Tag team cocksplosion

Starting my trip up Empire's top 20 TV of 2023

#20 :  Gen V

A spin-off from superhero satire series The Boys – set far away from Vought and The Seven, following an entirely new bunch of characters – did not need to be as good as Gen V turned out to be. It’s funny, it’s action-packed, it’s full of the gory bodily moments we’ve come to expect from The Boys universe, it plays with form in an endlessly interesting way, and it’s stacked with great characters that you’re thoroughly invested in. Bring on Season 2 – we can’t wait to see what happens next.

I like The Boys but even I have to accept it's not for everyone - at times, it's absolutely disgusting, but often also very funny at the same time.  The last season wasn't so great though, so I was interested to see if they'd revitalised things with this spin-off (which I watched before this list told me to).

And yes, it's very much revitalised - I really liked this.  The new characters are all pretty well thought through - their skills all work well at points throughout the season.  And that's pretty much all I feel the need to tell you - other than that bits of it are utterly revolting.  If you like The Boys (and I can assure you that Mrs Reed would not) then I think you'll like this - I certainly think it was better than the last season of The Boys.

It's very much an ensemble cast and everyone does a good job - if I had to pick people out I'd go for Jaz Sinclar who plays Maria (a hemokinetic, don't you know?), Lizza Broadway as Emma (who was probably my favourite) and both London Thor and Derek Luh who play Jordan (and play the one character very well).  I also noted Patrick Schwarzenegger in the cast - I wonder who his dad might be?

It's all well filmed, being pretty flashy with some reasonable effects - some of the scenes with Little Cricket are a bit creaky, but you're not really watching this for the realism.  Having said that, for something that's based around superheroes and even more way over the top than you'd expect from such a genre, there's a surprising amount of humanity involved, with our (super) heroes having to deal with "real life" and relatable problems.    Don't worry though, there are also plenty of utterly bizarre and revolting problems to deal with - I'd call it juvenile, but there's some very adult minds having gone into inventing some of these scenarios.

I think The Guardian gets it right when it says this didn't need to be as good as it was - I came for the shocks but stayed for the plot and really enjoyed it.  Yes, it's not certainly for everyone and there is no danger of me watching this with my wife, children or parents but if you fancy a decidedly different take on superhero matters ("with great power comes great irresponsibility") then I think this is well worth checking out.  However, I'd start with The Boys because there are some characters that carry over into this - it's all available on Amazon Prime.

2022 - Another year-end write-up
#18 - A mostly enjoyable slog