The Boys: Gen V (Season 2) Review 

Godolkin University is an educational institution for young superheroes under the patronage of the all-powerful “Vought,” the organization overseeing the famous Seven. In the first season, the young heroes who uncovered the university’s and the corporation’s conspiracy against their own kind ended up in a private concentration camp, betrayed by their friends.

Now Marie, Jordan, and Emma, who survived hell, must return to the university’s halls, but the danger will be even closer: a new dean nicknamed Cipher, whom no one had heard of before, wants to reform the school using extremely brutal methods...

First of all, it’s worth noting that “Gen V” still delights with sharp satire: under the new leadership, good old segregation returns to the elite institute (the main entrance for supes, a separate one for little humans), Vought-TV airs Vought shows, including Vought-Sesame Street and a venomous parody of Fox News and Joe Rogan’s podcasts — “Truth Bomb” with Firestarter, who will tell you all about liberal pedophiles who don’t love the national leader and the “woke agenda of delicate soy snowflakes.” At times, the exaggerated series comes unpleasantly close to reality: reports about the massacre of Starlight’s supporters mirror the tone of the White House’s first comments after real ICE agents’ crackdowns on unarmed people, making the show’s satire frighteningly relevant.

But behind the biting satire lies a darker drama: the plot could have gone in a different direction, but the writers had to rewrite it almost immediately after filming began. The tragic death of Chance Perdomo (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) set the course for the entire story: the inseparable quartet became a trio, and loss seeps through every frame. On the one hand, this added depth to the story and the characters: at the beginning, Marie Moreau, Jordan Li, and Emma Meyer struggle with guilt and reflect on their mistakes, each in their own way: the fugitive hiding from Vought agents tries to find her only sister and meaning in her shattered life; the boy/girl processes their feelings and decides to finally accept their nature; and for the thumb-sized giantess, her friend’s death has the strongest impact — from an insecure gray mouse she becomes a leader pushing others toward desperate actions. The traumatized children have grown up — and it shows.

In its second season, “Gen V” focuses on the heroes’ inner evolution and does so fairly successfully. Marie’s and Emma’s story arcs are convincing (Emma, in particular, reveals new facets); Jordan offers interesting observations, but his/her decisions closer to the end don’t feel properly motivated. The most satisfying storyline is that of tactile telepath Kate Dunlap, who transforms from an obvious antagonist into an ally and almost a friend to Moreau and Meyers — her character has been through a lot by this point and has had time to reflect on her actions. You strongly empathize with her throughout the story, and her character development feels earned.

The beginning of the story was promising, but in its second half the depth, drive, and satire fade away and problems with plot logic emerge. The heroes often seem to act in circles: they make rash decisions, immediately suffer the consequences, struggle for a short while, then find a way to escape... and this happens several times, surprisingly smoothly — not just because the cruel manipulative dean Cipher is so smart and has calculated everything. The problem is that writing genius characters is difficult, and the series doesn’t quite manage it. Some key events happen purely by chance, and the heroes are simply lucky: for example, when they stop at an abandoned library with computers still on and internet access (convenient for asking for help), where they are later found by important characters from the main series — nice to see, but they don’t significantly affect the plot’s progression. And so it goes in many crucial moments.

The plot of this season itself... feels both rushed and sagging for most of its runtime. Apparently, this is a side effect of the script’s ambitions: the story hinges on one specific plot twist, revealed only in the seventh episode out of eight, which forces you to reconsider everything the main antagonist has ever said or done. The final revelation briefly restores interest in the action: the conclusion of the storyline manages to be even less gripping than in the first season (no significant cameos except for a couple of familiar faces).

It feels as though all the excitement and topical edge remained in the fourth season of “The Boys,” and there simply wasn’t enough talent left for “Gen V.” Although in many ways the series still shocks with not always justified scenes of violence or physiological things like one student’s marvelous superpower to suck up beer and any other objects with his butt — an absolutely indispensable element for the plot!

Rating: 6/10. The first season was explosive; the second is a tired and pale copy of the first, but with new meanings and a new direction for the heroes’ movement. An unnecessary filler that promises more than it delivers. The final twist slightly dilutes the gloom, but the ending fails to realize even half of its potential. After the death of one of the leading actors, the series could have been safely closed, and the fates of the remaining characters briefly shown in the final season of “The Boys,” for that matter: the conclusion of their story arcs didn’t carry the narrative.