The Boys - Season 2

[olliebean]

If she was, she'd be his gran, or even his great gran, surely, not his mum.

[NoSleep]

Who says she's stopped being able to bear children if she's a (racist, nazi) supe? I wonder if the whole series is a commentary on the nazification of the US under Trump. It started off as a black comedy and now it's just bleak.

[chveik]

well yeah it's hardly subtle

[BeardFaceMan]

Who says she's stopped being able to bear children if she's a (racist, nazi) supe?

That was certainly the implication. But then Homelander was able to have a kid, so who knows?

[Mister Six]

After that moaning on the previous page I enjoyed the latest episode a lot, and am now a lot[nb]Although they short-changed poor Love Sausage in this adaptation.[/nb] more enthusiastic about the direction the show is taking now we have Stormfront's plan to create a superpowered master race[nb]Also interesting to hear the implication that Vought was created to facilitate a superpowered Aryan race, given that it's now run by Giancarlo Esposito - I assume he's unaware of this, or has deliberately turned the company away from it... I'm hoping they make him like Stillwell was in the comics; a non-superpowered person who's just smart and ruthless enough to stare down Homelander et al.[/nb] - it's a good reason to have the Boys stick together, and absolving Frenchie of Mallory's grandkids' deaths will help too.

I also don't have any problems with Starlight going rogue, although as Mrs Six was confused by that I guess it wasn't brilliantly communicated - but Homelander is suspicious of her and was inches away from murdering her in an elevator, while Stormfront and A-Train both know that she leaked Compound V to the press. She's clearly not safe anywhere near them, so going underground with a bunch of guys who have survived this long without superpowers (for the most part), and who are her only allies in any case, isn't a bad idea.

My only qualms at this point are that the Compound V leak and super terrorist subplots mostly seem to have been forgotten at this moment, which speaks to how unfocused the storytelling has been this season. But I expect both will be threaded back into the show over the remaining episodes and into next season.

Yes, you'd expect something a bit more nuanced for someone in their 80's

Someone in their 80s who's a superpowered psychopath that's never aged. There are good reasons for her to be in arrested development, or at least to not behave like some random Doris. Plus, we've mostly only seen her public face.

I wonder if the whole series is a commentary on the nazification of the US under Trump.

It pretty obviously is, isn't it? Blonde manbaby with enormous power and money who bulldozes his way through corporate life is used by white supremacists as a figurehead for their prospective new nation, and goes along with it because he's a neurotic, scared manchild with daddy issues.

I think they're going to go more towards Homelanders origin story in the comics, just because it opens up other plot points with other characters and if they change that it makes one particular character completely pointless.

If you mean

Spoiler alert

the guy who causes a ruckus at the White House

[close]

, I think that ship has already sailed. Certain changes to Homelander and The Boys themselves have made that twist, if not impossible to pull off, then basically deranged.

[sirhenry]

It pretty obviously is, isn't it? Blonde manbaby with enormous power and money who bulldozes his way through corporate life is used by white supremacists as a figurehead for their prospective new nation, and goes along with it because he's a neurotic, scared manchild with daddy issues.

It probably would be obvious if any of that had been in the show. I assume that all that is in the comics but has been trimmed down for the TV version to just a neurotic manchild with mother issues.

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Still waiting for the Bruce Lee-style supe with the dodgy, racist accent. Enter - The Dragon!

[close]

[Mister Six]

All of that is in the show.

EDIT: yes, mother issues in the show - but also problems with authority of any kind while simultaneously wanting mass approval and respect due to absent parents.

[BeardFaceMan]

If you mean

Spoiler alert

the guy who causes a ruckus at the White House

[close]

, I think that ship has already sailed. Certain changes to Homelander and The Boys themselves have made that twist, if not impossible to pull off, then basically deranged.

Yeah, I meant the stuff with

Spoiler alert

Black Noir and him pretending to be Homelander and all that jazz. If that's not Black Noir's origin, who is he?

[close]

But, yes, poor Love Sausage, he deserved better than that.

[Mister Six]

I was deliberately being cagey with my phrasing there in case someone accidentally clicked on it and got a massive spoiler for the comic and show alike...!

But given the way Homelander is in the show and given that Becca is still alive, I don't see how that twist would work without seeming totally random and meaningless.

[BeardFaceMan]

Hehe yeah, but like you say, theres very little chance of that happening now because theyve changed so much. I have no fucking idea where they are headed with this show, what the endgame is or the overreaching arc of the show. It's frustrating/interesting in equal measure.

