The Boys: Season 2 review

Released by Amazon Prime Video

New episodes released weekly from September 4, with three episodes arriving on Friday September 4

The Boys' first season was a kick in the balls of superhero worship movies and TV shows.

Opening with Erin Moriarty's superhero newcomer Starlight and her induction into the famed world of The Seven, a group of superheroes adored by the public, the show kicked off the idea that you should never meet your heroes.

Especially after one of them tries to molest you within moments of meeting. 

Coinciding with Starlight's journey was that of Jack Quaid's Hughie, whose world was destroyed when speedy superhero A-Train ploughed literally through his fiancee as they held hands - and then ran off with nary an apology.

The first season did a great job of tearing down expectations of superheroes, delivering them as flawed and dangerous narcissistic individuals, whose power delivered them delusions of grandeur, complete with the backing of a multi-conglomerate named Vought that abused them for their own economic ends.

Central to proceedings is Antony Starr's Homelander, a deluded and dangerous version of Superman who's adored by the public, but feared within the Seven due to his unpredictability, toxic masculinity and frail ego. Butting heads with Homelander and heading up a ragtag group determined to take the Seven down was Karl Urban's Billy Butcher, whose hatred of the so-called Supes was his sole driving force.

It was a potent and refreshing mix that Eric Kripke (Supernatural) had created - and its anti-hero worship was a welcome antidote to the cutesy superhero world fuelled by the likes of Marvel and its Avengers' franchise.

But where the first season fell down was in its portrayal of women. Thankfully, the first three episodes alone of season 2 do much to counter that and reverse the trend.

In the second, the answers to the first season's cliffhanger where Butcher was reunited with his long-believed dead wife and apparent son are not immediately forthcoming.

In fact, first up the second season of The Boys is a slower, less flashy opening than the first - almost a stiflingly glacial pace in its opening moments as the themes for the upcoming year are set out.

Yet, they begin to manifest in ways that are both dramatically and narratively thrilling, offering a mix of drama and machiavellian plots that are too compelling to miss. However, while there are moments of gore, The Boys S2 is a bit more of a psychological thriller, delivering up slices and ruminations on the fragility of family and the individual.

Jack Quaid's Hughie is suffering from a loss of his place in the world; elsewhere Homelander feels usurped by the new arrival to the Seven of Aya Cash's social-media loving and manipulating Storm Front.

It all culminates in a shocking denouement in episode 3, the last 10 minutes of which show various hands being finally played out, and which set ups the season's bigger picture nicely.

The creative team have wisely retooled a few of the characters behind the scenes this year - and early on, it appears to be paying off.

Worried that Karen Fukuhara's Kimiko was being sidelined as an Asian stereotype of a quiet woman, The Boys' team have taken great steps to ensure she's got more to do and say - and even Maeve of The Seven has more of an arc.

And add in Aya Cash's blistering turn as Storm Front, the cat among the pigeons that Antony Starr's Homelander needs to feel threatened. Starr reacts strongly to the challenge, and delivers some of his finest work in the opening episodes - as does Quaid as Hughie, as he teeters on a precipice.

The Boys works best when it plays with morality and imperils the characters with decisions that they really have no control over - certainly the first three episodes show the cost of victory and how easy it is to go sideways quickly in this universe.

In a world where superheroes never usually die and where everyone usually survives, the frisson of danger that's lurking at the start of Season 2 seems to hint in a cataclysm of catastrophe for everyone as episodes go on.

That makes it both a delight and a rate thing these days - it works better because of its unpredictability and a less showy feel than season 1 gives this sophomore outing a greater urgency and an essential sense of unease.

The Boys Season 2 launches on Amazon Prime Video on September 4. Episodes 1-3 were reviewed as part of this preview, and were offered up for review by Amazon Prime Video.