REVIEW: ‘The Boys’ Season 3 Sets the Bar for Delicious Depravity

Prime Video’s The Boys holds a special place in my heart. Not only have I read all of the comics, but it was one of the first shows I reviewed. So to be able to witness a first look at the first five episodes of The Boys Season 3 is such a privilege. Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid), MM (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) are back once more to keep the superhero community in check while trying to figure a way to take out the Seven, and Vought, for good.

The show is based on the comics that were created by Garth Ennis, and Darick Robertson and adapted for Prime Video by Eric Kripke. The Boys shows us a world where Superheroes actually exist but are also employed and monetized by Vought International. For years these heroes have hidden behind the corporate curtain of Vought who has covered up all of their negligent behavior, bribing or silencing anyone who threatens the talent. Enter Billy Butcher and his gang of misfits who plan to muzzle Vought and bring to justice all of the heroes who’ve escaped the long arm of the law for far too long.

Season 2 unleashed a mega amount of story with Butcher discovering Becca is alive and has a Super son, the press finding out that heroes are dosed with compound V as children and not simply born, and the Seven recruiting a new member in Stormfront, who turns out to be the wife of the founding member of Vought and a Nazi. It was an insane story that took everything special from the first season and elevated it.

Well, if you liked what’s come before then you’re going to delight in what Season 3 has to offer. To date, this is probably the most comic accurate of all of the seasons and lays down the groundwork for a lot more world-building outside of simply Vought and the Seven. It’s a practical step to take given the events of the prior seasons and had the show continued at its current pace it’s likely that Season 3 could have well been the climactic series finale. Given the plot choices made by Kripke, we’ll see the crew of the Boys tested like never before.

Butcher is a prime example of this because for the first time this entire series he’s completely unleashed, and a true agent of chaos. Simply take everything we know about him from the past two seasons, from still mourning the death of Becca, to finding out she’s alive and then losing her again, and discovering that she conceived a powered son. Given all of this, it’s safe to say that Season 3 has big plans in store for Butcher as he finds new energy to bring down the Super community, with his prime target being Homelander (Antony Starr).

Urban and Starr’s interactions ooze with an unparalleled level of raging hate towards each other’s characters and you’d really believe they’re gunning for each other at times. Where the show shines is in mirroring these two characters as opposite sides of a coin in certain aspects of their personality. Both are doggedly determined in their goals that will show no restraint to the obstacles that stand in their way.

For long-time fans of the show, there will be an expectant level of gratuitous violence, gore, and explicitly sexual content and I’m happy to confirm that The Boys Season 3 is just as perverted and warped as it always has been. With everything we’ve seen in the past two seasons, and even via the animated anthology series Diabolical, it’s easy to find yourself wondering creatively what they will do next to tap into that shock and awe reaction. I’m audibly laughing as I write this trying to see if I could ever find the appropriate words to describe what Kripke and co have planned for your eyeballs this season, but let’s just say you won’t be left disappointed.

As always The Boys does find a way to disturbingly mirror current events in society by blending them into the fabric of the story in a way that elevates the characters of the world. Nowhere is it more relevant a place than in a world filled with narcissistic superheroes believing themselves gods amongst men that creates that natural divide of us versus them, with only a corporate entity left to police their own people while utilizing them for financial gain.

The Boys Season 3 knows exactly who its audience is and continues to lean into the elements that have made this show the success that it’s been. Expect a lot more moments of entertainingly depraved content in some of the most creatively twisted story points. The cast continues to serve up fantastic performances in the most obscene circumstances imaginable. There’s nothing else left to say other than that it’s utterly diabolical, but then it’s The Boys.

The first three episodes of The Boys Season 3 are available Friday, June 3rd exclusively on Prime Video with the remaining episodes dropping weekly after that.