‘Gen V’ Review: ‘The Boys’ Spinoff Skews Younger but Stays Nasty

Gen V may showcase what supeheroes get up to at wild, sex-and-booze-fueled frat parties, but The Boys spinoff is actually at its most unturnoffable when it is more concerned with exposing and expanding upon Vought International's diabolism and less intent on being a college drama set within the world of Prime Video's satirical superhero dramedy The Boys. 

Described by The Boys and Gen V boss Eric Kripke as both a Hunger Games-inspired series and a parody of Marvel Comics' X-Men, the live-action spinoff follows Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), a student at America's only university for superheroes who dreams of becoming the first Black woman to join the elite superhero team the Seven and save others with her remarkable blood-manipulating skills, which have the capacity to heal and to harm. Godolkin University exists to educate and offer Marie, as well as every other young supe in the United States, a chance to be noticed by Vought, the superhero business' corporate overlords – or so she thinks. 

Very soon into her collegiate journey, Marie finds out that the making of a Vought-sponsored superhero isn't exactly as noble or as inclusive as Godolkin University's admissions video advertises. And she isn't the only one who quickly wises up to GU's charade – popular juniors Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips), Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) and Jordan Li (Derek Luh and London Thor) are catching on, and Marie's Internet celebrity roommate, Emma (Lizze Broadway) is looped in, too. While the gravity of the threat they face isn't obvious, the young supes at least know that they're going to have to bend some laws of nature and break some rules (and some necks) to save themselves and the rest of their super-powered but impressionable peers. 

For those of you over the age of 20 who are wary of watching a series that's essentially been marketed as "The Boys, but for Gen Z," worry not. Gen V is undoubtedly part of the Boysverse – its events take place concurrently during The Boys' yet-to-be-released fourth season, after all —  and builds upon the franchise's signature satirization of mega-conglomerates and 'Murican values with surprising emotional depth and never-before-seen degrees of nastiness that'll leave you asking, well, what about the (super) children? 

Unfortunately, Gen V's Kryptonite stems from its greatest strength. Its intrinsic connection to The Boys causes it to over-rely on its predecessor for world-building and broader characterization strokes. Viewers are expected to know what Compound V is and why knowledge of it is a big deal (it's the superhero-creating serum, for the record), expected to immediately understand the wink wink behind Godolkin University only offering two academic pathways for its super-students (crime fighting or acting), and expected to intuitively get why marketing classes are taken more seriously than classes about peace and ethics. In short, Gen V thinks its audience has already done its homework, and is not an accessible entrypoint for Boysverse freshmen. To understand Gen V, the prerequisites are Seasons 1 and 2 of The Boys, at minimum.

Such presumptuousness lends for A-Train levels of speedy pacing in Gen V's first two episodes, skipping over The Boys 101 and immediately getting into the meat of the show. That's all well and good if you don't care much for the environment's set-up and want to skip straight to the story, but fast pacing also does a disservice to its characters. These teen supes are smart and capable, but are they really smart and capable enough to solve the riddle by the end of Episode 2? Gen V seems to think so. 

Plus, it doesn't help that with a too-fast whodunit unveil comes a too-fast death for one of the cast's most promising members, one of the show's most intriguing characters and one of the shadiest figures from the Boysverse's source material. The show could have used more build-up instead of a too-easy giveaway, for its audience and its protagonists, of one of Vought's most sinister schemes, and nearly all of the main orchestrators of said scheme. 

So by the end of Gen V's first and second episodes, beguiling and bloody as they are, it's hard not to shrug off this initial problem that our young Compound V-fueled heroes are faced with (especially if you're a viewer familiar with the Boysverse and thus familiar with Vought's trademark diabolism). This choppy pacing makes the show lose its momentum early on, but rest assured that it's only temporary. If audiences can stick through Episodes 3 and 4, which are stuffed with distracting clichéd teen drama plot points that feel plucked from the CW's series portfolio – likely in an effort to pump the story's brakes after the rapid-fire first two episodes – then they're in for a treat. 

