The Boys Season 3 Review: Episode 1-3 Prime Video Series That Reminds Us How Bad Superheroes Are
Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott
Director: Philip Sgriccia, Stefan Schwartz, Frederick E.O
Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
After three seasons of The Boys we can say we have only one certainty: what a phenomenal villain that is The Homelander! Sure, the gore is always a welcome addition and Vought’s plots (between marketing and politics) are captivating, but it had been a long time since there had been a complete, magnetic and irresistible villain like Antony Starr’s Homelander. The TV series created by Eric Kripke and based on the comic of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson is ready to return to Prime to cover us with guts, sex, and superheroes: an unmissable mix.
Based on the comic of the same name written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys offers one of the funniest and most irreverent glimpses of what happens when superheroes abuse their powers, being treated like celebrities, almost like real gods. To oppose the corruption of superheroes only a group of vigilantes, try in every possible way to reveal to the world the truth about the Seven and the Vought. This billionaire company controls them and covers up their crimes. Will the Boys be able to expose the misdeeds of these uncontrollable Supers who believe they can get away with it in any situation? But before we get to the heart of this new and incredible season of The Boys, let’s refresh our memory a little about the events that led us to these new episodes.
The Boys Season 3 Review: The Story
The latest explosive (in the truest sense of the word) episode of the second season of The Boys, saw the leader of the Seven lose almost everything dear to him. Following the terrible attack during the conference against Vought in Congress, the production of Compound V is authorized for the military, while Grace Mallory and Victoria Neuman try in vain to persuade the secretary of defense not to sign.
And, at the same time that the Boys were busy putting down the “hard ways” to be able to find a way to eliminate every member of the Seven, the director of the Vought accepts the proposal of the head of the Collective Church to bring the Abyss back into the team of superheroes but cutting out A-Train who, having overheard everything, decides to provide Starlight and Hughie with evidence of Stormfront’s Nazi past to have it eliminated and, in fact, free up a place for himself at the Tower of Seven.
The unsuspecting superhero is intent on spending time with the new happy family created by her and Patriot together with his son, Ryan, who will ask him to teach him how to use his powers. Butcher and the Boys meanwhile devise a plan to save the child from the superhero’s clutches, also divulging information about Stormfront’s past that leaves Patriot and Ryan alone. Thanks to a device powered by Frenchie, the Boys manage to attack them, separating the child from the superhero. Once Becca and Ryan are removed and entrusted to Mother’s Milk, Butcher will return to finish the job with Homelader, who however unleashes his ire on a Vought armed team sent to take Butcher.
Stormfront, reaching the car in which Mother’s Milk, Becca, and their son are, attacks them and is then countered by The Boys team. With the help of Queen Maeve, Starlight and Kimiko manage to put Stormfront on the run but manage to reach Butcher, his wife, and Ryan: it will be she who unleashes the boy’s powers, making her die by burning her and amputating some limbs with the laser sight. In the fight, Becca is fatally wounded and entrusts the boy to Butcher, who are faced with Patriot. The superhero, however, is blocked and put in check by Maeve, who blackmails him with a video recovered of the two of them on a plane.
All the blame for the attack on Congress is dropped on Stormfront, taking advantage of its past that is now out in the open in the meantime, Grace Mallory offers Butcher and the Boys a new job on behalf of the CIA, thus dropping all the charges. towards them. Congresswoman Victoria Neuman is instead put in charge of an office that deals with superhero affairs. But she is one of the hottest revelations of the last episode: after closing a thank-you call with Alastair Adana; she detonates him thus showing who was really behind the attack on Congress during the conference against Vought.
The Boys Season 3 Review And Analysis
It has been clear for quite some time that the real star of The Boys is Patriot and his role as the main villain of the series is just as crystal clear from the first installment. Yet we are surprised every time by how exciting and frightening it is to see him on screen: Starr lends his face to a man who has never been, to a God descended to earth who – as such – has no time to waste with lower beings. who does not want to idolize him? Homelander, however, is a sociopathic, evil, sadistic, and insecure God, with eyes wide open towards a world that always seems to underestimate him, which seems not to notice his greatness.
Even his race, the other super, seems not to understand what is clear to him at the day: there is a hierarchy and he is at the top of the list. His needs have priority, his wishes must be fulfilled. Anyone who dares to get in his way will be fried by his laser beam. And it is precisely this that fascinates us about Homelander. When we think he has reached the pinnacle of madness, he surpasses himself; when we think that he cannot become crueler, here he shows us all his imposing ruthlessness of him. And let’s not imagine a different face from Anthony Starr’s to play Patriot: his face at the same time perfect and corrupt, the blue and angelic eyes that bulge and threaten unprecedented violence.
No one in the cast stands up to Starr. Urban is a gruff and charming Butcher and Quaid is a lovable and neurotic Hughie, but everything turns mediocre in the face of Homelander’s stars and stripes magnetism. To give him battle there is only Giancarlo Esposito’s Stan Edgar who – not surprisingly – has given life to another great television villain. Esposito is best known for his role as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and how much we missed him. Not unlike Fring, Edgar is calm and collected, very calm and elegant. Behind that facade, behind that indecipherable gaze, there is the danger and – let’s face it – the magnetism that only a great villain can exercise on the public. We immediately feel threatened by Edgar, his presence immediately makes us uncomfortable, aware that – at any moment – something could go wrong.
If the plot, therefore, seems to be promising in terms of events and turning points in history, the development seems instead to suffer some backlash. Some moments of the episodes that we were able to preview have a slightly slower narrative rhythm, resulting in almost suspended within the main vein. Undoubtedly some of these are necessary and a logical development of the plot, but the dispersion that is created especially in what concerns Kimiko is, unfortunately, a negative point.
However, despite these sporadic slowdowns, some of The Boys great merits remain in the make-up and special effects departments even in this third season, the series reconfirms its attention to every minimum, raw and visceral (in a literal sense) detail. Between explosions, superpowers and CGI used masterfully in some decidedly disturbing scenes, The Boys does not hold back any blows and decides to give the most irreverent part of the superheroes once again.
It is therefore certain that the show manages to maintain the high expectations created with the previous episodes, also strengthening its position in contrast to the series and films on superheroes to which the Marvel house has widely accustomed us. The Supers of The Boys seem almost more human and real than their Disney counterparts, making the events of the various episodes almost plausible in case they existed as humans with superpowers.
The Boys Season 3 Review: The Last Words
And it is thanks to this feature that The Boys is the series for anyone tired of the usual heroes with incredible powers and without ever a defect who always manage to win well over evil. So, get ready for gruesome scenes, sometimes even disgusting, but always able to make you uncomfortable in dealing with the crudest and most animalistic part of people. So don’t miss the third season of The Boys on Amazon Prime, available to stream with the new episodes from June 3!
