The great charm of The young is his keen guess as to what planet Earth would look like if there were superheroes. “People” like us. It’s a cruel but relatively believable reality. Through blood and disgust, the series built a universe of imperfect heroes and antiheroes living in a world where “supers” are raised by parents, controlled by a corporation, and ruled by human impulses that are so often treacherous. Through it all, it’s clear that The Boys’ story of camaraderie, character development and social reflections remain brilliant. But its main flaw, even fundamental, is the focus on terrible heroes. Despite its (great) complexity and good heart, The Boys is The Boys because it exploited genre fatigue and gave us joy in asshole heroes. “Real”.
That’s what makes the first three episodes tick Gen V, was released all at once on Prime Video this week, so it was surprising. The spinoff series, which focuses on the heroes of Godolkin University, spent its first phase establishing protagonists, showing off the new universe and building a team. And although we are surrounded by terrible people (of course), we have yet to meet a terrible superhero. That was perhaps the promise of Golden Boy, a character from Patrick Schwarzenegger. But Generation V avoids the obvious and takes a more traditional approach to teen series: Here the antagonists are parents and teachers and not necessarily major heroic figures.
In fact, it’s a pretty perfect formula for a derivative series. Gen V exploits and abuses the premise of The Boys without really repeating the path of the original. She simply transfers the rules of her universe to the university, where young people learn to apply their powers to different fields of activity: whether in Hollywood or in the fight against crime (basically the only possible options). The journey here is led by Marie, who tragically discovered her powers during puberty and immediately unintentionally murdered her parents. As we learn about the students’ powers, we gradually understand that each of them also has a sad origin story.
In this scenario, it’s fun to watch Marie being introduced to the world of heroes in the making, as the combination of a dark and humble past with a rich and promising future makes the character somewhat unpredictable. Marie is ambitious and at the same time correct; A student who wants to follow the rules, but breaks the rules on the first night. Watching her plan her fate, you understand her hesitation, but hope for the best — especially because, as we already know, the (now) The Boys franchise has always known how to cast characters with downtoearth demeanors developed.
Gen V also uses its teenage context not only to follow a good ABC of teen drama, but to explore the journey of abuse that goes through every single hero in its universe, who were exposed to Compound V as a child by their parents’ decision. With this topic, too, the series doesn’t just stay on the surface, but instead chooses to focus on a teenager who has to cut herself in order to exercise her power. Her roommate Emma has to vomit to shrink. These are sensitive topics to explore, but Generation V knows how to approach them with sensitivity and grace.
Everything that Gen V uses from the original universe also has its place, and the series is careful not to fall into pointless references. We see glimpses of familiar characters, we hear stories about Queen Maeve, mentions of the bullet train, we see the consequences of Godolkin’s events in Vought. And everything makes sense. Gen V, at least so far, has demonstrated the ability to maintain a balance between personality and Easter eggs, developing its new (and awesome) characters while also fitting their journeys into the timeline that The Boys is currently in which we’re looking for in a measured way reminded that we learn the truth behind Compound V, that there are vacancies in the Seven, and that Homelander will be charged in court.
Gen V establishes itself in the formation of a great team, creates good supporting characters to accompany Marie on her journey and defines a good mystery to solve over the course of the season that promises to investigate the sinister organization that runs underground operated at the university. While all of this is fun to watch and executed with The Boys’ trademark humor and traditionally accurate soundtrack Gen V’s only setback may be that it robs the original series of the shine of uniqueness.
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