Gen V: Season 2 Review
By Sioph W. Leal
Gen V returns with a new semester and class is certainly back in session! Leading this new age of Goldokin University students is Dean Cipher (Hamish Linklater) as he promises to make the students of God U more powerful than ever! Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) are celebrated as the Guardians of Goldokin while Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh) and Emma Meyer (Lizzie Broadway) reluctantly return to class. They are all grieving the loss of Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) while they must try and uncover deadly, powerful secrets hidden within Goldokin and how Marie is connected to it all.
The second season starts off strong and that’s mostly thanks to Dean Cipher who is one of Gen V’s strongest additions. From his first scene, Linklater helps cement Cipher as a standout of the series with his menacing intelligence and dark charm that will leave you wanting more of him. Linklater is magnetic as the new Dean that really grasps the darker elements of the show with an unforgiving ease that makes him one of the strongest villains in The Boys universe. Dean Cipher is clever, charismatic and intelligent, something that the main show hasn’t done with a villain since their first season. Cipher challenges the values of the super abled with brilliant lines delivered such as “Your value in this world comes and goes with your powers” and “Time is the enemy to all, even the super abled.” He is the perfect villain (until the last few episodes) and is the kind of antagonist character you will be rooting for.
The main focus this season is the new heroes of Goldokin trying to uncover the university’s secrets and the series shines when it comes to this, more so when Emma and Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) team up. Emma is the beating heart of the series with her perfectly timed comedy and her support. Emma brings her humour but also her chaotic energy that makes every scene she’s in fantastic. She balances her comedy with her compassion while propelling the series forward while others stagnate the series
One of the biggest problems of the second series boils down to two things, the wasted characters and the juvenile jokes. The second season wants to grapple with serious topics that are alarmingly on the rise in real life. From the rise of fascism, propaganda, rights of a gender minority to coping with grief and loss, Gen V struggles to manage the thematic weights of things with its juvenile jokes.
With the passing of Chance Perdomo, one of the best and most poignant parts of this season is grief and how everyone copes. Marie runs away (but also has a never-ending reluctant hero complex), Emma wants to drink it all away until she can’t and both versions of Jordan are caught up in their anger. All are very valid but it’s Perdomo’s presence that seems to echo throughout the series, especially though the character’s father Polarity, that hits the hardest. There aren’t any flashbacks or body doubles used and for that the writers should be commended. We feel the loss in his absence and with Polarity, we see the impact of this more than anything else. This is one of the things that Gen V got incredibly right and for that, they should be praised.
On the other hand, there are themes that are just dangerous given the current climate in the world. Poignant moments are undercut by juvenile jokes and the relentless anal sex jokes are not just repetitive but tone deaf. At one point, I did have to ask if there was a quota of butt/anal sex jokes that the writers had contractually put in because they all felt too random and forced. There are a few transphobic jokes peppered throughout and while it isn’t the writers’ intentions to continue these abhorrent rhetorics, with a popular franchise like this, you have to wonder if they spent longer than a minute considering the impact of normalizing jokes such as these.
Cate and Sam are two of the biggest let downs. It’s clear early on in the season that the writers did not know what to do with Sam as it takes six episodes for him to become semi-relevant to the overall plot. Cate Dunlap feels like a rushed new character, and this isn’t helped by Philip’s forced, unconvincing acting. It appears that Cate’s main role this season is to loudly explain what has happened and what the plots are for those who are going to be busy scrolling on their phones while the second season is playing. Most of her time in the latter part of the season is spent overexplaining the smallest of plots that make it hard to watch her scenes.
Ethan Slater is someone who we can’t talk about in detail, but the show has revealed he will be playing Thomas Godolkin. Without going into too much detail, Slater becomes someone with the most compelling presence in the entire The Boys franchise. Slater delivers every line with a chilling intensity that brings his villainy to a new level, injecting some fear into the series. Between Slater and Linklater, the two help elevate Gen V in ways that put the main show to shame. Finally, we have characters and villains that are interesting, clever and dynamic to watch!
The second season of Gen V is a good watch, but only for characters such as Cipher, Polarity, Emma and Goldokin. It’s a frustrating blend of brilliance (performance and some writing) but then ruins all the fantastic work with juvenile jokes and wooden acting. Gen V is stronger than the main series because it has real emotions and a true sense of team dynamics (especially between Jordan, Emma and Polarity) and it gives you characters to root for, both for the good of humanity and the worst of it. The writers have shown that they can deliver a fantastic season and need to understand that they don’t need to rely on juvenile jokes.
Gen V season 2 premieres on Amazon Prime on September 17th 2025.