Gen V Episodes 1–3 Review
The Boys spinoff series proves to be an equally gruesome addition to the titular comic book adaptation’s universe.
This is a spoiler-free review of the first three episodes of Amazon’s original series, Gen-V.
Warning: This review contains details and references of self-harm, and eating disorders.
Gen-V is an equally hectic and violent spinoff of The Boys. In just the first three episodes, the superhero series has been stuffed to the brim with cameos and easter eggs. But what has made this series tick thus far, is its focus on teenage trauma.
The glue that holds together this yarn of superficiality, nepotism, and sexualization is the handful of broken college super-kids at its core.
Gen V follows Marie Monroe (Jaz Sinclair), an orphaned blood-bender who aspires to be the first Black woman in “The Seven”, Vaughts most elite superteam (basically this universe’s version of DC’s Justice League).
Marie has to cut herself to use her blood-bending abilities. A dark opening scene of her discovering her powers foreshadows that Marie is a potential force to be reckoned with if she is going to be able to reign in her emotions.
Gen V is, in a complimentary way, like Degrassi with superpowers. What if Hannah Baker had laser eyes and super strength?What if Blair Waldorf could run faster than the speed of light? Gen V concerns a group of college students, at the prestigious Godolkin University for superheroes with real issues. These issues are discussed and explored in a way that doesn't feel as though it is force-fed to you in the name of checking off a box.
In just the first three episodes, viewers are thrust into an all-out campus- war riddled with traumatized supes, blazing, slicing, and pummeling their way into the ranks of Godolkin’s reputable top ten list.
Marie’s uppity roommate Emma (Lizzie Broadway), has the ability to shrink, the only caveat is she has to gag herself to do it. This leads to a slew of internal issues that she uses her hit social media platform “Fun-sized with Little Cricket” to hide behind.
At the surface level, behind the x-ray vision, Gen V is a TV series about college kids. But we are pardoned of the exhausting details usually synonymous with teenage dramedies. The show doesn't shove corny bullies or indigestible scenes of peer pressure down our throats. The troubles of the main cast feel a lot more nuanced, and tasteful.
The aforementioned character Justine (Maia Jae Bastidas), and her self-aggrandizing activist content subtly work for the show's benefit. By almost satirizing the more unrealistic side of adolescent issues, the reality of many of the struggles that the human race faces is more appropriately recognized.
A spin-off of The Boys wouldn't be complete, however, without Vought, the all-powerful superhero company, at the helm of the main cast’s misfortunes. Godolkin University is owned and operated by Vought. In parallel to the canon of The Boys; the supes of Godolkin were also given Compound-V, the superpower-enabling drug, by their parents as children. We get to see these side effects play out through the lens of angsty young adults. The latter half of Gen V involves the young supes trying to get to the bottom of another one of Vought’s sinister facades, which viewers caught a brief wind of in the first episode.
Gen V is scheduled to release a total of eight episodes, a new episode will be available on Amazon Prime, every Friday until November 3.
