'The Boys' season 3 web series review: A bloody escalation

'The Boys' season 3

Age Rating: A

Score: 3.5 stars

Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Jensen Ackles

Note: This is only six episodes, and will be updated when the last two are available. It also features graphic violence and sexual content, and is meant only for viewers above the age of 18.

"Oh, you thought the situation was done with escalating? Well...no." - Someone, somewhere.

This is essentially the thought process that was probably going through the heads of those who wrote the third season of The Boys. Not content with the previous season's grotesque violence and in-your-face satirisation of the superhero genre, the third season goes deep into not just the superheroes, but also fandom culture and a bit of modern-day politics for good measure.

Taking off a year after Stormfront, the Nazi superhero was beaten and Homelander left alone, the series sees a lot of fundamental shifts in not just loyalties among characters, but the root of the conflict between The Boys and Vought -- the very balance of power, which has remained ever so fragile.

The balance here is represented in what is basically a three-way scale, with Homelander being one, Billy Butcher being the second, and Hughie being the third. It all starts relatively balanced for the teams as Hughie and Butcher put up an uneasy alliance in keeping superheroes in check, living in ever-not-so-blissful ignorance of how much power Vought truly holds and how unbalanced the scale truly is. Learning that leads the two to join hands again in search of an old legend -- Soldier Boy -- in the hopes of balancing the scales, and maybe killing Homelander for good.

The series has traditionally loved to mock superhero fandom culture, and that remains well and true in this season as well, as the opening goes with a tongue-in-cheek mockery of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign which got Zack Snyder's Justice League. From thereon, it takes up more and more forms of mocking, from heroes being "politically correct" to the chargin of certain characters, to mocking the idea of "diplomacy" with powder kegs who have been shown to have no conscience.

It also presents a chillingly accurate representation of modern-day "white outrage/white privilege" culture, with men worshipping Stormfront, and later, Homelander for their perceived "strength" while Vought capitalises on the increasing popularity of incendiary statements issued by the head of the Seven.

For The Boys (which includes Soldier Boy, if only perhaps momentarily), the series is just as unhinged. Despite having a major win over Homelander, Butcher remains ever so hateful because it cost him his wife, and that leads him down a spiral of increasingly bad decisions, the least of which happens to be taking a drug that gives him superpowers. It's a part of the comics that finally makes it on-screen in a largely more faithful form than, say, Black Noir or Homelander's characterisation.

Speaking of characterisation, Soldier Boy also gets a wholly different look and feel. From being a wuss and a weakling in the comics, Soldier Boy is an actually strong fellow, if rather outdated in his views ("Bill Cosby is America's dad"). Played rather charmingly by Jensen Ackles, Soldier Boy bridges the gap between older generation of superheroes teased in the second season, with Homelander's new generation, showing just how easily being an idiot is inherited -- and may just be a side effect of being exposed to Compound V, the stuff that makes superheroes.

But surprisingly, Soldier Boy, who is basically just a take on Captain America, is surprisingly close to Captain America in terms of ideology. Other than his drug abuse and outmoded views, he does seem to cling to the idea of not harming anyone not involved with his personal campaign, stepping out of that rule only to help Butcher get back at Homelander as a favour. There is an element of him, however, that hints to a larger mental instability, but that is yet to be revealed.

Speaking of Homelander, he goes from being a "scary but cartoony" sort of villain to an actual "oh my god, please stop" sort of creature in the scariest way possible. With his mental state shattering with each episode, culminating in the scariest interpretation of Superman since 2019's Brightburn in the sense that "what if Superman had all his powers but absolutely none of his morals" is put on full display.

The season also puts a lot more focus on its supporting characters, particularly Starlight, Mother's Milk, Frenchie and Kimiko. For Starlight, this season acts as a crucible, where she faces rampant issues in her relationship with Hughie and her position in The Seven, leading her to make potentially questionable decisions. For the other three, the season puts into question their previous loyalty to Butcher as he puts the heat on the superheroes far more directly and with reckless abandon -- to the point of treating his own team like expendable pawns.

Apart from its now-trademark violence, which is surprisingly realistic despite its grotesqueness and cringe-inducing elements, the series also dives into the other half of the 'Not Safe For Work' content, with the Herogasm adaptation feeling like it's absolutely the most strange event filmed for a web series. For the sake of posterity, we leave it for the readers to watch it, but those who know -- know.

To close, The Boys Season 3 is another potent escalation in the satirised world of "what if superheroes were real". Well, they are, and they are (almost all) absolutely colossal baddies. But this time, the bad is balanced, and that may not be for the best.