the finale of season two is much better and way more exciting than season one. I was getting stressed out watching it, but in a good way. 

This is a show where the good guys don’t really win a lot, and this finale gives them a chance to get a victory for once. I love that this season has a ton of scenes of how corporations use girl power and gay pride messages without really meaning it, and then the season ends with the girls curb stomping one of the main villains. One thing I will give this season credit for is that the characters are still really good. This season is a lot slower than season one and while that does lead to some episodes being boring, it also  allows characters to interact in natural ways. I love seeing Hughie and Annie interact and have a genuinely sweet relationship. I like how Kimiko starts being a hitman on the side, and it’s supposed to be an upsetting turn around for her, but the first thing she does with the money is by this dumb “BOSSY” brass knuckles, just because she can. I really love the characterization of Homelander. Again instead of just being evil Superman, this season goes more into how he obsesses about being loved by everybody. He also wants to be loved in a way that he finds acceptable. He’s such a well-written character, and I’m really excited to see him in season three, because he’s going to turn into a “homicidal maniac.” While the characters are still solid, I can’t fully say that about the story or the pacing. I think that this season takes a lot of time to get to the point and, while I think the finale is great, I think this show takes some awkward steps to get to the end. This season has a lot of our characters going to a place to get something but then an action scene happens and the characters barely make it out alive. I was unable to stop watching season one, I watched it every week. When season two happened, I kinda waited a few weeks in between each episode. Overall, I’d say season two of The Boys is better than a lot of other stuff out there, but it’s not as good as season one. I’m going to give season two of The Boys a 7/10. I can’t wait to see what they do for season three, and I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.