The Boys, season 2
Based on The Boys by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
Producer(s) Hartley Gorenstein & Gabriel Garcia
Developed by Eric Kripke
Starring Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford. Tomer Kapon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Elisabeth Shue, Colby Minifie, Aya Cash
I know we’ve got about 2½ months left in the year, and between season four of Fargo, which is off to a great start, and the upcoming second season of His Dark Materials, plenty of good television awaits. Plus quality telecasts meant for Emmy bait.
Nonetheless, I think The Boys, season 2, may be the best action-adventure series I’ll have seen this year. The first season was awesome, diverging well afield of the Garth Ennis comic but keeping every bit of its spirit and characterizations.
The second season is even better. It combines the same hilarious manic brutality that is the hallmark of Garth Ennis’ work with withering displays of corporate, religious and military mindless stupidity upheld by a media that is at best clueless and at worst complicit. The characterizations, excellent in season one, are both deeper and more disquieting. Homelander, played by Anthony Starr, is the most terrifying superpowered heavy since Allan Moore’s “Miraclemen.” Imagine Donald Trump, circa 2000 when he could still sort of fake it, with Superman’s powers. He kills casually, has a disturbing clinginess to any form of normal human contact that turns to instant rage when the pathetic efforts at bonding fail. Billy Butcher, fully realized by Karl Urban, is nearly as psychotic as Homelander, driven by revenge and when that falls apart, simply by rage. We get a glimpse at the upbringing that created this monster when we meet his dying father, who snarls that Billy “fucked off and joined the SAS” which is about as sensible a statement as “joining the Navy SEALS to avoid having to take out the kitchen trash.” It’s not surprising that the south London Butcher views everyone in the world as a pack of cunts.
The female characters have been invigorated without sliding into silly grrrl power nonsense. Starlight and Queen Maeve are much less passive than in the first season, and The Female, while still mute, is no longer in a psychotic fugue state. A new addition to the Seven, Stormfront, is a worthy adversary to both Homelander and Vought Industries, parent corporation of Supes.
Superb writing and direction ensure that the series is taut and suspenseful throughout, with plenty of unforgettable scenes and plenty of intelligent twists and turns in the plot. Just superior television all around.
Now on Amazon Prime.