Online Series: The Boys (season 3)

[Supermassive]

I would say black noir is like batman. Similar costume, no blatant display of super powers (no flying, lasers etc) , can sneak around and go unseen

They really went away from the comic book with this version of Black Noir.

Snake Eyes, maybe?

Starlight = Electro?

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I would say black noir is like batman. Similar costume, no blatant display of super powers (no flying, lasers etc) , can sneak around and go unseen

He also look a lot like Snake Eye from the GI Joes. But yeah, definitely Batman.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Think I said at the start of the season noir would save the day and it's starting to look more like that will happen.

What an awesome episode in regards to him. That was some trippy shit.

This show and Barry are the best on TV, imo.

 

[Primary Assist]

Absolutely love this show and this season has lived up to the hype so far.

It’s fun making the connections to real super heroes too. Some are obvious, but my read is:

Homelander - Super Man
A-Train - the Flash
The Deep - Aquaman
Maeve - Xena warrior princess
Soldier Boy - Captain America
Hughie (temp powers) - Nightcrawler
Stormfront - Storm
Kimiko - Wolverine
Translucent - the Invisible Woman

Starlight - ???
Black Noir - ???

Butcher kind of is like Batman in that he had a rough upbringing and prior to getting temporary powers, had no super powers but was still going against the supes.

Starlight is kind of like Dazzler, and to a lesser extent Jubilee, from the X-Men. Pop star with sparkle powers.

Black Noir reminds me of a silent version of Punisher with super strength and durability. Black and white view of justice (at least from what we saw up until this season) and over-the-top with his violence. He also has many of the same characteristics of Ronin, Hawkeye's alter ego, but I don't think the the creators of the Boys really had him in mind when coming up with Noir

Edit - Soldier Boy is also like a mash-up between Cap and Winter Soldier. Clearly Captain America is the primary inspiration, but just like Winter Soldier has the trigger words that turn him into a kill machine for HYDRA/the Soviets, Soldier Boy seems programmed - or at least has a severe traumatic reaction - to the Russian music which causes him to lose control

 

[Epictetus]

I kind of had Deadpool vibes from Black Noir, save for the healing factor.

This show also does backstory - Butcher, Noir - creatively and better than most shows. It actually connects well to the present.

 

[HanSolo]

Spoiler

One of the best parts of this show is that A-train continually gets shit kicked. It's a fully deserved, zero redemption storyline since the first episode of the show. They've done it so well because it almost makes me feel like he's earned the right to be good again, but they keep dealing him blows. I don't know how long they can keep it going though, eventually something's gotta give

I think you're right. And I think eventually that will stop for him. But it's amusing, the way you put it it's pretty analogous to the Deep's development.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Fantastic finale. That final scene is such a good, small cliffhanger for next season.


One of the best shows in existence right now for sure.

 

[HanSolo]

Fantastic finale. That final scene is such a good, small cliffhanger for next season.


One of the best shows in existence right now for sure.

That scene

Spoiler

sort of quells my fears that they're going to get to the point where Homelander snaps and goes full on psychopath. He needs a big loss to push him to that point. Feels like there isn't as much of a rush to that finish line now. He's got his son on his side and the love of the people who don't care if he does whatever the f*** he wants.

I don't know if I like the Boys going forward without powers though. It can't just be Annie, Kimiko, and the ingenuity of the Boys to take Homelander down. Maybe it'll be Ryan in the end, but who knows?

Either way I loved how they had an MCU like supers showdown but the stakes between each fight were so visceral and compelling. The whole episode was fantastic.

I mean overall this was just a top notch season. I don't know what the hell the critics are on that this season has a 72 metacritic score. This is by far the best season in my mind. Just top notch storytelling from start to finish, greay satire without being overbearing, stellar performances from the whole cast this time not just Urban and Starr. Season 1 is still fantastic, don't get me wrong, but there were no lulls in any episode. Nothing felt like filler. I'm sure there's great TV out there currently that I haven't doven into, but this season was the best TV I watched all year. Maybe since the pandemic started.

 

[HanSolo]

I guess my one gripe with the episode

Spoiler

It's a bit of a convenience to have Maeve survive that blast after being depowered. Like it wasn't instantaneous. She kept the powers long enough to survive falling off a skyscraper then they were gone. But ultimately, not that big a deal.

And Soldier Boy isn't dead so there's a possibility we get more Jensen Ackles in the future. If the story was good enough I'd watch a Soldier Boy spin off. Ackles was that good as an addition to this cast.

 

[izzy]

I feel like this show is horrified to kill anyone off now

considering the premise, ehhh

still a really good season, but seems to have accomplished almost nothing outside of some “character building” with Butcher, everything is pretty much as it was to start the season

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Everyone who is a fan of this and Invincible should watch Death Battles Omni-Man vs Homelander.

Spoilers: They don't glaze over the sheer mismatch this fight would be.

 

[HanSolo]

I feel like this show is horrified to kill anyone off now

considering the premise, ehhh

still a really good season, but seems to have accomplished almost nothing outside of some “character building” with Butcher, everything is pretty much as it was to start the season

What season "accomplished" anything at its finale aside from some finality on a few character threads and leaving others hanging for next season?

