After this, there’ll be a new episode available every Friday until the season is complete, so I think we can go ahead and have open spoilers after this post.
Here’s the schedule, including the episode titles:
Friday 4th September – Episodes 1-3 (The Big Ride/Proper Preparation and Planning/Nothing Like It In The World)
Friday 11th September – Episode 4 (Over The Hill With The Swords Of A Thousand Men)
Friday 18th September – Episode 5 (We Gotta Go Now)
Friday 25th September – Episode 6 (The Bloody Doors Off)
Friday 2nd October – Episode 7 (Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker)
Friday 9th October – Episode 8 FINALE (What I Know)
The Deep’s journey of personal exploration is hilarious; I love that they somehow shoehorned Scientology in there. At least, that’s how I took it. The trip part of his journey was fucking fantastic. In fact, pretty much every scene he was in was funny as hell.
The fight scenes are just amazing.
Jack Quaid is really, really good. He shows a lot of range and all of it’s ddamned good. I love Hughie’s fixation with old Billy Joel songs.
Speaking of which, the music in this show is excellently chosen. For instance, I loved Talking Heads to end E2.
Homelander has multiple personal crisis going on and it’s obvious he’s ill-equipped mentally and emotionally to handle even one of them, let alone the slew he’s trying to contain. What’s up with his milk fixation? Anyone else spot it? He’s still scary, crazy lunatic, too.
Karl Urban is so deliciously over-the-top; why hasn’t he ever been given this kind of role before, where he can just chew scenery like a madman? He’s fun as hell to watch.
Stormfront is pretty ddamned scary! Aya Cash is knocking it out of the park with her portrayal IMO.
Starlight finding her backbone was pretty cool.
I do wish that they had somehow managed to work in the line “oh no; not again” when Lucy died; that would have totally fucking rocked!
Wow! Lots to think about. I can’t wait for next Friday!
The music is okay, but isn’t nearly as good as the music on The Umbrella Academy. Billy Joel knocks me out of the story instead of lifting it.
The heel turn on Stormfront in the apartment building fight at the end of Episode 3 seemed sudden. Although, now that I think about it, her name should have clued me in. But it didn’t, somehow. She just seemed like a hipster.
Homelander continues to be as scary as F.
His milk thing seems to me to be an oral fixation … not having a mother, etc. Very Freudian.
You’re not the only one who has noticed. This article in Men’s Health suggests it’s not product placement.
The involvement of Fresca could clearly be a historical reference to the infamous Jonestown cult that was formed in 1978. Back then, Jim Jones, a preacher-turned-cult leader, convinced more than 900 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, leading to one of the largest mass deaths in history. Ever heard the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid,” as in “oh, he’s drinking the Kool-Aid”? This is the origin. And the Fresca here is giving off very similar vibes.
There haven’t been definitive answers as to what, exactly, is happening with the Frescas. Or even what’s actually inside those cans. But as the rest of The Boys season continues, we’ll certainly be eager to see .
I did pick up on the “Stormfront” reference early on so her big reveal at the end wasn’t a surprise. And I had assumed all along that the “hipster” vibe was an act encouraged by Mr. Edgar (who handpicked her and who was ostensibly fine with her trashing their merch online) to draw away suspicion and encourage disaffected supes to trust her.
Jesus, this show hates marine life.
Garth Ennis really likes explodey people (see also: Preacher). Still wondering who blew up the CIA lady’s head. Current money is on Mr Edgar.
I thought the Fresca obsession was just put in to be really offputting to the audience (I mean, I find Fresca offputting all on its own) but given we’ve already seen an example of people being chemically altered without their knowledge it wouldn’t surprise me that there was more to it than that.
The milk thing, I thought, connected to the whole pseudo-breastfeeding thing from S1 (which stems from his lack of a mother as noted), so him drinking the breast milk from the fridge was creepy but consistent.
The Billy Joel thing is Hughie’s brand, as it were. Remember that the last thing he said to Robyn before she exploded was about Billy Joel. Personally I find “Second Wind” to be Joel’s worst song but it works narratively, I guess.
Loving Karen Fukuhara - she’s looking distinctly pissed off at the end of Ep 3.
Pretty good. It’s only 3 new episodes so far but I like the direction. Giancarlo Esposito is biggest non-super villain in entertainment since Breaking Bad so his casting is a real gift. Best dead whale scene since the Reno 911! movie.
Is A-Train invulnerable? He runs right through Huey’s girlfriend at the beginning of the series, turning her into a pile of goo, and barely takes a breath, the impact must have been incredible, I wonder what happens if he hits something a little sturdier. And the Deep is clearly an asshole getting the treatment he deserves, though I expect he’ll join the other side.
I have to assume the actors are not required to drink the stuff. I’m not sure if they’re allowed to fill the Fresca cans with something more palatable like kerosene or if the actors have to use their skills to pretend to be drinking.
I am blanking out but there was some other recent show that had a villain whose line was they liked to see the light go out as they killed people. Bothering me that I can’t remember… anyone?
The show has deviated significantly from the comics, but in the original comics, the baseline effect of Compound V is superhuman strength and durability. The comics do go into some of the extended consequences of this, but it’s effectively Handwavium - it allows supers to handle whatever stress and trauma is narratively useful for the scene.
The show hasn’t been explicit about this, and it definitely seems inconsistent. In some scenes, the Deep seems to have some level of superhuman strength, but then in others he seems to be a normal guy. The Female’s brother gets thrown through multiple walls and is just a bit shaken up, but other than that seems to just have normal strength and durability. In general, the writers don’t seem particularly interested in the physics of super powers. It’s pretty much just Handwavium.
(In the Transparent story line The Boys did spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out how his powers worked and how to neutralize or get around them. But other than that, I don’t think the show or any of the characters in it have done or said anything about how powers work or what their limitations are.)
I don’t know anything about the comics but I see the series as satire that has plenty of wiggle room when it comes to explanations. The story moves along at a pretty good pace so I don’t want it to slow down for a bunch of origin stories anyway.