“The Boys” Season 2 Review (Episodes 1-3) by Josh Davis : Pop Culture Leftovers

“The Boys” Season 2 Review (Episodes 1-3) by Josh Davis

September 7, 2020 1:16 pm |

A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.

Season two of the Amazon Prime series “The Boys” is probably the only show on television featuring a man duetting with his own gills to the classic schmaltz ballad “You Are So Beautiful.”

It’s also the show most likely to get you to stop drinking milk, or possibly the only time you’ll ever see two men having a heart-to-heart while sitting inside a half-exploded whale.

It’s weird. It’s gross. It’s often pretty offensive. The one thing you can’t say “The Boys” ever is, is boring.

The series, based on the graphic novel of the same name, is a sort of dark parody of DC’s comics and characters, complete with analogs of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash. Only, here, Superman is an evil asshole, The Flash is a drunk and a drug addict, and Aquaman is a date rapist.

During the first season, we meet Starlight (Erin Moriarty), a well meaning young woman who grew up idolizing The Seven, which is the show’s version of the Justice League. She joins the super team, but quickly sees the seedier side when her childhood hero, The Deep (Chase Crawford), blackmails her for oral sex.

She later meets Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), a young man whose girlfriend was recklessly killed by a drugged-up super called A-Train (Jesse T. Usher).

Hughie and Starlight fall for each other, but little does she know that he recently joined up with an anti-super vigilante group led by the foul-mouthed and barbaric Billy Butcher (Karl Urban). Hughie and Butcher bond over losing a loved one to superhero brutality, and they pay back violence with violence.

Also in season one, the audience learns that the All-American leader of The Seven, known as Homelander (Anthony Starr), is actually an evil jerk who not only murders people, but who helped create super terrorists to earn The Seven — and it’s parent company Vought — a lucrative defense contract from the U.S. government.

It all leads up to a cliffhanger finale, when Butcher is shocked to learn that his wife is still alive … and apparently is hiding Homelanders’ child.

Amazon debuted the first three episodes of season two on Sept. 4.

In those episodes, Hughie is still on the run with a small band of vigilantes, which includes the super-strong but mute Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara). They are trying to expose the fact that all enhanced people were actually made by a chemical “Compound V” developed by the Vought corporation and given to children as a way to manufacture superheroes. The outlaws eventually re-team with Butcher and discover that Kimiko has a brother, Kenji (Abraham Lim), who is being sought by The Seven as a super-terrorist vigilante.

Meanwhile, Homelander, still creepy and evil as ever, tries to bond with his estranged son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). The boy doesn’t immediately show signs of having powers and seems very uncomfortable spending time with his father.

Also in the first few episodes, The Deep unwittingly joins a religious cult and tries to atone for the sins of his past, and we meet a new member of The Seven named Stormfront (Aya Cash), a sort of woke super who speaks her mind, much to the chagrin of the other “heroes.”

There’s also scene stealer Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar. As the leader of the Vought corporation, he threatens to impose his will on Homelander and The Seven, totally unafraid their powers.

It’s all a lot to digest, and the twists and turns and varying plot threads come fast and furious, although the show is paced so well that it’s not too overwhelming.

What can be overwhelming, however, is the extreme gore. No only does “The Boys” not shy away from blood and guts, but it practically rolls around in them, culminating in poor Hughie sitting, stunned, inside the guts of a partially exploded beached whale. Moments later, Kenji’s wrists are snapped off, as Stormfront hunts him down and brutally murders him on a rooftop, exposing herself as a potential rival to Homelander as the next big bad.

Even more shocking, the show still manages some moments of levity and humor, mainly in the absurd, over-the-top grizzled delivery by Karl Urban, who chews more scenery than Pac-Man.

Quaid is the beating heart of the show and is a standout as a conflicted hero, trying at once to stay alive, to bring down an evil corporation who literally manufactures superheroes, and to win back the heart of the girl he loves.

Moriarty is also strong as a hero caught in the middle of doing the right thing in bringing down the bad guys, while also working from within them. Her Starlight is sexualized and marketed as a superhero Barbie Doll, and she’s not powerful enough to stand up to them and take them down alone, so she does what she can, where and when she can.

Tense and gross and funny, and even political and progressive in interesting ways, “The Boys” is a superhero show that should appeal both to fans of superheroes, and to those paying close enough attention to see the satire and social commentary hidden within. It’s as smart as it is savage, well acted, well paced, and equal parts spectacular in its modern CGI effects and drenched in classic b-movie buckets of blood.

It’s not for the feint of heart, but “The Boys” in season two continues to reinvent what can be done with the superhero genre.

Future episodes of season two are scheduled to be released on Sept. 11, Sept. 18, Sept. 25, Oct. 2 and Oct. 9.

PCL Rating: Tupperware

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