Spoiler

-Vought is still in the hands of a psycho who is getting increasingly emboldened with what he can get away with.
-Starlight is officially a member of The Boys, which isn't that big all things considered on its own, but she's no longer got inside access to Vought, and she's likely either Homelander's target No. 1 or No. 2 if you want to switch her and Butcher.
-Butcher is dying.
-Ryan is succumbing to his shit stain father's ways.
-Black Noir is dead and the 7 has a ton of vacancies.
-One of two supes who has the will to stand up to and try to stop Homelander no longer has powers.
-The headpopper is one headpop from the US presidency giving Homelander even more inside track to have power over everyone.
-A-Train and Deep are at the mercy of Homelander while still on their own bizarro redemption arcs.

I mean there's plenty that happened that will impact Season 4. Just because there weren't more explosions and deaths doesn't mean that nothing happened like so many are claiming. Like, the main hook of the season was "we gotta stop Homelander now" and it didn't happen. But why would anyone expect it to. Would it be cool to see Soldier Boy depower him? Sure. But if you think about it, a lot of people would move quickly to kill Homelander the instant he lost his powers in case he ever got them back. What's next? Soldier Boy has to die? I mean why? Soldier Boy may be an asshole and evil but he never seemed intent on dominating his will and power over the masses to command respect and obedience. In fact he seems to hate that about his son. So yeah I guess his death would have had some "oh shit" impact, but why not keep him in the back pocket? Sure MM and Noir didn't get to kill him, but Noir dying was supposed to be another legacy villain moment for Homelander and an opportunity for character growth for MM and that turned out to be a lot more nuanced than basic vengeance. The way things were wrapped up was fine. Great in some respects, honestly.

 

[Primary Assist]

As a Leafs fan this season really spoke to me. Edge of your seat the whole time, until the bad finale ruined everything

 

[ArGarBarGar]

That ending scene made me terribly uncomfortable.

Also, f*** Todd.

 

[Blender]

Season finale was a bit anti-climactic, but the season overall was good.

 

[Epictetus]

Fantastic season finale.

They advanced the plot while still keeping several options to go forward in their back pocket.

 

[eXile3]

I hope they don't turn this into one of those shows that carries on for too long. One, two more seasons should do it. I mean how long can you just watch Homelander dominate people without ramifications? Of course they want to continue making money so it will probably be on forever.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

The writers aren’t shy about making obvious real life connections.

I probably laughed more than I should have about Starlight now being the leader of a pedophile ring.

I don’t get what the deal was with Ashley’s hair… was there some kind of reference to it in past shows I missed?

I agree it was lame they let Maeve live. They aren’t shy about killing ppl in this series so that was a little eye roll worthy.

They did off Black Noir though, albeit unceremoniously.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

I hope they don't turn this into one of those shows that carries on for too long. One, two more seasons should do it. I mean how long can you just watch Homelander dominate people without ramifications? Of course they want to continue making money so it will probably be on forever.

This has the same show runner as Supernatural and that was on for like 15 years lol.

Now that it's done I'm going to finally binge this season in the next couple of days.

 

[Hivemind]

I don’t get what the deal was with Ashley’s hair… was there some kind of reference to it in past shows I missed?

There were a few episodes earlier in the season in which she was literally pulling out her own hair because of stress.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

There were a few episodes earlier in the season in which she was literally pulling out her own hair because of stress.

Oh right… good call. I remember the scene now where she freaked out A-train.

Her character is hard to get a grasp on. One minute I can’t stand her and the next she seems legit.

 

[Hivemind]

Oh right… good call. I remember the scene now where she freaked out A-train.

Her character is hard to get a grasp on. One minute I can’t stand her and the next she seems legit.

She and the Deep were being used to show the perils of replacing a functioning management system with a bunch of Yes-Men and sycophants* who are more concerned with soothing their bosses' ego than they are with running things well. She has risen up the ladder by sucking up to those above her, and the only times she's exerted influence is to mimic the poor ways that others have treated her by treating her subordinates equally poorly when she finally has power.


*Yet another one of the shows parallels to reality

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

She and the Deep were being used to show the perils of replacing a functioning management system with a bunch of Yes-Men and sycophants* who are more concerned with soothing their bosses' ego than they are with running things well. She has risen up the ladder by sucking up to those above her, and the only times she's exerted influence is to mimic the poor ways that others have treated her by treating her subordinates equally poorly when she finally has power.


*Yet another one of the shows parallels to reality

Maybe she is just rotten, but her scene when Starlight went to her for help, I think she wanted to do the right thing but got scared.

Then she erased the footage of Maeve being alive.

One could argue she did it to save her own ass I suppose, but that’s up for debate.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Great finale .. jam packed with awesomeness IMO, didn't see the turns it took coming.

Spoiler

The real-life political connections they have built up in this show have brilliantly bought them some length to run with Homeland as a complete psychopath, able to kill someone who disagrees with him.

They wrapped up a lot of these storylines nicely as well but left some nice hangers for next season and beyond.

The fight scene were just awesome. And the door is still open with Soldier Boy, who was brilliant. He never really had the motive to become a big villain. I absolutely love the crushing emotional blow he gave to Homelander.

Is Homelander partially deaf now, or did he recover from that thing in the ear?

Oh and the shitting on A-Train continues

 

[BertCorbeau]

I guess my one gripe with the episode

Spoiler

It's a bit of a convenience to have Maeve survive that blast after being depowered. Like it wasn't instantaneous. She kept the powers long enough to survive falling off a skyscraper then they were gone. But ultimately, not that big a deal.

And Soldier Boy isn't dead so there's a possibility we get more Jensen Ackles in the future. If the story was good enough I'd watch a Soldier Boy spin off. Ackles was that good as an addition to this cast.

A prequel spinoff could be fun if they decided to wrap The Boys up in a couple of seasons.