By now, you’ve probably already made up your mind about Amazon’s anti-superhero series The Boys, and either love it or refuse to watch it. I’m mainly here to confirm that season 3 is exactly what you’d expect, in spades. It’s jaw-droppingly explicit in every regard, and bitingly satirical in its social commentary. I especially appreciated season 3’s skewering of corporate America and the way they shamelessly pander to minorities – they capture the cringe of pride month publicity stunts to a T.
And of course, there’s Homelander, played flawlessly as always by Antony Starr. He steals the show every time he’s on screen, which is refreshingly often. The supporting cast is game too: Erin Moriarty shines (get it?) as Starlight; Colby Minifie ratchets up the clueless insanity as Ashley; Giancarlo Esposito can do no wrong, and that’s just as true for his role here… But Homelander is the main attraction, hands-down, and I can’t think of a more iconic antagonist to the Marvel/DC comic book monopoly.
The Boys themselves continue to be the weakest part, but the showrunners smartly focus on other plotlines (or pad the story with fun world-building, like Vought Land, where everyone’s a hero!). The only other legitimate complaint is the shameless advertising for Amazon: within the first ten minutes of season 3, one of the characters orders something on Amazon, as a plot point… But if you can overlook that (and overlook the HBO-level violence, obscenity, and sexual content), the show continues to be a blast.
