The Boys: Season 2 – Review

Disclaimer: This article has some light spoilers regarding some plot points of The Boys: Season 2. If you just want to know more about the show and see the final veridict without spoilers you can read the first and last section of this article.

THE BOYS

The Boys is an acclaimed TV Show adapted from the comic of the same name, produced by Amazon Studios and exclusive to stream on the Amazon Prime Video platform. It premiered its First Season on July 25th of 2019. Because of it’s premise it garnered a big cult following and a good amount of hype for its second season.

The premise of the show revolves around a group of people that have had their lives upended by the wrongful actions of a superhero. Following these events, the show starts to show perspectives on what a Humans vs Adored Superheroes would be like.

These superheroes are distorted versions of their “real-world” counterparts, that have really big a company market their image as New Age Gods. Much like we have seen happen with actors, artists and people on the entertainment industry.

The criticism to these actions and the way we idealize celebrities is clear. To put it in the words of Eric Kripke, the creator of the adaptation:

“How would a Superman-like hero feel like [in the real world]? They would become sociopathic. How would a Speedster feel? They would be a really stressed out professional athlete.”

This premise will either create a hit TV Show or a very cringe one. The quality in the execution of this premise, from production to performance, it’s what sets The Boys apart, turning it into one of the best series in the last few years.

THE BOYS: SEASON 2

The Second Season of The Boys was met with positive reviews, from critics and from the audience, for the most part. With some fair criticisms on convenient storytelling and even on how to approach certain aspects of the plot.

In this season we have a new addition to the team of distorted superheroes, Stormfront played by the amazing Aya Cash, a mysterious figure at the start. Soon, it’s revealed she’s a Nazi trying to create an army of superheroes. If you want a more complete article on this subject, I recommend the amazing read that is Maya Philips’s “My Screens Are Filled With Black Death, but I Won’t Look Away”

This season keeps the identity of the show as a series and goes a step further with it, criticizing religious cults, upping the gore and shock value, but this time with even better character development in between and within these scenes.

The acid comedy in this season is way more accentuated than on the first season, including parodies on popular movies from the DCU and the MCU. In sum, everything the first season did right, the second season improved upon it.

Being the only problem of the second season the plot-driven narrative that allowed for some inconsistency and convenient storytelling to happen. Something that was not as present on the first season.

THE MASTERCLASS: S02E07 – Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

Through the season 2 we have a “Supe”, that’s how people whom are not superheroes refer to people with inhuman powers, blowing up people’s head. The end scene of this episode has the same Supe committing mass murder on Live Television.

Since no one knows how the power works, there is no clear suspect in sight. Until the end of the season where we get the reveal of who the Supe is. Now, “how is the last scene of the previous episode a masterclass on production, instead of the one that ends the season?”

Well, so when you go back to the scene of the mass murder you should be able to see the killer destroying everyone’s heads, right? Being a TV Show, this can be a very difficult scene to pull off, since some continuity can be lost, or the suspense can be killed, it’s completely understandable if that happens.

However, this doesn’t happen in The Boys. During the scene, if you know what you are looking for, you can actually see the killer killing right before your eyes. They don’t even try to hide this happening. And even then, when you get the reveal at the end of the season it’s still a complete surprise.

Now, this is the kind of production we expected from great shows from the past like Game of Thrones, Lost, Breaking Bad and etc. This season made The Boys be a contestant on being one of the best superheroes shows of all time, the only question that remains is: “Will it be able to keep this high-quality content until the end?”

THE VERIDICT

Here is the gist of it: if you have not watched The Boys yet, you have to watch it now! The fanbase has very little toxicity so you can also do one of the most fun things when you are a fan, create theories with other people about the aspects of the show and share funny memes.

If you are looking for a number, I would classify every TV Show in three major characteristics: The Premise, Production and Performance, and Storytelling (Plot and Screenwriting).

• The Premise: 100. The show stays true to its premise and builds upon it.
• Production and Premise: 94. The show has some weak moments on acting and some goofs on production, nothing to take much away from the general quality of the show.
• Storytelling: 85. Due to the forceful advancement of the plot the show actually has some scenes that broke the immersion, for me. The character development and the plot points, however, make up for these scenes.

With that information in hand we get the average of: 93/100 points. If we add or subtract the personal bias of enjoyment, we would end up with a solid 95 or 90 TV Show, at least.