Gen V

At the end of our first season all hell broke loose. The kids at God U freed the supes that were being held under the school, the supe disease was created and tested, and Homelander captured our leads. We left off with Marie and friends stuck in a white prison that blocked their powers with Sam and her friends seemingly joining up with Homelander.

We open this current season with Spongebob playing the founder of God U who was apparently the first person who attempted either the supe disease or compound V, that part they left purposefully unclear.

Jordan is the first of our teenagers that we see, they are thrown in a van with Emma and they are being taken somewhere, theoretically to be killed. This season picks up right where the last season of The Boys left off, Neumann is dead and the new president has entrusted the safety of the US to Homelander. So that’s gonna end well.

I want the girl playing Sam to play Emma Frost so badly. The pivot that the writing team had to make because Andre’s actor died was admittedly done pretty well because of how they finished last season. They could just gaslight us all into thinking he was killed in the riot, which does seem to be what happened. I am okay with that, I would rather that than have to watch them desperately try to kill him off on screen.

Ooof republicans can’t hide behind this one. They are making fun of you as explicitly as they possibly can. They have Make America Super Again signs…

We are also pulling just so much from X-Men. That has always been true of The Boys universe but now we are back at a school for super kids and the competing ideologies are; we as supes must co-exist with humans and we as supes must rule humans. It’s literally professor X vs Magneto.

This new character, the new dean of God U, Cipher is a great villain. He is keeping our other insufferable characters in check. I only know the actor from The Crazy Ones so I think his adorable charisma also helps offset some of the crazy. And I love that they aren’t revealing a lot about him, he’s a mystery that will unfold this season and I love it.

Marie ran off and went looking for her sister and she ended up helping a group of Starlight supporters against some Homelander degenerates. Her blood power will never not be creepy.

It does seem like the whole of the superhero world is trying to track down Marie.

Sam turned from a mopey sad boy to a full blown douche bag. And for further clarification that these kids have no idea how their actions have consequences Sam and Kate are genuinely shocked and sad that Andre is dead as if they didn’t directly cause it. Kate continues to wipe Sam’s brain so that he doesn’t feel anything.

Emma doing sad affirmations in the mirror to make herself grow again is felt deep in my soul. Her powers being tied to her feelings about herself is perhaps one of the best pieces of character writing since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Marie gets into a really great fight but in the final moments she gets saved by my sweet Starlight. I could not be more happy to see Erin Moriarty’s face. I love her and she is the perfect person to guide younger heroes who don’t understand how they or their powers fit into the world.

I also love just watching Starlight reach the end of her rope. Annie has been the calm, cool, collected, compassionate character this whole time and watching her get fed up and actually fight back is my favorite thing.

Lizze Broadway is the best actor in this show and it's not even close. That is not an insult to the rest of the cast, that’s just how damn good she is.

We hear Jordan recount how Andre died, I am glad that they actually wrote something for him.

Then Kate interrupts and ends up getting her shit rocked by Jordan. She seemingly dies, but we know that they can’t let that happen. But we do see a good and important character moment here, Marie is trying to get the blood to go back into Kate’s head and she says “I need to apply pressure” and Jordan steps in with “You can’t let her touch you”. So Jordan made a choice, and it showed not only loyalty to Marie but it also shows how deep the distrust for Kate is.

What an incredible start to this season, I really love this show. Yes, the show ties in great to The Boys but it's such an incredible show all on it's own. I look forward to seeing how these characters play out in the final season of The Boys.