Gen V

Hey everyone and welcome today we will be talking about the show Gen V. Fun Fact, Marie actually appears in season 3 episode 2 of the boys when Hughie is looking at the Red River Institute residents. This season came out in 2023 and stars Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, London Thor, and Derek Luh and was developed by Craig Rosenberg, Evan Goldberg, and Eric Kripke. So without further ado lets get right into it.

Gen V follows Marie who longs to go to Goldolkin university and once she gets in she tries to prove herself so she can be a crimefighter. She makes some new friends and they realize that this school is actually hiding something called the woods where they are holding supes but they don’t know why but learn that the reason is deeply unsettling .

Gen V is an action packed superhero show that is not scared to hold back. It has similar vibes to The Boys, Invincible, or Sky High,

Chronologically Gen V picks up right after the events of season 3 of the Boys. We still see there is still this conversation about who is superior, supes or humans and it seems like season 4 of The Boys will pick up right after the events of this show. I liked how Dean Shetty’s storyline was actually connected to the boys as well because her family was on the flight that Maeve and Homelander let crash in season 1, I felt like that was a good villain origin story. I kinda wish they didn’t kill her off but adding her helped bridge the crossover even more.

Marie was an interesting person to follow because we see how her powers came out at the worst time and an accident when she was a kid lead to the death of her parents and estrangement from her sister. She is a hemokinetic which is the ability to psychically manipulate blood which she’s just scratched the surface of her capabilities. Jazz Sinclair did a great job portraying Marie who is just trying to excel at school so she can get out of her bad situation. I love that through her we get more answers about what Neumans actual powers were because before I thought she just blew up people’s heads but  we learn they are both hemokinetic and we see what the potential limits to Maries powers could be. By the end of the season we have seen Marie explode multiple things so I can’t wait to see how much more her powers grow.

Something I thought was interesting was Marie trying to get into crime fighting school and being told no that she should go to the school for people who want to be entertainers which reminds me how some people go into college with an idea of what they want to do and it can be ruined if someone tells you know because they don’t think you are good enough or you can’t sign up for a class that you need for your intended major.

Jordan Li was one of my favorite people that Marie met at Godolkin. Jordan was not only a great friend but a formidable opponent in battle and should’ve been number one on the ranking list. Both actors London Thor and Derek Luh did a great job seamlessly portraying the same person and making sure they kept the personality of Jordan the same no matter the actor.

Also I will still be rooting for Jordan and Marie. I think with all that was going on this season they didn’t really have time to figure things out but hopefully they can.

I really liked Emma in this show who is the only one of Maries friends who is not in the school of crimefighting and showed how being popular on social media can have its ups and downs. She is judged a lot because someone tells the school that she has to throw up to get smaller and eat to get bigger and people see that as an eating disorder. Lizzie Broadway did a good job of showing Emma as this person who is trying to fit in and excel but due to her mom she has a lot of insecurities. I think her shrinking at the end without throwing up proves that there is a way to use her powers and that the reason she has to do that might be because of mental blocks from the trauma of dealing with her mom. Emma proves that even if you aren’t in the school of crimefighting you can still be just as useful or dangerous, just depends on your skills when using them.

I never trusted Cate and knew she was hiding something because she failed to mention that she had been to the woods and when people were having memory problems I knew it was her. Her releasing the people from the woods  was good but doesn’t change the fact they she was complicit in helping the people running the woods keep it a secret and then encouraging the former inmates to go on a killing spree was bad because not everyone was apart of what happened to them in the woods. Maddie Phillips did a good job of showing Cate as this emotional person who is taking in all stress when she uses her powers and doing what Shetty tells her and eventually she snaps and wants to basically burn it all down.

Speaking of Cate, when they are all trying to help Sam not kill that doctor and then the screen just goes to black at the end of the episode was such a smart way to show someone getting their memory wiped but also a great way to get people to talk about the show. I saw people online confused and thinking that something happened to their tv while watching and prime later stated that there tv wasn’t broken and then we found out in the next episode what truly happened.

