TV Review: The Chaos Continues During The Season Two Premiere Of The Boys
Season two of The Boys, based on the graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, premieres on Amazon today, September 4, and the wild ride that was season one picks right back up in season two. For fans, season two continues the exploration of superheroes being the enemies while a ragtag group of humans, The Boys, try and do what they do best, end the good image of Superheroes and bring to light what they truly are, terrible people.
In the premiere, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capon), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) return to the new season without their dysfunctional leader, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban).. While Hughie believes that the team can survive without Butcher, the rest of the team has other ideas, especially when everything seems to be unraveling at every turn. While their mission is to still bring down Vought International, Hughie’s feeling for Stargirl (Erin Moriarty) may jeopardize all they have worked for and Frenchie’s so-called friends look to be causing unnecessary problems. The team need a leader.
All the while, Annie/Stargirl is doing her best to bring The Seven down from the inside out, which poses more difficult with Homelander (Antony Starr) and Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) doing their best to move The Seven into the military. However, not everything is so squeaky clean for everyone’s not so favorite superhero, Homelander when Edgar knocks him off his holier than thou platform in the first episode.
The Boys has never shied away from it’s mature rating and the new season is no different. The action sequences are filled with so much gore and destruction that at times it all might seem unwarranted. But unlike other shows, The Boys has also strived to have a reason for every spurt of blood or broken bone. Nothing is done for shock value and the show constantly reminds viewers that these moments of destruction are taking place in a real world and not a campy comic book.
If there was one negative about the season premiere, it’s that Butcher is pretty much non-existent for most of it. After the events of the last season, Butcher disappears off the face of the earth and so does the joy that he brings to the screen with his ridiculous personality. The Boys didn’t have the same dysfunctional team dynamic without him around and it was greatly felt as the episode progressed.
The Boys season two is off to a destruction and great start. The cast is once again wonderful, especially Giancarlo Esposito who plays a villain so well, and the chemistry is top notch. Fans of the previous season will not be let down with the premiere and will be in for some fun as the season progresses.
Grade: B