The Eric Kripke (Supernatural, Revolution) Prime Video series, based on the comic books “The Boys” by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick W. Robertson, is back for a second season. Karl Urban (Thor: Ragnarok), Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games), Antony Starr (Banshee), Erin Moriarty (Captain Fantastic), Dominque McElligott (House of Cards), Jessie T. Usher (Shaft), Laz Alonso (L.A.’s Finest), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Tomer Capon (When Horses Fly), Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad), Nathan Mitchell (iZombie), and Shantel VanSanten (Shooter) are returning. Aya Cash (Fosse/Verdon, You’re The Worst), Patton Oswald (Agents of Shield, Happy), Claudia Doumit (Where’d You Go, Bernadette), and Goran Višnjić (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, ER) round out the season two cast.

Last season: We found out that superheroes weren’t born but made by Vought International, using compound V on infants. It also turns out that Homelander knew about it and sold compound V to criminals thus creating a league of super-villains in an effort to convince the government and general public to let super-heroes into the military. We also found out what really happened to Billy Butcher’s wife after she was raped by Homelander. She wasn’t killed but in hiding, thanks to Vought International, raising the child she had with Homelander.

Premise: The Boys are in hiding, they are wanted for the alleged Murder of Madeline Stillwell, a Vaught Industry higher up.

Review: As I suspected after the three episodes premiere, The Boys season two looks to have been written as an eight hour movie, a bingeable piece of entertainment. However, I understand the weekly release strategy, not only from a business stand point for Amazon, but also for some aspects of the story arc.

The weekly release schedule allowed us to sit with the plot – well some of you did because I watched the last 5 hours the same week. Spending some time to digest what happened in an episode make it easier on the viewer to catch some details, the little subtleties within the show.
It becomes useful when it comes to Stormfront. Given who she is, the weekly episodes allows us to reflect on the character’s actions and makes it easier to notice and observe how she uses the system to reach her goals. I can give an example to this, it is not a spoiler since it was in the trailers, but her comments about Homelander’s appearance when she first meets him is a clue as to what she turns out to be.

The show is very topical, and touch on a variety of subjects. There are a lot of the social commentaries found throughout the season. The synergy between corporations, their bottom line, and politics is amazing to see play out on screen if not in real life. The parallels made on the show barely hide what they’re referencing. If you can’t substitute them for something or someone I’m real life, watch the news. Stormfront, again, is a good reflection, a comment on the disguise people like her take nowadays and the impact they can have on society at large.

Money and/or power seem to be driving force of a lot characters in the series. We see the manipulation and shaping of the outrage economy by people who seemed at odds with each other, knowingly or not working together. Even the big reveal at the end, that threw me for a loop, follows that pattern.

The Boys S2 is real life with sups mixed in, they are the only ingredient we don’t currently have. The “superheroes” are still deeply flawed people but no more than some the regular folks depicted on the show, they can just do more damage. It was a lovely season that could have been binged.

---

If you’re interested in the comics that inspired the show, it’d be a huge help if you get them from the links bellow