The Boys Season Three Review

If you had any fears that The Boys might have toned down its blood, gore, nudity, and dark irony in the time since season two graced our screens, I suspect the opening sequence of season three will put all those fears to rest. I mean, after watching the entire third season, I still come back to that sequence and think “Holy hell, what the fuck?” So, even if for some reason you don’t warm to the dark twisted charms of this season of the series, you’ll have that memory to return to! But I suspect you, like me, will be fully swept up in the smart writing, brutal fight sequences, and unflinching depiction of Homelander’s descent into further darkness – and how a large swath of the American public eat it up and are willing to ascribe to it. It may be a series about superheroes, but the mirror it holds up to our own reality (with pull quotes taken from our own political discourse and social media witch hunts) continues to shine just as brightly as it has in seasons past.

So, without spoiling what’s to come, what’s the story this time around? Well, it’s been a year since the end of season two (which saw a battle between Butcher, Stormfront, and Homelander end with Stormfront severely injured and Becca accidentally killed in the fray when little Ryan’s powers discharged), and everyone has pretty much kept with the status quo we saw then. Homelander (Antony Starr, continuing his excellent work as the most hateable character on television who also remains shockingly charming) has become even more outspoken and popular – and convinced that everyone at Vought (including his fellow members of The Seven) exist to do his bidding, with those who refuse threatened or worse. What can you do when the most powerful man in the world has several screws loose (and a horrific white nationalist agenda to boot) but also the ability to destroy everyone and everything? Hughie is working for the government, and Senator Neuman who is now heading a Supe Containment Department, bringing in rogue supes as they fall out of line – aided by Butcher, who is still hoping to stop Homelander but is biding his time. As for The Seven, several members of the team are wary of Homelander’s increasing power and control, but again, aren’t sure just how to go about stopping him. At least until it comes to light that there might be a weapon out there powerful enough to kill Homelander – the weapon that was responsible for taking out his precursor, the incredibly powerful and abusive Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles, the latest of Eric Kripke’s stable of actors to join the series).

The DNA that has made The Boys both a critical and ratings success (such as ratings exist for streaming services) is all there in season three – the violence, the gore, the deep commentary on our current political and media landscapes – but the series finally lets some of the more supporting characters take the lead, for good and for ill. We get deeper dives into Laz Alonso’s Marven “Mother’s” Milk, Karen Fukuhara’s Kimiko, Tomer Capon’s Frenchie, and even Nathan Mitchell’s Black Noir – who was a teammate of Soldier Boy during the latter’s final mission. But with a cast this large (and growing each season – we get to spend time with the rest of Soldier Boy’s teammates throughout the season, which pulls focus from our core cast and supporting players), the show’s leads suffer a bit in the shuffle.

The clearest example is Butcher (Karl Urban, still doing great work), who has an interesting season arc, but one that is muddied by the lack of time spent breaking down his character’s motivations. It’s not a spoiler to say that Butcher is once again focused on stopping Homelander through any means possible (much like most of the show’s central characters this time around), but the lengths he goes to – which include taking steps that go against all his character stands for – aren’t explored nearly enough. The same goes for Jack Quaid’s Hughie, who gets a lot to do, but whose jealousy of his girlfriend, The Seven’s Starlight (a great Erin Moriarty, who has grown wonderfully into the role now that she has a lot more to do), seems to come out of nowhere after the writers made sure to push through that plot point in season’s past. And Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train also gets sidelined a bit, with an interesting and compelling storyline – how should A-Train deal with the increasingly racist rhetoric coming from Homelander and its impact on the Black community – that gets shortchanged with all the rest of the stories fighting for prominence this time around.

That being said, there’s a lot to love about season three. The addition of Soldier Boy works as an interesting counterpoint to Homelander, and seeing various supes teaming up with The Boys in their joint quest to stop the most powerful man in the world from doing more damage works wonderfully. It’s also great to spend more time with characters like Kimiko (Fukuhara really is something special in the role). I just wish we had more time to allow each character a chance to really shine – a rare request in this time of bloated run times and far too long seasons of television. The Boys has managed to turn in yet another solid season of television – and the set-up for season four is incredibly interesting. If you’re a fan, you will not be disappointed.

The Boys premieres its third season on Friday June 3. It will release subsequent episodes on a weekly schedule. All eight episodes of the season were provided for review.