The Boys, Season Two
Season two of The Boys was released in September 2020. And if you thought the first season was too much, I have terrible news. This season is so much worse.
The story
This season doesn’t start in the best place. Hughie and the Boys are wanted felons and are in hiding. Butcher is missing entirely. And Starlight is in Vought Tower still, but in constant danger from Homelander.
At least, when Homelander is around, most of the season he is more interested in spending time with his son, Ryan. Ryan, of course, is the son of Becca Butcher.
But he can’t spend all of his time harassing the woman he brutally raped. There’s a new hero in Vought Tower, named Stormfront. At first, she seems great, spearheading a new ‘Girls Get it Done’ marketing campaign. But, of course, she isn’t what she seems. She’s a Nazi. And she wants Homelander to be the start of a group of Aryan supermen. If you need me to confirm this, Homelander is totally down with that.
What worked
The first thing I have to mention is the casting of Shawn Ashmore as Lamplighter, a sup with fire powers. This was hilarious because Ashmore played Iceman in the early 2000’s X-Men trilogy. I do not doubt that this was intentional.
The character that he plays, Lamplighter, is a terrible person. We find out in this season that it was him that killed Mallory’s grandchildren. But it’s also hard to hate him. It is, in fact, hard to hate most of the characters, even if they are not good people. A-Train is not a good person, but it’s hard not to feel sympathy for him. The same can be said for The Deep, Ashley, Homelander, and almost everyone involved with Vought. These are broken characters who have been abused and traumatized. They have turned that pain on other people, spreading their trauma. But they were still victims.
The only characters I would say this doesn’t apply to are Stan Edgar and Stormfront. They know exactly what they’re doing, and they don’t have any trauma to blame any of this on.
Let’s talk about Stormfront for a moment. She is a glorious lesson that just because someone claims to be a feminist doesn’t mean they’re a friend.
Stormfront is a perfect example of the young Nazis found in America. Which is a sentence that I wish I didn’t have to say. She is social media savvy. She is very good at inspiring people to hatred and violence by putting together pictures and pithy quotes, and then posting them online. It is terrifying how well that works, both on the show and in real life.
More than that, though, she is a perfect example of the terrifying pipeline we see on social media. I would compare Stormfront to an Instagramer called Gubba Homestead and people like her. You start watching her because she seems funny and high energy. The next thing you know you’re talking about George Soros funding space lasers to send ‘chemtrails’ to make gay frogs.
Finally, though, I want to shine a light on Homelander and his ‘relationship’ with Ryan. More specifically, how Becca had to deal with him being around. Can you imagine being raped by a man, getting pregnant, and then having to let him have visitations with the baby? I cannot imagine how she didn’t just stab Homelander in his eye. She might not have survived it, but it would have felt so good.
What didn’t work
While this season was fantastic, I did have one issue. That issue is the gross and weird relationship Homelander has with the shapeshifting sup. I have a pretty hard stomach, but this was still too much for me. Especially the part where Homelander is fed milk by this poor person. It was just a bit too gross. A bit too cringy, and it crossed the line into being just a little too uncomfortable to watch.
That might just be me, though. Your line might be in a much different place.
While this season didn’t leave us on quite the cliffhanger as season one, fans were still left on the edge of our collective seats. And as season three didn’t come out until 2022, we had a long wait on that seat edge. But for you, that wait is going to be much shorter. We will be back here very soon to talk about season three and get ready for season four.
See you then.
(5 / 5)
By the way, if you like my writing you can get my short story, Man In The Woods, on Smashwords and Amazon.
House of Dragon S2E2: Coors Lite seems to have sponsored this episode. Remember, this is NOT a spoiler free review. It’s Jim watching the episode and writing random bits down without proof reading. …. much like what the show runners must have done with the season bible.
Without any further ado…our House of Dragon S2E2 Review! (Crap, that rhymes!)
That one prince dude is still dead and like so is the other one. No, not that one!
So apparently, Matt Smith didn’t mean to really have that one baby prince die or something. But you know, it’s easier to kill smaller ones than ones with eye-patches. I guess. I mean, does anyone care who killed a baby prince? It’s not like the rest of Westeros is going to see the dead kid on parade with his grieving…wait…what?
Are you shitting me? I haven’t seen this much of an obvious heart tug attempt since that one time I paid that Russian hooker to give me ‘the full trump’.
So..a populace of people who are very poor and really couldn’t give two shits who is in charge…are going to cry for you if you display a kid’s body? Sure. I guess it worked for (checks notes) Absolutely nobody before.
That other queen and the dude from Doctor Who’s conflict:
With an unforced error that one queen basically puts out the one guy who would literally kill for her. Is this a weird plot point I’m missing? So far the people who didn’t let Matt Smith’s character (man, we need a name for him. I mean one I can spell) do what he needed to do all sorta failed and died. Wonder if that’s foreshadowing or just an extra thing to go through to fill time?
And TWINS!!!:
Remember that one guy who was a twin of the other guy? And like they took opposing sides of the throne struggle? Nope? Well, me neither. Apparently Coors Lite is sponsoring this episode as the ‘you’ll go in and kill someone dressed as your twin’ trope gets used. It almost works. Sorta. Kinda. Okay, it’s not even close.
Not even a beard to tell the evil twin apart, we get rammed right into…a fight that ends in both of their deaths. That’s a missed opportunity, but I think a lot of this show might just be that: A missed opportunity.
