When I went into this show, I was expecting to get something as good as The Boys. This wasn't. But that doesn't make it necessarily bad.

I have a lot of problems with the early plot, particularly with how inconsistent and bland the characters were early on. However, things really picked up in the later episodes and we got some actual character development.

I think this show suffers from its setting in a lot of ways. Because the main characters are college students, they do dumb things a lot and it can be frustrating as a viewer. They also act in terribly inconsistent or even just flat out out of character ways. For example, in the early episodes, a character meets another character for the first time and in the span of a few minutes asks them to do a life or death recon mission. What. That's dumb. But it's also college students. By suffering from the setting I specifically mean that, since everyone is college aged and in peak teen drama territory, a lot of things have to get swept under the rug for me. The early episodes especially felt like an edgier version of Riverdale at points. However, once the plot picks up, it gets a bit better.

Similarly, romance develops incredibly quickly between characters. It's immature and that's kind of the point.

I also felt like a lot of the characters got let off easy early on by the writers, which didn't sit right with me. Like at one point, they go into a party, accidentally kill someone, and then act like selfless people as if they didn't leave that other person to die. But later on, their hypocrisy and their own inconsistencies are brought further to light and it just works very well. You get the feeling that these characters aren't meant to be totally consistent or even aware that they are. Like how they want to act like they care about non-superheroes, but then don't really care when one of them dies. Plus half of them are severely mentally ill, so it kinda tracks. Truly a Gen Z show.

Love that the schizo kid immediately becomes radicalized after going to a political rally once. It made sense for his character and it hopefully will serve as a wake up call for the small girl because girly that man pictured you as a muppet when he was having sex with you. Speaking of muppets, that one muppet battle scene went hard.

Early on I gave this show a 5/10, because I felt like it was dollar store The Boys. But now I'd say it's about average in terms of the shows I watch. It's relatively enjoyable and has some cool political satire peppered in. I appreciate the jabs at neoliberal posturing and right wingers being right wing. I'm looking forward to watching the finale and I'll see if my opinion changes after that. 7/10 so far...

Edit: Just watched the ending. It was alright... Some of the creative decisions were kind of stupid and Homelander's appearance was...interesting to say the least. Plus all the stopping mid battle to have a verbal confrontation between like 3 characters got old fast. I'm not convinced that the events would just blow over with the whole superhero supremacist rebellion thing at the school, but maybe we'll see more fallout in the next season of The Boys. Imma take it down a tick to 6/10. It had potential about midway through, but it sorta fizzled out for me.