The Boys is quite simply one of the best shows on TV. Ultra-violence, abundant humor and stinging social commentary (that seems to slip right by those it’s targeted to) mixed together in a superhero blender delivering something the likes of which we had never seen on TV before. Sooo, obviously we were going to get a spin-off…enter Gen V. Now the idea of a spin-off to a loved property is always dicey, more so when it’s a spin-off of a property that’s an adaptation in the first place.
Not to worry, Gen V isn’t exactly going off book with it’s plot, the story is pulled (somewhat) straight from the 4th volume of Garth Ennis’s beloved series, an arc called We Gotta Go Now. While we’ve yet to see how closely they follow the source material, which was a rip on the X-Men, the trailer Amazon released today shows that they have at least some of the core features right.
It’s hard to say that gratuitous violence, vulgarity, and nudity are important to a story, but in the case of The Boys it really just is. Take that away and you just have another superhero story, albeit one smarter then most. That’s where I’m questioning Gen V‘s ability to mimic the world created by Garth Ennis on the page and Eric Kripke on the screen.
As you’ll see in the trailer below there’s plenty of violence and a cartoonish amount of blood but other then that it REALLY feels like any other standard CW type show. The dialogue and characters don’t seem to have the edge that Billy Butcher and co do…and that could be the shows downfall. If that’s the case, that it’s just Gossip Girl, with superpowers and a metric ton of blood then this thing is going to fall flat, and hard.
I’m trying to withhold my negativity until I see at least a full episode but you should check out the trailer below and see for yourself. Let me know in the comments…am I off?
Official Synopsis:
From the world of “The Boys” comes “Gen V,” which explores the first generation of superheroes to know that their super powers are from Compound V. These heroes put their physical and moral boundaries to the test competing for the school’s top ranking.