Gen V Season 1 (2023) Review

With The Boys Season 4 ongoing weekly it seemed appropriate to go back and watch Gen V for the first time, especially as characters from the spinoff are set to appear on the main show. I manage to watch the whole first season pretty quickly and here is my review for it. The premise of the show sees a group of students who are at superhero school deal with student life while attempting to expose a darker secret. 

Main Character

Jaz Sinclair plays Marie Moraeu and I really liked her character. We learn a lot about her during the show and how she differs from the other students that are kind of already in the system with Vought and used to the superhero culture. She definitely develops over the season and gives a strong performance, it also helps that her powers are some of the more unique ones in The Boys universe and adds some real creativity. 

Supporting Characters

Lizze Broadway plays Emma who is Marie's roommate and the two of them have really good chemistry together, at first I thought she was going to be a shallow character but no, they give her a fantastic character arc and I really did care about her as the season went on. 

Maddie Phillips plays Cate, who is kind of treated like the popular girl in school but ends up by chance as part of this group of friends. She delivers a really good performance and the majority of her development happened towards the back end of the season but I thought it was really effective. 

Jordan Li is an intetesting character and is a Bi-Gender Super Hero played by both London Thor & Derek Luh and the character really fits this universe. They are a determined individual and she was clearly the one who cared most about their hierarchy in the school but that is developed throughout the show. 

Unfortunately, earlier this year Chance Perdomo died in a Motorbike accident with Gen V being one of his last roles as Andre and it is a shame that we won't see any more of this character in the future. Perdomo is great as Andre and he is another really well written character that was charming throughout.  

This is a large cast and everybody does a fantastic job of delivering great performances that flesh out the universe of this spin off. 

Story 

The story is good. This show does have some teenage angst stories but in this environment, I didn't really mind and it flowed nicely. There is plenty of intrigue and mystery to the plot and I remained invested as the season went on. The only issue that I had was the very ending of the show, it feels like lazy writing and someone enters the show that feels like a lazy excuse to set up Boys Season 4 instead of giving Gen V a true fulfilling ending. 

Script

The script is good, it has that familiar feeling to The Boys. I did think at first that there was just too much profanity but the more I think about it, that is how kids at schools act so it isn't that crazy and the fact that all films in school don't act like this is more crazy. I also liked the drama and did care about plenty of the characters which is great. 

Style

The style of the show is great, if you are a fan of The Boys then you will be expecting an over the top style and it is here in abundance. The show was paced really well too, with episodes flying by and having me intrigued throughout. 

Overall

Overall, Gen V is a fantastic spin-off and easily does enough to stand out on its own and become a must watch. Similar, to The Boys it is an acquired taste but if you can handle it Gen V is definitely worth a watch. 

Rating - 9/10