Season 3 of the anti-Avengers lays it on thick with social satire and an acerbic view of modern media—further establishing The Boys as the antidote for anybody who thinks Marvel and DC are a little too vanilla.
Three episodes have been released as of this writing, with new episodes being released the next five Fridays through July 8. Thanks to a screener, I am four episodes in, and much of the plotting involves Butcher (Karl Urban) stooping to new lows in his attempts to take down Homelander (Antony Starr), lead superhero of the Seven and a major prick. Homelander moves more and more toward being a nasty take on MAGA/Donald Trump, rather than simply being an anti-Captain America.
A subplot involves a reality TV show on which Homelander and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) are looking to select new members of their team, similar to The Bachelorette—and, of course, The Apprentice. This gives the writers a good chance to riff on modern American popular TV, the ratings game, and polling that shows idiots like Homelander have a huge fanbase.
The gore gets turned up a few more notches as heads explode and—in one case—a man’s lower extremities are blasted open after a miniature man goes up his … oh, I won’t give any more away. Let’s just say the season gets pretty extreme before the first episode’s opening credits hit the screen, and it involves a urethra.
The world is a screwy place right now, and The Boys has no problem shining a bloody spotlight on it. I would tell you that the opening sequence seems like something that can’t be topped in the purely outlandish obscenity department, but I’ve thought that before about this show, and it keeps proving me wrong.
The first three episodes of The Boys are now streaming on Amazon Prime, with new episodes being released Fridays through July 8.
