The Boys Season 2 Review: Slowburning, Gory and Scarily Relevant With a Scene Stealer Aya Cash
Season 2 takes it up a notch. Xenophobia, racism, homophobia get their moment under the sun. Religion gets its own bit on the show. Politics is just around the corner. Every social commentary in The Boys 2 hits too close to home - relevance making everything scary. Celebrity worship is my favourite demon that the show embraces.
The Boys was a smash hit for Amazon Prime. The anti-superhero show has been renewed for a third season, even before season 2 could premiere online. Well, now that is a studio magnificently sure of their product. Well, should they be? I will try to dissect in this review of The Boys season 2, episodes 1 to 3. The new season picks off after the events where the titular gang has excused itself to a life in isolation after being accused of killing Translucent and Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has maintained her status in the Seven. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) has not reunited with his wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten) despite the shocking, twisted climactic moment of season 1.
The Boys does not aim to satiate the appetite for superhero stuff. It is a show about calling out the supers, after all. Amid the drama, and thrills, the show's focus is not on delivering superheroic scenes with flawless CGI which I had some teething problem with. A few scenes aim big, but CGI is unimpressive. Fight sequences are run of the mill albeit more gore than ever. With superhero genre, your suspension of disbelief is already dialled at max, but The Boys 2 asks for more. It revels in plot conveniences a little too much to not notice.
But apart from that, the series checks all boxes. The social commentary on the world hits the bull's eye. Even season 1 explored themes of prejudice, sexual harassment amongst other things. Season 2 takes it up a notch. Xenophobia, racism, homophobia get their moment under the sun. Religion gets its own bit on the show. Politics is just around the corner. Every social commentary in The Boys 2 hits too close to home - relevance making everything scary. Celebrity worship is my favourite demon that the show embraces.
Aya Cash joins as Stormfront, the latest member of the Seven. The actress is just as much of a scene-stealer as her character. Stormfront rises to the top quickly, almost giving Homelander (Antony Starr) a run for the money. Aya embodies the character as enigmatically. She puts forth the best performance of all.
The series will launch the first three episodes on the premiere date. The subsequent episodes will be a weekly release. The first three are slow-burning, taking the sweet time to set up the new conflicts, and also in no hurry to tie the loose ends from debut season.
The band of boys continue to improve dynamics with each other but character development is reserved for few. Hughie (Jack Quaid) is still awkward, confused, sweet and sensitive, but with a stronger spine. Frenchie (Tomer Capon) and Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) continue to operate only on the information we had about them beforehand. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) gets a subplot that can be interesting. But they all possess the power to infuse humour into a tense situation, which is a delight.
Talking of laughs, Deep (Chace Crawford) continues with his tirade to get back in the gang but also maintains his status as the comic relief. Jessie T. Usher as A-Train is dormant after the events of the first season. But, it's Queen Maeve's Dominique McElligott lack of screen presence that's irritating. She is certainly a character, I'd like the show to explore more.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 25, 2020 05:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).