The formula for television dramas is to raise the stakes with each season, pitting the series' protagonists against increasingly potent threats that rise from the ashes of prior seasons' successes. There is an unspoken agreement between the show and its fans that, at some point, all of the dangers the characters have faced and the losses they have incurred will receive some accounting at the end of their odyssey.
The modern TV era has pushed the limits of how much suffering we are willing to watch characters endure.
Amazon Studios has followed a similar path to that of The Boys, which has put its characters through all manner of trauma, both physical and emotional, inflicted on both themselves and their loved ones. Over the course of the first two gory seasons, it softened all of that bleakness with plenty of humor and a sort of weird quality.
In the third season of The Boys, there is no indication that a conclusion to the series is imminent.
The Boys is based on the comic book series of the same name and is set in a world where superheros are not always real. Under the management of a PR team, the super-powered characters in The Boys rape, kill, and steal as long as they don't hurt the company's stock price. The series title refers to a small group of agents who attempt to police the "supes", whether by gathering blackmail material or dishing out brutal punishments for their crimes.
Audiences have seen mild-mannered Hughie join the covert team led by William Butcher and engage in a high-stakes battle with Homelander. At the end of the second season, Homelander became a Donald Trump-like figure, stoking racist nationalism in order to feed his ego and consolidate his power.
The parallels with recent events don't end there, either, with the Black Lives Matter movement, right-wing disinformation campaigns, and even a parody of the notorious NXIVM sex cult all finding their way into the season long story arcs.
None of the self-awareness comedy that made all of the gory violence, dark themes, and cynical perspective on humanity tolerable was present in the season.
It is difficult not to compare Game of thrones to it, as it was a journey that seemed completely pointless at times and seemed to relish in its own depravity. The third season of The Boys feels like it comes from the same mold, opting to put shock value over substance with increasing Frequency, and teasing but never delivering an emotional return on fans' investment.
The villains are getting worse, the heroes are getting hurt, and the audience is getting strung along.
There are a few bright spots in the third season of the show. After two seasons of being demoted to supporting roles, Tomer Capon and Karen Fukuhara, who play Serge and Kimiko, finally receive dedicated story arcs that add significant depth to their characters. The duo are two of the series' most fascinating characters, and their story arcs in the third season propel it forward to new and interesting places.
As Annie January, the superhero known as Starlight, there is a great performance that no longer focuses on her being a punching bag for Homelander. She has always been involved in the nature of power and control in the series, but the new season gives her the chance to use it for her own good. The show is better for the role of Moriarty because he gives it a depth that has been missing.
Those bright spots are few and far between in the bleak season, which now seems more intent on testing its fans' capacity for absorbing narrative abuse. The Boys punish the characters they like the most at every chance they have. Things only get worse when things seem to go their way. As the season goes on, it becomes more and more predictable, training you to expect the worst and always deliver.
The experience is much more depressing due to the backdrop of real-world socio political issues.
The first two seasons of The Boys kept some amount of hope for its characters despite the dark themes. The bleak viewing experience of the third season of the series is likely to leave more than a few viewers wishing the entire cast of characters would just be put out of their misery.
The season 3 premiere of The Boys will be on June 3.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