I honestly thought that golden boy would be in the show like alive for the whole season and was completely shocked when he died in episode 1. In episode 1 when there was a warning about suicide I honestly thought it was about Marie because all her blood throughout the episode but was shocked that it was actually about golden boy killing himself by imploding.

We all see how being a “hero” is a blurred line. Sam was a good example of this because he wants to do good and his brother is in his head trying to lead him down the right path but he’s been through so much at the hands of non supes which leads him down a path of revenge. I wouldn’t call him a villain but his actions at the end of the show of wanting to kill the non supes isn’t surprising. In the episode when they are stuck in cCates memories we see they all have something they were hiding that would make others look at them different, Marie killed her parents, Jordan knew that brink was doing something to golden boy, and Andre had been having a relationship with Cate while she was dating Golden Boy. Everyone has skeletons in their closet.

This show once again was a reminder that Vought or any organization tied to Vought is not for the greater good. All they care about is perception like in episode one Marie proved her powers were useful when she saved someone from bleeding out and got thrown under the bus because the people she was with were in the top 10. Vought also knew about the woods and further shows that they do what they want and I just know if there is someone who announces their connection, they will throw someone under the bus to save their ass. Im glad the students found the woods but even they don’t know who is really involved because they thought dean Shetty was the main one when it goes past her.  Cate states at the end that they are just products and I think we’ve seen that with the boys as well that these people aren’t treated well because they are good people but only because it’ll help Vought.

You would think putting these people in college would make you think they could just focus on school work and extracurricular activities but it’s never that simple. I liked that they used the college and showed the different disciplines and how this ranking created this space where there is so much competition and jealousy.

Seeing polarity have medical issues shows once again that these supes aren’t invincible and also kind of reminded me of Logan where having a seizure makes the powers go haywire. With Polarity being sick because of the use of his powers, I wonder how many other supes are also in similar situations and just don’t know it.

In the end I was shocked that Cate and Sam were deemed as heroes while the others weren’t but I’m not that surprised since Vought is involved. Vought would’ve went with the story that made the company seem favorable and would go with the people who would be rated well across the country so its not surprising that the face of the heroes of Goldokin would be the two white kids. Like I mentioned Vought does everything to make themselves look better so in there eyes that narrative works better and having a black woman, a black man, a gender swapping asian hero, and a white girl with a very public eating disorder as heroes probably in there world wouldn’t rate rate the way Vought wants it to and at the end of the day they are just pawns in a game. This kind of goes with the political and social commentary that both Gen V and The Boys incorporates into their storylines. It’s a sad realization but I think that if Butcher gets the real heroes they could have more people on their side to help take down Vought and the 7.

I was shocked to see Butcher and Homelander in the finale which made me more excited for season 4 of the boys. Also Homelander has the audacity to ask Marie What kind of animal are you? Like sir have you looked in the mirror lately? Reflected on your past actions? I think you are the last one to be judging someone for any of their actions.

I think my favorite part of this show is learning about peoples powers and learning more and more about what they are capable of. Like we start off with Marie only using her own blood but finding out later how to weaponize other peoples blood but also how to learn things about people in there blood, Emma seems like she just goes small for laughs but we later see her be able to go small to kill someone and go large to stop sam, Cates powers are being suppressed but once she figures out her true potential she can push lots of people and  shows how her powers might need physical touch but can cause so many problems. I just love that we see there powers growing while also hinting at what could possibly come in the future with the way they use their abilities.

Gen V is a fantastic spinoff and every episode had me on the edge of my seat wanting more. The show doesn’t shy away from violence, blood, or the fact that not everyone is a respectable person. There are plenty of questions for the next season or season 4 of the boys like are the 4 students in a new version of the woods? Where is the killer super virus? Are cate and sam in the 7?The show not only stands on its own but delivers in what I think is a master class on how to introduce a whole new story into a well established world while keeping the same tone that The Boys has.