After two years, Gen V is lastly making its return to Prime Video with its long-awaited season 2. It not solely serves as the primary spin-off of The Boys to return again for a sophomore outing, but in addition the ultimate piece of media for the franchise earlier than the primary sequence involves an finish with season 5.
Although with the final season of The Boys serving as a little bit of a low level for the franchise up till this level, and two extra live-action spin-offs on the best way, season 2 of Gen V will function two essential checks for the universe: Was season 4 only a fluke? And does the franchise have a future past Butcher and the remainder of The Boys?
Season 2 of Gen V picks up precisely the place The Boys franchise left off. America has fallen beneath the iron fist of Homelander, with a non-insignificant portion of the metahuman inhabitants being radicalized into “Supe Supremacy.”
Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway) and Jordan Li (London Thor/Derek Luh) return to Godolkin College, which has now grow to be the face of youth radicalization following Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) being catapulted to stardom by Homelander. In the meantime, Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) continues her hunt for her long-lost sister.
Sadly, that is the place the problems with season 2 of Gen V begin to creep in. The largest attraction when it got here to the present’s freshman outing is that it allowed followers to see what life was like for on a regular basis teenagers within the franchise. Versus The Boys, which centered on nationwide media and multinational companies, Gen V was an opportunity to see how these main societal adjustments affected those that search larger information in a world the place their very existence is a commodity.
As an alternative of protecting the broader machinations of the franchise at size, season 2 irreversibly staples Gen V to The Boys by escalating the stakes to the purpose the place the reveals really feel like they’re tackling the very same units of points with a barely totally different coat of paint and extra references to vaping and Sydney Sweeney.
Gen V additionally isn’t helped by the truth that the satire current in The Boys franchise is about as delicate as a hydrogen bomb. The sequence has at all times been political, and a few of its most insightful and touching moments have been staring down the darkest elements of the present political and financial system.
Nonetheless, in an effort to sustain its repute as “the edgy superhero present” in a socioeconomic local weather that appears to get extra excessive and polarized by the day, The Boys (and by extension Gen V) turns their satire from incisive political commentary to nothing greater than a Saturday morning cartoon.
Actual-world fascism and bigotry aren’t sophisticated. However what are the mechanisms and societal pressures surrounding radicalization? The true terror of autocracy is that anybody can succumb to the horrors of it, given the fitting materials circumstances. But if one had been simply to observe the latest seasons of The Boys and season 2 of Gen V, it might appear that the one individuals who perpetuate these systemic injustices are degenerates, morons, or don’t have any morals in any respect. Usually, relating to figureheads of establishments current within the sequence, the reply is all three.
The one optimistic to the vanity of season 2 is that the circumstances via which the primary forged returns to Godolkin are closely tied to the absence of Andre Anderson, whose actor Probability Perdomo tragically handed shortly earlier than filming started on this season of Gen V. Whereas there are a number of locations the place you possibly can really feel how shortly this plotline was slotted in, the outcome remains to be an extremely tasteful tribute to such a sudden and stunning loss.
As for the actors who do return, all of them do an exceptional job. Particularly, the characters of Jordan and Emma undergo main evolutions heading into season 2, with their newly discovered layers captured masterfully by Lizze, Derek, and London. Whereas there are a handful of scenes that may have been served by one other take, the season additionally holds a few of the greatest performances in Gen V.
There’s one actor who, whereas technically getting back from season 1, will get an opportunity to utterly reinvent their character in season 2. That honor goes to Polarity, the daddy of Andre Anderson, performed by Sean Patrick Thomas. Whereas a lot of his elevated prominence in Gen V probably stems from the writers subbing him in for scenes that might have included Probability Perdomo, the character provides a novel mix of maturity and stability to a forged outlined by their younger age and reckless nature.
These characters, largely carried by the trouble of a really passionate forged, function the primary latch to maintain people watching Gen V season 2. if one is searching for participating relationship drama and very good character performing, they’ll discover it within the sequence. However the plot that helps transfer the present between these electrical moments will probably be misplaced to toilet breaks and checking social media.
Whereas the primary season of Gen V didn’t deliver a lot new to the style plot-wise, it did at the very least have a central thriller that unraveled episode by episode. The same thriller does sit on the core of season 2. Nonetheless, as a substitute of every episode feeling like a logical extension of character interactions and their penalties, the story will get buried beneath contrivances that make the obvious reply on the planet appear complicated and convoluted.
The Boys has additionally by no means been recognized for good use (or, nicely, any use) of coloration. And whereas the primary season of Gen V served to at the very least deliver some coloration to the universe, season 2 sinks again into the uninteresting blue-washed palettes the franchise is notorious for. The cinematography, whereas not unhealthy by any means, doesn’t do a lot to make up for this, leaving scenes feeling muddy and missing any kind of memorability relating to key areas.
Gen V is much from the worst sequence in the marketplace proper now. For those who fell in love with the characters in season 1, it supplies extra of them with some really masterful performances from the younger forged. Nonetheless, for those who had been ready to see how season 2 turned out to determine whether or not or to not watch the present, it’s not more likely to win you over.
Gen V season 2 premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 17, 2025. Keep tuned for the newest information surrounding the sequence and ensure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for extra content material!
Rating: 7/10