New Hand aka OK Boomer
Looks like they tried a Boomer thing with HoD. The other other king kid (does this guy even have a name? Let’s call him Spanky Z). Spanky Z is all like I does what I want so I’ll kill every rat catcher and like hang them up and stuff. You know, things that Joffery would say was ‘a weak show’. Apparently, the populace doesn’t like being gutted and having their sons/fathers hung up dead on public display. Who knew?
The Hand knew, that’s who!!! Oh boy, is he ever going to take it to his grandson/nephew/niece (incest, amirite?)! Orr…..not. What I meant to say is, Oh boy! Won’t he ever just show how apparently weak a Hand he is and just resign after being replaced by some white cloak “definitely a virgin and not fuckin your mom’.
I think we’d care more if…we remembered anything from Season 1 about anyone here except this:
- 1. White Cloak dude fucked his mom
- 2. King dude is like not really the king but a pretender
- 3. Hand dude sold his 7 year old daughter to fuck the old king so she would be queen.
This episode was stronger than the last. I think they can still turn the ship around. I’d give this one a 4/5
I think that sums it up for our House of Dragon S2E2 Review. Now, back to that Coors Lite…
(4 / 5)
Season four of Amazon Prime’s The Boys launched on June 13th of this year. Having now watched the first episode, I believe I can safely say that this season is going to be bonkers.
Let’s discuss.
The story
When this episode begins, things aren’t going great for Homelander. He’s irritated at everyone around him for constantly agreeing with everything he says. He found a gray hair and is finally facing his own mortality. Oh, and he’s on trial for murdering a man last season.
Homelander decides he needs someone around him who will tell him the truth. Someone who can help him build a legacy. So he seeks out a sup named Sage, whose superpower is being the smartest person in the world. And what does he want with Sage? He wants her to help him destroy America.
Meanwhile, The Boys aren’t doing so well. They’ve been tasked with assassinating Neuman because she is the presumptive VP. But Neuman manages to avoid their assassination attempt by being literally bulletproof.
Unfortunately, The Boys aren’t bulletproof. And as we find out in this episode, one might not last much longer.
What worked
In fiction as in life, it is the little things that matter. It’s the small details that make the difference between a fine show and an exceptional one. This episode was full of such little details. One such detail was Homelander finding gray pubic hairs.
The reason why this distinction is important is because later in the episode we find out that his stylist has been dying his hair. She’s been intentionally hiding the fact that he’s going gray. This is important because it’s just one more person in Homelander’s life who is being dishonest with him. And I think that is what’s going to finally crack him.
The timing of this season is something I’d like to shed some light on. It is so fitting that this came out during an election year. Because of course, The Boys is mimicking the very real infighting we’re experiencing in America. We’ve all seen protests break out into violence. We’ve all seen important trials spark controversy. This is just so much like our real experience, except that in The Boys, the megalomaniac blond man baby is competent and good at things.
Finally, I was amused and impressed with the evolution of Neuman’s character. She is a politician, through and through. The way she can smile at someone while threatening them, and then make a pithy quip at their expense is fantastic. She made me laugh almost every time she was on screen.
What didn’t work
If I have one complaint about this episode, it’s that a lot happened in this episode. We have a whole bunch of plotlines going on here. Like, so many things. Butcher’s health, Homelander’s aging, Ryan’s future, Frenchie’s new boyfriend, Annie’s charity, Sage’s plotting, Butcher’s old friend, A-Train and The Deep growing discontent. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. This is just a lot to keep track of. And I just hope they have enough time and space to do them all justice.
Overall, I have high hopes for this season. And Amazon must too, because it appears that season five is already in the works. But for now, we’ll be back very soon to discuss episode two of The Boys.
(4 / 5)
By the way, if you like my writing you can get my short story, Man In The Woods, on Smashwords and Amazon.
Computers are all the rage. Of course, you already knew that. But did you know that scientists, those denizens of deep throaty maniacal laughter and storms brewing over dark brooding castles, are building tiny brain computers now? So apparently this is what all the zombies are being used for… They’re the lackeys getting the goods. No surprise there, though, zombies do make good lackeys.
16 Mini Brains
It’s catchy. Like a jingle. And those sixteen mini brains are getting all sorts of attention nowadays. Apparently they’re all over social media. We don’t know what truths they think they’ll find there, but it has been said they do like to play Pong, so maybe some of those other kind of mindless clicker games will have similar appeal. Anyway, we’ve caught a rare glimpse of these little items of incidental intellect, through our prompting of the NightCafe AI art generator. And they’re kinda cute. See these renditions of the tiny brain computers for yourself.
Mushrooming Mayhem
It’s not just tiny brain computers though. Those sneaky scientists have also been experimenting with mycelium, harnessing the fungal power of mushrooms to make mental machine magic. Or create computer craft as it were. So what happens when the tiny brain computers and the mushroom computers start talking? Well, we aren’t sure, but we suspect the manifesting motherboard mushroom man would know. You’ll have to ask him. We hear he’s a fun guy.
So What Do the Ethicists Think About All This?
I have to admit, I don’t know any ethicists to ask about the topic, but that career path sure beats archaeology. All we know is that the scientists are at it again, and they haven’t had the best track record for working with ethicists, though morality has been a kind of touch and go subject through the course of human history anyway.
And the whole idea has been a big influence on AI generated art, with all sorts of people prompting all kinds of crazy combinations of computer creatures crawling with creepiness into the realms of dystopian nightmare. In fact, more of these stories seem to be illustrated using AI art generation than including actual images of the real life results, perhaps because the reality is that petri dishes of cells and fungal fragments really aren’t that interesting visually, just kind of snotty looking kin to the Blob…
