The Boys: Season 3 (2022) review

Season 3 of The Boys is like watching a football player catching a punt, run the entire length of the field past every defensive player and then trip on the 1 yard line. It is just as clever, funny and politically savvy as the previous two seasons, continuing the upward trend in the quality of the political commentary on American culture that The Boys has had a knack for since it’s very first episode. Yes, it still manages to be a better portrait of America than Southland Tales.

While it is very of the time, it manages to encompass problems with current America as well as problems with America’s past, personified by Soldier Boy and Homelander, the former representing the past and the latter representing the present day, how one feeds off the other like a snake eating it’s own tail.

Antony Starr once again steals the show as Homelander as his downward spiral continues, this season drawing amusing and/or terrifying parallels between Homelander and Donald Trump, particularly their relationship with their fanbase and media.

The season focuses on the varying degrees of manipulation in the story: Edgar manipulating Victoria Neumann, Butcher manipulating Hughie, Hughie manipulating Starlight, Vought manipulating Homelander, and Homelander controlling The Seven, drawing a parallel to Butcher’s manipulation of The Boys, and the affect that these manipulative relationships have on people, leading to Kimiko and Frenchie getting their best arcs of the show so far.

Most of this season is just as satisfying as you would expect another season of The Boys to be. It balances the character moments and relationships with absurd gore, sex and general vulgarity, a highlight of the season being an homage to the “Antman going up Thanos’s ass” theory in episode 1.

It’s a lot better paced out than the last season, which took about 3 or 4 episodes to really get going. It had the quick pace of season 1 with the escalating wit and satire of the 2nd. Each episode pops off harder than the last, giving us some of the best Boys content we’ve ever got. Coming out of season 3 episode 7, I was ready to call this newest season the best of the show so far. Unfortunately, the finale is a bit of a dud that makes it feel like the season fizzled out instead of going out with a bang. Instead, it backs away from taking its themes to their natural conclusion at the last second, and doesn’t punish certain characters for their behavior in favor of keeping the shows status quo intact.

The season shines a light on how abusive and manipulative Butcher is as a leader, willing to put those who look up to him in harms way if it gets him closer to his goal of killing Homelander. He nearly gets Kimiko killed after “using her like a weapon,” almost selling off Frenchie to Nina and constantly pushing MM over the edge, this season was very clearly (supposedly) setting up, was Butcher finally getting his comeuppance by trying to become what he has been fighting the whole time, getting killed by the Temp V as a punishment for his shitty behavior but it just… didn’t happen. He just passes out after his fight with Homelander and after waking up in the hospital, just strolls into the Boys HQ in the final scene like nothing ever happened.

Hughie was also in for some punishment this season but never got it. Hughie constantly lies to Annie this season, and like with Butcher, the show teases some game-changing shift in their relationship, either a death or a permanent breakup between the two of them but just doesn’t follow through with it. Hughie’s lying about taking Temp V has no long term repercussions that would change the landscape of the show, making it feel like a waste of time and a wasted opportunity to really shake things up.

The death of Butcher, Hughie and Annie breaking up and the Boys splitting up all were set up in 1-7, and all set up so apparently that producers stepping in and changing the course of the story is the only reason I can imagine for that not being what happens.

Aside from Homelander finally getting Ryan, not much else really happens in this finale and mostly everyone is returned to where they are at S3E1. As I said earlier, Butcher and Hughie’s arcs get thrown out, as does everything else that was built up around that storyline. Maeve and Soldier Boy both survived, putting Soldier Boy right back where he was when the season started and Maeve firmly into the category of “what else can we do with this character?”. I doubt that Black Noir is really dead, ‘cause you know, his superpower is regeneration. So it kind of just felt like a flatline of an episode until the proper ending with Homelander and Ryan, a reference to Donald Trump’s famous 5th Avenue quote, which I won’t lie was an effective note to end the season on.

It’s entertaining, clever, vulgar as fuck and maybe most importantly, doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Despite not being fulfilled by the conclusion, I’d rather watch this twenty times over than watch the new season of Stranger Things again (or even finish it). Overall, the season was fantastic as usual, it certainly wasn’t a Euphoria Season 2 situation, but the ending left me thinking “okay, season’s done,” instead of “holy shit what’s gonna happen next?!”