The first three episodes of Prime Video’s sensationally obscene The Boys spin-off Gen V boldly assure one thing: the kids aren’t alright. The depravity showcased by Homelander’s and Butcher’s teams carries over to this collegiate addition to The Boys cinematic universe. Godolkin University houses the next generation’s superheroes as they hone their newfound abilities, fornicate frequently, and try to come of age under intense Vought scrutiny. It’s a powder keg of dysfunction and big-state conspiracies that makes for electric television, one-upping every sick, twisted highlight of The Boys.
The series stars Jaz Sinclair as bloodbender Marie Moreau, an orphan fueled by a desire to control her deadly powers. Marie’s perspective heavily influences our opinion of Godolkin in the first three episodes, as she pursues studies at Lamplighter’s school for crime fighting – not the alternative Crimson Countess school for performing arts where she’s assigned. Godolkin becomes a microcosm of relevant issues depicted in The Boys, from supe hubris to shady Vought manipulation, and Marie finds herself immediately at odds with renowned professor Richard Brinkerhoff (Clancy Brown, who plays a mean company stooge). Cheery Vought-scripted Godolkin advertisements leading into Marie’s markedly less uplifting experiences make for smashing satire, hitting a tone of salacious storytelling that’d make Riverdale blush.
Gen V does a tremendous job expanding on themes from The Boys that beg for deeper analysis, like the disgusting reality of Compound V injections. Through Starlight’s confessionals and other context clues uncovered by Butcher’s investigation, The Boys establishes how parents robbed their infantile children of normalcy by turning them into supes. Gen V confronts the issue head-on by depicting Marie and her classmates in vulnerable stages of young adulthood, processing Compound V traumas through parent-teacher conferences and dorm-room venting sessions. In a rich dissection of the kids’ lack of consent to their superpowered fates, we see superstrong gender-shifter Jordan Li (Derek Luh and London Thor in a tag-team performance) paraded around a gala event like a show pony. Gen V might roast the youth of today with its tongue-in-cheek “woke” comedy, but also sees the Godolkin student body as unwitting pawns with important stories to tell about being exploited by loved ones, corporations, and the government.
The campus is filled with strong personalities and unique powers, which translates into engrossing performances from a dazzling cast. It’s impossible not to fall in love with Lizze Broadway as Marie’s quirky and compassionate roommate Emma who can shrink and grow on command – the perkier Enid to Marie’s Wednesday. Chance Perdomo commands our attention as metal bender Andre Anderson, a reluctant hero living in the shadow of a famous supe father. As mind empath Cate Dunlap and top-of-his-class Luke Riordan, respectively, Maddie Phillips and Patrick Schwarzenegger expose the turmoil beneath their characters' standard-issue college-movie appearances. Gen V uses archetypes like “The Bookworm” or “The All American” as facades that shatter with tragic results in true The Boys fashion, and while there are plenty of gross, jaw-dropping visual highlights in these first three episodes, I’m more impressed with how the writers are able to handle these almighty characters with bracingly human relatability.
That said, Gen V deserves every out-loud gasp and riotous howl as juvenile depravity reaches its many maximums. It’s super horny, super bloodthirsty, and super inappropriate in all the best ways. Adding hormone-driven bad decisions into the mix leads to stupidly entertaining sequences urged along by cocaine and arousal. There are outlandish depictions of full-frontal nudity that match the perverse hilarity of Herogasm – one might stand as the funniest bit in The Boys history (shout out to Emma’s lewd encounter with a fan of her YouTube channel) – as well as gushing violence that makes Translucent’s death-by-butt-bomb seem tame. Hardly any of Gen V is in good taste, nor should it be.
Right out the gate, Gen V blows the bloody doors off and charges forward like the Juggernaut on a mission. Episodes 1 through 3 are all gas, no brakes: The mysteries of Godolkin don’t waste time poisoning storytelling with more Vought despicableness. The writers take advantage of the audience’s familiarity with The Boys and launch right into all the nastiest aspects of Godolkin (an off-limits zone dubbed “The Woods”), making a mockery of the superhero racket while spitting that vile cynic’s tone that’s made the original series such a success – tempered hereby a few more dashes of hope. Characters haven’t lost themselves to Vought’s manipulation or chosen darker sides of superherodom. Marie and her squad are still impressionable, still brim with rebellious spirits, and still haven’t decided their ultimate placement in a world that views them differently. That in itself makes for an attention-grabbing angle and integral thematic throughline.
Best of all, Gen V feels uniquely mapped as a spin-off that doesn’t rely on cameos from The Boys to assure relevance or importance. Godolkin’s campus reads organic in its composition, with different schools where superheroes can choose their majors and gladiatorial arenas are attended like football stadiums. By establishing a competitive ranking system across classes that’s treated as a fast track to The Seven, there are grander stakes that have us rooting for our favorite characters to earn their promotions (especially since Gen V supposedly runs concurrent to The Boys Season 4). Few television shows of late have been as instantly engaging and strikingly imaginative from top to bottom, hitting the ground running like a juiced-up A-Train.