[Mister Six]

Kripke said before season one aired that they'd already figured out how to do

Spoiler alert

Herogasm

[close]

in season three or four, so they are planning ahead a fair bit. Hopefully it's just a case of them being so focused on the big picture that they've lost track of the groundwork a little, and that they've realised this for future seasons.

I do genuinely rate the Kripke seasons of Supernatural (S1-5) and I'm still largely enjoying this show so I'm hopeful it will get back on course soon.

Wonder if they'll have the balls to do the post-White House section of the ending from the comics...

[BeardFaceMan]

It does feel like theyre a season and a half into the show and theyre still setting things up, there doesnt see to be much driving the plot forward.

Spoiler alert

Im assuming The Boys are going to get that shot of refined Compound V soon and start actually going up against supes, there has been a distinct lack of superhero kicking in so far.

[close]

If that doesnt happen, then I'm genuinely clueless as to what is going to happen as that was a large chunk of the comics.

Wonder if they'll have the balls to do the post-White House section of the ending from the comics...

If they're going ahead with

Spoiler alert

Herogasm

[close]

, then you never know...

[notjosh]

Well that was certainly eventful, though it remains to be seen whether next week's finale will make the season as a whole feel retrospectively cohesive. I doubt it, but at the very least it might emerge with a more solid foundation from which to build a tighter arc for season 3. In some respects though,

Spoiler alert

the toothpaste is out of the tube, both with the blatant attack on democracy and the kidnapping of Homelander's son. The loss of that underlying sense of dread may prove crucial if it's not replaced with an equally compelling arc.

[close]

I don't know about others, but I find this season's Trump critique to be less interesting than the previous season's focus on corporate power, as the latter felt like something that no other show was talking about. Even in this series, I've found the digs at corporate co-opting of identity politics to be the more engaging strand (there is a small but pointed moment of it in this episode). Having said that, the opening scene was very well done.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, there's been plenty of Trump analogues on TV, and the shitty meme stuff is omnipresent anyway. I suppose there might be a few comic nerd misogynist types who might watch the Stormfront scenes and realise they've been played by alt-right memes, bit probably not many. The comic was a brutally scathing critique of corporate power, so it's a shame to see that downplayed in favour of lots of lame MAGA riffs that (fingers crossed) are going to be irrelevant come the next season anyway.

[sirhenry]

I love exploding heads. When Scanners came out, it was a seminal moment in bad taste comedy. Now they're everywhere, they're the go to for black humour. I watch about 5 hours of TV/movies a week these days and there's seldom a week that goes by without someone's cranium splattering the background.
As I started to watch this week's episode I wondered if we were going to get any exploding heads this week but I didn't get time to finish the thought before they started. Happy now.

[NoSleep]

Yeah, there's been plenty of Trump analogues on TV, and the shitty meme stuff is omnipresent anyway. I suppose there might be a few comic nerd misogynist types who might watch the Stormfront scenes and realise they've been played by alt-right memes, bit probably not many. The comic was a brutally scathing critique of corporate power, so it's a shame to see that downplayed in favour of lots of lame MAGA riffs that (fingers crossed) are going to be irrelevant come the next season anyway.

What did you expect from Amazon? That said, they probably are milking the moment rather than worrying about relevancy post-election.

[Pete23]

I wish they'd be a bit more creative with Butcher ( and family's) swearing. It was a relief at first that he wasn't saying "w@nker" all the time but now everytime he uses the c word it just seems forced and silly. I watched the first couple of minutes of that aftershow bollox and had to turn it off as they were all calling each other C's like it was the height of decadence. Bunch of c@nts.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I've been watching Misfits on Netflix and I watched an episode after watching this week's The Boys. Weirdly both episodes featured an allgergic, super-powered human being defeated by forcing them to eat nuts and then preventing them from using their EpiPen.

[sirhenry]

I've been watching Misfits on Netflix and I watched an episode after watching this week's The Boys. Weirdly both episodes featured an allgergic, super-powered human being defeated by forcing them to eat nuts and then preventing them from using their EpiPen.

And was the earlier mention of Marathon Man a setup for that?

[Neomod]

Fat Neil's still at college? Blimey.

And what a fickle little shit that kid was. Leaves the mother that protected and nurtured him for the bloke who chucked him off a roof.

With one episode to go a disappointing season.

[Mister Six]

I love exploding heads. When Scanners came out, it was a seminal moment in bad taste comedy. Now they're everywhere, they're the go to for black humour. I watch about 5 hours of TV/movies a week these days and there's seldom a week that goes by without someone's cranium splattering the background.
As I started to watch this week's episode I wondered if we were going to get any exploding heads this week but I didn't get time to finish the thought before they started. Happy now.