Pros

Cons

Gen V finally finds its groove and comes into its own by Episode 5, establishing its own identity (apart from being just a Boys spinoff), fleshing out its characters and challenging them with interesting dynamics, and spark-plugging its storyline with fewer givens and plenty of shocking moments to gasp out loud about. It's well worth the wait, but it remains to be seen whether or not Prime Video's subscribers will lose its patience with Gen V, or trust the process of the show's many Boys-affiliated creatives. 

Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Lizze Broadway (Ghosted) are the show's scene-stealers from the start. Jaz's Marie is fierce and also fiercely broken, with a palpable desperation to be seen as "good" and sheer determination to prove that goodness. Lizze's Emma is all superficial cool-girl bubbliness while her shame is just about to boil over. Both actresses do a fantastic job at capturing the human and superhuman nuances of their respective coeds. 

But then, halfway through the show, a shift begins to occur. Sinclair and Broadway continue to shine, but the rest of the show's protagonists are given more to work with and more screentime to prove their nimbleness with the material (which, like The Boys, is simultaneously over-the-top and rooted in real-world social commentary). Maddie Phillips as literal super influencer Cate Dunlap, Derek Luh and London Thor as gender-shifter Jordan Li and Asa Germann as the volatile and invulnerable Sam Riordan all become particularly compelling characters as the show evolves. By Episode 6 it's safe to say that both the heroes and the villains at Godolkin University will leave audiences hooked and craving more. 

In addition to its on-screen talent, Gen V's behind-the-scenes crew must be applauded for its outstanding CGI and its practical effects, which are both top-notch not just for superhero fare, but for TV in general. Gen V's special effects and stunts offer the masterful gross-out moments and riveting slaughter scenes that The Boys fans expect from the franchise in stunning, high-definition quality. Even the most incredulous powers requiring the most Hollywood magic to depict on-screen, like Marie's blood-bending and Jordan's super gender-fluidity look "realistic" (and cool). And, even though there's a lot of needless hormonal melodrama inserted into the narrative, the script is solid. For every cringe line, there are five pages of genuinely good writing to make up for the show's conspicuous desire to be relatable to its college-aged Gen Zers and Zillennials. 

Gen V may require a lot of Boysverse catch-up to fully understand it and a generous amount of "giving it a shot" — five episodes worth! — to fully appreciate it, but that hefty assignment reaps a considerable award for Prime Video's pupils. Gen V is a delightfully unruly and outlandish series that gives plenty of shocks and provides plenty more to laugh about, as well as young leads who give potent and provocative performances. The Boysverse expands with Gen V, and grows up with it, too. 8.3/10

Release date: First three episodes premiere on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video followed by weekly releases until Nov. 3. 

Who's in it: Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, Derek Luh, London Thor, Asa Germann, Shelley Conn, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Clancy Brown and guest-starring The Boys cast members Jessie T. Usher, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, P.J. Byrne, Jensen Ackles and Chace Crawford 

Who's behind it: Gen V is developed by Eric Kripke (The Boys), Evan Goldberg (Superbad, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem) and Craig Rosenberg (The Boys, Preacher); Gen V's episodes are directed by Rachel Goldberg (A Friend of the Family), Steve Boyum (The Boys, Black Sails), Philip Sgriccia (The Boys, Supernatural) and Nelson Cragg (Them); Gen V's cinematography is helmed by American Gods alums Michael Marshall and Marc Laribeté; Gen V's showrunner is Michele Fazekas (Agent Carter) 

For fans of: The Boys, Doom Patrol, X-Men: First Class, The Hunger Games and Riverdale (yes, Riverdale) 

Avoid if: Murder-by-menstruation, c–ksplosions, and Muppet coitus all sound nauseating and don't make you even slightly morbidly curious 

Number of episodes watched: 6 (of 8) 

Where to watch: Prime Video