Gen V Season 2 Review

Gen V (2023-)

Season 2 - 8 episodes
Watch Gen V on Amazon Prime Video (paid link)
Created by: Evan Goldberg, Eric Kripke, Craig Rosenberg
Starring: Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Hamish Linklater, Sean Patrick Thomas 
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
From the world of The Boys, this 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.

Verdict
This continues to live in the shadow of The Boys. This show exists because the former is popular. This can be just as gross and edgy, but that often feels forced. This isn't a commentary of satire like The Boys. It's the age old tale of scientists experimenting on people to create meta-humans. In this season we get a suspicious new principal with secrets, characters grappling with the traumas of last season, and a student with great potential. It feels like something I've seen before, adding super heroes and edgy humor in an attempt to stand out.
Skip it.

Review
In season one we were introduced to the teens that attend Godolkin University, God U. If they can rise up the school rankings, they may get the chance to join The Seven. Marie (Jaz Sinclair) can control blood, and she starts investigating the death of popular student, Golden Boy. They uncover a lab that experiments on supes and plans to kill them with a new virus. Cate (Maddie Phillips) frees the imprisoned Sam (Asa Germann) and they lead the prisoners of the lab on a killing spree. Marie attempts to stop Cate, but Homelander arrives to quell the rebellion. He hails Cate and Sam as heroes while Marie, Emma (Lizze Broadway), Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh), and Andre (Chance Perdomo) find themselves imprisoned in Elmira Detention Center.

Chance Perdomo passed away before season two in a motorcycle accident. The season was rewritten instead of recasting the character. 

Derek Luh, Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway play Jordan, Marie, Emma

An introductory scene in the first episode reveals an early test of the serum which doesn't go well. Back in the present Emma and Jordan are back on campus, though they're not sure why they were released. They get a deal. If they play along, they won't have to go back to Elmira. The school has a new dean, Cipher (Hamish Linklater), who just happened to be a doctor at Elmira. Marie escaped Elmira earlier. She's on the run, but Starlight finds her and asks her to go back to the school to get information on the Odessa project. A lot happens in the first episode that outlines the plot points for the season.

Marie seems to be a part of the Odessa project, possibly the only person that survived. She still doesn't know what it is exactly. Cipher is linked to the project, and throughout the season his motives are always a question. It's clear he's hiding something. He was at Marie's birth, and Cipher seems to have a vested interest in developing her powers. Midway through the season, I guessed he was one of the doctors from the flashback in the first episode.

Hamish Linklater plays Cipher

Jordan gets ranked as the top student. In their speech, they accuse Vought of being responsible for Andre's death. In turn, Cipher creates a fight between Jordan and Marie. It's an odd response, but I suppose it happens in a school preoccupied with competition. It turns out the fight is a way for Cipher to level up Marie's power. He thinks Marie can be the most powerful supe as she and Homelander are the only ones that survived project Odessa.

Marie's sister reappears. That's contrived just to undo some of Marie's guilt over what happened to her parents. Her sister is even a supe and admits it was easier to blame Marie than face her own guilt. That's just a bit too easy and generic. Why does the show try to undo an integral part of Marie's character?

We knew Cipher had secrets, and that's revealed towards the end. Marie vows to get Cipher, refusing the help of her friends as it's too dangerous. That seems like the setup to a generic story, where the hero realizes they need their friends when facing a dangerous foe. How does Marie defeat Cipher? She has the help of several students, many Cipher wanted to get rid of as they didn't contribute enough. Starlight appears again, but that feels forced as a way to connect this to The Boys.

Being a spin-off to The Boys, comparisons are inevitable. This never feels as original. Students having to fight the dean isn't a new concept and  this doesn't do anything to change it.