Reckon it's the church what done it. Protecting The Seven and killing A-Train's competition as another step in controlling the highest-profile superhero team in the world, and therefore promoting their cult on the highest level. Sinead O'Connor escaping the mental asylum last week was a red herring - she can crush anything, whereas the court killer exclusively pops heads. Also explains why they killed the CIA director but left The Boys alive - they wanted the secrets surrounding the supes kept, but want to keep the team in play as a distraction/complication for Vought.

[notjosh]

A fairly satisfying finale in some regards (

Spoiler alert

beating up Nazis

[close]

) though a bit of a damp squib/anticlimax in others (

Spoiler alert

the boys no longer Wanted, Starlight safely back at Vought with zero consequences

[close]

).

Not quite sure where they go from here, but I have a feeling that if the series continues it will be less about exploring themes and ideas that reflect social reality in entertainingly unsubtle fashion, and more about boring plot machinations and twists like the one that ended this series. Given that they were going with an

Spoiler alert

AOC

[close]

comparison I'm not sure what we're supposed to make of it - unless she's really supposed to be

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HRC!!!

[close]

or something.

[Dr Rock]

Lovely stuff.

[BeardFaceMan]

That was a nice way finale, set up some things nicely. Season 3 looks like

Spoiler alert

where The Boys actually get put together as a CIA unit and given the refined V so they can start knocking the fuck out of some supes, couple of little hints that this is the direction they're headed in. So it might feel a bit of an anticlimactic ending, but it's setting up what was the whole point of The Boys in the comics. Also, Butchers wife is now dead, he can't kill the kid so he can take it out on Homelander instead, so after changing a whole lot from the comics they've now come to a place where the main plot is back on track.

[close]

Looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

Nice that they included that wanking scene that they were told to cut from season 1, that shows how much Amazon like them. Aren't the ratings for this beating most Netflix shows? Hopefully this means the show gets a nice, long, creative run.

And poor Deep and his terrible blow jobs, hasn't the man suffered enough?

[surreal]

That was a nice way finale, set up some things nicely.

This from Eric Kripke today - not familiar with the source material so I don't know who Soldier Boy is, but it's nice that Jensen Ackles will finally have something else to do now Supernatural is done with.  I'd hoped he'd end up in the MCU, I know he originally auditioned for Hawkeye and I think he'd have done well with that:

https://twitter.com/therealKripke/status/1314612999877877761

[Dex Sawash]

Took me until e6 to work out Butcher wasn't meant to sound Australian

[chveik]

that final twist didn't make any sense to me 3/10

[Dr Rock]

Well, it's been a mystery whos

Spoiler alert

been blowing up people's heads.

[close]

I was going with Mr Six's theory it had to do with the Church, but it turned out it was someone I doubt anyone expected, the

Spoiler alert

AOC stand-in

[close]

. Now

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she's becoming more politically powerful

[close]

, we know

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she has some kind of plan re the Seven and Supes

[close]

in general, which will play out in Season 3.

Or did you mean the bit where

Spoiler alert

Homelander jizzed all over the city

[close]

?

[Mister Six]

This from Eric Kripke today - not familiar with the source material so I don't know who Soldier Boy is, but it's nice that Jensen Ackles will finally have something else to do now Supernatural is done with.  I'd hoped he'd end up in the MCU, I know he originally auditioned for Hawkeye and I think he'd have done well with that:

https://twitter.com/therealKripke/status/1314612999877877761

IIRC, in the comics Soldier Boy is

Spoiler alert

one of the first superheroes Vought made to help the US army during WWII. He didn't last long

[close]

. Given the whole Vought/Nazi thing in the show though, I don't know if that will be the case here.

Anyway, I was very happy with that ending. The action scenes were a bit flatly directed, but all the big dramatic moments landed, and it fixed pretty much all of my complaints upthread: The Boys are a team again (although I still don't really understand how/why they all forgave Butcher), the wanted phase is over so they can be proactive and not reactive, they've got funding and a mission, Butcher can be the horrible brutal cunt he's supposed to be, and the evil AOC stuff is a fun development (and a logical extension of Vought owning both the pro-status quo Homelander and the supposedly counter-cultural Stormfront.

Speaking of whom, I wonder if they're going to bring back her at some point? If they do, I hope they have a concrete idea for her and it's not just that they realised the actress and character were so much fun they can't resist bringing her back.

[beanheadmcginty]

Everyone loves a big wanking scene don't they? This one was superb.
Nothing will ever beat Danny Dyer on his knees in Human Traffic, but they can try and I will happily cheer them on.