What’s common between the moon landing, climate change, the earth being round and superhero fatigue? Even if a certain section doesn’t want to accept them, they are real. In the first half of 2022 alone, we have been bombarded with multiple superhero content on the big screen as well as on OTT platforms and from the look of it, the frequency is only going to get higher.
But amidst the tried and tested formula of Marvel and DC, we often get gems like The Umbrella Academy, Invincible and The Boys redefining the genre with off-beat yet extremely entertaining content. The third season of The Boys got wrapped up today and despite the final episode releasing just a day after a big release like Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s safe to say that this season, apart from being the best one yet, is also the most satisfying superhero story we have seen this year.
Set after a year post the Stormfront fiasco, our team of Supe killers are working as contractors for Victoria Neuman’s Bureau of Superhero Affairs. With several changes happening in Vought International’s top management to save its reputation, things feel better for the Boys who have inched their way closer to getting rid of Homelander (Antony Starr). But, as always, things don’t go to plan as Hugie (Jack Quaid) discovers who Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) really is, Queen Maeve and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) find out about Payback and its leader Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and darker secrets finally get to see the light of day.
Over the last two seasons, the series has introduced us to several new characters who have turned out to be pivotal in the chain of events that have unfolded and season three is no different. Yet, the makers find brilliant ways in making sure the characters’ paths cross with each other and even more fascinating ways to kill some of them. The Boys, despite being based on the comic book series of the same name, have always taken jabs at Marvel and DC films and this goes up a notch with the latest season which starts with a superhero shrinking down in size to enter a person’s body part which was often called as the best theory to kill Thanos using Ant-Man, before the release of Avengers: Endgame.
There’s also a film named Dawn of the Seven which was released after fans started trending a hashtag which is reminiscent of Justice League’s Snyder cut. For the fans of the franchise, this is no surprise given the superheroes themselves are analogous to the ones from Marvel and DC with the latest addition Soldier Boy being a satirical take on Captain America. But The Boys is not about just spoofing pop-culture phenomenons, as the series, especially this season, sandwiches a juicy plot patty between two thick slices of socio-political commentary and everything gore.
This season touches upon several topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement, sexism, workplace harassment and Islamophobia but the core idea the season is mounted upon happens to be daddy issues and there’s even a ‘Luke, I am your father’ moment that tightens the plot knot.
And of course, there’s the humour that’s very unique to this franchise that’s mixed alongside an extremely healthy dose of nudity and violence. There’s a fight sequence involving sex toys and an episode dedicated to superheroes involved in an orgy. In a series that’s filled with characters fitting into every shade of grey that’s possibly out there, the dynamics and underlying emotions that are on display make for some of the most gratifying sequences. There’s a sequence involving Butcher revisiting a suppressed memory which is about his little brother’s suicide and how our hero has involuntarily replaced that brother with Hughie.
Given how Homelander has been portrayed as the epitomes of evilness for all these seasons, it just took a couple of episodes to establish Soldier Boy as something worse. The power with which the makers change how we perceive and judge the characters proves their mettle, and beneath all the fluff of profanity and bloodshed lies a rather intriguing story.
It’s the performances that land the absurdity that this series wears over its chest with pride. Urban, Starr and Quaid, especially, do a splendid job with how their characters have developed. With everyone from Homelander finally having to bring down that emotional wall that restrained the world from seeing who he really is, to even the secondary characters like Mother’s Milk and A-Train having substantial arcs, almost all of them evolved over the course of this season. Throw into the equation a bunch of well-placed cameos from known faces like Charlize Theron, Billy Zane, Seth Rogen, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Kumail Nanjiani and what we get is a well-rounded season that tops the first two with ease.
On the whole, The Boys has come a long way from being considered just a parody of the more famous superhero counterparts into an on-the-face account of real-world affairs that doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to telling what it wants to and how it wants to. The fourth season has already been greenlit, and if it’s as diabolical as season three, we are in for a treat.
Series: The Boys Season 3
Created by: Eric Kripke
Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty
Streaming on: Prime Video
Rating: 4/5