The Boys Season 3 Review: 8 Ups & 2 Downs
4. The Rich Character Development
Despite the fact it's juggling over a dozen prominent characters and several hard-hitting themes, The Boys' writing this season has still delivered the goods in the character department, with even the most side-lined players getting their fair share of compelling development.
The best development definitely comes from Homelander, who's finally snapped and allowed his true self to come out, and Butcher, who's desire for revenge have caused him to become almost suicidal in his attempts to achieve his goals.
Elsewhere, Hughie's increasing anxiety and fragile masculinity force him to come to terms with his life and his surprisingly stable relationship with Starlight. Starlight herself, meanwhile, emerges as the show's true MVP, almost single-handedly ruining the reputations of Vought and Homelander.
Other supporting players such as a morally conflicted A-Train, a pathetically weak The Deep, a battle-ready Queen Maeve, and conniving senator and supervillain Victoria Neuman, are a bit too removed from the drama at times, but are still given ample opportunity to reach new levels of powerlessness and tragedy.
Even Black Noir, the show's silent enigma, finally gets some horribly tragic backstory, even if it leads to his unfairly rushed death in the finale.